Zayden is less than thrilled with his first taste of beef, but seems to like his bib.

When we first started solids with Zayden, it quickly became apparent that we were going to go through a lot of fabric bibs everyday if we didn’t find an easy-to-clean alternative. So off we went to Jack and Lola in search of a new bib. We decided on the Mally leather bib, which just happens to be made by hand right here in Vancouver. Zayden really seems to like it as, for him, it doubles as a chew toy. I don’t know why, but he likes to chew on this bib, but not on his fabric ones. When he decides to chew on it while there is food in his mouth, it can get very messy though that’s not really the bib’s fault.  Here are the results of our extensive “product-testing”:

Pros:

• Easy-to-clean/hard to stain: just wipe it with a damp cloth to clean it.
• Hard to lose: the magnetic closures mean that it can hang on the fridge between feedings.
• Very cute: it was hard to narrow it down to just one design (we ended up with the rocket ship).
• Reversible: cute design on one side, useful food-catching pocket on the back.

Cons:

• Not absorbent: during really messy meal sessions, the drips sometimes run right off it and into Z’s lap, dirtying his pants.
• Easy to remove: this is a pro for me most of the time, but not on the days with Z manages to pull it off himself.
• Wide neck: sure he won’t outgrow the bib too soon, but there is a pretty generous gap between bib and neck right now where food can easily get on his clothes.
• A little pricey.

Overall, my feelings towards the bib are somewhat ambivalent. It definitely saves on laundry on a good day, but on a messy day, it has some clear limitations.