Forgot about this, but unfortunately for the marketing director at Table Toppers, I was just reminded that they had handed out a free sample of their new product, Toppers-To-Go, to the visiting journalist(s) at JPMA. It's exactly this kind of extravagant swag that gets me up in the morning, and since we had loved ourselves some Table Toppers in our day, I gladly took it.
Toppers-To-Go is billed as a "disposable feeding kit," and it won an Innovation Award at the JPMA expo. It's a Table Topper, a disposable bib, and a plastic fork and spoon, fitted into a "disposable sippy cup with a no-drip spout."
The problem with giving stuff is that people might actually try it, and as the kid drank from the no-drip spout in the car, the mega-drip rim kicked in, and it was a freakin' mess. Five minutes out the door from DC to NYC, now with no milk and only a spare cup in the trunk.
When I first brought the kit home, my wife and I both decided that it seemed too wasteful to take and throw all that stuff away--we find that we use our First Years "disposable" cups for months on end--but that if it was for sale at a museum cafeteria or a truck stop, or someplace where you hadn't prepared to eat, it'd be great.
Great, of course, except for the mega-drip rim.
Table Toppers and such [tabletopper.com]
We've tried the table topper part of Table Toppers before. I think the first time was when our daughter was, maybe, 10 mos. Even then, she was able to pull the sticky part right off the table, and then it was useless.
Now, we let her make a mess of the table (granted, now that she's 2, she makes a lot less mess) and just tip very very well.
I agree about the first years cups -- those things'll last a while. What usually goes first is the spout on the top from the kid chewing on it.
Disposable dinnerware seems a little wasteful, unless it can be washed and used again. If you are going to do that, though, why not just buy non-disposable dinnerware... as for bibs, we usually just pack a few in her diaper bag.
Some Capitol Hill friends used a Table Topper when they came over for dinner a few weeks ago. It worked OK until we tried to remove the sticky stuff from our old dining room table. The glue was so strong that it also removed a good deal of the laquer as well. I will caveat this by noting that said table in question was used by my father when he was a child--the laquer flakes off with a strong fingernail scratch, but still.