Melissa and Doug cutting food (wood) Review

My mother in law was looking all over for something "different" that she could get my two and a half year old son for his birthday. Although we already had play plastic food and a toy kitchen, my mother in law thought the Melissa and Doug cutting food set would be great for him. My son loved it! The set comes with both vegetables and fruit, such as watermelon, a green pepper, a carrot, an apple, and a tomato. It also comes with a pretend loaf of bread. What makes this set different is that it comes with a wooden cutting board and a wodden knife. The food is made up of smaller units held together with velcro. A child can use the knife and cutting board to "cut" apart the food on the velcro. The toy works as decribed and holds up to some abuse, as it is made of wood wth quality construction. However, my son did try to put some of the food in his mouth and the paint chipped off. We had to explain to him that the food is pretend. We have also misplaced some of the vegetable parts and we cannot order just a few of the peices so we cannot put those foods back together again.