Water Rules!
We are lucky in this family. We don’t like soda pop. We like water. I’m not even pulling your leg. If you gave us a choice between the best-tasting carbonated juice from heaven and a tall glass of ordinary cold tap water, we would choose water every time.
Bug is even more picky than I am about it. Her dad will take her out to a fancy restaurant and order her some kind of super delicious tea or juice with multiple layers and some kind of fruit-kabob on the side and Bug will totally turn up her nose and whine that she just wants water instead. I know. What a spoiled brat, right? It drives Toby crazy. Two dollars and change totally wasted.
I don’t expect anyone to be freakish about water like Bug and I but I would love to preach about how great it is to get your kids to like the taste of water early on. Maybe it’s impossible for some kids. I know I’ve babysat kids who acted like drinking plain water was like drinking out of the toilet or drinking regurgitated spit or something. They think it’s bland or has no taste at all. But that’s not true, water tastes great. You just have to get used to it. Don’t shell out a ton of money on flavorings or carbonation machines, just force yourself to drink water straight for a week and eventually you will come to like it. At least that is my theory.
Because water is better. Yes, I’ll agree that there are some pretty tasty drinks out there. I’m not going to just wipe out the whole beverage industry just because I like water so much. But if you can get your kids to like that taste of water early on, they will pass on all those sugary drinks that they don’t really need and hopefully not develop bad habits that will be terribly hard to break as an adult later. Drinks are a treat. Water is necessary.
Okay, I’m stepping off my water soap box (sort of) (for now).
I said all that above to lead up to the water bottle situation in our house. Since we like water so much, I have to pack it in Bug’s backpack every day. She needs it for eating her snack and lunch at school and just normal hydration. It’s been hotter than dog’s breath lately and we can’t go anywhere outside without water. So we pack it.
I’ve tried a lot of different methods. I’ve bought bottled water in tiny bottles and big bottles. I’ve tried every kind of sports top and screw top. They work but it kind of bums me out that we don’t have a better recycling system in our neighborhood. The city waste management system sorts the trash at the dump site and they recycle all plastics city-wide but it still bugs me to fill up my kitchen trash can with empty bottles. I’ve recycled myself but it’s a lot of work to collect bags and bags of bottles that fill up my entire car and then I barely get enough money back to cover the gas money it took me to drive to the recycling center in the first place.
I’ve bought just about every kind of reusable water bottle on the market. All of them have one problem or another. Some are better than others but most of them either leak or they are too hard for Bug to open. That seems to be the most important deciding factor for us when it comes to water bottles. They can’t leak and a six year old must be able to open them without asking for help—because teachers don’t have time to open thirty-two water bottles every day.
You can imagine my pleasant surprise when Brita asked me to review their Brita Bottle for Kids and we actually liked it. Neither Bug nor I loved the color choices (Pink Butterflies, Navy Blue with various sports balls etc or Green Squares…What? No black Hello Kitty?!!) but it actually turned out to be the perfect kid-friendly water bottle. Bug loves it.
It’s just the right size for her to carry (13 oz.) in her backpack without weighing her down too much. Yet it still holds plenty of water for her day at school. Most importantly, she can open it by herself and it doesn’t leak!! Woo Hoo! That gets the mom approval right there. I hate unpacking soggy lunch bags. Cleaning cracker scum out of zippers? Not my favorite way to spend a busy morning.
It’s made from BPA free recyclable plastic and it has a filter built into it. The benefits of the filter are sort of lost on us because our tap water tastes pretty good already but I know in some cities that is not the case. I grew up drinking Colorado River water myself as a kid and I can agree that it was pretty nasty. A filter would have been great, especially since my parents couldn’t really afford to buy water for us. So, I recommend this water bottle with flying colors! My only suggestion? How about some new designs? I’d gladly lend Secret Agent Josephine or Little Hoo to the cause!
I’m also really happy to support Brita because they are teaming up with a non-profit called Alliance for a Healthier Generation to encourage kids to swap out sugary beverages and drink more water. You know how I feel about that. As part of their partnership with the Alliance, Brita will donate more than 4,000 Brita Bottles for Kids to schools across the country to encourage healthy habits in their students. Pretty cool, right?
As part of this promotion I get to give away FIVE bottles to you guys! Well, five of you readers get to have a bottle. It’s not 4,000 but it’s still pretty cool. You can test it out and tell your friends and that will help. Never underestimate the influence of a well connected mommy-blogger. We can win this battle one water bottle at a time! Water rules!!!
Just kidding around. But please comment below and let me know what you are doing to encourage your kids (or yourself if you don’t have kids, or your dogs…whatever!) to make healthy choices at home and on the go (or feel free to lambast me for my water snobbery, I’m cool with that too). I will pick five random winners on Tuesday the 16th of October and announce them here.
