Did our moms, dads, granddads and grandmas have their own dishware when they were children? If they did, that dishware most likely consisted of small earthenware or chinaware plates with children’s patterns: the Little Red Riding-hood, club-footed bear or a granny with a staff looking like Baba-Yaga. Some families still keep such plates and pass them across the generations.

However, modern conditions are different: today children and their parents have a wide choice of dinnerware made of different materials, having non-typical design and lots of useful devices. There are many things that can single out the identity of your child.

Children’s plastic is in fashion

It is very unlikely that our moms and dads, let alone our granddads and grandmas, could envisage using plastic children’s dinnerware. The modern manufacturing materials include high quality polymers design for food products such as: polypropene, polystyrol, polycarbonate, etc. It is a mystery how older generations would respond to such a novelty. Their reaction might well be negative since plastic is associated with something artificial, perishable and insubstantial. This is both right and wrong.

Like any other material, plastic has its advantages and disadvantages. By the way, it could not be blamed for being insubstantial since plastic at least is not so fragile as chinaware or earthenware. A fidgety and yet clumsy child flicks and drops plates and cups far more often than an adult would do... This is the reason why old children’s dishware has not survived in many families.

Besides, plastic dinnerware (contrary to that made of earthenware) is light, which means that it could be taken along to trips, for walks, and an older child could take such plates to the kitchen and wash them.

Variety

Another key advantage of plastic dinnerware is its variety. Firstly, there are little plates and bowls of different capacities, secondly – drinking bowls as a transition from the feeding bowl to a cup, thirdly – spoons, forks and knives. The dinnerware assortment is abundant with many items having modifications, for instance, plates may have:

-          two or three sections for different food (children often like to eat everything separate);

-          warming-up function, or double bottom, or nonspillable can for hot water (for willful kids who would sit at their table for an hour);

-          a special rubber ring at the bottom to prevent the plate from sliding or a sucker to make it stand still (for very active and playful children), etc.

However, as to the last feature, many parents complain of being unable to unstick the plate from the table.

The most popular are the warming-up and multisection plates, both expensive (manufactured by Chicco, an Italian company) and comparatively affordable (made by Italian Poupy and Russian Mir Detstva).

The children’s tableware may be made of stainless steel and may have bent handles to make it easier for children to bring them to the mouth. Poupy offers an original musical spoon for small kids, which has a soft silicone bailer. Mir Detstva has invented spoons and forks with handles made of transparent plastic inside of which there are small toy figurines. Such small features will attract a child and inspire him/her to use such a “curious” toy for its purpose.

The assortment of drinking bowls is very wide and includes Chinese cups with two handles, nonspillable ‘roly-poly’ cups with nonspillable caps, weighted bottom and 4-5 headers (the second are manufactured by Chicco or the Dutch company Bebe-jou).

Generally, among the companies on the children’s dishware market Mir Detstva stands out as the only largest Russian company that offers attractive and affordable dishware. Its products are manufactured in China and Thailand and are accompanied by detailed service and maintenance manuals facilitating usage of such dishware.

The above mentioned foreign brands are completed by the South Korean heat-resistant dishware manufactured under the brands Paco Rabanne and Absorba, as well as by the Thai firm Camera that manufactures quality and affordable dinnerware.

Is plastic eco-friendly?

The only major disadvantage of the plastic dishware might be its inconsistency with environmental standards. It is common knowledge that chinaware and earthenware are basically more eco-friendly than plastic. That is why all plastic dinnerware (especially items made for children) should be environmentally tested. The tests are conducted by the Head Test Centre of the Goods for Children attached to the Department for State Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision of the RF Ministry of Health. These goods are tested for toxicity and consistency of chemical substances with standard indicators, as well as for compatibility of various food products with such dishware. Children’s dishware also undergoes other tests: for pattern lifetime, absence of burrs, chips, etc. So it is better to purchase certified goods from reliable companies that supplement their goods with all necessary documentation.

Old friends

Chinaware and earthenware remain old good materials used for children’s dishware. Unlike plastic, the lifetime of which is 4-5 years, chinaware, if not broken, may serve forever and is essential for older children and pupils. Their coming-of-age is marked by the fact that their parents start to entrust them with “real”, “adult” dinnerware.

