Shaw's Fear Factor Chart

Food and nutrition for kids is a hot topic, that is crucial for our kids to learn about, so they can develop good, life-long, eating habits. I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn when I say that most parents want their children to eat a variety of food that includes fruits, vegetables and protein sources, while limiting sugary snacks and carbohydrates like breads, crackers and traditional “junk food.”

I will admit, I do not buy foods that are exclusively organic, and as much as I would prefer to be a health food store fanatic, I can’t afford to buy groceries for my family there exclusively. So instead, I shop at my local supermarket, where I try my best to make informed decisions and good choices. But how do you know that the foods you are buying really are good choices in the long run?

I was recently invited to an event held by SUPERVALU, one of the nation’s largest grocery retailers, to highlight their Nutrition IQ program. This event was held at a local Shaw’s/Star Market supermarket in the Boston Area and a few other mom blogger’s were invited, along with their children to learn about the program, have some healthy snacks and get some great tips from SUPERVALU dietician, Jen Shea.

While at this event, Jen provided the adults and kids with many taste-testing opportunities for different foods like spaghetti squash,pomegranate, cauliflower, jicama, etc. Being a feeding therapist who is quite familiar with working with picky eaters who hate vegetables, I LOVED the visual chart they had prepared for the kids. Using pictures, parents can encourage their kids to rate the foods they try based on “yum, okay, and yuck!” Though I would suggest possibly reducing the list to only a handful of choices, especially if it’s being used at a meal time, this is a great strategy to involve kids and give them a way to feel a sense of control over trying some of these new and different foods. Many of the kids I work with wouldn’t actually consume a lot of volume of new foods, some might even gag and vomit at the sight of them, so consider what your families definition of “trying” is? If you have a challenging picky eater, “trying it” might be just looking at it, licking it, kissing it, biting it, or chewing and spitting it into the trash. Parents, bookmark this resource, it’s fabulous idea.

The Nutrition IQ program is now available in over 800 SUPERVALU stores nationwide.  In conjunction with the Joslin Clinic in Boston, dietitians from SUPERVALU  have worked together to screen foods for lower levels of saturated fat, sodium and in some categories, sugar. Color coded signs are posted along with the individual foods that qualify for the Nutrition IQ program, so consumers can more quickly identify “good-for-you” foods that might include characteristics such as whole grains, fiber, protein, lower sodium, B vitamins, folate, vitamin A, vitamin K, calcium, iron, potassium, selenium, zinc, low calorie, 100% juice, omega-3 fats and low saturated fat. These tags can be found on shelves, as well as in the meat, produce and fish sections of the store. More than 80,000 products have been evaluated. Consumers may see on average 2,400 to 2,600 tags at the shelves. There is also a nutrition iQ app.

To me, the Nutrition IQ program is a way to narrow down some of the choices in store, these selections really need to fit in with your individual health plan and the types of foods that are priorities for you and your family. Food is a very personal thing and food values are very different for each family. This list is large and can be overwhelming when you are actually in the store as you try to search for the information tags. I’d suggest if you are looking to incorporate this program into your market trip, leave the kids at home the first few times, so you can get acquainted with it.

I attended a luncheon where I was provided with healthy snacks, yummy recipes and a tour of the store. I received a store gift card and some products for attending. The opinions are my own.

©Derek Wilmot Photography

How many of you remember your parents requiring that you sit at the dinner table until you eat your vegetables. “Eat your peas, then you can have dessert.” And yes, dessert in my house as a child was Twinkies, Hostess cupcakes or Swiss Miss Pudding cups.  I’m pretty sure the three pieces of corn I choked down to win my prize didn’t do a whole lot for my health in the short term. However, since we now live in the land of the organic variety, most people are trying to be smarter about the food choices we make for our family. Apparently our parents must have known something, there is one value that continues to transcend time, we have always realized how important it was to provide fruits and vegetables.

Now fast forward several years, I work with children who have feeding challenges, usually because they either don’t have the ability to control the food in their mouth for chewing, or that they have certain diagnoses like Autism where children might be very rigid and picky regarding the foods they will eat. And there are also the toddlers demonstrating their new found independence who can push food away, clench their mouths, or throw the food at you or off the side of the tray, like it’s their job. I meet parents everyday that wish their children were not so picky with foods because their children are losing weight and improving their child’s eating is seriously a matter of life and death.

