Homemade baby food

[stitchfan18]

Dd is just starting solids and refuses to eat jarred food, so we've been making our own food. We have the little baby bullet to make her food, but I don't really want to pack and make food while we are there. Would it be unreasonable to freeze and pack enough food for our trip? Could I carry it on our flight with lots of ice packs to keep it cold? Or should we just suck it up and pack the baby bullet? We'll be making a run to walmart our first day if that changes anything...

 

[Betty Rohrer]

just remember that no where other than baby center will you be able to warm up baby food. nothing can be warmed up that is not made there. all you can use is a cup of hot water to heat up at the table. it can be a distance to travel warmed up food from baby center to your meal if that is your plan

 

[MSSANDRA]

Honestly I would spend some time trying to find some foods that she will eat that are prepackaged or you can feed her without much preparation. How old is your little one. How smooth does the food need to be? Is there any foods she will eat jars or pouches of? A lot of variety is not really needed. What kind of cereal does she eat? Can she eat regular apple sauce? A mashed bananna?, regular yogurt? A bit of well mash potato? Any finger foods. I think a ton of prepared food, frozen would be pretty tough to carry on a plane and keep safely frozen. Will you have a room with a refrigerator and freezer and a place to prepare food you take for the baby? Will you take the bullet into restaurants? Good luck. I always warn, as a allergy DM to not introduce any new food away from home. You never know when a baby might react.

 

[AKL_Megs]

If she just started solids, I'm assuming the bulk of her nutrition comes from breast milk/formula, and the solids are just for tasting/exploring foods? If she isn't a fan of jarred foods, can you just skip them during your trip? Honestly, for me, it wouldn't be worth the hassle.

Does she eat oatmeal cereal or rice cereal? No real nutrition there, but perhaps they could offer some substance for her? You may even try experimenting with mixing jarred food into them before you go and try that on your trip?

 

[stitchfan18]

DD will be 7 months when we go, and we still have some time to explore more jarred food options, but so far she has hated everything except the homemade food. I'm just trying to figure out worst case what options we'll have. She doesn't care about her food being warm, so at least we have that going for us.

 

[laughinplace199]

If she just started solids, I'm assuming the bulk of her nutrition comes from breast milk/formula, and the solids are just for tasting/exploring foods? If she isn't a fan of jarred foods, can you just skip them during your trip? Honestly, for me, it wouldn't be worth the hassle.

Does she eat oatmeal cereal or rice cereal? No real nutrition there, but perhaps they could offer some substance for her? You may even try experimenting with mixing jarred food into them before you go and try that on your trip?

I agree, either try some jarred foods or skip the food altogether. Food for babies under 12 months isn't really necessary, as breast milk and/or formula has all of the nutrition that they need. Food is for learning and exploring at this age and can definitely be skipped for a few days.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

if your baby already has the taste of homemade baby food most likely you will not baby to change to jar or pouch. taste some and see why. got a 9 month old grandson who is the same way. we just make sure someone orders or we prepare something that is mashable for him or meal time is not fun

 

[SueM in MN]

Unless you can keep everything frozen, home prepared baby food needs to be used quickly after being made (like no more than 24 hours in the refrigerator according to food safety rules).
Given the possibility of delays and things not staying frozen, I don't think it would be safe to bring home made foods with.

if your baby already has the taste of homemade baby food most likely you will not baby to change to jar or pouch. taste some and see why. got a 9 month old grandson who is the same way. we just make sure someone orders or we prepare something that is mashable for him or meal time is not fun

I didn't even have to taste it, smelling it was bad enough that I could not feed it to them without gagging.

I would do what Betty suggests - just make sure someone orders something that is mashable. You could also try some of the prepackaged foods not marketed for babies - like applesauce and try things like yogurt that are already smooth and bananas that can be mashed pretty easily.

 

[Cold71]

We're in a similar situation. Our daughter hasn't been eating solids all that long but she is use to us hand making all of her baby food. We buy organic, steam it, run it through a blender, and store it in special ice cube trays with lids. While I'm sure we could get could get the food down there and still have it frozen (it's only a two hour plane ride for us). We didn't really view this as practical. You can't really heat frozen food in the middle of a theme park. We did however find organic baby food in a pouch at Walmart. She seems to love it so far, used it this past weekend at the zoo with no problems.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Plum-Orga...pricot-Banana-Baby-Food-4-oz-6-count/36372301

 

[Stephaniesue]

I would spend some time trying out the organic jar foods on the market if you are open to that at all. You can try mixing them with your home made foods to see if she will at least try them. If you prefer not to do that, I would just pack the bullet and make what you need as you go.

If you are stopping at a store anyhow, it shouldn't be too difficult to zap something in the morning before you head to the parks. I would be too concerned about keeping the foods frozen to make them ahead of time.

 

[branv]

Putting aside even the nearly impossibly logistics of the thing, my biggest concern would also be the risk of contamination of food that would be extremely hard to truly keep frozen enough. But even if you bring your blender, one issue with mixing up park foods is controlling the salt they have added to the food. But I do understand the baby food issue. My now nearly 1 yo son has been a phenomenal eater, including pouches. But he consistently rejects Earths Best food. I understand, it tastes awful. He will eat Happy Family pouches though., and texture wise, had always preferred the chunkier Stage 3.

