Crayola Freezer Pops

Some of you might remember my post about Squeezurts reusable snack tubes,  these tubes allowed me to create my own homemade frozen treat for my little one. However for one reason or the other, a few of my tubes started leaking and when I went to order new ones this what I saw on their website

So I realized I had no other option but to find an alternative.  I kept meaning to search online for a good popiscle mold since my daughter loves them, but like most other busy working moms I kept procrastinating. I really prefer shopping online because it gives me the added luxury of reading through the reviews and the ability to avoid products with bad reviews. However before I had the chance to even search online, I stumbled upon the Crayola Freezer Pops at my local supermarket. It seemed pretty decent from the look of it, and it wasn't expensive so I thought I had nothing to lose by buying it. 

Within each pack there are three plastic molds in different colors, in the shape of a crayola crayon. The pack also includes a "stand" that helps prop up the popsicles until they are frozen. Once I brought the pack home I washed the molds and decided to experiment with it, I filled one of them,  3/4 of the way with diluted juice and the other two with apple sauce. I put the lids on and placed them in the freezer.

The next day I took them out and offered one to my daughter. My first observation regarding these molds it that they are huge! Which naturally means they make giant popsicles. I understand that the recommended age for this is 4+ however the popsicles are still pretty large even for a four year old!
You can see below, a side by side comparison with an Outshine brand popsiscle and a homemade applesauce popsicle made with the crayola mold. I really can't wrap my mind around the reasoning behind this. This product is marketed for children so I don't see the logic of making the mold so huge.

My husband and I buy the Outshine fruit pops for ourselves, and once in a while my daughter gets to have one. They are the "healthy" option in the frozen dessert aisle.  They have 10 grams of sugar per popsicle, and sugar is not the first ingredient which is pretty darn great compared to most other kiddie pops, but I still don't feel comfortable letting my daughter have these all the time. Which is why I bought the Crayola pop mold. My daughter can easily  finish an Outshine brand popsicle but cannot finish the Crayola ones.  The Outshine pops are 1.5oz each, whilst the Crayola pops are 2.5 oz.

My second issue is that the design is slightly flawed. The mold comes in two parts, the "cup" part that you fill with your liquid/smoothie, and the lid which also becomes the handle for the popsicle once it is frozen.  As you can see from the photos above, the "lid" has an extension, sort of like the wooden stick on a regular popsicle that supports it however every single time my daughter has tried to eat one of these, the top half of the popsicle ends up breaking off because the "stick" in the center isn't long enough/strong enough to support the popsicle properly.

Either way, eating popsicles made from this mold are such a messy, sloppy and wasteful experience that I've scaled back how often I use it. I seriously believe this product needs a redesign!! I'm storing it away for now until she is a little older. In the meantime I finally found a moment to look on Amazon for alternative freezer pop molds and I'm blown away by how many options there are!! This time I'm focusing on the size of the pops and making sure the next brand I try will be a more reasonable size. I'll report back on which brand I decide to try, but most likely that won't be until the weather warms up again!