Remember cute little virtual pets? Giga pets, Tamagotchi, things like that?

Well, what if you could combine that with a way to get your kids to drink more water?

Introducing Gululu! The interactive water bottle and health tracker for kids!

Yeah yeah, I know, I’m the parent I should be able to force the kids to drink more water. Three of mine tend to avoid drinking water, one of them forgets, one doesn’t like the taste, and the other.. well she mostly drinks water if she’s taking it from me. Still, sometimes things need to be made more fun/cute to happen. Right? I mean part of the whole deal with cute decorated bento box lunches is that things that look good/cute/fun tend to be easier to get kids to eat. Right?

The pack comes with everything you need to get started. The Gululu bottle, charging dock, and USB charging cable. I keep our dock in the kitchen, so our bottle can get charged every night.

I was on the fence for a couple of weeks between who I wanted to give the bottle to. Var? Ehh… he’s lost many bottles of various prices, and at the price for a Gululu Bottle I’d be more than just a tad upset if he lost it/left it randomly someplace. So.. that didn’t work out.

In the end, Risiel ended up very interested in giving the bottle a try!

We were went a pink Gululu bottle. I am happy that a replacement spout was included as well. Though we’ve been using the bottle for a month now and even though Ris tends to chew on spouts/straws/lids we don’t seem to have to replace this one any time soon.

Set up for the bottle is really easy, the app for iPhone helps you through the process in no time. I think the “hardest” part was getting Risi to decide which little pet she wanted.

I will note a downside, at least where 3 (almost 4) year old kids are concerned, you can’t change pets once you pick a pet. Not until you complete all the stuff you need to complete for that pet and they get to go home to their planet.

Guess what happened the day after Risi picked her pet and was pretty happy?

Yep.. you guessed it, she wanted to change.

It’s recommended you charge your bottle every night, and you can set a bed time mode for the bottle too so your kiddo isn’t able to play with their pet when they should be sleeping. Even if they do opt to take the bottle in to their room for water at night.

All the pets are from a water planet that was badly polluted, your kiddo has the job of drinking enough water every day (the app calculates this based on age, height, and weight) to unlock special items that help clean things up and send the pet home.

Once a pet is fully taken care of/sent home, you can unlock the next pet. Make sure your kiddo really really is sure of the pet they want. Or it might be hard at times to get them to drink from the bottle with a pet they wish they’d be done with.

Toddlers can be… hard man.

Risi picked the pink pet Sansa at first. Most days she is more than happy to drink from Sansa, we just call the Gululu bottle in general the name of the pet. To try and keep it fun and keep her interested. Some days though, Ris is upset that she can’t get the pet Ninji and play with them. I keep telling her she has to save Sansa and help her go home first. It works.

Risi’s water goal according to the Sansa bottle is about .. well it was 26oz. For some reason it’s now saying 440oz on my app. My goodness. I’ll have to fix that..

Sansa, Ninji and Purpie are the current pets for these bottles. Risi really wants Ninji. We’ll get there soon.

Sansa loves to stretch, and talks at times too. There is a school mode as well that silences the pets and doesn’t let them play with your child or talk to them. So that keeps the distractions at bay. You set the times using the app and the bottle syncs up easily to do all the work for you. No need to change it or do anything special every day.

One thing I really like about the whole thing behind Gululu is that they’re parterned with Generosity.org, for every bottle purchsed a child in a developing country will be provided with clean driving water for life. One of my favorite charities is one that gives water, as clean drinking water is one of those basic human rights I think everyone should have unrestricted access too.

What do you think about the Gululu bottle? It’s a little pricey, but it’s helped Risi drink more water on her own and the pet idea is super cute. Overall I am very happy to have a Gululu bottle for Risi, and.. might actually get one for Var to try too.