Best Stainless Steel Water Bottle for Kids — Tested for 2+ Years

We went through several children’s water bottles before finding one that actually stuck.

Some leaked. Others were awkward to clean, and we’ve never particularly liked drinking water that has been sitting in a plastic bottle — even BPA-free ones can leave a slightly stale taste to us.

Then we found this little gem.

The one we’ve been using is the 260 ml SHO kids’ stainless-steel bottle. More than two years later, it’s still the water bottle we use. It has been dropped countless times, taken on days out, thrown into bags and travelled with us on planes. The decoration is still intact, the bottle itself has held up remarkably well and, most importantly, ours has never leaked.

So rather than reviewing it after a week or two, this is what we think after more than two years of real use.

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. We purchased and have used this bottle ourselves for more than two years.

Why We Chose Stainless Steel

One of our main requirements was a stainless-steel bottle rather than plastic.

This isn’t because we think every BPA-free plastic bottle is inherently bad. It’s simply a preference we’ve developed after trying different bottles. We find that water left in plastic can sometimes develop a slightly stale taste, whereas we don’t notice the same thing with stainless steel.

For something our child drinks from throughout the day, stainless steel was therefore an easy choice.

It also turned out to be a good choice for durability — something we couldn’t really judge until we’d owned the bottle for much longer.

View SHO Water Bottle – 260ml

It Has Survived More Than Two Years of Drops

This is probably where the bottle has impressed us most.

Our bottle hasn’t been handled delicately. It has been dropped on the floor plenty of times over the past two years, both at home and while we’re out.

Despite that, it hasn’t developed the dents we expected from a stainless-steel children’s bottle. There are naturally signs that it has been used, but structurally ours has held up extremely well.

That’s important because this isn’t a bottle we wanted to replace every few months simply because it couldn’t cope with normal toddler use.

The Decoration Hasn’t Peeled Off

This was something I didn’t really think about when we bought it, but I’ve come to appreciate it.

Children’s bottles often have colourful printed designs, and after repeated washing and everyday handling I expected ours to start looking quite tired.

More than two years later, the decoration hasn’t peeled away.

For us, that’s made a surprisingly big difference. The bottle still looks presentable despite being used regularly for years rather than months.

Most Importantly, Ours Has Never Leaked

We’ve had children’s bottles in the past that seemed perfectly leakproof — until they were left on their side in a bag.

This one has been different.

In more than two years of using it, we haven’t had it leak once when properly closed. That’s included carrying it around in bags and taking it travelling.

The most impressive test came somewhat accidentally when we started flying with it.

It Even Passed the Plane Test

We’ve also travelled with ours on planes, where it has been packed in our hand luggage alongside everything else we needed for our daughter. Even then, we haven’t had water leaking into the bag.

That’s now one of the reasons I’m comfortable putting it into a bag when we’re out. After this long, I don’t find myself repeatedly checking whether it has leaked.

Of course, that’s our experience with our own bottle rather than a guarantee that a bottle can never leak, but ours has been exceptionally reliable.

The Straw and Lid Can Be Swapped

Another feature we’ve found genuinely useful is the option to change the drinking setup.

The bottle can be used with the straw lid or swapped over to the screw-top lid, and changing between the two is straightforward. That gives it more longevity than a bottle designed around just one way of drinking.

We found the straw particularly useful when our daughter was younger, while the screw-top option means the bottle can continue to be useful once a child no longer needs or wants a straw.

It’s Actually Easy to Clean

A reusable children’s bottle can be brilliant in every other respect, but if milk, juice or water residue gets trapped inside fiddly components, you’re probably not going to enjoy using it for long.

We’ve found this one straightforward to clean.

The components can be taken apart so that we can properly clean the areas that come into contact with the drink rather than simply rinsing the assembled lid.

After more than two years, that ease of cleaning is one of the less exciting features that has probably contributed most to us continuing to use it.

What Does It Look Like After Two Years?

This is probably the photograph I’d want to see if I were considering buying one, so we haven’t tried to make our bottle look new for the review.

These are the genuine signs of more than two years of regular use. There is some everyday wear, but no significant denting or peeling on ours, and the bottle is still very much in use.

For a children’s bottle that has spent years being dropped, carried around and thrown into bags, we think it has aged remarkably well.

Is There Anything We Don’t Like?

There is one small quirk we’ve noticed when using the straw lid. If you tighten the lid a little too enthusiastically, the straw can end up pressed against the bottom of the bottle, which stops the water flowing properly.

The first time it happened, we thought something was wrong with the straw. In reality, simply loosening the lid slightly was enough to fix it. For a more permanent solution, you can also snip just a few millimetres off the end of the straw so it doesn’t quite reach the bottom of the bottle, even when the lid is fully tightened.

It’s a very minor issue and only seems to happen when the lid has been screwed on particularly tightly, but it’s worth knowing about — especially if your child suddenly tells you they can’t get any water out.

Would We Buy It Again?

Yes.

After more than two years, this has outlasted the children’s water bottles we’d tried previously and solved the problems that mattered most to us.

We wanted stainless steel, something that kept water tasting fresh to us, something easy to clean and, above all, a bottle that wouldn’t leak in our bag. The fact that it has also survived repeated drops, retained its decoration and gives us the choice between a straw lid and a screw-top lid has made it an unusually successful purchase.

It’s one of those children’s products we bought without knowing whether it would last and, two years later, would happily choose again.

View All SHO Colours and Patterns

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