Magazine

Priya holding a stainless steel toddler plate with leftover mac and cheese on a messy kitchen counter

The soapy nightmare that led us to stainless steel toddler plates

Tuesday night, 6:43 PM. Kabir had just aggressively rejected a batch of organic mac and cheese that I spent twenty minutes hiding pureed cauliflower inside. I was standing over the kitchen sink, eating the lukewarm leftovers directly off his favorite...

Read more

A wooden toddler plate with a silicone suction base covered in messy spaghetti.

The Truth About Bamboo Kids Plates (And What Actually Works)

I was standing barefoot in my kitchen at 7:00 AM, staring at a splatter of oatmeal slowly dripping down my newly painted cabinets, while my oldest son looked incredibly proud of his throwing arm. Jackson was two at the time,...

Read more

A messy toddler eating off a divided bamboo plate with a silicone suction base.

Dear Priya: The ugly truth about those bamboo childrens plates

Dear Priya from six months ago. You're currently scraping dried avocado out of the grooves of our dining room floor with a butter knife. Your son is screaming because his water is too wet. You're exhausted. I know you think...

Read more

Baby trying to pry a silicone suction bowl off a wooden highchair tray

Why suction bowls are actually about motor skills, not clean floors

I'm currently scraping dried avocado off the baseboard with a plastic pediatric tongue depressor I stole from my old hospital ward. People think the whole point of a suction bowl is to prevent this exact scenario. They assume it's just...

Read more

A messy baby eating sweet potato puree out of a green silicone suction bowl on a high chair

The Great Baby Bowl Delusion: What I Expected vs What Works

It was a Tuesday in 2017, and I was sitting on my kitchen floor wearing a gray nursing tank that smelled vaguely of sour milk, crying over a puddle of pulverized sweet potato. Leo was six months old. He was...

Read more

Sarah holding a messy silicone baby bowl covered in spaghetti sauce.

The Messy, Soap-Tasting Truth About Choosing The Right Baby Bowls

Before I even bought a highchair for Leo, three different people gave me completely contradicting advice about feeding him. My mother-in-law cornered me in my own kitchen to say that plates were a waste of money and I should just...

Read more

A dad covered in marinara sauce looking at a silicone suction bowl stuck to a high chair.

Baby Bowls Silicone: Troubleshooting The Night Spaghetti Won

6:14 PM, Tuesday. The ambient temperature in the kitchen was 68 degrees, but the marinara sauce slowly dripping down the bridge of my glasses was closer to 105. My eleven-month-old daughter had just executed a flawless physics demonstration right in...

Read more

A confused dad looking at a messy high chair and a green silicone baby bib.

The Engineering of Bib Safety and Dishwasher Survival Protocols

My mother-in-law told me to just tie a cloth napkin around his neck because "that's what we did in the eighties." A guy on the r/daddit subreddit swore by stripping his kid down to a diaper and hosing him off...

Read more

A silicone infant spoon covered in mashed avocado resting on a messy highchair tray

The Great Puree Illusion: My Humbling Education in Infant Spoons

The ceiling of my kitchen in Zone 3 currently sports a rather avant-garde splatter of pureed butternut squash, perfectly preserved from last Tuesday when I attempted to feed the twins simultaneously. Maya, deciding she was finished with her lunch, performed...

Read more