The Kids’ Water Bottles That’ll Last the Entire School Year

This summer, my son is going to camp at the school where my husband teaches. At drop-off, I like to spy on the water bottles of all the other campers, and Owala is definitely king. According to my husband, who has been working with incoming first-graders at camp, “everyone either has an Owala water bottle or wants one.” The 16-ounce FreeSip was by far the one mentioned most often by the parents I spoke to — and it’s popular with kids of all ages.

Two Strategist staffers, deputy editor Simone Kitchens and deals writer Martha Tuber, own and recommend the hot-pink 16-ounce Owala FreeSip. Tuber’s 5-year-old daughter has been using it for the past several months and prefers it to all other water bottles now because it’s what her mom has and it’s what a lot of her friends have too. Kitchens says the lock top on the FreeSip is a game changer for her almost 4-year-old daughter. “We have had three of the Owalas with silicone straw tops, but they always leaked,” she says.Interior stylist Merie Subryanalso loves the Owala FreeSip for both of her kids, a daughter who is 8 and a son who is 4. She says they are reliable, spill-proof, and super easy to clean. It’s also the water bottle my 12-year-old niece prefers because it has both straw and sip options; she says most of her friends have the same one in different colors combinations (the wealth of color choices is another reason she likes the brand’s bottles). Tamany Bentz, co founder ofPour Tousskin care for tweens, has a son in high school and a daughter in middle school. For her daughter, she needs a slim water bottle that won’t add much weight to her backpack even when it’s full. Capacity isn’t a major concern, though, as her daughter is good about refilling regularly, so the 16-ounce Owala is perfect. “It’s also great because it doesn’t have a straw that sticks up like a Stanley cup, so she can take it to volleyball practice and it won’t spill when knocked over by a rogue volleyball,” Bentz says.

PlanetBox is most well known for itsstainless-steel bento-style lunch boxes. But the brand also makes a pretty great almost-entirely-plastic-free water bottle that was recommended by both Kitchens and Strategist senior writer Lauren Ro, who has two sons, ages 4 and 7. Ro says it’s a good size for a preschooler: ten ounces. And she appreciates the straw is metal with just the mouth spout made of silicone. “I like that every piece also comes apart for easy cleaning, so even if it gets gunky, I can remove the silicone ring from the metal top and pull out the mouth spout and also remove the straw for deep cleaning,” she says, noting it might feel like it’ll leak because of all the different parts, but unless you forget to push the mouth spout all the way down, it doesn’t. Ro and I both have the adult version, which is exactly the same, just bigger, and like using it for the same reasons.

The PlanetBox kids’ water bottle is also a favorite ofthe Green Spoon’s Greta Caruso, who uses it with her kids, ages 4 and 2. “We love them for all of our microplastic anxieties — the straw is stainless steel, too,” she says, adding that the 10-ounce capacity works fine for a school day because it’s easy for kids to refill once or twice, “but for a full day at camp during the summer, I’ll give her an Owala 16-ounce FreeSip with astainless-steel replacement strawI bought from Amazon.”

Around the time my son turned 2 and started going to full days of school, I went through a ton of toddler-friendly water bottles with him on the hunt for one that wouldn’t leak even if the straw was left open. I also wanted it to be easy for him to carry himself with some sort of handle. Of the water bottles that we tried, this CamelBak option is the only one still in rotation, alongside his 12-ounce Hydro Flask. We have it in both insulated stainless steel and a lighter-weight BPA-free plastic that he prefers because of the fish pattern. It has a bite valve that keeps the straw from dripping if it gets tipped over, so I can give it to him before bed and not worry it’ll leak on the sheets if he forgets to fold the straw back down. It also comes in a ton of adorable patterns, including bugs, planets, ocean animals, a bicycle-riding dog, a unicorn, a mermaid, and a sloth.

Trolio was attracted to the Owala Sway water bottle because it has a narrower bottom than the FreeSip and a true handle on top to carry it. She says the standard 30-ounce Sway is too big for an average school day where kids can refill if they need to, but is much nicer to use in a car cupholder and often fits in the side pockets of backpacks better than the original Owala. The Sway is now available in an18-ounce version, too, and she is eyeing that one for back-to-school.

Writer Alexandra Lange’s kids are teens now, at 15 and 18 years old, and like drinking water that is very cold. “They do a lot of bike riding with their water bottles and prefer the insulated metal ones, which we also refrigerate. I like this one from Amazon, which has multiple ways to sip, no straw, and doesn’t leak,” she says.

Edelstein’s kids love these lightweight water bottles with a fun little feature where you can mist yourself with the water on a hot day. Because they’re light, they’re the water bottles she sent to camp with them. Her only complaint is that they can start to leak the more you wash them because the lid screws on.

Bentz told me she has to think about water consumption differently when it comes to her son. “He prefers to carry the bare minimum to school and is never going to refill his water bottle throughout the day. He also cannot keep track of a water bottle even though we’ve tried every trick we can think of. So I opt for the 40-ounce Takeya water bottle in the brightest color I can find. We buy them in a two-pack at our local Costco, which keeps the expense relatively low. The capacity is nice and gets him through the day, but it does need a refill before basketball practice. We buy the version with the screw top so it also won’t leak when he inevitably throws it somewhere,” she says.

Trolio has long been a fan of the Thermos Funtainer, which she had in the 12-ounce version when her kids were little and is now still using in the 16-ounce version with her younger daughter. “I think my rising third-grader is probably aging out of it a bit, but it’s so nice and compact that we keep using it, and she has it in a plain color, so there aren’t cartoony designs on it or anything that could be construed as babyish,” Trolio says. There is no straw at all, which makes it easy to clean and keep track of all the parts but also means you are always tipping it up to drink. And while it is technically insulated, it doesn’t keep water as cold as an Owala, though it does fine with ice water for a while. Plus it doesn’t sweat and can be refilled at school, so the size overall, combined with no straw to mess with, are the big selling points, she says.

Mackenzie Hyland, an influencer and mom of two kids ages 5 and 2, loves HydroJug water bottles because they are durable, easy for little hands to carry, and the simple design makes it quick to wash while still keeping drinks cold.HydroJug makes several different kids’ water bottles, including this one that has a double flip top with both a sip and chug option.It also makes adult water bottles in matching prints, which Lauren Burnham Luyendyk’s 7-year-old daughter loves to steal. “I bought my daughter the kids’ HydroJug, but she steals my40-ounce HydroJugevery chance she gets because, according to her, ‘the water at school tastes gross,’ and she wants enough cold water from home to last all day. I’d still strongly recommend the kids’ HydroJug, though,” she adds.

Hyland also recommends this Bentgo Kids stainless-steel water bottle because it’s lightweight, leakproof, and easy for kids to open on their own. I bought the same shark-print one for my son to match his Bentgo lunch bag when he was 2 years old; we unfortunately lost it about a year ago, but it was a hit while we had it.