Hollies Magic Spoon! (Tommee Tippee Heat Sensor Weaning Spoons)

Member Name: chrisandmark

Product:	Tommee Tippee Heat Sensor Weaning Spoons
Date:	05/03/08 (122 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Greatly reduces the risk of burns caused by hot food, comfortable to hold, good size for babys mouth

Disadvantages: Very slow to change back to its original colour even when the food is at the correct temperature

When Hollie was around four months old I decided to start weaning her as she'd stopped sleeping through the night (which she had done from pretty much day one) and was drinking a ridiculous amount of baby milk every day. I tried her with food at room temperature and she turned her (cute) nose up at it so I needed to start warming it up for her.

Now, the problem is I have a very high tolerance to heat. Sounds weird, but I can drink a cup of coffee straight out of the kettle, have a shower at pretty much the maximum setting and have actually burned my mouth on a Pot Noodle without even realising at the time that it was too hot! I was scared to death that I was going to inadvertantly going to burn Hollie once I started warming her food through.

I mentioned this to the Health Visitor (aka. the woman who knows bloomin' everything) and she suggested I buy a pack of Tommee Tippee Heat Sensor Weaning Spoons.

The spoons come in a pack of four and look as they do in the picture above, apart from the fact that the handles on mine are pink. This makes absolutely no difference however, as it's the red bit of the spoon which is the most important thing about them. It's this red section of the spoon which will alert you if the food you are about to serve baby is too hot.

The bowl of the spoon is made of a rubbery material and this will change colour in increments through orange to yellow depending on how hot you have made the food. I do find the colour changing aspect of the spoon is slightly too sensitive and it will sometimes change from red to a reddish-orange even if the food still feels very cool to the touch. Still, it's always best to err on the side of caution when it comes to babys safety so I do tend to go by whatever the magic spoon tells me. It changes swiftly too so as soon as I stir Hollies dinner if it's too warm the spoon will let me know immediately before I put any into her mouth.

The problem with this is that I find the spoon takes quite a while to revert back to its original red colour. This means that when I've warmed Hollies dinner in the microwave the edges are usually hotter than the middle, but when I stir the hot spots through the dinner this evens the temperature throughout the food. OK? Well, no, not really.

The spoon will pick up on the fact that the food was too hot at the edge but it takes such a long time to turn back to red that her dinner is cold by the time it's telling me that it's at the optimum temperature! This means that I have to use not one, but two spoons every time I use the microwave to heat her meals - one to stir it through, and another one to accurately test the temperature. Not a hassle really, but I want to use one spoon not a cutlery draw full!

Hollie seems to like eating from these Tommee Tippee spoons. The bowl of the spoon is narrow enough to fit into her mouth nicely and is just deep enough for me to get the correct sized mouthful in to her each time. Because it's rubbery, the spoon is also flexible so if Hollie decides to bite down while it's in her mouth I know it's soft enough that it's not going to damage her delicate gums. Now, at almost nine months old, she has a few teeth and is frantically biting everything that comes within an inch or two of her mouth. I have found these spoons to be able to withstand even the harshest of baby-snapping, inspecting this one in front of me I can assure you there are no teeth marks and I don't think she'd ever be able to bite a piece of this spoon off. No way.

As it can take up to an hour to feed Hollie even the smallest dinner, it's important for me that the spoon is comfortable to hold. It fits perfectly into my hand and is designed so that my fingers can get a good grip on the handle. I particularly like the fact that the rubber from the bowl of the spoon extends about halfway up the handle, this means that when Hollie decides to sling her arms up when a spoonful of food is on its way to her mouth I can hold the spoon with a good enough grip to avoid baby chicken casserole going everywhere.

When I'm feeling particularly brave (or when the house is a mess anyway and I don't care anymore!) I'll let Hollie hold the spoon herself. These Tommee Tippee spoons are beautifully shaped for pudgy baby hands to grip, although she rarely gets any in her mouth when 'feeding' herself!

Overall, I think these spoons are brilliant. If it wasn't for this clever idea then Hollie would be eating food at room temperature whether she liked it or not because of my 'heat problem'. I paid £2.29 for my four spoons in Tesco, although they are available anywhere that sells baby feeding utensils. Do check eBay as just yesterday I bought a pack of six of these spoons for just 99p with free postage! Bargain!

** NOTE **

Please be advised that although I weaned Hollie at four months, the recommendation is currently that you are to wait until your baby is six months old before giving her solid food - until then baby should only be having breast or bottle milk.

Also, using a microwave to heat babys food is frowned upon for the very real risk of uneven heating. You can try a bit from one side of the bowl and it will be a good temperature, but another section of food may be extremely hot. Be careful.

Summary: Every parent should buy a set of Tommee Tippee Heat Sensor Spoons