Product Review-Dinner Winner

Scrolling through my Facebook feed last week I noticed a picture a friend had posted of an interesting looking dinner plate for her child. I had to check it out and investigate it! And, oh, the awesomeness! Seriously genius for my very picky eater.  I flew over to Amazon, read the raving reviews, and ordered one immediately!

Getting Blake to try new things, or to try any kind of vegetable is nearly impossible. The kid just sees green or orange and cringes. My husband made stir fry with grilled chicken 2 nights ago and he ate everything but the vegetables. Meaning, just rice and chicken. He picked out the vegetables and either set them aside or threw them on the floor for the dogs.  This was one of those moments where I chose my battle, because the fact that he was even eating chicken was pretty miraculous! One trial at a time, right?

Yesterday was the first time we’d used the Dinner Winner plate, and it really was a hit! I explained the “directions”, that he couldn’t go on to the next “square” (something he could understand, even though that isn’t entirely accurate ;)) until the square before was eaten or he at least tried one bite. I placed one of his favorite foods, yogurt with fresh blueberries, under the FINISH.  (We are not a fan of dessert at every meal so I am going to keep the “prize” with yogurt or fruit most likely.) The fact that I approached this as a game with him, and was really animated and excited about it myself, got him REAAAALLY excited!

I knew he wasn’t going to be fond of the carrot and olive. He’s never tried olives before…until last night.  I was sure to put the olive BEFORE one of his favorites, cheese, so he would be open to trying or eating it before moving on.

I can’t say that he ate it all, but he actually tried everything rather than throwing it on the floor or neglecting it completely! He put the WHOLE carrot in his mouth, sucked on it, took a chomp then spit it back out.  But, seriously, the fact that he did more than lick the end of it and toss it aside is HUGE. He even put the whole olive in his mouth, made a sour face, then spit it back out. But he tried it!  I was SO proud of him!

I’m pretty surprised that he got the hang of it the first time.  Admittedly, I wasn’t too bold in my food choices for the first round, but I’m pretty pleased with the progress and his willingness.

I’m sure other places sell the Dinner Winner besides Amazon, but we use Amazon for just about everything, and we have Prime so it arrived in 2 days.  We paid $14.50! Totally worth every penny, if even just to have him bite down on a carrot only to spit it back out!

**EDIT**-Two weeks later and we are still going strong with this plate! I don’t have to sit with Blake at all to be sure he’s not sneaking to a square before another. Okay, well, occasionally, but he is a mischievous 2 year old.  I caught him sneaking the yogurt before the carrot tonight, as he stared at me out of his peripheral vision.  I glanced at him and he gave me a crooked, toothy smile, then moved his hand away.  SNEAKY! Even though he isn’t always eating everything on his plate, he is actually trying everything without much of a fuss. Such a stark difference from my little boy even just a month ago.  Seriously. Everything to do with food a month ago was like high-school-girl drama. Ugly face. Tears. Screaming, Pulling out his own hair. Craziness.  Now he’s actually eating vegetables. And meat!

My only regret about this plate is that we did not find it sooner!
Also, unfortunately, the price of the plate seems to have sky-rocketed! Amazon is now saying it’s $40! Supply and demand? I really hope this doesn’t last long so that more people can take advantage!