Clorox (the parent company of Brita) is providing the prizes for this program at no cost to me.
106 Comments
Lauren
Awesome! My daughter is outgrowing sippy cups and I’ve been looking for a leak-proof more “big kid” option to have when we go out and about! We mostly drink water and milk with an occasional apple juice. I am pregnant right now so I suck water down like no tomorrow!
Julie Spengler
My son is an on and off water drinker. Currently on – when he found out he can BUY water w/ his lunch at school. So – I’m definately looking for a reusable bottle to send in his lunch now!
Katie
I am a water snob too… my husband on the other hand loves juice and milk and so I let him go out of his way to buy it, I don’t buy it with the regular groceries haha. I’m so mean. Anyway, one thing that helps with getting kids (or anyone) to drink water is to brush teeth often. I find myself wanting sugary drinks more if I don’t brush my teeth often enough, but the minty clean feeling makes me want water. Yum, I love water!
Linda Stewart
Fortunately water is a drink of choice for almost everyone living in my home. We also have the problem of finding the perfect water bottle. I have leak issues more than manageability issues. Maybe the Brita bottle would work for us too. I agree they could use some more designs … dinosaurs please?
Stacy
As long as it’s icy cold, my 4-year-old LOVES water! At restaurants, she always gets milk or club soda, with the occasional lemonade as a treat (but only if it’s real lemonade and not the kind from the soda fountain).
I would never criticize anyone for teaching their kids to love water as their #1 beverage! I know several people who regularly let their kids drink Diet Coke, which drives me crazy because it’s just so, so bad for you.
Jean
Love it! I’ve wondered about these bottle filters. They look great for all of my kids sports practices too!
turkeylurker
For my little one I’ve always only given water or milk as choices. Soda doesn’t even come into our house! She’s like Bug about not wanting soda. We went to coca cola this summer and the only drink she tried from all coke products – water!
As a teacher I’m always encouraging my students to drink their water, it’s a great way to improve brain function.
Christine
My kids don’t like fizzy drinks either, though they do like lemonade and apple juice, so they’re usually the fancy drinks of choice when we’re out. But at home, they’re terribly fussy about their water – it has to be filtered and straight from the fridge, or they complain. Since we don’t have a fancy fridge with a built-in water tap, this means I have to keep the filter jug filled or I’ll be in trouble. But a bottle with a built-in filter sounds great. It would be nice if they were somewhat insulated as well to keep it cool longer, perhaps.
Justyna
We love Britta! We have a big Britta pitcher at home and we use it a lot – we love cold filtered water in a glass, we also use it to make baby formula bottles, brew cold ice tea and more. It tastes SO MUCH better than tap water and we know it’s healthier too as it stops all the bad stuff that can be in city water. We would love to have a portable filtered bottle for our 1st grader to take to school with her too! Thank you!
Beth B.
Well my son isn’t the healthiest eater because he does like Sprite Zero (no calories and no caffeine) but generally at a restaurant he gets water or milk. And we pack a water bottle for his lunch every day at school but he usually prefers the drinking fountain as the water bottle we use isn’t the best. Would love to win one of these cool bottles. I am a big fan of Brita.
Mom24@4evermom
My kids love water. One thing I do is keep two water bottles in the fridge for each of them–that way there is always cold fresh water available to them at a moment’s notice. They also take water bottles to bed (obviously not for everyone), and take a water bottle half frozen, the rest filled with fresh water, to school every day. Currently I’m looking for refillable bottles to put in their lunches so we can stop with the frozen juice boxes.
Karen
My boy is a terribly picky eater and drinker, but one of the good parts of that is he won’t drink juice. We make him have a cup of milk in the morning, but after that it is water all day! And he also takes a water bottle to preschool every day. His has firetrucks on it and he thinks it’s about the coolest thing ever.
Jennifer C.
Leaky water bottles are SO annoying! Thank you for sharing this review. I am going to have to check them out because I am tired of the $1 water bottles from Target leaking in my daughter’s snack pack every day. :(
Jenn S
we’re trying really hard to have our babe drink water only, too! (he’s still very little – just 1 yr. old – so he still drinks milk too, but no juice, only water & milk). hoping to keep this habit up for life!
Rae
Ooooh, we are water drinkers (usually) too. I have had the same water bottle issues you have, but my issues are with/for my #4 child who has special needs (cerebral palsy and left-side hemiplegia) and has trouble using her hands for certain things. Her younger brothers (8 and 5 as well as the older 3) are good with helping her with things like water bottles and doorknobs and such but even the 5 year old has trouble pulling them open sometimes. Independence is a must!
My 14 year old is the big water pusher in our house. We all drink plenty but he is good about reminding us we need it when we work and play outside.