June 17th is National Eat Your Vegetable Day. Here are some of the strategies I use everyday with parents that might just be able to help the children in your family have more fun eating more healthy. If you have concerns about your child’s feeding, please consult their doctor. Some of these strategies are for older school aged children, so always provide foods that are at your child’s skill level.

-Be mindful of the portion sizes you provide your child. At a recent conference I went to with Susan Roberts, MDiv, OTR/L, she reminded us that a child’s portion size is what they can hold in their hand. Showing your child a huge pile of peas might look to them like they need to climb a mountain and they might feel defeated before they even start.

-If you encourage them eat a food first, then they can have dessert or be done with dinner, keep your promises. Start with a goal they can accomplish and encourage them to eat one pea before they can get up from the table. If they earn your trust, you can raise the bar slowly over time. If you break the rules by saying, “just one more bite every time,” why would they try to please you?

-Sit with your children during meals. If they don’t see you eating it, why should they? We should positively model good behavior to our children.

©Growums

-Involve your children in the meal preparations. I’ve recently been introduced to a company called Growums. They have developed 6 different seed growing kits, complete to help children make pizza, stir fry, ratatouille, tacos, herbs and salads. Each container has all the seeds and herbs needed for your child’s favorite dish. Using the included coco pellets, you place a few seeds in the pellets, water them and watch the seeds grow. Transfer them to the backyard garden or a planting container. Harvest the food and work together as a family to make your meal from scratch. It only took 2 days for my seeds to begin to grow. Allowing your child to watch the process from start to finish and feeling a sense of accomplishment could help.

-Don’t get into the habit of hiding vegetables in mashed potatoes or other textures so that they are in plain sight. If you can puree them and add them to a tomato sauce so they can go undetectable, I think that’s a better route.  Hiding can lead to mistrust again, and let’s face it, they pretty much find it every time.

- Use dips. Ranch dressing, guacamole, yogurt, salad dressing, salsa, hummus, spinach/artichoke dip. Even if they don’t like to eat vegetables cut carrots, celery, peppers, and cucumbers into strips. They can use their vegetable almost like a utensil for dipping, at some point you might just find them taking a bite.

Growums provided a Taco Garden Kit free to facilitate a review. The opinions are my own. Please consult your child’s doctor if you have concerns about their feeding abilities.

This kitchen set is geared for children ages 3 and up.  The measurements are 23½”W x 12″D x 35½”H, which makes this set tall and narrow, so it is really more appropriate for older preschoolers. This kitchen does not take a up a lot of space in my home and does not make any noises and for that I am entirely greatful. There are two doors to open, a cabinet on the left and the see-thru oven door on the right.  When you open both of these doors, the cabinets are divided, but there is only a bottom shelf so the storage space inside the cabinets is tall. I wish that it had extra shelving in the cabinets, at least on one side, to accommodate more kitchen accessories. When trying to get some of his pots and pans out of the cabinet, Gavin did get a small finger pinched in the bottom, right where the cabinets are divided. The sink is removable and the knobs can all be twisted and turned. There is a shelf on the top of the kitchen where children can also store extra accessories.

This white, one-piece, kitchen and stove set arrived flat packed in one box and required adult assembly.  All the pieces were labelled well with numbers, and the directions were fairly easy to read. It took me about 2 1/2 hours to assemble the kitchen and I had to enlist the help of my handy dandy husband to finally get all the screws to allign perfectly together. I tried to use an electric drill at first.  In the first step, when trying to assemble the blue faucet knob, the drill pushed the screw so far into the knob it actually broke off.  I contacted customer service, received a response a day later. However, it has been two weeks and I have not yet received a replacement part. Definitely set aside a good amount of time, hand tighten the screws and make sure the handiest person in your home is nearby to help because there were definitely some instances when two heads and four hands were a necessity.

