Suitable spoon material
Roger Vaughan of the Gwent panel would welcome advice on this problem. He writes:
Please can anybody point me in the right direction to help this mother? Obviously we would need a material suitably safe for the purpose. I’ve tried several silicon manufacturers via email, sadly without any reply to-date. I’m hoping that one of our REMAP colleagues lives near such a manufacturer and can put me in contact with one of them.
Brief outline of what is required:
“My son Callum is 13 years old and eats with a flexible baby spoon (Heinz baby basics 9mths+). These spoons are no longer available to purchase but for a 13 year old are not too cool looking anyway. We were wondering if you could make a teaspoon or about that size (cutlery)with a material like silicon. Callum can clamp hard with his teeth and will
not eat from a hard plastic or metal spoon due to what he is capable of doing. We have tried numerous things on the market including the plastic covered, but there is always hard or metal surfaces involved. We have searched high and low with the silicon cooking range but cannot find cutlery, only baking/cooking utensils.”
- Skills involved:
- Issues Addressed:
- Activities Helped:
- Location:
- Solution:
Perhaps you might try to make spoons from the smart plastic that is used now instead of plaster of paris and cotton mesh? It can stretch a bit for curving onto a normal spoon shape; also it can re-heat to change the shape/curve etc. Homecraft Rolyan has various brands, sizes and thicknesses. see http://www.homecraft-rolyan.com. I could send you some off-cuts just to try the idea.
Thank you very much Harry & Peter. I’ll follow the leads and hope for success. Best wishes, Roger
Roger,
more soft touch spoons information is available from http://www.livingmadeeasy.org.uk/eating%20and%20drinking/non_metallic-or-plastic-coated-cutlery-p/kings-soft-coated-spoon-0027541-1486-information.htm
These are not outlandish colours!
Regards
Harry
(Lancs NW Panel)
Roger, the Heinz spoon was a composite made from polypropylene bonded to a plastic called Flexisoft. The UK agent for the material appears to be Plastic Technology Service (no “s” at the end otherwise you find a recycling company).
Plastic Technology Service
Address Flamstone Street, Bishopstone, Salisbury, SP5 4BZ
Tel 01722 781088
Email info@ptsuk.com
Web http://www.ptsuk.com (doesn’t seem to be working at the moment)
The spoon was designed and made for Heinz by
Vital Baby,
Po Box 346,
Hatfield,
AL9 6ZY
0700 4 222437
info@vitalbaby.com
The Flexisoft composite spoons themselves are still available by the look of it :_
http://www.vitalbaby.co.uk/types/cutlery/5-soft-tip-feeding-spoons.html
Unfortunately they appear to be available only in lurid blue, eye damaging orange or incandescent pink.