One suggestion I have is to try integrating pouches now with regular food you can mash at the table to see if that will help. Mash insides from baked potato, or cottage cheese, avocado or yogurt with a pouch of savory baby food. Mash a banana and blend with fruit puree. Top warm pancake with pouch fruit puree, let sit until pretty mushy, and cut into tiny pieces (also works with whole wheat waffle). Start out small integrations and slowly include more and more of the pouch. And remember that you shouldn't stop after a few rejections. On average, it takes 10 attempts with a new food for a baby/child to accept the newness of it.

Good luck.

 

[galaxygirl76]

I would give the organic baby food a try. We always brought that with us when we were traveling with our daughter. I also made all my own baby food and she refused anything in jars unless it was the organic ones(I usually got the pouches).

 

[little miss minnie]

I make all my daughters baby food as well, but when we are out and about, we use the Plum Organic baby food pouches. They are great for portability and don't need to be refrigerated(unless you open one and baby doesn't finish it) I would suggest trying something like those.

 

[ebradley23]

They sell a food grinder at Walmart which is portable and doesn't need electricity. You could grind up any steamed veggie right at your table with it. It's sold in the baby section right by the baby spoons/plates/etc.

 

[imthemamahere]

I made the majority of my son's baby food when he was little. But not 100%

I have two suggestions: first, while you're still home, consider trying one or two brands of organic baby food in pouches. (My son loved Plum Organics and Happy Baby when he was that age, but Earth's Best also makes pouches now, and I think there are a few other brands.) We found the pouches to have a far better, fresher flavor than the jarred baby food - when we were on the go and I didn't want to run the risk of my frozen+homemade food thawing badly, the pouches were our solution. My son is now 5, and while he's obviously long outgrown baby food, he'll still sometimes snack on a fruit-puree pouch. (They make applesauce-filled ones for older kids, but he likes the variety in the baby pouches... I don't argue.) They're great on the go.

Second, at 7 months, your baby will likely be eating thicker purees and possibly small-cut finger foods. Wherever you go to eat, there's likely to be something you can dice up small for your little one. Many restaurants will have applesauce, bananas (can be mashed or diced), avocado, possibly pears/peaches/other fruit all on hand. Doesn't hurt to ask. If you're having a baked (or sweet) potato with dinner, baby can have a few little bits. Scrambled eggs? Pancakes? French toast? All are awesome cut up small for babies. If you're eating chicken or turkey, you can shred a piece up and let baby have a taste. Rotini or penne pastas can also be cut smaller and handed over for baby to eat. There are lots of easy choices.

I hope your little one enjoys all there is to see at Disney World!

 

[stargazer2892]

DD is now 8 months and is at the point of refusing to eat purees, she will only eat food she can feed her self. We just cut everything we eat up smaller for her. Counter service may be a little tricky but I know they offer some sort of fruit or vegetable that could be cut up, and hamburger is easy. DD LOVES all breakfast food and is pretty easy for that meal, really its lunch which tends to be sandwich's are the tricky one for us, but she LOVES cut up cheese (both my kids love goat cheese and would eat it everyday if we let them), peas, and some puffs for lunch. Dinner she gets whatever we make her, with a few changes, DH and i love spicy so if we make curry we separate a little for her before we add more heat to it, and we steam her vegetables a little longer but other then that she gets what we eat. I say don't worry to much shes just 7 months and food isn't hugely important at this age since they are still getting their nutrients from milk.

 

[sarahtar]

A few thoughts:

1) Babies change their routine as soon as you feel like you've figured it out, so there's no reason to think that she'll eat the same as she does now.

2) It would clearly be easier if she ate something shelf-stable (jarred or pouches), and I wouldn't necessarily stop trying.

3) It is entirely possible to fly with frozen food. Contact your airline for guidelines on what they'd prefer you do. I don't think carryon is a good option because of TSA requirements regarding ice packs. You run the risk that your food gets lost enroute by checking it, but you can always go to plan B if you need to. Once you know what type of container you need to use for your airline, put your homemade food in pouches or however you plan to transport it, and surround them with high quality ice packs (like they use commercially to ship frozen food, not like they sell for keeping sandwiches cold). Ideally, your food will be surrounded on all four sides with ice packs. Put them in the cooler with your food while NOT frozen, then throw the entire cooler into your freezer if at all possible - this way, the ice packs mold to a shape that fits. If you can't fit the cooler into your freezer, it's not a huge issue - that's just how I prefer it. (I've only ever driven with lots of frozen purees, never flown, but the principle is the same.)

4) To me, a bigger problem than actually transporting it via airplane, is: a) do you have a freezer at your hotel? b) do you have a way to keep the food cool all day in the park? If you have a freezer at the hotel, a small lunchbag and lunchbag ice pack will work for the park. If you use those food pouches they sell for baby food, those will defrost in the fridge in about a day, then should be used within 24 hours, which you probably already know.

(I have never transported homemade baby food, FYI. My now-toddler has been on a whole foods blended diet through his feeding tube since we transitioned him away from pumped breastmilk after he turned 1. So that's what I have experience with, but it's basically the same thing. Pureed food.)

 

[SCmom3]

If she's just starting solids, I am assuming that she is right at 6 months, correct? I don't blame babies for not eating jarred food, most of it is gross. I had a baby who loved solids, real solids, from a very early age. He learned quickly to chew with his gums and ate everything from steak to brocolli. Look into babyled weaning, it makes eating out easier because baby eats what mom and dad eat.

 

[Jing]

We started baby led weaning at 5months (he grabbed food off our plates) to get him used to textures and dexterity. We added in plum organic pouches at 6 months and have tried Ella's, earths best, and happy tots. I've tried every one and many are tasty with some complex flavors. Babies r us has 8 for $10 on organics going on right now if you want to sample a bunch.