Silicone plates smelling and tasting like soap

[iteles]

One of the biggest problems of silicone plates and accessories for babies is that in a short amount of time, detergent residue builds up on the surface and the plates start transferring a soapy taste to all the food.

Most people don't know this is a thing and think their kids are going through a normal picky phase when all their food tastes like soap!

I know, I know, we could/should just use ceramic plates. But at this stage of solids introduction and arguably for the first year, baby will constantly try to pick up the plate and dump it on the floor. That's a lot of broken glass prevented by the adherence of the silicone plates to the table...

Anyway, I noticed yesterday one of our silicone plates smelt like soap which is STRANGE because we only use unscented washing up liquid and dishwasher liquid to wash them. Today I caught DT washing the silicone plates with standard scented dishwashing liquid first 'to get the greasiness of the food off' and then giving them a quick wash with the unscented dishwashing liquid afterwards, thinking this was somehow doing as I had asked (and yes, I had explained why) 🫣 So that explains the soapy smell despite thinking we were taking precautions.

Trying these two methods first:

• [x] Rub lemon all over the plate, leave for 15 mins, rinse with hot water - I could still smell the soap after this
• [ ] Make a vinegar and baking soda paste, rub it all over the plate, leave to dry and rinse in hot water

If neither of these work, I will try baking in the over for 20 mins at 120 degrees (C).

[iteles]

Leaving the paste to dry overnight Will rinse with hot water in the morning.

[nelsonic]

Why are we still using silicone plates? 🤷‍♂️ 😕

FYI: You left these in the "main" sink that we need in the mornings while making breakfast ... so I move them to the "tiny" sink in front of the north-facing window.

[iteles]

But at this stage of solids introduction and arguably for the first year, baby will constantly try to pick up the plate and dump it on the floor. That's a lot of broken glass prevented by the adherence of the silicone plates to the table...

It's also very hard to find ceramic plates with low edges like this (necessary for baby scooping the food out) as most with decent edges (like the ones A1 uses) are to high for babies.

[nelsonic]

See I think the better solution is to have a "catcher" carpet (or two) under the highchair which is easily machine washed. We've dropped glasses/porcelain/crockery on our wood (laminate) floor plenty of times without breaking them. So having a "catcher carpet" would easily solve this problem and avoid the silicone. I've been saying this since the beginning. Silicone or Bambu plates make the food taste like soap it's super lame.