The Sunday Review – Tommee Tippee Feeding & Drinking

I'll be very honest, I've never quite understood why 90% of my Mummy friends went out and bought Tommee Tippee training cups, and Tommee Tippee bibs. I have always put it down to the fact that they're available in the supermarkets and so they're an easy option for Mums who don't like to explore and experiment with different brands, like me.

I tried a Tommee Tippee pelican bib (The Comfi-Neck bib) when Lara first started weaning. It was firm plastic and I struggled to keep it attached to Lara's neck. I recently had the opportunity to try their more flexible version – The Roll n Go bib. The Roll n Go is a soft, wibbly plastic bib with a good-sized pelican area for catching food. I found it great at preventing spillages from soaking through to Lara's clothes and, compared to my current brand of choice, it is a lot easier to clean as I don't need to put it through the washing machine. It is pretty handy for me to roll up and put into my changing bag, or Lara's day bag for the childminder.



However, I did find that the plastic stained easily the first time that I fed Lara spaghetti bolognaise in the bib and I still really struggle with the fastening mechanism. Tommee Tippee bibs close with a push-through button mechanism. The Roll n Go bib stays closed more easily because the bib isn't as rigid as the Comfi-Neck bib but I have found that now Lara's hair is growing, it is tricky to fasten the button without getting her hair caught in it.

We have also been trying a Tommee Tippee explora Easy Drink cup. This is the very first trainer cup I have offered Lara to which she has taken to immediately. Usually there is at least a little struggle to work out how to get the liquid out, but not with this one. I put this down to the fact that the non-spill valve is gentle enough that when I try and drink from it, I find it easy to suck the liquid out (something I find near-on impossible with most of Lara's valve-based cups).



The Easy Drink cup has a semi-soft spout and a pair of handles that Lara seems very comfortable gripping. My biggest plus point about this cup is that the lid screws on rather than pushes on; this means that there is an almost-zero chance of it falling off, or of me having not put it on properly. It also means that I don't have to wrench it off to clean it (which, with my other cups, often results in milk all over me, the sink, the walls and the floor).

I also like the fact that the spout cover is attached to the cup. All of the rest of our cups have separate lids that I very quickly gave up using because they fell off in my bag. My one complaint with the spout cover is that the cover (and the little dimple that it rests in) fills up with the skanky bits of salty dishwasher gack if I don't clean it by hand.

I have been very impressed by the explorer Easy Drink cup, and less so with the Roll n Go bib.
Images courtesy of Red Consultancy

The Sunday Review - Pelican Bibs On Trial

At eight months old, Lara is beginning to master the art of finger food. It's a messy business but incredibly good fun. I've found that when I give Lara finger food, her tie-neck fabric bibs are no longer enough to protect her clothes from the food chaos. I have recently been trying out several different pelican bibs trying to find one that will keep Lara dry when she drinks, clean when she eats and which will catch the piles of half-chewed food that are discarded during her mealtimes.

Image courtesy of Brother Max

The first bib we tried was the Brother Max Combi Bib. The Combi Bib comprises a soft plastic 'crumb-catcher' (crumb???) and a set of 3 white cotton tops which you snap into place to create the bib. This means that you can use a different cotton bib top for each meal of the day. The cotton tops are backed with a leak-free lining to keep your baby's clothes dry but although they are machine-washable, I found that I was not able to wash them at a high enough temperature to remove the food stains from the white fabric. After just a couple of weeks, the bibs looked discoloured and grubby. You can buy additional cotton tops without the need to purchase further crumb-catchers; I have needed at least 6 of them to avoid me having to run the washing machine every evening.

The best thing about the Combi Bib is that I can fold the cotton top and any spoons that I need for the day into the crumb-catcher and button it shut making it compact and therefore the most practical bib with which to travel.

Image courtesy of Tommee Tippee

Next, Lara tried the Tommee Tippee Comfi-Neck Catch-All Bib. Unlike the Brother Max bib, it does not roll up or collapse at all (although Tommee Tippee do make a roll-up bib). For this reason, I found the Catch-All bib to be too bulky to take out with me during the day. The Comfi-Neck bib is adjustable to 4 different neck sizes and is held in place with a push-through button which we found came undone very easily. On the plus-side though, of all the bibs that I have tried, it is by far the easiest to clean because the BPA-free plastic can be simply wiped clean. The area of the bib designed to catch food (I refuse to call it the crumb-catcher!) is generously proportioned and means that most of the food manages to stay in the bib, rather than on the floor!

Image courtesy of Bibetta

Finally we tried the Bibetta Ultra Bib. Bibetta make a range of brightly-coloured bibs made from soft, absorbent Neoprene (the stuff from which they make wet suits). Their choice of material means that the bibs are flexible enough to roll up, absorbent and thick enough to keep liquids away from baby's clothes, largely stain resistant and machine-washable. I love the bright patterns on offer (Lara has a gorgeous bright pink floral pattern) and it is fabulous that I can choose to either wipe it clean, rinse it, or, if it gets really mucky, wash it.

The Bibetta bib features an ingenious catching pocket designed such that the bib naturally lies flat to allow you to roll it and fold it when it is not in use; When you need to use the bib, you just reverse the pocket so that it juts out from the front of the bib. The bib has a Velcro fastening which can accommodate little necks of various sizes; it stays put on Lara much more effectively than any other bib we have tried. I have put the bib through the wash once after a particularly messy tomato pasta incident but I'm not yet 100% confident of the stain resistance of the patterned Neoprene so I tend to rinse it immediately after a meal; I have found that the fabric can take a good few hours to dry after washing – it's worth the wait though.

All three brands of bib have their pros and cons so I am glad that I have one of each available to me. If I had to choose one, it would be the Bibetta Ultra Bib because I have found it to be the most effective at keeping Lara clean.

If you have a review of a bib that you think would be useful to my readers, please add it below:-