We have de-plasticed. From cups and bowls to forks and spoons, the melamine and other kiddo plastic gear that has dotted our house is gone.
There’s lots that says melamine (hard plastic) and the #5 is fine. But, I totally admit that my reading and a certain relative who shall go un-named scare the hell out of me when it comes to health and safety issues in this department.
Plastic remains the great unknown in the toxic universe.
Finding alternatives to sippy cups, plates, bowls, even to-go options has been relatively simple and even, dare I say, affordable.
But, utensils – the one thing that is GUARANTEED to go into your kids’ mouth a million times – have proven quite tricky.
When the tiny person first started using utensils, I found a cool “spork” of types at Beyond The Kitchen Door in downtown Courtenay.
It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. But, it was bamboo, washed up nicely and worked well for a 2-year old in the middle of starting to eat on her own.
It was the brand – Bambu - that got me excited.
She spent about nine months with that utensil before demanding the use of a “big girl” eating tool and I was, once again, at a loss for finding anything other than the big, heavy metal utensils that she just wasn’t quite ready for yet.
Then, I wandered into The Green Room in downtown Courtenay and discovered that Bambu had gone Bambu Kids.
These utensils are perfect kid sized and decently priced. I personally love bamboo because it is such a great, sustainable resource, is naturally antiseptic and washes up like a breeze (no dishwasher, though. These do need to be washed by hand).
We tried the official “spork” and found it now – with the tiny person at 3 1/2 – to be a little too toddler for her (keeping it for the tiny person on the way, hooray!). But, the separate utensils are brilliant.
The great gals over at the Green Room can get the Bambu products for you that you need or want. I’m now itching for more pieces in the kids line like the plate and bowl as well as the kids kitchen utensils for our daughter to use when helping me do some baking or cooking dinner.
So, if you are in the process of ditching the plastic, or just looking for something a bit more eco and kid-friendly for your meal table, check out the Bambu Kids line over at The Green Room.
I suspect Bambu fever is contagious.:)
Product photos courtesy of Bambu
These look great. Perfect for tiny hands and mouths. I love bamboo.
Another alternative to plastic utensils is stainless steel. My kids have pretty much graduated to adult cutlery now but we have used kid-size stainless steel cutlery for them for years, from toddlerhood on. You can buy them in sets with a knife, fork and spoon – I think Runge’s deli on 4th sells them and I have seen them in children’s stores as well.
When the little ones in our house started eating more with forks and spoons (before that, hands were all the rage!), they were given the dessert forks from our utensil set. They are small enough for small hands, and they are stainless steel as well.
But I do like the idea of the bamboo spoons for the tiny crowd as the metal spoons can heat up enough with soup and porridge to burn little lips.
Thanks Pauline and Stacey.
The heating up thing was a big issue for us as M is very heat sensitive and she would refuse to eat with a metal spoon for the longest time.
Great options you guys. I love them.
Since we started feeding her baby food we have used the condiment spoons that come in sets of 6. We used those to feed her, as it was a great size, same as a baby spoon, but not plastic or plastic coated. I recently bought an olive fork for her at a kitchen store, and she has taken very well to using that, now that she’s 2. She gets that, a condiment spoon and a small spoon from our regular silverware at each meal and decides for herself what works best. She still likes the condiment silverware best.