Every product looks different in a catalogue than it does on a kitchen table at seven in the morning. This piece sums up what parents write to us after a few months of use — including what they would like done differently.
The commonest compliment wasn’t about looks
We expected appearance to come first — bamboo is good-looking and that is often the reason for buying. But in messages after a few months something else comes up most often: the meal takes less time.
The explanation is simpler than it seems. Once the plate stops moving, a whole part of the meal that used to be a game falls away: pushing, turning, chasing. The child goes back to the food sooner and the parent intervenes less.
The second thing: the plate stays on the table
Hence the title. Parents write to tell us they don’t put the bamboo tableware away in a cupboard straight after the meal, because it looks like part of the table setting rather than a piece of baby kit. The consequence is practical: the tableware is always to hand and the meal comes together faster.
We didn’t plan for that effect. But it is a good example of how the look of a product affects everyday life more than you would think.
The commonest criticism: washing up
Openly: most of the complaints we get concern the ban on dishwashers. For families where everything goes in the machine that is a genuine obstacle — and we cannot remove it, because it is a property of the material, not a decision made in production.
What we did do: we now state that limitation more clearly, before the purchase, and say openly when a customer should choose silicone instead of bamboo. That comparison is now a piece of its own: bamboo, plastic or silicone.
If it seems to you that we don’t talk people out of the product loudly enough: it is written that way on purpose. An unhappy customer who bought the product for the wrong use is no good to us.
The second criticism: the suction base on the wrong table
The second most common message is that the suction base doesn’t hold. In the great majority of cases it turns out to be a tablecloth, a fabric mat or a rough table. Because it keeps recurring, we wrote a whole piece about it — and added the instructions to the packaging.
What surprised us most
That the tableware stays in use longer than we assumed. We designed it for the weaning period, so roughly a year. But parents write to say their children go on using it later, once the suction base is no longer needed — at which point it simply becomes the child’s plate.
That changed how we think about the product: not as a tool for one phase, but as the first plate a child owns.
What parents missed
- Clearer care instructions at the point of purchase, rather than once a problem appears. They are now in this piece and in the packaging.
- Information on exactly what the material is — solid bamboo or a composite. We explained that in the piece on materials and European rules.
- A replacement suction base in case of loss or damage.
What this means going forward
Three conclusions we are taking with us: state the limitations up front and loudly; give the instructions at the point of purchase, not at the point of complaint; and design the product for a longer period than we thought.
If you use our tableware and have a comment that isn’t here — write to us. We will keep adding to this piece.
