Prevent the Feeding Mess with Smartly Designed Baby Utensils
Once your baby starts eating solid foods, a brave new world begins. While they’re exploring new tastes, textures and smells, your life turns into a complete mess where it’s impossible to have a normal, clean home. All babies insist on throwing the food on the floor, even entire plates, bowls and spoons. That is why you should consider investing in smartly designed baby utensils that can help your baby learn how to eat properly, and hopefully, your home won’t look like “Messville”.
Source: littleonemag.com
So, in addition to all those baby care items for first-time mommies, you should also invest in some feeding essentials that can help you keep the mess and stress to a minimum.
Baby Bowls
There are many different baby bowls on the market that it can be difficult to choose the right one for your little one. To ensure you’re picking something that’s safe for your baby and makes feeding easier, there are some things you need to consider first. That being said, before buying a baby bowl for your little one, you should always make sure that it’s made of a safe food-grade material. What does that mean?
Let’s start with silicone bowls. Before being released on the market, containers and other products made of silicone that will have contact with food should pass a test to see if there is any harmful substance in them that can get released into the food and whether there is any impact on the taste. So, for silicone products there are two standards, one is LFGB food-grade which is a German abbreviation for the German food and commodities act and the other one is FDA food-grade which is the American grading system.
Source: raisingchildren.net.au
So, before buying the perfect bowl for your baby, make sure that one of these abbreviations is written on the label. And to be even safer, you can try to squeeze the silicone and see if there are any white lines. If there are, that means that the bowl is made of cheaper grades and can be harmful to your baby’s health.
If you want to buy a plastic bowl, then you should pay attention that the bowl is made from BPA-free polypropylene plastic. BPA stands for Bisphenol A which is a chemical found in plastics and is considered highly toxic. Some studies have shown that BPA products can have a negative effect on your little one’s brain, affect their behaviour and even can cause high blood pressure. That is why you should always make sure to purchase baby utensils from a company with long years of experience that offers 100% safe and easy to use baby bowls.
So, after you make sure that the bowl is made from the right material, you should make sure that it’s easy and safe to use. There are many benefits of using a baby feeding bowl and some even believe that bowls are the best plates for babies that can help with all stages of weaning. Since they have one area for food and high walls, it can be very easy for your baby to press the food against them and scoop it up. This a great because this way your toddler can learn how to use a spoon as well.
Additionally, if you want the bowl to stay put on the table even if your little one tries to grab it and knock it down, make sure to go for a model that has a suction bottom. A bowl with a suction bottom will get firmly attached to the surface it’s placed on, reducing the risk of any food on the floor.
Moreover, since the bowls are deep and curved, there are greater chances that the food will fall inside the bowl and there will be fewer spills and mess. So, if there is less mess, you and your little one can easily concentrate on the food you are eating and that way your baby could learn many different foods and remember their tastes and textures easily. When feeding your precious angel with cereals, soups and different snacks, a bowl can be the perfect choice.
Baby Plates
When it comes to safe materials, the same goes for baby plates as for bowls. What makes baby plates different though is that they can be divided into several compartments. That way, different components of the meal can be placed on the plate separately. And as a result, your toddler can start recognising and learning the difference between different foods, their textures, colours and smells. Also, that can be a good exercise for learning the names of different vegetables and fruits. Another advantage of using divided plates is that they come in a perfect size and hold the right amount of food your baby needs.
Source: fortifiedfam.com
Baby Spoons and Forks
Baby spoons are smaller and hold just enough food for your little one’s tiny mouth. There’s a variety of models on the market, but the most common ones are spoons with a soft tip that is gentle on the baby’s gums and an ergonomic handle that can make feeding a lot more comfortable. There are also spoons that have wide curved handles that allow toddlers to dip only a little and still get a spoonful. This is very important in the early days when the coordination of your baby is not their strong side.
It is also better if you purchase a spoon with a deep bowl because that way, even if some food falls down, some will stay on the spoon and that can be encouraging for your baby. Otherwise, it can be really frustrating for your little one to try so hard and not to get any food in their mouth at the end.
Before buying baby forks, make sure that they have soft handles with a wide grip that can be simple to use. Anyway, the best thing about baby forks is that they have a metal part that can actually pierce something, but since it comes with prongs that are round, they can’t be dangerous at all for little ones.
In either case, before purchasing any kind of spoons or forks, make sure that they are BPA-free and dishwasher safe. That way, you won’t have to spend time hand washing after every meal, making them some of the best utensils for babies. Additionally, it is advisable to always have two or three clean spoons on hand, because either they can end up on the floor or can magically disappear forever.
