PRODUCT REVIEW - Baby Dipper Bowl & Spoon Set

GIVEAWAY CONTEST Now till Nov. 3, 2009

Have you seen the Baby Dipper?  No, don't look up in the sky.  Mr. Big and Mrs. Little Dipper didn't just deliver a newborn.  The Baby Dipper I'm talking about is a space-age feeding bowl and spoon set for babies and toddlers down here on earth who are starting to eat baby food, learning to hold a spoon, or beginning to feed themselves.

Barbara Schantz, an Alabama mom of two sets of twins.  No, that's not a typo as you can see from a recent picture of Barbara and her hubbie at right with her pairs of daughters and sons.  In fact, I first met this mother of invention while organizing goody bag products as a volunteer for the annual non-profit national Triplet Connection Convention.  Thanks to her generosity, each 2009 convention family with triplets under 3 years old went home with Baby Dipper bowl sets in their convention gift bag.

As a mom of triplets plus another child born within a year, this would have been a big help for me.  To think, had this gem been around back then, it would've made feeding my four look less like the food fight scene in the comedy film "Revenge of the Nerds." Sorry folks, I don't have a snapshot of me feeding my own babies back in the late 1990s, as I was busy cleaning up the mess instead.

As this doubly-super mompreneur tells it, the idea for her creation came when the elder set of girl twins were six months old.  Needing to have one hand free while feeding two very young children, not to mention finding a better way of cutting down on the mess, Barbara tried other bowls, but nothing worked.  Finally, her Eureka! moment came and the unique Baby Dipper bowl was born: not as another constellation of stars but as an innovative feeding tool.

Though its been about twelve years since my own babies first sat in feeding chairs, I'm still amazed at all the ingenious products and services that keep coming out to simplify the care of young children. Whether bringing home a singleton, twins, triplets, or higher order multiples, new parents and caregivers today definitely have no idea how much things have improved just in the last dozen years alone. 

Left: For this picture, I gave three Baby Dipper bowls to a Chicago family with 7-month old triplets. While dad snapped the pictures, mom is shown not only feeding all the babies at the same time, but she is doing it using just one hand!

The Baby Dipper is a sanity-saver not only to parents of twins, triplets, or even several little ones of different ages all in high chairs at the same time, it is just as handy for feeding a single child, both able-bodied and special needs.

With a 4 ounce capacity, this bowl (see close-up picture below) measures 4" long x 3" wide x 1-3/4" deep and comes with a coordinating spoon sized for little hands which will remind you of one of the Dippers in the sky.

Thanks to its distinctive patent-pending triangle shape that allows the spoon to rest inside the lower corner of the bowl, along with the contoured interior design that guides food easily to the spoon,  it is well-suited both for a parent to feed a baby just starting on soft foods as well as for toddlers who are learning to eat on their own.  An added plus is that the bowl's vertical sides are transparent that allows clear view of the food inside.

Featuring a rubber non-slip underside that helps prevent sliding, the Baby Dipper is lead-free as well as has been tested for phthalates and meets the CPSIA standard, according to Schantz.  It is microwave safe, however microwaving of baby food risks scalding, so it is not recommended.  To maintain the integrity and grippiness of the soft rubber base, the bowl should be hand-washed.

The Baby Dipper is already sold in select stores in Alabama, Colorado, Kansas, and Texas. It is also available for $9.99 and up (plus shipping) direct from Baby Dipper and also from online retailers such as Amazon and Baby And Me Gifts.