The set does not come with any accessories, so they will need to be purchased separately. I tried to go to Target and look for additional accessories to purchase, but you can read all about the pink toys I found on my trip here. I basically ended up scavenging my kitchen, and found extra spoons, containers, and bowls to place inside, which keep him pretty  happy for now.

ToyQueen.com is giving away a Stove/Kitchen Combo Set from Constructive Playthings.

Mandatory entry: Visit www.cptoy.com by clicking on the Constructive Playthings Button on the sidebar and take a look around.  Come back to this post and tell us what other item a child in your life would love to receive. Remember that by clicking this button when ordering, you receive a 15% discount off your entire order.

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Giveaway ends May 6th 11:59 p.m EST

Constructive Playthings provided this set free to facilitate the review. All opinions are my own.

So this post is to let all of you know that Similac has just created a FREE App that I think will help many parents stay on top of all the daunting details, especially in the early weeks when trying to get a routine down is the most difficult. What I love about this app is that it also takes into consideration being able to bottlefeed, breastfeed or a combination of both!

First you input information on your child (weight, height, date of birth, photo). Have multiple children? You can also set up multiple profiles!

Next you can choose whether you are bottlefeeding, breastfeeding or both.

For breastfeeding, you can record which side you started on and the time the feed took in general. It allows you to make notes and email the information. The same for bottlefeeding where you can time the feed, then record notes and ounces taken.

The app allows you to calculate time between feedings, manage trends on a chart, as well as record sleep time and diaper changes.

I personally think the diaper change feature is great. I know I’ve turned into the official poop inspector in our home and it will let you record whether it was a pee, poop or combination diaper, and if there was any leakage. This part is my personal favorite, because you can record the quality of poop from hard to soft including adjectives such as “hard, chunky, sticky, thick, seedy, loose.” Words you never thought you’d ever be able to describe! Now, you can also pick from a variety of colors to describe the bowel movement. There is even a “diaper decoder” that brings you to the Similac web page with educational information and articles. I know I’m a little poop obsessed, but as you can see in the development of this app, I must not be the only one!

The sleep feature also allows you to record duration, time of day, whether you laid the baby down awake and any notes.

There are basic tips under the advice tab on feeding, sleeping, diapers, milestones as well as tips from moms and dads. There is a link to the Strongmoms.com website and also a phone number for 24/7 feeding help!

Here are some additional thoughts I had:

- In terms of sleep, I would have loved a feature to also record the position of the baby when sleeping and where (bassinet, crib, arms, etc.).  Since you can manage trends, you might be able to see in the long run, that the baby sleeps better in the crib versus the bassinet, etc.

- If you have multiple doctor’s appointments this is a great way to trend their height, weight and head circumference over time while keeping the information in one location

- This app I think works best if you have a newborn. I inputted Gavin’s information and he is 16 months old and though the app knows lists his correct age, it it gives information based on a newborn

- Though it’s a lot of great information, for those of you spreadsheet buffs, it could be overwhelming to take into account all the information at once, so try to keep a broad perspective and not hyperfocus on too many details

- There is not a place to record when babies start eating pureed foods, which I think would also be helpful to see the big feeding picture.  Parents could record the amount of food they took from the spoon and begin to look at the trends as they eventually wean off the breastfeeding and bottle feeding at later dates, because a child’s intake can change at different intervals depending on growth spurts and their acceptance of a variety of foods and cereal

- I LOVE the email feature. For those of us parents who pass in shifts or share care amongst providers, I think it’s great way to share information with others without losing the information on sticky notes or scraps of paper

Click here to download the Similac Baby App! It’s available for free in iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch formats.

I was compensated by Collective Bias for my time, but my opinions on this app and blog post are my own based on my personal experience.

Sassy On-the-Go Feeding Set

Whenever we need to pack a meal for a restaurant, for daycare, or when going to grandma and grandpa’s, this On-the-Go Feeding Set is awesome. There are two small, 1 medium and 1 large container included with individual covers and a spoon that snaps into the lid. Even better all of these containers store inside the largest one, so they take up minimal real estate in the cupboard! The smallest containers have been great to fill with Gerber puffs or Cheerio’s and I tend to keep one of these in my purse or diaper bag. The large dish is also separated so if your child is eating puree’s you can have a fruit or vegetable on one side and infant cereal on the other. Now that Gavin is older and eating more table foods, I have successfully fit 1/2 of a sandwich on one side of the large container with a snack on the other –perfect for lunch on-the-go!

