Approximately one year ago one of the most dreaded and challenging periods in my life as a parent started: beginning solids with my son. The horror! Poor baby, tasting something that’s not milk for the first time, something that’s as bland and tasty as a piece of finely mashed cardboard and dealing with it coming back in the mouth after being swallowed. What is this green paste that resembles boogers? Why do I have to eat it when milk is so delicious? I perfectly understand, if I as an adult wouldn’t eat that, why would my son? And having to handle the little bowl of jar filled with unidentifiable stuff-that-babies-need-to-eat while aiming for a squirming baby avoiding the tiny spoon gets messy. Especially on the go: in the car or in pretty much any other place away from my somewhat comfortable home kitchen. Add in a toddler that needs to be attended as well besides the baby and it will hit the fan guaranteed. If I only knew about these 2 quirky items one year ago, my life would have probably been 26,3% better.

The first device is a baby spoon attached to a soft reservoir where finely mashed purees are squeezed directly in the small cavity. It’s especially useful for feeding 2 babies in the same time (think twins, if you have them you know the sound of one waiting for the other to be fed) as it eliminates the scooping time from the plate, but mostly it’s useful because, well, you don’t need a plate/bowl/jar anymore.  I was first looking at Boon Squirt, the first baby spoon of this kind, and while researching about it, the following aspects came to surface:

• The baby spoon is designed to dispense only finely pureed foods. Every tiniest chunk will obstruct the small orifice and will require a quick mouth-to-mouth from the parent. Think of foods that fit best, such as yogurt, and you’ll be fine. This device is thus designed for early weaning stages, first 1 or 2 months of solid eating
• The first version of the Boon Squirt baby spoon came with a rather long and pointy spoon which made it difficult to fit comfortably in tiny mouths. Version 2 corrected this aspect but there are still other points to mind about
• For best use the food should be homogeneous. If the liquid separates from solid matter, it will first be squeezed out
• It takes some adjustment to get to a comfortable squirting method: too much comes out when pressing too hard. Also it’s next to impossible to take all the air bubbles out so expect to have small food burst episodes when such an air clot happens
• The rubber recipient is round and can’t stand upwards on it’s own; it needs support when pouring the food in
• Getting the last bit out of it is rather tricky and involves lots of shaking and stirring
• The baby spoon lid used for closing up unfinished meals doesn’t help much: food spill in the diaper bag is more likely than just accidental, the lid is just too small and the only thing partially prevented is the spoon getting dirty
• Last but not least, babies are picky creatures so no matter how easy it is for parents, they might simply not like to eat from it. However it does cost just around €10, so not a fortune.

Our verdict: we love the concept, it’s simple and smart and lots of parents find it useful (85% thumbs up), however we decided that Munchkin Squeeze  baby spoon deserves the spotlight in Quirk Heaven. The Munchkin solved a couple of the above issues by designing a slightly wider pouring orifice and a flat bottom, thus enabling  vertical support.

The second quirky item is the Pulp Silicone Feeder. Here Boon had it right and created an almost perfect baby feeder: it’s soft and the holes are wide enough to allow chunks of fruit or vegetables through. Towards the tip the holes get bigger to ensure a better flow for the eager ones and it is especially designed to be grasped and handled by babies directly. This dispenser is also ideal for teething: filling it with cold or even frozen mixtures brings relief to the sore little gums. Not much more to say about it other than it costs just €8,5 and Oh just look at this baby! Cuteness overload!