Piggy Platter - The Solution?
As soon as my second son was old enough to sit in a booster
at the dinner table, I was more than happy to pass on his high chair to my
sister. Frankly, I’ve never been a fan
of high chairs. It always seemed I spent
more time cleaning the crumbs from the crevices than feeding my kids. In 0.25 seconds, the cheerios and crackers
would end up pulverized to mere crumbs, of course congregating under the pad of
the high chair. What I thought was being
eaten up by my little goblin, always seemed to magically end up under his seat.
The worst culprits mashed bananas, rice and couscous. A friend mentioned that she even found herself using a toothpick to clean out the crevices. Hearing that, I knew I made a good decision to do away with what some would find essential baby gear.
While switching to a booster solved some problems, it didn’t really address the problem of the mess. It seems though a local Portland mama came up with an ingenious solution – the Piggy Platter. Lindy came up with the idea over a bowl of deliciously sticky oatmeal that her two-year-old son was spreading into every nook and cranny of their wood dining room table. How cool is that? It’s also good to know that 10% of all profits are donated to Feed the Children.
I’m curious, how you combat the messiness of mealtimes? Do you take proactive steps to avoid foods that create the most mess?
We had carpet under the dining room table when my two boys were little. To keep things somewhat under control, we bought one of the clear office mats that usually goes under sliding chairs. Set that on the carpet, then put chairs on top. Didn't look like anything, but it gave an easy to clean surface on the floor.
The table top we used was a cheap melamine board, placed on top of the table. This stuff is indestructable (practically, anyway) and super easy to clean (and easy to cover up with a tablecloth when we needed to). We encouraged good table manners, but had easy to clean and care for surfaces to cover any inevitable spills and bangs. Now that the boys are older (five and seven), we finally ditched the melamine and got a nice, gently used wood table. It's pretty easy to clean, too, and was well worth the wait.
Posted by: Kathy | December 28, 2006 at 04:15 PM
I'm all over the Piggy Platter...the only question is do I get one, or two? My 5 year old is a messy eater; even messier than the baby!
Posted by: fionnsnana | December 28, 2006 at 06:12 PM
do they make any that have one side round, so they could fit over a round dining room table?
Posted by: cat | December 28, 2006 at 08:08 PM
Inventor of the Piggy Platter here... we made the Piggy Platter for kids ages 1-5, but we're hearing about a lot of benefits of it for crafts and such - PlayDoh, Legos, cookie decorating, etc. Also, older kids can learn to trace their letter and words on the Platter with a dry erase marker. The Piggy Platter is made of clear, durable polycarbonate plastic to last for a long time... and it's dishwahser safe. :-)
Sorry, but we don't yet make one for a round table and while we do have customers who use it with a round table, we've also heard it's not ideal. We hope to make one in the future but do not know when exactly.
You can let me know if you have any other questions by emailing me at clever@smartyparents.com
Happy New Year!
Posted by: Lindy Bartell | December 29, 2006 at 11:28 AM
add me to the list when you make a rounded one! I'll take 3! As it is now I have top buy plastic placemats and cut them rounded..fun. Jenifer
Posted by: Jenifer | December 31, 2006 at 07:47 AM
Yes, please hurry. Oh please.
Posted by: cat | January 01, 2007 at 07:07 PM