One of the messiest endeavors you go through as a new parent is starting your child on solid foods. Food ends up on floors, in high chair nooks and crannies, on bibs, in hair, on clothes, you name it. The best advice I’ve ever heard for how to keep the mess down is to get a dog. Barring that (seems like a lot to adjust to when having a baby!), the next-best thing is to get a splat mat. A splat mat is an object you put down on the floor under the high chair to catch the detritus, hopefully saving you from having to mop your kitchen floor 5 times a day.

For a splat mat, I was looking for a few features:

  • No PVC, lead, phthalates, because food will go on it and I will invariably pick it up to give to my baby.
  • Machine washable (because this is a time saver, why create more work for yourself!)
  • Non-slip, so I can feel safe putting the high chair on top of it and not be worried about slips.
  • At least 36 inches by 36 inches, so there’s a reasonable “splat zone”.

I landed on the following splat mat, purchasable from Amazon.

It is sold by a storefront called Triluby, which seems to only have a few products in their online storefront. They are only sold on Amazon, so this is the way to purchase directly from the store.

The listing says the following: “100% polyester, lead free, PVC free, BPA free, odor free and non-toxic”. When first opening the mat, there was absolutely zero outgassing or smell of any kind, which is very unusual for products made of polyester. After months of use, it has withstood splats of all kinds, and holds up in the washing machine. Overall, an excellent purchase that has saved our sanity!