Sassy Stack n Serve Nesting Bowls

There are four different sized bowls. They nest inside themselves, making for easy storage and they have no skid bottoms with deep sides, so they make great options for children around the age of one who are learning to self-feed with a spoon. I keep these bowls in a safe part of a  cupboard Gavin can reach and while I unload the dishwasher he loves to sit and practices how to nest them in the right order!

Sassy On-The-Go Fork and Spoon Set

I can’t tell you how many times I was taking dirty spoons we travelled with and wrapping them in plastic baggies before putting them back in my diaper bag. Well not any more! These forks and spoons fit back in their own plastic storage case!

Sassy provided these products to facilitate a review. The opinions are my own.

After we opened the package and read the directions, literally within seconds the batter was mixed and within a minute our three little chocolate cakes were cooked using the microwave! The measuring devices were easy to understand and use, because adding water was all was required, and symbols are used to measure rather than numbers.  A great safety mechanism when cooking the cakes is that the microwave cover also turns colors to help identify if the cakes are too hot to open. Included in the kit are 12 different tools (measuring spoon, rolling pin, fondant mold, detail stampers, letter stampers, pattern plates, cookie cutters) and a variety of different mixes (3 coookie and 2 cake mixes).

We then decided to cover our cakes with pink fondant.  This is where we both thought using the Easy Bake Set, really wasn’t so easy, and if you are using this kit with younger children, it may be handy to be there to supervise for any questions, guidanceand help. Pink is an understatement, this pink was the brightest, boldest pink we had ever seen and joked that if we turned the lights off, it would probably glow in the dark.  After we worked for what seemed like 10 minutes making the fondant, we were ready to roll it and imprint it with the different tools included in the kit. We rolled and we cut and we pressed and we tried, though they looked like cakes, despite our creativity, they definitely did NOT look like the beautiful creations on the box that we tried to emulate.  Over an hour or so later, our three, bite sized creations were complete.

Here are some of my thoughts:

- You may want to experiment with the cookies, frosting and sprinkles first before jumping right into the fondant to practice using the tools more successfully

- All the tools needed were in the box, but we did find it helpful to use a very small spatula to mix the fondant and a toothpick might be helpful to remove the fondant from some of the molds if it gets stuck in some of the crevices

- I did think this would be a great way to incorporate into a home birthday party where all of the kids can work cooperatively and use their creativity to create a variety of unique desserts using different stations for mixing, cooking and decorating

So to answer the question, are Easy-Bake kits as easy as they look? Yes, making the cakes and cookies are definitely fool proof, decorating them can be a bit more of a challenge. Though we were both not so proud of our final products, we shared a lot of laughs, giggles and family time so though we were more disappointed in ourselves for not being able to create the cutest cakes in the world, if you value the process and not the final product, anyone can be an easy bake overnight success!

Hasbro provided the Easy Bake kit free to facilitate a review.  The opinions expressed in this entry are purely the bloggers own.

Photo credits to Derek Wilmot

I know many people would still prefer to use a real plates and their special occasion dinnerware during holiday events. Even still, how many of you want your children using your fine china and silverware during holiday meals?  If you are looking for a way to be able to include your children at the “kids table” with a similar look of the “adult table” without the worry of them breaking the fine china, than this holiday season you may want to include the Mosaik plastic dinnerware set in your family events!   That way the kids can even participate in the cleanup and they can throw their plates away all by themselves when they’re finished, instead of piling them up in the sink waiting for you to take care of them!

Included in the set that I reviewed was also one serving plastic serving bowl with a lid, two serving platters and three serving spoons and serving forks.  Maybe using a full set of plastic dinnerware is not your thing, but we are all always looking for simple but elegant serving platters to transport our holiday goods!

ToyQueen.com will be giving away a Mozaik “Designing Spaces” prize pack that will include Mozaik´s new Service for 8 kit (full 40 piece set), serving utensils, platter and bowl.

