5 Best Mealtime Products for Babies through Toddlers

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Parents of young children pour A LOT of time, energy, and resources into caring for their kids. Here are some of my best mealtime products for babies through toddlers to make life simpler and more fun.

While I have no intention of turning this into a “mommy blog” (just not my jam, yo!), every now and then topics come to mind about being an intentional parent, especially with my time, energy, and resources. “Stuff” isn’t the solution, though they can be helpful tools.

So, I’ll be offering a short series focused on high-impact products geared toward babies and toddlers that can enhance your life (and not just suck up your time, energy, and resources!). This is the first post in the series.

You can live intentionally with passion and purpose as God’s beloved.

Head’s up! As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This is at no extra cost to you. Woohoo!

By the way, I’m committed to only recommending products that have made a positive, meaningful impact in my life. My readers deserve no less.

Curious to learn more? Let’s dive in!

What do I mean by “high-impact” products for babies through toddlers?

I realize that “high-impact” products may vary depending on your own preferences and needs. For this post, high-impact products for babies and toddlers includes:

• Multi-functional – It can serve more than one purpose and/or be used effectively for more than a few months
• Attractive – Again, this is subjective. Personally, I just don’t like a lot of little kid gear – the style, colors, and sounds drive me bonkers. I like walking around my house and not feeling like I’m trapped in a daycare.
• Easy to maintain – It must be easy to clean and move around. Less cleaning, more enjoying life!

Below are some of my family’s best high-impact mealtime products for babies through toddlers. Enjoy!

(Note: I was totally going to include photos of this in real-life action. But my computer kept crashing, so we’ll take a pause on that. Thanks for your patience!)

Grass Drying Rack

This little drying rack is super helpful for drying random small parts (not just baby tools!), thus making it a high-impact item for mealtimes (and clean-up). Most likely, you’d want to use it with mealtime supplies. As a bonus point, it’s cute. 🙂

Note: I’ve never used the accompanying twig option (it wasn’t part of our drying rack. This is the closest I could find to our own drying rack.

During babyhood

Every few hours a day, my husband and I could be found hand-washing bottles. We used the NICU-encouraged Dr. Brown’s bottle system, which has 6 parts a bottle (gah!!). This handy little drying rack helped us keep track of the parts and expedited the drying process.

During toddlerhood

Now that we’re past the baby bottle stage (hallelujah!), it still comes in handy for Little Man’s smaller dishes, water bottles, and measuring tools. He also enjoys pulling and poking things into the grass.

Perks

• Dishwasher friendly
• Cute (if you like fake grass) and compact
• Easy drying space for small parts
• Kid-safe

Potential issues

• You might forget to wash it, too. (Seriously, it’s hard to identify issues with this item.)

Learning Tower (or Learning Stool)

Note: Unfortunately, our current learning tower wasn’t available on Amazon, last I checked. I’ve listed some options that may work for you and your family.

Once I realized that we were going to have a small person in our house, one of my top wish list items was a learning tower. Never mind that our son wouldn’t be able to use it until at least 18 months. This tower was going to rock our world!

This particular tower is user-friendly for 18 months and up. It took us 30 minutes or so to assemble this. It could be much faster for you. (In our house, it’s taken us 4 hours to assemble a 1-hour bookcase #not-ashamed).

Hands down, this is one of my absolute favorite mealtime-related products for Little Man.

From late babyhood to toddlerhood

Okay, I realize that Little Man was on the cusp of toddlerhood when he was ready to use this (18 months), but it’s been legitimately awesome. Once he got past the initial “What is this?!” response, he’s been rocking out with this for mealtimes, especially for prep time and snack times.

As I’ve shared before, it’s been a great way to invite Little Man into kitchen activities. A few include:

• Making smoothies, sandwiches, muffins, roasted veggies, etc.
• Playing in the kitchen sink
• Coloring (or more so examining crayons and throwing them on the ground)
• Emptying the top rack of the dishwasher

Over the past few months, he’s enjoyed pushing it around the kitchen to get to other spots – like playing with the magnets on the refrigerator and the grass drying rack.

Perks

• Easy to assemble
• A few different color options
• Height adjustable
• Friendly for 18 months up! (Seriously, that’s hard to find!)
• Your child can be more included in kitchen activities – even if they’re just watching you and stealing peanut butter bread – less whining and more winning!
• Offers independence for your child
• You are more hands-free!

Potential issues

• Doesn’t have a nonslip surface for the standing base – it’s not as user-friendly for wet play (like ice cubes). Put towels around!
• Since it’ll probably get food-ed (as we put it), you’ll probably need to clean it periodically (like a wet washcloth or Lysol wipe). Welcome to parenting a small person.
• When your child realizes they can push the tower around, you may need to clear off more counter spaces of breakable/concerning items. Clean counters – woohoo!

