Project Overview

This self-feeding spoon, tailored for young babies, features a rounded shape, soft and safe materials, and a comfortable grip. It is convenient to hold, and allows babies to effortlessly feed themselves, while also helping them develop good spoon holding habits, thereby freeing new parents from anxiety about baby feeding.

Organisation

Hangzhou Yaobao Infant Products Co., Ltd

Team

Kaihui Chen, He Wang, Jiaying Yao, Xu Sun, Zhixin Tong, Jiuliang Li, Wei Zhou

Project Brief

Usually, young babies struggle to accurately direct food into their mouths, eat up food, avoid dropping food, and hold spoons steadily during meals. This product, centred around scientific baby feeding, aims to not only address the shortcomings of traditional feeding tools but also assist babies over six months old in learning self-feeding with ease and efficiency, thus alleviating the feeding burden on parents.

To achieve this goal, the design team has innovated a spoon with a plump chicken leg-shaped rounded handle. The unique product perfectly fits the palm of babies, supports various ways of grip, and helps babies learn how to hold a spoon correctly. Moreover, its safe materials and integrated design ensure safety and comfort of use, offering an effortless feeding solution.

Project Innovation/Need

- The spoon innovatively introduces a rounded spatula-like head, which not only prevents oral injuries caused by sharp edges but also facilitates easier scooping. The head featuring a shallower depth, paired with the edges boasting a smaller curvature, allows babies to easily eat up all the food in one bite, significantly enhancing the user experience.

- The rounded handle shapes like a plumb chicken leg, which well fits the palm of babies and can be fully held with ease. Meanwhile, it supports various ways of grip, like claw grip, fingertip grip, and palm grip, while also helping babies effortlessly learn how to hold a spoon correctly, avoiding the trouble of correcting improper holding postures in the future. Moreover, the handle with a shorter length settles the problem of young babies (using spoons with a long-handle) struggling to accurately direct food into their mouths, providing a convenient experience.

Design Challenge

The challenge was to strike a balance between ease of use and safety.
To address that, the design team has created a rounded spoon made from PPSU (commonly used in baby bottles) to ensure safety, and covered all edges with soft, flexible liquid silicone to prevent babies from scratching their hands, mouths, and gums. Additionally, a special structure—an anti-choke barrier at the place where the head and the handle meet— is adopted to further improve safety and comfort for babies.

As for cleaning, the spoon innovates an integrated design to eliminate hard-to-reach areas for easy thorough cleaning, effectively preventing bacterial growth caused by dirt accumulation. Besides, it is adaptable to multiple disinfection methods such as boiling, steam, and ultraviolet light, and comes with a dust-proof storage box, hygienic and safe.

Sustainability

This spoon contributes to environmental protection and babies’ healthy growth.

Non-toxic, durable, and environmentally friendly PPSU (commonly used in baby bottles) and liquid silicone as materials not only safeguard babies but also prolong the service life of the product to minimize resource waste associated with frequent replacement.

The integrated spoon eliminates hard-to-reach areas for easy thorough cleaning and supports multiple disinfection methods, inhibiting bacterial growth to lower the risk of babies getting sick. This further protects babies’ health and reduces waste generation due to the discarding of contaminated items, aligning well with the idea of environmental protection.