BellyLaf™ Grippees and Minimitts with SmartShapes provide a modern, colorful, and educational experience for your child during their bath time. A child grows up only once in life...the BellyLaf™ Grippees and Minimitts with SmartShapes provide a means to make your child's bath time to become a learning experience where vital critical skills can be developed while having fun simultaneously.

BellyLaf™ Grippees and Minimitts with SmartShapes are more than just practical and functional, they are created with a luxurious eco-friendly fabric which is comprised of a 60% bamboo and 40% cotton blend. An infant's skin is quite sensitive and having a fabric that is quite soft to the touch, is an absolute necessity.

Grippees wash mitts incorporate clear, soft, and non-abrasive silicone gripping dots that are strategically placed on the lower palm of each wash mitt. Before you jump to any false assumptions, these gripping dots do not irritate an infant's skin while still aiding in holding slippery children as parents wash or move them in and out of the tub or shower. An important point to note is that the upper portion of the Grippee is designed for washing, NOT gripping. This way you have a washing area so that all areas of the infant's body can be washed more easily. This is what makes them so special; you can use them both for gripping and washing! In our evaluation at two different medical centers, two of our OB/GYN evaluation doctors made it quite clear, "From our informal studies here, there appears to be no real risk of skin irritation with most infants. You must be sure to understand that no infant product is a 'perfect' product. There will always be some infants who are hypersensitive and will have irritation occur."

We discovered in our evaluation process that some mothers are still holding true to the "old school" method of bathing their infants. As one woman expressed, "I have bathed all my kids the same way since before you were born; my hands do just fine when it comes to bathing my grandkids." Despite some women having their own set ways of bathing infants, everyone else, including the doctors who took part in our evaluation, were more than pleased with the BellyLaf™ Grippees. One of the MD's was quite emphatic in regard to her own personal opinion, "These 'grippee' wash cloths are undeniably a monumental creation which will drastically reduce the risk of losing your grip on your infant when bathing him/her." She went on to say, "Best of all, they are just so cute!"

Valuable Feedback

After careful review of all of the consumer hands-on feedback forms, we discovered that many of the women who participated in our product studies, use bath oil with their infants in an effort to avoid their child's skin getting dried out and itchy. When you take that fact into consideration, this is where the BellyLaf™ Grippees with SmartShapes really make their mark! As a further evaluation step to prove this as fact, we had a mother of an 8 month old infant who participated in our hands-on evaluation who uses bath oil with her infant, try an experiment for us. In the first bathing of the infant, she didn't use the BellyLaf™ Grippees. In the second time bathing of her infant she did use them.

In comparing the two bathing situations, the mothers made notes for us of any differences they found in the bathing of their infant with and without the use of the BellyLaf™ Grippees with SmartShapes. A primary point one mother wrote in her feedback was that there was a very distinct difference in her being able to grasp her infant when she was using just her hands alone, in comparison with using the BellyLaf™ Grippees. As she stated in her feedback, "Maybe it's just me, but I noticed a drastic difference in my being able to handle my child while using products the you provided. To add to that, my baby was giggling whenever she saw the colorful shapes on the cloths." This response, provides a very strong example of the functionality and visual appeal of the BellyLaf™ Grippees.

An added point for fathers who tend to use showers instead of the bathtub is that BellyLaf™ Grippees save the day even for Dads! By using a shower instead of a bathtub, there is far greater risk of losing grip on an infant while bathing them. BellyLaf™ Grippees resolve that problem and lower the percentage of risk dramatically. This provides a comfort for Dads never realized before while at the same time providing a level of comfort for the mothers, that their husbands will not drop the infant.

If this wasn't powerful enough, she added yet another point in reference to her little daughter, (age not specified), "My little daughter found the Minimitts so special and cute as she tried to help her Mommy bath her new sister." It is important to realize that the Grippees and Minimitts with Smart Shapes are two different products, one for the adults and one for the smaller hands with elastic to help keep the mitts on more securely, yet without any impact on circulation. Interaction between a mother, father, or guardian of a child is of prime importance. This helps dramatically not just in their emotional support and sense of security, but in learning social skills and interpersonal interaction whether they are of age to talk yet or not. Minimitts come into play as a simple yet quite effective tool in fulfilling the needs to encourage development of these critical skills in a child.

The Importance Of Minimitts With SmartShapes

One thing that is unquestionable when it comes to children, ALL children need to learn to wash themselves independently without Mom's assistance and BellyLaf MiniMitts makes a child's learning during bath time, a fun and interactive experience. Unlike the Grippees, MiniMitts are a thumbless easy on/easy off pair of child size wash mitts designed for children ages 2-5 to learn to master personal hygiene skills and so much more! While parents use BellyLaf Grippees wash mitts to wash their infants and/or toddlers, their older kids can develop bathing independence by emulating their parents using their own pair of MiniMitts with SmartShapes.

The SmartShapes are modern styled, coloful, and educational simultaneously. What makes the SmartShapes so special is that they are bright and colorful geometric shapes of circles, squares, ovals, stars, triangles and rectangles that are combined together to create clever and contemporary characters on each Minimitt as well as the Grippees, that appeal to infants, toddlers and pre-school aged children. Even adults find their attention captured by the bright colors and shapes within the Grippes and Minimitts product packaging.

