Availability: Available online
Average Cost: $11.95
Product Link: BearHands
Rating:

BearHands infant/toddler mittens are made of a thick dual-layer fleece with a thin soft layer of Thinsulate sandwiched inside to keep your toddler’s hands a toasty warm. There are no-slip PVC grips on the palm and each of the fingers that form a cutesy bear paw design. The tag attached whimsically reads “Wear these paws, they’re beary warm and nice. They’ll keep you toasty in the snow and ice. Your kids will love how their fingers feel and look, Like a character out of a modern jungle book!” A sentiment that I definitely echo. These mittens are the epitome of cute.

WARMTH

Mittens are far more warm than gloves because the fingers are all in a single compartment and so body heat can accumulate more easily. Bear Hands mittens take it a step further keeping the thumb in with the fingers in a single compartment. These mittens do an excellent job of keeping my son’s fingers warm while he plays outside on cold days. The wrist area is long enough to tuck securely into the sleeve of your child’s jacket and keep the wrists warm as well. A feature lacking in a surprising number of the mittens I’ve come across.

DEXTERITY

The most interesting aspect of the Bear Hands mitten design is the fingertip areas at the tip of the mittens. While most infants won’t make use of them, an older toddler (2-3 years old) will find them very useful as it allows for additional dexterity more commonly associated with gloves. It’s a quite innovative approach to combining the warmth of mittens with most of the dexterity of gloves.

EASE OF USE

I found these mittens while searching for toddler mittens that I didn’t hate. I had tried multiple pairs that had absurdly difficult thumbs, or that would fall off very easily and had finally resorted to using pairs of socks or even my own gloves to keep his hands warm, as even those were improvements over the mittens that I was finding.

By contrast, the Bear Hands mittens are very easy to use. There’s no thumb compartment to fight with and the wrist opening is large enough to allow the mitten to slide on easily without a fight. The wrists have a loose elastic gather which holds the mittens on quite well. The juvenile mittens have a drawstring closure that I wish the infant/toddler mittens had, but even without the drawstring these mittens stay put. The only issue I noticed was that occasionally they rotate around the child’s hands and the PVC grips end up on top. This is not a major deal and very easy to fix with a little bit of tugging.

The gloves each have a little plastic triangle at the wrist, and there is a flexible plastic clip that attaches to each of the triangles to hold the gloves together and prevent them from being separated when not in use. The clip is non-obtrusive enough to be left attached to one of the gloves at all times. The clip is very easy to engage and disengage even with frozen fingers which means that the clip will actually be used, another refreshing element of “good design” lacking in a lot of mittens on the market.

COLORS

The BearHands mittens come in a variety of colors from a rainbow of brighter colors, to neutrals and camouflage print. It’s very easy to find mittens that match your child’s coat, stroller or individual color preference.

CARE

These mittens seem to hold up very well to heavy use in the snow, dirt, sand pits, etc. without much staining. I have the red mittens and have yet to need to wash them even with my son crawling around in the sand pit. His play jeans, by comparison, have permanently stained knees. Something about the fleece and PVC holds up very well against dirt. The instructions for cleaning are easy enough to follow- hand wash, air dry, do not put in clothes drier. Hand washing is typically a bit of an annoyance but these gloves can go for a long time without washing, rinse clean and dry very quickly.

BOTTOM LINE

These gloves are so easy to use and comfortable that I’m tempted to run out and buy a pair of the adult mittens for myself. A temptation I’m very likely to give in to next fall. I’d definitely recommend them to anyone looking for cute comfortable toddler mittens that stay in place and that keep your child’s hands warm without completely removing their ability to use their hands. In short: I love them.