For those who don’t like “plain water” try adding a slice of lemon or cucumber to your glass/bottle. I keep a large container of water (with lemon or cucumber sometimes) in the refrigerator and refill our glasses/bottles from that. Yummy.
Emily
We’re a water family too. I had trouble finding water bottles for my preschooler that didn’t leak, and that weren’t sippy cups. Also, we didn’t want straws (too hard to clean!). We’ve had good luck with these: http://store.nalgene.com/Water-botte-kids-p/1263-0005.htm (found ours at Target, though I don’t see them online)
Alanna R.
We are always on the hunt for a better water bottle! We try to always have water ready for when we are on the go – there is nothing worse than having to buy water when we are out and about! We have a pitcher in the fridge that we fill from – because water is 100% tastier when it is ice cold!
Rayshell
My son’s bottle leaks in his back pack. I tried a few, but this one is his favorite. I’d really like to send hime with a new favorite! :) It would make for one happy mom to not have wet back pack (and insides)!
sizzle
We’re lucky that our nephew loves water. He also loves juice but he’s always drinking water. I, myself, LOVE water (no soda). Unfortunately my fiance likes water when it is in the form of iced tea. I don’t think that counts but he does.
Alisa
So far so good on having the 2+ year old drink only milk or water. She’s ready to dump the various sippy cups and have only water bottles around but I’ve been putting it off because of all the leakage, etc that we have with our adult ones. This would be the perfect thing to push me over the edge!
Colleen P
My kids pick out their own “treasures” in the produce section or farmers’ market…When they think I’m hesitant about getting something, they consider it a special treat. “Hmm, I don’t know about getting both yellow and green summer squash. It’s not your birthday or anything. Well…okay, I’ll get them for you.”
Agreed, Little Hoo would be cute on these bottles!
Sally Hackney
I would love to have one! We fill our grandkids’ bottles every morning for school. Our little town’s water is pretty good but our reusable bottles are kinda pitiful. We need a good solution. Thanks for having this drawing!
Lisa @ Lisa the Vegetarian
I don’t have kids, but I’m always trying to find ways for my boyfriend and myself to make healthier choices. We just went on a vacation to Disney World and before we left, we packed two BPA free reusable water bottles to carry around with us at the parks. Buying water there is so expensive and it makes me feel so guilty to use up all that plastic. It worked out great!
Samantha
I absolutely adore water! I am studying to be a teacher in college so I am always encouraging my students where I student-teach to drink water and eat healthy! :)
Lisa
These bottles seem perfect for my 5 year old. We’re a no soda pop junk kind of family, too and I’ve been searching for just the right portable water bottle for school!
Lorna
My daughter prefers water over anything. It’s hard to get her to drink a glass of milk. My son on the other hand would rather drink sodas, juice and milk. We have made a concerted effort to only allow them water bottles in their lunch boxes this year. So far it’s working pretty well.
susie
We’re big water drinkers too. My daughter would usually rather have milk, and I do give her milk, but we also insist that both kids drink plenty of water. We don’t buy juice or soda, because if it’s not in the house, it’s not an option. And actually, on the rare occasion we have it in the house, they tend not to reach for it, because they aren’t in the habit of drinking it.
I’d love to try one of these bottles — my daughter is forever complaining about the ones we have!
minutepapillon
My son is like your daughter. He always goes for water; but his sister twin has a sweet tooth for sparling stuff. Personnaly I have to push myself into drinking more water. EVIAN is what I like best, living here in France.
Melissa K. in Nebraska
We’re big water drinkers in my home too. Kids like the flavored water (sugar free), but will also do lemon or lime spritz when at restaurants. Although if someone offered me some of the “best-tasting carbonated juice from heaven,” I might just have to give that a whirl.
Ellen W
Both of my boys happily drink water (milk is still the top choice for my 3 yr old) and we can always use another water bottle. The boys take their water bottles to school and when we’re in the car. I drink a fair amount of water and also unsweetened iced tea when I get bored with plain water. I wish my husband would drink less Throw Back Mountain Dew and more H2O.
Audrey
I’m a HUGE water drinker and when my kids don’t want milk, I push water instead of alternatives. My youngest likes it best when it’s chock full of ice cubes. Both of my girls (and one of our cats!) seem to think it tastes best out of my glass.
Melissa
I don’t have kids, but I encourage my students to drink water throughout the day. They can keep water bottles at their desks and bring them outside when it’s hot. I let them see me drinking water (and only water) throughout the day. Not related to water, but I also bring in a different fruit or vegetable for them to sample each Friday… it has encouraged some to start eating healthier when they find options they like.
