A New Bowl and Spoon

You'd imagine buying a bowl and a spoon would be easy? If you ever try buying one for a baby though, the process is more likely to bring you out in a cold sweat.

On Saturday we went to our local shops to buy said spoon and bowl for Audrey. We are hoping to move her onto solids in the next week or two, and even though she's had the odd sneaky bit of food off mum or dad's finger we didn't believe she possessed the right equipment to make a continued effort of solids that straightforward.

We only visited a couple of shops. Mothercare and Smyk (the Polish equivalent) and yet in both stores we were confronted with a baffling array of styles and choices. But (and as with all baby product decisions) which piece of crockery and utensil was the most likely to make our offspring a genius?

First the spoon: Obviously you had to make the pink/blue decision (easy) but then you had to decide whether you wanted the spoon ergonomically designed to help with feeding or whether you wanted the bowl of the spoon to be deep, shallow or change colour with the temperature of the food (I'm not joking). Then there was the option of cushioned head (to protect tiny gums) or bendable handle.

Next the bowl: Again the pink/blue decision (no problem again) but.....should it have suckers to stick it to the surface, be small, deep, round or oval. Should it match the spoon to make a set, and how do you REALLY feel about Disney characters?

In the end we grabbed a bowl which had a cute picture on it and ran (ok, I admit we went for the cushioned spoon as well). I just hope Audrey likes them, and our choices don't negatively affect her IQ - she'll probably just cast them aside and use her fingers anyway...