Thank you NUK and Gerber
for providing me with  products to review, free of charge.
These are my own honest opinions.

For every parent out there, NUK and Gerber are pretty much household brands. Well known and trusted, their products are backed by over 5 decades of expertise and innovation. They offer so many products from breastfeeding products to pacifiers, bottles and cups, cleaning supplies, oral care products, and tableware, etc. Chances are you have at least a couple of their products at home if you have little ones.

I like that NUK and Gerber constantly come up with new products to make our busy and chaotic lives as parent a little simpler. Their new 2013 products offer both functionality and cool designs. Their products follow the latest recommendations to promote safe and healthy development of infants and toddlers.

For this review, I was lucky to receive many new NUK and Gerber Graduates products.

First of all, I received 2 toothbrushes. One is the NUK Infant Surround Toothbrush recommended for babies 12 months and up and the other is the NUK Toddler Surround Toothbrush recommended for toddlers 22 months and up. They are similar in the design and size of the head but the difference is the length of the handle. The Infant Toothbrush has a longer handle so both parent and baby can hold the toothbrush together. If you’ve ever tried to brush a baby’s teeth or gums, you know how much they want to take it from you and do it themselves. With this design, you get to share it and your baby learns the movement as you’re doing it!

Both toothbrushes have 3-sided shape and a soft head which means they brush gently on all sides of the teeth at once. They have no regular bristles but instead there are soft flexible ‘spikes’ along the 3 sides. On the backside, there are also small nubs that you can use to massage baby’s gums.

I find both toothbrushes do a good job at cleaning my daughter’s teeth effectively. The 3-sided design means it doesn’t take forever to brush them which is nice when she’s not in the mood. I don’t let her brush her teeth independently yet but she likes to give it a try or do it with me.

I also received an Advance Developmental Soft Silicone Spout Cut and an Advance Insulated Developmental Cup with Cup-Like Rim. Both products comes in 4 different colors with cute colorful designs. Both cups feature Seal Zone Technology which means they are 100% leak-proof, spill-proof, and break-proof, guaranteed! With a busy toddler who likes to walk around with her cup, this is definitely a nice feature. There is a line on each cup around the rim that tells you exactly how tight to seal the cup to make sure it doesn’t leak so it’s really foolproof. Oh, and they are both dishwasher safe for easy clean up.

The Advance Developmental Soft Silicone Spout Cup is perfect to transition from bottle or nipple to cup. I personally really like it when we are out and about or even in the car. It holds 7 oz which I think is a nice size, especially because you want your little one to be able to hold this herself. The soft spout makes it easy to sip from the cup and are soft on gums and teeth. The handles fit comfortably in my daughter’s hands and she can even hold it with just one hand if it’s not completely full. I’ll definitely need a few more of these when Baby no. 2 comes along!

The Advance Insulated Developmental Cup with Cup-Like Rim is designed to help children transition to a regular cup, hence the shape of the rim. My daughter can already drink for regular cups but I thought this would be convenient to carry in the diaper bag or when we go to the restaurant, etc. It is designed so children learn to drink like we do which is why the spout is bite-resistant. It is insulated so it helps to keep drinks colder for longer. The format of this cup is slightly larger (9 oz) and it doesn’t have handles but my daughter can still hold on to it and tip it like she would a regular cup.

The only difficulty we’ve had with this one is that in the lid there is a piece that acts like a valve and prevents the liquid from spilling which in theory is great but it does require a fairly powerful suction to be able to drink. I tried it myself and it’s really not as easy as it looks! Since my daughter has never figured out how to drink from a bottle nipple  (she can drink from a cup with a soft spout or a straw just fine though), this presented a challenge for her and she got frustrated that she couldn’t drink as quickly as she wanted. The easy solution was to remove that valve piece in the lid which comes off easily for clean up anyways. The result is that she can now drink as much as she wants but the cup is no longer spill-proof. Still, it doesn’t spill as quickly as a regular cup would so I say that’s a fair trade off.

The last 2 products I received are the Toddler Snacker and the PlateMat. The Toddler Snacker is a set of 3 toddler-sized snack containers (8 oz). They are see-through, stackable, and fit in most cup holders. They are dishwasher-safe, microwave-safe, and freezer-safe so you can fill them with pretty much any snack you can think of! They are perfect for busy moms and toddlers on the go. I use mine mostly for cereals or crackers and fruit and veggies, or cubes of cheese. The neat thing is that the set comes with a removable ice pack that keeps food chilled for a little longer which is why I can fill them up with fresh food, cheese, etc. I would personally like that all 3 containers have their own removable ice pack because I find it so useful!

The PlateMat is another great product from Gerber Graduates. It’s sort of a hybrid between a plate and a placemat. It is made of 100% silicone (which is BPA-free of course) and can be rolled out on any surface so your little one has a clean eating surface. I love it when we are at the restaurant because I find high chairs are not always as clean as they should be. It is designed with raised edges so it’s perfect for messy eaters because both foods and liquids stay contained so it’ll definitely be useful when my daughter starts to eat at the table with us (rather than in her high chair). I also like that the texture of the silicone is slightly sticky so cups, bowls, and plates stay in place better. Since this is such a great ‘on-the-go’ product, a carrying case or a strap to keep it rolled up would be handy but I use a regular rubber band for now. At the moment, it only comes in green but I hope that they’ll soon come out with new colors and designs!

Overall, I am very pleased with the new NUK and Gerber Graduates products we received. They are easy to use, practical and my daughter loves their colors and designs. It’s great to know that their products are designed with the help of professionals and that they promote safe and healthy development from infancy to toddlerhood.

Buy It: Head over to NUK and Gerber to see for yourself the great selection of newborn and toddler products they offer.

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Win It: NUK and Gerber are generously offering one of our lucky readers the same products that I received for this review. That’s right, all 6 products could be yours! The giveaway is open to US only. The giveaway will end July 7th. For your chance to win, enter the Giveaway Tools below. Good luck!

Rachel