Life as a toddler must be hard. Imagine; you're hungry, tired and just want to battle through it and carry on playing. As if things weren't bad enough though, mummy or daddy stop you playing to have something to eat. But it gets worse. They kindly give you the food but you can't quite seem to get hold of it because the plate or bowl keeps sliding around. Frustrating!
There is a very simple answer... Gecko Grippers - Toddler Placemats. These wonderful sticky placemats will take away the frustration your little one has during meal times. They simply stick to any smooth surface such as the high chair table and the bowl simply sits on top and is held in place. Toddlers want to be independent but don't quite have the skills to cope yet so Gecko Grippers help to bridge the gap in their ability by holding the bowl or plate for them while they just concentrate on scooping the food.
Gecko Grippers work by using microscopic suction. Basically, if you zoomed in with a microscope, you would see thousands of suction cups like the ones used to hold things to windows. This may sound a little gimmicky but they really do work. They're so strong in fact that they can hold a 2Kg weight to the ceiling! We've received countless comments thanking us for developing this product and it's lovely to know that you have helped in some small way.
Gecko Gripper - Toddler Placemats have hidden benefits for parents and carers too. Calmer, happier children are the main ones but also less mess and your little one can learn to become an independent eater much faster which means you're able to eat your own meal in a reasonable fashion at the same time if you wanted to!
Life using Gecko Grippers couldn't be easier, due to the PU Gel properties in the Gecko Grippers, they are extremely easy to wash. A quick rinse under warm soapy water and allow to dry and they will literally be as good as when brand new. They simply do not wear out meaning you have a lasting investment. Gecko Grippers are environmentally responsible being recyclable but also coming in packaging that is designed to keep the product safe but can also be recycled when the time comes.
If you have any questions about Gecko Grippers, please do get in touch and we'll be delighted to help.
How do you stop baby bowls from slipping and sliding or even worse being picked up and the contents being emptied all over the floor? There are three main ways to solve this problem:
1. Silicone based bowls and plates.
These are standard bowls and plates but have a grippy material permanently attached to the bottom. These are ok but do not really grip that well. They can be quite expensive and some can only be hand washed. They do not hold the bowl or plate down at all.
2. Suction.
There are bowls with built in suction and separate units that attach to your existing bowl/plates. The suction systems vary enormously in quality and the aim is that the bowl is held completely down eliminating spillage. This is fine in theory but the problems start as soon as you try to use them. Our research suggests that many users complain that they simply do not work. Others say that they need pumping several times to create enough suction. Our tests verify both of these complaints but the results do vary between products. The difficulty we found was that when pumping the air out of the suction cup it was very difficult and impractical to do when the bowl or plate is full of food. We also found that babies didn't want to sit and wait patiently while we pumped their food up and down in front of them until it was firmly held in place. Nearly all of the suction systems lost suction during the babies meal and some to the point that they completely came loose and toppled off defeating the purpose completely. There is also a moral question for parents and carers to ask themselves here. If the suction cup does manage to completely hold the bowl in place, what are we teaching our young children? Is it really teaching them how to eat?
3. Gecko Grippers.
Gecko Grippers are a revolution in the baby market. They are highly sticky, flexible mats that are designed to hold any smooth object to any smooth surface. They do not use any adhesive whatsoever, leave no marks whatsoever and last indefinitely. We have taken these through the strictest testing possible, comparing them to the other options discussed above and they outperform them all. They are incredibly grippy little things. Only 3mm thick and 12 cm diameter but can hold a solid metal 2Kg weight to the ceiling. How is this possible? The science can be discussed in another blog post but for now lets think about baby bowls and plates. Gecko Grippers are the best all-round solution for when your baby / toddler starts weaning / self-feeding. They will hold the bowl or plate securely but not completely as a prolonged peeling action will release the bowl. Only 3 of our 10 babies realised that they could eventually lift the bowl and we had to sit and watch them as they put every ounce of effort in to do it. In the real world this would buy parents and carers the time they need to intervene if they chose to. An important thing to bear in mind is that most standard plates and bowls have a small ridge on the underneath. Depending on the size of the ridge, this means that the surface contact and therefore the grip is limited. I.e. the more surface contact, more more grip. This is not normally a problem though as the Gecko Gripper sits inside this on most bowls and plates. In the washing tests, the Gecko Grippers also won. A very quick rinse in lukewarm, soapy water and any food on the mat simply slipped off. It's interesting to note that the properties of the Gecko Grippers completely changed when wet. They became very slippery instead of grippy, weird. When dry, the Gecko Gripper really did stick just as well as when it was used for the first time. All in all, a remarkably simple yet fantastic solution to the age old problem of baby bowls!