Comment under this post on some creative suggestions that you utilize when decorating your holiday table and you could win one for your upcoming holiday dinner event!

Extra credit entries, follow ToyQueen on Twitter, like ToyQueen on Facebook. Make sure to comment under this post any additional entries you completed.

Giveaway ends Sunday December 12th 11:59 p.m. EST.

Mozaik provided me with free product, information, and gift pack through MyBlogSpark to facilitate this review.  All opinions expressed in this blog post are purely the bloggers own.

The opinions in this blog post are purely the bloggers own.

International Playthings has a whole series of these adorable bowls that are somehow motion sensored that when the “magic spoon” enters the bowl, the cow makes 4 different animal sounds. What better way to encourage your child to learn to feed themselves by reinforcing placing the “magic spoon” back in the bowl, rather than flinging it across your kitchen! Since I also work with a lot of picky eaters, I’m always on the lookout for a new fun way to motivate children to try a new food, increase their mealtime attention or to simply gain more independence.  If you think the cow is cute, you should definitely check out the International Playthings website because this bowl comes in a dog, airplane, and a car. There is a suction cup that sticks the bowl to the tray surface. The smaller green insert bowl is microwave and top rack dishwasher safe.  Gavin pretty much had applesauce everywhere with this snack, in terms of cleaning up the cow, I didn’t want to submerse it in water, and it didn’t state that it was safe to submerse it or wet it, so I used a Lysol wipe to easily clean up the rest of the applesauce.

International Playthings provided this Animal Snacker free for the purchase of a review. Gavin is positioned in a Svan High Chair for his mealtimes, which was provided free for the purpose of review by Scandinavian Child. All opinions expressed in this entry are purely the bloggers own.

As always, photo credits brought to you by the amazingly talented Derek Wilmot.

The feature this week: Sassy Less Mess Spoons

Finally, spoons that have been designed to help your children learn to self-feed with success. These spoons have holes in the bowl of the spoon that simply allow foods to stick to them, so that as your child perfects the art of bringing a spoon to their mouth, the food does not immediately  fall off causing immediate frustration.

I gave Gavin this spoon at 4 months to use first as a teether. It’s thick rubber design was great for him to gnaw on when he began teething and how ingenious is it that this spoon is also double sided! Once he had learned to bring it to his mouth, I would also use it to feed him his infant cereal and very early on put some cereal on the spoon and let him bring it to his mouth by himself.

As he is now one, he is now progressing to doing more independent spoon feeding for dinner, that way I can strip him down right after and give him a bath before bedtime without the worry of a big mess. So we have also graduated to the more advanced Less Mess Spoon. This curved handle also makes it easier to bring the spoon to his mouth.  Some foods we have begun practicing self-feeding with have included yogurt, pudding, applesauce, pureed vegetables, mashed potatoes, couscous and rice.

Sassy provided the Less Mess Spoons free for the purpose of review. All opinions expressed in this blog post are purely the bloggers own.

First and foremost, Isis Parenting is a local organization, with four other stores in the Boston area (Needham, Arlington, Boston, Brookline). Isis Parenting provides parent training, education and support from preconception through the preschool years. Though even if you are reading this post from somewhere other than Boston, please check out the Isis Parenting community online, because they have so much to offer any parent from near or far!

I have had the pleasure of working on an unbelievable project with an outstanding group of women from Isis Parenting and needless to say, I was so upset that I could not make it to the event. So, I sent my husband and ToyQueen co-founder Derek to attend on my behalf. Being a feeding therapist who has worked with children and their parents for the last 10 years, helping children to expand their food repertoires, I have definitely felt more comfortable taking an active role in feeding our son and couldn’t wait for the day to come to feed him pureed foods. I was so excited for Derek (www.dadslanding.com)  to attend the event, in hopes that he could learn a few tricks of his own to feel more confident in helping us to both make good choices for our family’s nutrition.

