Best Water Bottles for Kids

Price paid: $16
Where to buy: Amazon

Capacity: 13 ounces
Empty weight: 3.5 ounces
Dishwasher-safe: Yes, on cool setting
Material: plastic, BPA- and phthalate-free

Have you ever given a water bottle as a party favor? That’s the category under which this water bottle falls, in my opinion. It’s on the lower end pricewise and is available in a variety of cute patterns that would bring a smile to anybody’s face. Buying five of these and putting some candy inside would be a fantastic parting gift. While the bottle’s delicate construction doesn’t inspire feelings of longevity, it held up decently after multiple drops . 

I also like that it’s made out of a plastic material called Recyclon, which is made from recycled nylon. 

“The magic of nylon is that it can be recycled by melting it down and creating other materials from it,” says Shanika Whitehurst, Consumer Reports’ associate director for product sustainability, research, and testing. “From clothes to shoes—and water bottles—it is a type of synthetic material that can be molded into a number of items.”

The initial production of nylon has a negative impact that can’t be ignored, she adds, especially because it’s made from petroleum products. “Now that there are a number of programs and companies that are beginning to use recycled nylon materials, it helps to reduce its waste stream, where in most cases it would sit unable to decompose,” Whitehurst says.

The silky-feeling bottle boasts a OneTouch lid that is said to be “reliably leakproof” when sealed shut. To seal it, you must close the cap and pull up a tiny latch to lock it. Even if that tiny latch breaks, the bottle is further secured with a cap hook that, when pressed, pops open the cap. The cap covers the mouthpiece, keeping it clean when in a bag or thrown on the grass or the floor of a car. 

I was initially afraid to drop this bottle on the floor of my garage for fear of its early demise, so I first dropped it five times on the hard rubber mat that my lawnmower sits on. It held up okay when dropped from various heights, approximately 3 feet being the highest. So I tried the concrete floor and dropped it with and without its cap lock on (because, well, kids will no doubt forget to lock it). When the lock wasn’t securely on the lid and I dropped it, the cap flew open, spilling water onto the floor.