When you’re on the road you’re bound to encounter a tabletop or ten that you’ve got to put your kid’s food on. Even for me, as a germaphobe, I quickly learned this is unavoidable, especially with a lot of public high chairs that simply pull up to the edge of a table.
I typically use antibacterial wipes to clean off public high chairs, tables, menus and walls near my baby in all restaurants. So when I came across the Tiny Diner placemat in Shoppers Drug Mart I was thrilled.
It’s a rubber mat that suctions to the table or counter in front of your child with little suction cups and creates a space to keep food off of dirty public tables. There’s a little rim to catch food before it falls on the floor and when you’re finished with the meal you roll it up into itself so it’s easy to stash in your diaper bag.
It’s also simple to wipe down with few creases or folds for food to get stuck in.
Although this is a fantastic idea for traveling families, it definitely didn’t work for us with an 11 month old. Within seconds of rolling it out and placing my son’s dinner on the mat, he managed to grab the front rim and yank the whole thing off the table. He swung it around like a lasso and food flew everywhere. We thought the issue was us – that we didn’t anchor it down properly. So we tried it again. Fail.
While this might work better for toddlers who can understand language (and stern instructions not to pull on it) I would not recommend it for those with self-feeding babies.
At this time, we’ve tucked ours away to re-test in another 6 months or so.
WHERE TO BUY: