Average Price: $5.00
Official URL: http://www.gerber.com
Age Range: Toddler
Rating:

My 11 month old was starting to want to eat off of a big kid plate like her older sisters, so I purchased Gerber’s Lil’ Trainer tableware.

Lil’ Trainer tableware has a plate with a detachable rim that makes it “scoopable” like a bowl, a spoon and fork with rounded tines and a chubby ridged grip that promises to be easy for toddlers to use. The bowl has a suction cup on the bottom that is intended to hold it in place on a table or high chair tray and minimize messes.

QUALITY & CONSTRUCTION

This set comes in 5 pieces: the rubber suction cup bottom, the plate, a plate extension ring, a fork and a spoon.

The spoon and fork have nice handles that are about 2 1/2″ long and chubby with slight ridges that make it easy for little hands to hold them. The bowl of the spoon is shallow and wide, perfect for little ones that are just starting out. The fork has rounded prongs so the child cannot stick themselves.

All of the parts seem like very high quality with the exception of the suction cup which WILL NOT stick to anything for more than a few seconds.

ASSEMBLY & CLEANING

The parts go together pretty easily although the suction cup part takes a little bit of wriggling to get it back into place after you’ve taken it off for cleaning. The rim of the plate goes on easily and without fuss.

The spoon and fork are both very easy to clean and don’t require any assembly.

ISSUES & NITPICKS

The suction cup on this item is worthless. When you stick it to the table/highchair tray it stays stuck for a few seconds and then the child can move the plate and even pick it up and dump it over. We tried wetting the suction cup to get it to stick, and we even glued the rubber part to the bottom of the plate( there is a ridge for it to go around). When that didn’t work, we put it on a new tray that was free of cuts, nicks and scratches and we made sure it was dry and clean before we put it down.. We tried everything to get it to work right, and nothing helped. I had more mess on the floor with that bowl then when I just put her food on the tray without a bowl or plate.

BOTTOM LINE 

I would not suggest this bowl for toddlers. Maybe for a clumsy 5 year old that tends to knock into things as it does tend to stay in place when you’ve knocked against it.. But it has absolutely no sticking power when a determined toddler picks it up. I gave this item two stars because the rim on the bowl is helpful for a toddler just learning how to scoop their food, and the fork and spoon are very easy to use. It’s too bad the suction cup doesn’t come close to working, otherwise this would be a great set.