With Benjamin now starting to eat solid food, I am once again faced with the task of preparing his meals so that they are suitable for his consumption. While he occasionally eats store-bought baby food, I try to ensure that as many of his meals as possible are prepared at home. He has his eight front teeth, so he is quite good at eating solid foods like crackers or cooked peas. But because of his youth, most foods have to be either mashed or cut into pieces that are manageable for him.
Every mother will remember the days of cutting large chunks of food into small pieces for her children. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under four years of age eat foods that are no more than ½ an inch in diameter to prevent choking. I was doing my best to make sure that Benjamin’s food was safe for him to eat, but judging the appropriate size was often difficult.
Fortunately, I learned about a fantastic product designed to take the guesswork out of preparing a child’s food. The Safe Sizer Choking Prevention Plate from Midwest Monkeys is a unique colorful plate that features a small raised ring with an inner diameter of ½ an inch to help parents make sure that food pieces for children are no bigger than the recommended size.
I received the jungle plate from the nature collection for review. This gorgeous BPA-free plate was printed with a cheerful jungle scene that featured a monkey swinging through flowers and trees. Of course, my oldest son Zackary immediately fell in love with the kid-friendly design on the plate. But the true innovation was the raised ring that would finally give me an easy way of making sure that Benjamin’s food was prepared as safely as possible.
I was incredibly surprised by just how small a ½ inch piece of food really was. It is approximately the size of the carrot cubes that come in bags of frozen mixed vegetables. The green beans in the same bag, however, needed to be cut into two or sometimes three pieces to pass the Safe Sizer test.
Having the Safe Sizer Choking Prevention Plate not only made judging the size of Benjamin’s food easier, but also made me feel a little more confident about giving him new foods. I had avoided giving him any type of solid meat product out of worries about him choking, but when our family sat down to our Sunday dinner and Benjamin was eagerly grabbing for the ham, I used the Safe Sizer plate to prepare a few small squares for him. He gobbled them up without a problem, and energetically reached for more.
As an added bonus, since Benjamin is still too young to care about what plate he uses, I often prepare his food using the Safe Sizer plate and then put Zackary’s food on the same plate for dinner. Zackary doesn’t need his food cut for him anymore, but he just can’t resist the merry monkey on the plate!
Over the last month, I have washed and dried the Safe Sizer plate repeatedly as well as cutting food on it almost daily, so I am happy to see that the picture still looks great and the plate looks like new. The melamine material of the plate does a wonderful job of standing up to the rigors of food preparation for babies and toddlers.
I am very pleased with the Safe Sizer plate. It is the perfect way to remind myself of the perfectly sized morsel for my son, and it does the reminding in such a bright and cheerful way! Children of any age are sure to love these beautiful plates, which come in six different patterns, but parents are the ones that will reap the benefits. Check out the Safe Sizer Choking Prevention Plate and enjoy the peace of mind while your child enjoys their meal!
Buy It: To purchase the Safe Sizer Choking Prevention Plate, shop online now
Win It: One very lucky winner is going to win a complete set of the three Safe Sizer plates from the Nature Collection
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