Derek reported that “I found it very interesting as a Dad to learn more about the nutrition side of things, such as learning the benefits of something as simple as changing from white rice to brown rice can make a significant difference in your child’s nutrition.” He remembered from Dr. Greene’s presentation, “The importance of eating ‘green,’ not only when your child is born, but the time prior to conception is just as important.” Derek believes that, “Having been a road warrior with on the road jobs for a number of years, this opened my eyes to the efforts and the changes that one must make, because it’s easy to eat unhealthy. Once you get into the rhythm of the routine it should become second nature to make better choices.”

So for the past two days, I can not get my nose out of Dr. Greene’s book. Dr. Greene has written such a helpful resource for all parents with practical advice that is substantiated by cited research. It has been so validating to hear many of the suggestions we often make to parents who present with such a significant amount of frustration and anxiety over their child’s eating habits, that there are so many fun, practical solutions available to incorporate into the family routine. Dr. Greene helps guide parents through the challenging maze of feeding their children throughout their early life stages and reiterates the importance of establishing good mealtime routines with nutritious foods that will help our children thrive.

A lucky reader will win a copy of Feeding Baby Green: The Earth Friendly Program for Healthy, Safe Nutrition During Pregnancy, Childhood, and Beyond
by Dr. Alan Greene, M.D.

Mandatory Entry: Please comment under this post on a food or strategy that you use to encourage your children to eat healthier.

Extra Credit Entries

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Please make sure to come back to the post and identify what extra credit opportunities you participated in.

As part of attendance at this event, Isis Parenting provided a free giveaway copy of Feeding Baby Green: The Earth Friendly Program for Healthy, Safe Nutrition During Pregnancy, Childhood, and Beyond

Giveaway ends 11/21/10 11:59 p.m. EST

This week I took along Aquadoodle. When you fill the small pen with water and draw on the mat, it gets wet and turns your markings blue. The mat is large enough for more than one child to pay with, though it only comes with one pen, so I may need to go purchase another as I tend to be in homes with multiple children! This mat is recommended for children ages 2 and up.

Parents have been loving this large mat simply because no matter what else kids try to color on with the pen, it leaves absolutely NO MESS other than drops of WATER! Once you wet the mat it does take a bit for it to dry, but since I have about 20 minutes in my car between visits, it’s usually pretty dry after that timeframe.

Here are some developmental ideas for this Aquadoodle Mat:

- Encourage your child to draw simple lines, curves and shapes after you draw them first

- Draw pictures and encourage them to use their language to guess the picture

- Draw half of a picture (left side) and have your child draw the other side (right side)

- I’ve even used this as a system where during mealtimes we draw a picture of what the child will eat first, followed by what they will eat next. This is a great way to get those picky eater kiddo’s to try something new first, when they can earn a few bites of something they really like after!

- When drawing children can lie on their tummies to develop more strength or the mat can be hung up on a wall to provide a portable easel. It can also be rolled for storage and is lightweight for travel.

- Older children may enjoy drawing a person, copying letters, writing numbers, making dot to dots or creating mazes!

Spinmaster provided this Aquadoodle Mat free for the purpose of this review. The opinions expressed in this post are purely the bloggers own.

I often find a lot of parents believe that infants should NEVER put items in their mouth.  However, it is important for the development of a baby’s tongue in preparation for talking and eating more textured table foods that providing access to SAFE toys to place in the mouth is important in so many ways. As children get older, they should place objects in their mouth less. For an infant, consider the mouth their third hand, they learn to recognize toys and objects first by how it feels inside their mouth.

I began to introduce my son Gavin to rattles that could be placed safely inside his mouth at 3 1/2 months of age. I did this by placing the toy in his hand first to hold onto, then placing it inside his mouth for him to explore different textures with his tongue.  Initially he did not have the grasp pattern to hold on for longer than a few seconds on the toy, so I needed to help him hold the toy there first for a minute or so while he chewed and sucked on the unfamiliar textures. He also liked the vibrating teethers, though he wasn’t strong enough to activate them himself by biting I would hold them on for a few seconds myself and place it near his mouth. Get your camera ready, you’ll see some funny faces that’s for sure!

The next stage of development included him bringing a toy to his mouth to chew on automatically when a light weight rattle was put in his hand.  When he was more supported in a feeding booster seat or his bouncy chair as they are semi-reclined, he tended to be more successful as his core muscles were more supported, which gave him the stability and access to then work with his hands.