At present inexpensive children’s earthenware plates are manufactured by Konakovsky plant. And the Dulevsky plant manufactures children’s chinaware. More expensive dinnerware is imported by distributors of foreign (Dutch and German) companies. Their items are charged extra for chinaware quality and modern elegant design. The ceramic line is also manufactured by Mir Detstva and other companies specializing, among other thing, in children’s dishware, for instance, Polystar Global Art, the company that we covered in our previous edition.

Expert opinion

Elena Nagaichuk, PR Manager, Mir Detstva

 -          What is the fundamental distinction between the children’s dishware and common “adult” dinnerware?

-          There are some distinctions – in form, material, pattern – that reflect peculiarities of child psychology and movements. Children’s tableware often have bent handles to make it easier for a child to bring them to the mouth without overturning on the way, and the forks have round nibs. The best option for the smallest children’s spoons is a spoon with a bailer not harmful for the gums.  

The plates are also detail-designed. The most convenient are those that have high edges: when resting upon them the child can get the food easier and will not drop it. There are plates with various gimmicks: handles, several sections, nonskid coating, table suckers (the child will not overturn the plate).

-          What materials are used for children’s dishware?

-          The children’s dishware should be light and convenient; that is why the traditional heavy and fragile materials such as chinaware, earthenware and glass give way to efficient and affordable plastic.

-          Are there any special environmental requirements to the children’s dishware?

-          Any dishware, including that made for children, should correspond to health standards established in our country. More simply, the material used to manufacture a plate or a cup should not emit chemical substances in amounts that are harmful for the human health. The most hazardous material in this respect is melamine – a hard white plastic looking like glass-ceramics. Unfortunately, the dinnerware made of this material (including children’s dishware) is sometimes sold on the market. The specialists have long recommended to prohibit the use of melamine in dinnerware manufacturing. It is possible that the Russian quality control bodies will do that. We recommend our retail partners to work with reliable and safe plastic products in order to avoid any problems.  

Sergey Lukianov, General Director, Polystar Global Art

-          What is special about the design of the children’s dishware?

-          The design is special since it should coincide with the ideas parents have about the look of the children’s dishware because it is the parent who chooses dishware for the child. That is why we should bear in mind the wishes of moms and dads, we should ensure nice and realistic pictures of flowers and butterflies and place famous cartoon and fairy tale characters on the plates. Parents also care about the development elements in the children’s dishware design.

-          Are there any psychologic factors to care about when designing  children’s dishware?

-          Of course. For instance, the design memorability and reproducibility, i.e. the pattern should be easily recognizable by the child as something he/she sees every day or on the TV screen. From psychological standpoint it is not recommended to show bright elements inside the cup or the plate since the child might display an intense interest in them when eating and try to overturn the dinnerware or poke the bottom. The image should not look like pictures but rather like something that a child would draw, so that a child might reproduce it. At the same time it is important that the image of all elements of an animal or a plant shown be correct (the right number of legs, paws, eyes, wings, etc.) in order to ensure proper development of the child. It is correct when the image reproduces the real things that the child and the adult encounter in everyday life. Sometimes we have artists bringing us Alenushkas wearing print dresses. Then we have the following conversation: Me: “Tell me please what modern children wear today?” Artist (usually): “Parents try to dress their children in the latest fashion, often better than they dress themselves.” Me: “The why do you draw the dresses worn in the 50ies? Who would like that?”

-          How much are Disney patterns popular in our country?

-          The most popular patterns are those that are widely familiar. We are an official Disney pattern license holder in Russia. At first we bought the whole design line, about 100 patterns, and brought to market only 40 of them. Now we have reduced the number of patterns to 16 and left only the most renown to the Russian consumer.

Some design patterns (we call the short-living patterns) are popular only for a specific period of time. For instance, the fish Nemo in the Finding Nemo cartoon. During and right after the cartoon distribution the demand was high but after some time the dinnerware featuring Nemo stopped to be popular. Now a new cartoon serial (Witches, very popular in Europe) comes on screen. Its characters are five schoolgirls who turn to witches under certain circumstances. We have bought a Disney license for the cartoon patterns and now we are making images and send them to England for approval. Disney people are very quality-sensitive.

Natalia Droshneva