Splat Mat

Here’s the deal: babies and toddlers drop, dribble and toss food frequently. It’s a hassle to clean up and you typically need to clean up again every few hours after eating times. Though I still have to clean up messes, the splat mat has really helped reduce my cleaning fatigue.

It has a grippy bottom, so it tends to stay in place when your high-chair rolls around on it and you’re not likely to trip on it.

It doesn’t absorb liquids (they just stay on the surface).

We still need to dispose of the dropped food after mealtimes, but cleaning up is more efficient and less annoying.

During babyhood through toddlerhood

We’ve used a splat mat since the early days of beginning solids. Originally I used a plastic tablecloth (not a bad idea, just not great) to catch dropped foods. This has worked far better and is more effective.

Perks

• Washer-friendly
• Doesn’t tend to roll up on itself
• Grippy base so you’re less likely to trip
• Doesn’t absorb liquids
• Little Man likes playing hide and seek under it (after we dispose of the food!)

Potential issues

• It DOES roll up if you have a little person in a high chair rolling the edge back. It’s been helpful to anchor a couple corners of the splat mat under the table legs.
• Your child may want to drag it around the house while food is still on it…

Convertible high chair

As I’ve shared before, multi-functionality is an important feature for me. A convertible high chair can often serve your child through the beginning stages of learning to eat solids, becoming a more active toddler, to eventually using a booster seat.

During babyhood

We’ve used this chair since Little Man began eating solids. Babies are messy eaters (surprise!), so it was nice to have a machine-washable friendly high chair set-up.

During toddlerhood

Once Little Man started safely climbing onto furniture, I felt comfortable enough to transition him to the toddler chair base. He’s gotten the knack of climbing into it and enjoys buckling himself in. (Though he forgets that he doesn’t know how to get OUT of the chair on his own…)

Even better: the toddler chair base is SO much easier to clean than the full high-chair set-up. Yay for easier mealtimes!

Perks

• Easy to assemble
• Easy to adjust the chair to the next stage (toddler, booster, etc.)
• Comfortable (so my child indicated)
• Machine washable cloth
• Can clean the plastic and metal parts with household cleaning spray

Potential issues

• When using the full highchair, cleaning out the nooks and crannies of the plastic part can be frustrating.
• It has a wide base of support (great!) but those wheels are brutal on adult toes…

Toddler popsicle mold

Like popsicles? Think they’re a pain to make? This toddler popsicle mold is so user-friendly for creating toddler-size popsicles that are easy to remove from the mold and easy to clean.

From babyhood to toddlerhood

Confession: Little Man was more on the early toddler side by the time I found this. I’d like to think this could be user-friendly for babies introduced to solids. I may be wrong.

Once we grabbed this mold, Little Man and I have been cranking out popsicles every month (or more). I like to experiment with healthy popsicle recipes. Both of us like to eat it. Win-win.

Perks

• Dishwasher friendly
• Sticks are toddler friendly
• Easy to pour popsicle mix into the molds and pop them out afterward
• Um… you get to make POPSICLES!
• Another easy way to make healthy snacks for you and your child (depending on your recipe)

Potential issues

• It doesn’t come with extra sticks. I recently ordered a bunch of wooden popsicle sticks so we could make more at a time. (Freeze one batch, remove the popsicles, pour in more liquid, and repeat.)
• You and your child may become addicted to popsicles.

Articles related to mealtime products for babies through toddlers

• How to Make Meal Planning and a Food Inventory that Actually Works
• 6 Strategies to Be More Than a Hot Mess Mom
• 7 Ways that My Toddler Has Improved My Self-Care
• What a Bubble-Wand Eating Toddler Teaches Us About Pursuing God

Recapping the best mealtime products for babies through toddlers

I’m pro-high-impact products for babies through toddlers. If products are multi-functional, attractive, and easy to maintain – I’m excited about it. The high-impact mealtime products for babies through toddlers I’ve shared here include:

• Grass Drying Rack
• Learning Tower (or Learning Stool)
• Splat Mat
• Convertible high chair
• Toddler popsicle mold

As you can see, these products vary in price and function. For our household, they’ve been worth the investment. Rather than sucking up our time, energy, and resources, they’ve served our family. Woohoo!

So – it’s your turn. What caught your eye? What are some high-impact products you’ve used for your family? Suggestions for the next season?

Let me know in the comments!

P.S. Want some crazy simple steps to start living intentionally? Grab the Embrace Your Potential Playbook. It’ll help you zoom in on your God-gifted personality and give you practical tips to be more intentional, passionate, and purposeful as God’s beloved so you can become the best version of yourself.