Making Mealtime EZPZ {A Product Review}

I’m back today with Making Mealtime EZPZ {A Product Review}.

It’s no secret around my blog and social media accounts that I love EZPZ! EZPZ created a silicon plate/placemat combination that is revolutionizing the feeding industry for therapists and parents! Not only do they aid with feeding therapy (making mealtime fun and engaging so kids will, wait for it….actually eat! But they also keep the mess contained! The silicone mats stick to the table, so the plate or bowl doesn’t go flying. Accidentally or on purpose!

You can see other blogs I’ve done on EZPZ products here:

EZPZ Happy Mats

Tacos and EZPZ Play Mats

The newest product from EZPZ is even more awesome: The Making Mealtime EZPZ BOOK!

Haven’t heard of it yet? Well it’s just amazing! My friend Dawn, EZPZ’s own SLP, Lindsey, EZPZ’s founder, and Kia Robertson, creator of the award-winning Today I Ate A Rainbow!®, collaborated to produce a super-fun book highlighting fun food art, grocery lists, family mealtime tips, recipes, typical feeding and swallowing skills for 2 year olds (my favorite!), and more!

From the SLP Mommy’s Point of View:

Coming from an SLP and SLPMommy perspective, this book has become a staple in our house! I’ve written a little before about how Halle Jane has had some mealtime struggles, from not wanting to stop playing long enough to complete a meal, to having some sensory issues with touching and handling food. (Not so much with eating-she’ll eat just about anything-but she doesn’t like to get dirty or touch anything wet or sticky). As a consequence, she’s not thrilled with finger foods. When I brought the EZPZ Happy Mat home for the first time and we did a little creative food art, that all changed! She may not want to pick up bite-sized pieces of watermelon (wet and kinda sticky when it dries), but she’ll work through it to pick up a watermelon starfish like the one pictured above!

Great for Language Skills, too!

In addition to giving us great tips on groceries to buy, healthy food options, recipes, feeding and swallowing developmental norms, and so much more, we also had great language content with pointing out and naming foods that my little one may have never seen before.

Typical Feeding & Swallowing Skills:

As an SLP, I was thrilled to see a page in the book devoted to typical feeding and swallowing skills for 2 year olds! As I talk with parents about their child’s feeding and swallowing, it will be wonderful to bring this book along to show them what I’m talking about!

While we haven’t made every single recipe in the book yet, we made it a goal to try! It’s easy to modify the food art based on what you cook at night….the food art doesn’t have to be identical to the book…just let the book inspire you and get creative!

Best of all, the book inspired me to get my child in the kitchen with me. All too often I had been guilty of setting her up with an activity so I could cook dinner and just calling her when it was time to eat. Now, if there is a way for her to safely help, I let her. She takes ownership in helping me prepare dinner, and then she’s more likely to eat it all up! (She also LOVES helping me design the food art!!)

The EZPZ Snack Mat:

One other thing: I recently ordered the EZPZ Snack mat for Halle Jane thinking it would be a good alternative to having trail mix all over the floor in the living room for the dogs to scavenge. We absolutely love it! Because trail mix is a “go-to” snack in our house, I had Halle Jane sort out each type of food and practice counting the pieces while she was snacking. (Of course the M&Ms were gobbled up first, but she eventually got around to the raisins!)

The Mats are Portable!

Ok, ok, last thought for real: Take your EZPZ mats with you when you go! We went to Disney World last week for Halle Jane’s 3rd birthday and all of our EZPZ mats traveled with us! Even though we were on the Disney Dining Plan (seriously the best), having the EZPZ mats there was such a big help! As I’m sure you can imagine, Disney is full of so many things to see, hear, smell, do, (especially when Disney princesses and Doc McStuffins are stopping by your table) that it’s one distraction after another. It was wonderful to watch her take it all in, but frustrating to try and get her to eat. Having our EZPZ mats created a familiar aspect to eating, which really helped her finish her meals and get back to having fun! You can read all about that HERE.

If you haven’t taken the plunge, I promise you won’t be disappointed! You can click the links below to order away!

USE MY COUPON CODE HERE

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE EZPZ MEALTIME BOOK HERE

GO TO EZPZ’S WEBSITE HERE!

Be sure to follow EZPZ on Social Media for more pictures, tips, and inspiration from other mommies!

Talk to me!! Have you used the EZPZ mats? What about the new EZPZ Mealtime Book? What do you think???