Teaching a baby to bring toys to their mouth is also a skill that will be helpful later on when they are ready to finger feed themselves small pieces of food and to self-feed by spoon. Listen for any more vocalizations that may occur during this activity, you are helping your baby to stimulate the receptors and muscles inside their mouth. Get a bib handy, this will also produce a lot of fabulous drool!

The above teethers are from Sassybaby.com.  Though Sassy provided these rattles and teethers for my review, the above information in this blogpost are the author’s own opinions of the toys.

Disclosure: www.cmp.ly/2/e1uz40

In our state of Massachusetts, it is also state mandated that if your child is at daycare longer than 4 hours and has a meal that their teeth be brushed. Click here for more information on this program to prevent tooth decay. So why not send your baby to daycare with this fabulous toothbrush?

This product is BPA, latex and phalate free, as well as dishwasher and freezer friendly! It’s non-allergenic and is made of 100% non-toxic silicone.

I received this product free courtesy of Isis Parenting for the purpose of review. The opinions in this post are purely the bloggers own.

I’ve recently had the opportunity to review a few Tommee Tippee products.  Tommee Tippee was started in Great Britain and has within the past few months made a grand entrance to the U.S. market selling their feeding products at BabiesRUS.com, as well as all Babies R Us and Toys R Us stores nationwide.

I received 3 products from Tommee Tippee and the Mom Bloggers Club free for the courtesy of my review: the Non Slip Easy Mat, The Weaning Bowl with Spoon and the Spill Proof Water Bottle.

I have to say I was initially most excited about the Non Slip Easy Mat.  This mat is placed on a table or high chair and allows the Weaning Bowl or other standard plates/bowls to be attached to it.  By securing the bowl, it could prevent food from being dumped out of the bowl onto the floor and it also keeps the bowl in place when children learn to eat with utensils.  Though Gavin found a way to remove the bowl from the mat within a minute or so and his lovely dinner did end up on my floor, I do believe this mat could still be beneficial to older toddlers who are motivated to self-feed with a spoon or a fork, so I’m hopeful when he’s older we can give this another try!

I really like the weaning bowl and use it almost daily.  In the package I received there were two weaning bowls, one cover, and a spoon. In the cover there is a spot where the spoon can be inserted for on-the-go meals. What a great idea to first and foremost remind us all who are functioning on little sleep to make sure we actually put a spoon in the diaper bag!  I’ve sent Gavin with meals to my parents’ and friends’ houses using this bowl and we have not had any spilling in route (though I haven’t used it for liquid textures i.e. yogurt, cottage cheese).  I have put these bowls in the microwave and dishwasher without any difficulty; they are also BPA and Phthalate free. The bowl has a handle on it, making the bowl easy to hold when you are feeding the child.  This feature is also perfect for older toddlers when teaching them how to hold the bowl as they scoop with the other hand using a spoon. This bowl is also deep, which can allow for better success during these early self-feeding stages, making it easier to get textures like yogurt onto the spoon easier. The spoon was easy to hold, lightweight and great for being on-the-go. Though I have other spoons I prefer to use for more consistent infant feeding, this is a good alternative for travel.

Lastly, we tested out the Spill Proof Water Bottle. This water bottle has two pieces that fit inside the spout that make it spill proof.  It is not difficult to extract liquid when sucking from it, but if this is hard for your child initially, remove the two pieces that serve as the no-spill valve. You can put them back in the cup once your child has the idea of how the cup works. Try to encourage your child to also remove the liquid with their lips anddon’t let them bite on the spout with their teeth to stabilize when drinking.

I know how overwhelming the feeding aisles can be in local stores with row upon row of choices, but if you want to give Tommee Tippee a try:

Now through July 23:  Buy any Explora item (cups and toddler feeding), get the second 50% off at BabiesRUs.com.

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Disclosure:  http://cmp.ly/2/c6zy7i

Though I received free products from Tommee Tippee and the Mom Bloggers Club to facilitate this review, the opinions expressed are purely the bloggers own.