A Child Psychology specialist who was one of our evaluators with the Grippees and Minimitts made it quite clear in her report, "It is a commonly known fact that both infants and toddlers have a consistent behavioral factor in common, they are all drawn to look at and touch items with bold colors and a variety of geometric shapes and designs. Exposure to these shapes and colors initiates a prolific advancement of a child's creative skills development. Further into her report she makes it abundantly clear that, "The Grippees are all fine and good, but the Minimitts provide an immensely greater contribution to the children from actual hands-on application from mimicy of their mother bathing an infant or sibling as well as visual and tactile touch stimulation for the infants."

From My Own Personal Standpoint

From my own personal standpoint, I never even considered critical skill development in an infant coming into play with the BellyLaf™ Grippees and Minimitts with SmartShapes. The doctors who were participating as evaluators for the BellyLaf™ Minimitts and SmartShapes, made it quite clear I was overlooking one of the most important factors associated with the products. As the pediatrician pointed out to me, "From well before the actual birth of the child, they are impacted by every form of stimulation they experience. The stimulation from each experience helps the child begin recognition of sound, touch, feeling, etc." The doctor continued on with, "The fabric, the colors, the shapes of the BellyLaf™ Grippees and Minimitts with SmartShapes, all play a part in the the critical skill development of an infant. They are more than just a fancy washcloth, they are a part of this exciting new world that the infant has been brought into most unexpectedly.

Considering my background in teaching pre-school and being schooled in behavioral science, I was a wee bit startled that I had failed to recognize such an important element in the evaluation of the product. The doctors were quite correct in their observations. BellyLaf™ Grippees and Minimitts with SmartShapes provide a fun and exciting learning experience for an child while at the same time providing a means to minimize the risk of a mother or guardian losing their grip while bathing their child.

Nothing is more powerful than hands-on experience by a consumer with a product when it is being evaluated. Based upon that fact we put every single product we evaluate at the mercy of consumers in a hands-on evaluation where anything goes. Shall we see how the BellyLaf™ products fared with the consumers? Just as in the past, with the help of two separate medical groups, one here in Las Vegas and the other in Los Angeles, CA, we were able to put the BellyLaf™ products through consumer testing for a period of two weeks with a two groups of mothers who had babies which were between newborn to 11 months of age. The mothers were all patients of the doctors in these medical groups and were exceedingly eager to be participants in our hands-on evaluation. Each mother was able to experience using the BellyLaf™'s Minimitts and SmartShapes with their children at the medical center. This also included 2 of the mothers putting BellyLaf™'s Minimitts and SmartShapes through the ropes in their everyday lives with their infants. Upon completion of the evaluation period, each mother filled out a consumer hands-on evaluation form to provide feedback which we would use as part of our evaluation process.

As was expected, we had an incredible collection of praising comments in our feedback forms from these mothers. Each of the mothers included the feedback form and another sheet of paper on top of it to share their thoughts and experience with BellyLaf™ Grippees and Minimitts with SmartShapes! The primary comment that was consistent amongst all of the mothers was in reference to "...these BellyLaf™ washcloths have created an entirely new point of view in regard to washcloths." According to the mothers, "BellyLaf™'s were so cute in their packages yet were also quite durable. She went on to say, "The care of an infant can be so demanding at times; to have something such as these washcloths makes the task more delightful for a mother and her child.". Anyone could easily see the ladies were pleased with using BellyLaf™ Grippees and Minimitts with SmartShapes. Both of the products are quite evidently a smashing hit in popularity and function!

While other organizations will define their ratings in a "blanket" method which simply defines each rating in an overall usage, we choose to take a different approach. Each individual rating that was assigned to this product, based upon our evaluation process, is briefly explained as to how that specific rating score was reached. The ratings for this product are listed below. Please remember that these are just six primary evaluation categories that are part of a far greater overall group of evaluation categories used for our product evaluation.

EVALUATION RESULTS - From evaluation for induction into "The Toy Man® Product Guide"
Overall Rating: 5	Seal of Approval: Approved	eco-Recognition Seal: Not Eligible	Award of Excellence: Approved	eChoice Award: Selected

THE TOY MAN® SEAL OF APPROVAL "The first and original Seal of Approval... designed for product recognition and validation."

Since 1971 "The Toy Man® Seal of Approval" has served as an emblem and standard for professional recognition of a product or online service having met the globally recognized evaluation standards of The Toy Man® Product Guide. This emblem was first established in 1971 by the International Parenting Institute™. It is modeled after the "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval®", an emblem of recognition for products which meet the globally recognized high standards set forth by the Good Housekeeping Institute®.

THE TOY MAN® AWARDS "The globally recognized awards that are received by a limited few... and give a product the well earned recognition it deserves!"

The Toy Man® Award of Excellence - The products and online services which become recipients of The Toy Man® "Award of Excellence” passed our intensive evaluation process.  Their evaluation was completed with an overall category rating average of [5] Stars, the highest level of rating available on a 1-5 scale evaluation basis.

"The Toy Man® Award - This is more than just an award, this is the "brass ring" so to speak; the award that serves as an emblem of recognition for products & online services such that contribute substantially to positive skill growth and productivity. This productivity is measured in the value of potential cognitive, motor, and critical skill growth and/or overall level of improvement in an individual or group from use of a product or online service. * This distinguished award is exclusive as well as unique, with the editor's signature which represents a product being selected as an . PLEASE NOTE: The eChoice™ Award images which were used from 1971-1984, 1984-2007, 2007-April 2010 have been retired. Although the former versions of the eChoice™ Award have been retired, they still remain valid.