I started drinking a ton of water (and stopped drinking a soda or more a day) when I started running cross-country and found that my body needed water. Now, I’ll drink juice occasionally at home. I don’t buy soda, but I will drink it when I eat out (at most once a week) as a treat. All in moderation!
KarenG
I grew up drinking everything but water which is a terrible habit to break. Now I drink a lot of water and so do my kids. Leaky water bottles are a pain. Glad to hear that these do not leak, but how is the drinking from the spout type thing? It doesn’t look like you sip from it but rather suck from it. Not sure how that would be. Just curious, esp if kids are older now (seems too sippy cup like).
Laura
My kids drink a lot of water because that’s just what we drink around here. They do get a juice box in their lunch and milk for breakfast but other than that it is water. Every now and then I’ll let them have a Sprite when we go out to dinner (they think it is fancy) but I don’t allow soft drinks into my house for them. My husband has a massive Diet Coke habit and I don’t want my kids to pick up the same bad habit.
karen
Oh thank you for this review!! We are BIG water drinkers here and this post speaks to my heart! We are always, always searching for water bottles for school, exactly like you that don’t leak AND my kids can open them! I love what you said: drinks are treats, water is a necessity. Perfect. To encourage (more) water drinking I pre-fill different bottles at night and leave several in the fridge. Whenever the kids are thirsty they don’t have to wait for Mom and Dad they can just grab and go. For whatever reason that seems to work here because the water is always gone!
AllisonJolliff
No kids of my own yet, but as a first grade teacher AND a personal trainer, I see and encourage the benefits of water for all ages!
KD
I only like water when I’m really thirsty – after working out for example. It’s not my go to drink in the middle of the day, however, I don’t want the extra sugar from juice and I don’t like pop (or soda for those south of the border!) so I drink herbal tea. Mint tea is my go to drink – I just leave the tea bag in my travel mug and keep topping it up. I usually end up drinking weakly flavoured mint hot water but it keeps my hydrated.
Jewell B Landreth
We recently adopted 4 & 6 year old boys. The 6 year old reacts very negatively to high fructose corn syrup so we are pushing milk, water, and the occassional soft drink made with real sugar. I have a big time diet drink addiction – and I really think that is the word for it so I really am trying to bring healthier ideas up all the time.
deanna
my daughter only drinks water – lucky duck! i love that these have a filter. my dream water bottle would have a filter and be insulated to keep the water cold! :)
Martha
We are big water drinkers too, although I enjoy soda now and then. It is so hard to find a good water bottle for kids, thanks for the recommendation. I’ve been looking for a water bottle with a filter for myself as well!
christine
We’ve recently jumped on the water bandwagon too and have also bought a ridiculous number of water bottles — some too hard to open, some leak, some too big, some make the water taste bad….we haven’t tried Brita yet – sounds like a winner!
Brandey Downs
We drink water often, but have problems finding good water bottles!!
alison
My daughter thinks that soda tastes “spicy” (she doesn’t like the carbonation) so I guess I’m lucky there! I totally agree that the perfect bottle is hard to come by. And it BREAKS my heart when my daughter tells me she didn’t eat or drink something from her lunch because she couldn’t open it!
Susan:)
We drink lots of water. The girls never have juice or soda. We too have tried various types of water bottles. We need ones that don’t leak and that the two and four year old can use with ease.
Deanna
I’ve been trying to kick the pop habit this year but it is so hard! That’s why I don’t want my kids to start it in the first place. They drink water or milk at meals, and water with snacks. We pack water bottles with any packed lunches too.
Little Gray Pixel
Alexa prefers water over anything else, especially when it’s in the form of ice cubes. Girl is crazy for ice.
Lety
my daughter likes her sodas, but she would rather have water, it’s easier to get all by herself, without any help from mom or dad. We love our camel backs, but we use anything several other bottles as you can’t have too many when we all take full bottles of water to school or work:D We don’t do the plastic bottles we have a water cooler that we fill ourselves, saves us money and we don’t have to recycle any bottles:D
Becki K.
My daughter is an exclusive water drinkers too. I wish I had the same good habits, but as a southerner, I have to have my tea every now and then. I’ve given up the diet sodas and it was a lot easier than I thought after a week or two of just water to flush everything out. It drives my family crazy that my daughter doesn’t want the sugar sugar juice stuff that they buy, but I know it’s healthier for her and I love it :)
Heather
We are a water loving family too. But I must admit, the older my son gets, 10 now, the more he is asking for sugary, carbonated, goodness. We all play sports and my son only wants to drink water at school, so we seem to go through lots of bottled water and buying reusables. Would love the chance to try these out. I like the smaller size. Thanks for the chance SAJ and brita!
Heather
Stacy
We love water in our house, too and are still looking for the ‘perfect’ bottles. Hopefully we’ll have the chance to check these out!