This brilliant award-winning little silicone squeeze bottle is one of those products you feel must have existed for all time, it is such a sensible idea. All we can say is, thankfully, it does now!

When my son was born, one of my ‘great expectations’ of parenting was that I would cook all of his food myself – it would be pure, organic, and freshly prepared. So I dutifully cooked, pulped, pureed and served up his first, his second, even his third meal, and soon realised that the timing of when he wanted to eat – which was usually just when we’d made it out the front door – was never going to match the timing of my meal preparation. So in the end, I would whip into a store and purchase a pouch of prepared organic food.

That was all very well, but it meant buying a whole gamut of pouches of food ready for him to devour. Inevitably, I would lose the twist lid in the process, and we would end up throwing away a half full pouch of food. So now I was doing two things I’d vowed I would never do: Giving my baby commercially prepared food and then wasting it!

So what do you think some clever folks came up? The Sili Squeeze, of course – a perfectly sized food pouch (three sizes fit all) made out of silicone. Simply fill with your own home-made baby food, store it in the fridge or the freezer, then pop in your bag to give your baby when you’re out and about. Designed so you can use it with a spill-proof spout for your baby from six months, the Sili Squeeze graduates to a second free-flowing Squeeze with Eeeze spout for toddlers as well as special needs children with eating challenges.

The first spill-proof spout was created with the smallest of mouths in mind – only releasing food with that unique sucking motion babies do best. This means you can literally put it in your baby’s hands and let them suck to their tummy’s content rather than constantly supervise every squeeze of the pouch in case it goes all over them. The spill-proof spout also means that everything from pureed food through to smoothies, yoghurt, even fresh juices are good to go in the Squeeze, as nothing will leak out unless it is being sucked into your baby’s mouth.

Free of BPA, Phthlate, PVC, latex and lead, the Sili Squeeze is made from medical-grade silicone that is safe for your baby to chew upon (although it is not a chew toy!). It can be conveniently cleaned in the top rack of the dishwasher and is also freezer safe, so you can store extra food in a spare Sili Squeeze, and have it ready to go in a lunch box, for example. Of course, the Sili Squeeze won’t extend the freshness of the food inside, but it is the perfect way to ensure your child has fresh, nutrient-rich and chemical-free snacks to hand.

There are three Sili bottle sizes and four colours. We like the idea of having all four and colour coding our contents – blue for drinks, green for smoothies, orange for vegetable purees and red for fruit

Two more features we love about Sili?
First up, the Sili recipes – with ideas for smoothies, blends, mashes and purees; there is also a gorgeous series of Holiday Recipes with everything from a Valentine’s Day Smoothie to a Gingerbread Smoothie and a Baby Pumpkin Pie. Great idea, and we can’t wait to see the recipe book!

The second is the brilliant Project Sili Soul initiative whereby the company donates their product to a specific children’s charity where kids have special feeding needs. The recipient for 2014 is Operation Smile – an amazing charity that provides free surgery to children around the world in need of facial reconstruction due to cleft palate, cleft lip and other facial deformities.

Designer Details The Sili Company was established by Kristin Ahmer in Idaho, USA in 2010. The Sili Squeeze™ – a reusable silicone squeeze that lets children enjoy home-made favourite foods while on-the-go – was the first product of The Sili Company, inspired by Kristin’s first-born, Will Reef. The second product – the Sili Squeeze with Eeeze was released in 2011. ‘Squeezing the goodness out of what we are given®’ is the company’s trademark.