Traveling with 8 month old and baby food questions

[michelelashuk7]

Hi! We are taking our kids on their first cruise! We will be on the Disney Fantasy and I was wondering how to travel with jars of baby food? I do not want to purchase through Babies Travel Lite. I refuse to spend the cost of shipping! Lol Anyway...I make my own baby food and will not be able to bring it, so I was going to bring jarred food. I have been periodically feeding it to my son to get him used to the food. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to transport it without breaking? Does anyone have experience with getting the cruise line to puree food? I read somewhere that they will do it, but I'm not sure how the food will be prepared and how to go about getting it done.

 

[lanejudy]

I know my grocery store sell baby food in plastic containers more so than jars it seems, very few are actually jars now. If your regular store doesn't stock the plastic, maybe another nearby grocery does.

But DCL will puree just about anything they have available. Just let your server know at dinner the first night.

Enjoy your vacation!

 

[DahliaRW]

Someone reported on here they were able to get food pureed. For transport, I'd buy the babyfood in the plastic containers or pouches instead of glass jars.

 

[DLgeeks]

I would just pack the squeeze pouches. They'll use up less space/weight than the plastic or glass containers and you won't have to worry about breakage. There is a pretty good variety these days of organic, no added junk pouches out there and they have these nifty spoons that just screw right on to the pouch to make feeding on the go super easy. I make my own food at home too, but I usually use the pouches when were on the go as it makes life easier. They'll be helpful when you're out and about for any port time as well.

 

[myrtleturtle]

I agree with the pouches. That's what I use when I travel with my twins. I also second the spoon attachment!

 

[thedonduck]

When we took DS who was just starting to eat a good amount of baby food, they puréed whatever we asked for that night. It was fabulous.

 

[michelelashuk7]

I'm just curious...will they just do it in the dining room? I wonder if they would do it for room service? He eats food 2x a day. I wonder what I would do in the morning time? Yeah, I'm thinking the pouches would be better. I just get nervous because I've heard some stories about the pouches. Thanks for the advice!

 

[ebradley23]

We sailed with my DS for the first time when he was 10 mo old. I made my own baby food too, but resigned to commercial food when traveling. I gave him oatmeal mixed with applesauce from the buffet every morning. I also traveled with the pouches for him. Much easier than jarred stuff. I went with organic pouches, since it made me feel a little better about giving him something I didn't make. They heat well in a cup of warm water if he is used to eating his veggies warm. Mine had started table food, but I was uncertain if he would be able to eat most of the ship's table food. He didn't get teeth until he was 1, so meat had to be very tender for him to gum up. I brought those Plum Organic meals (like baby TV dinners). The ship was always okay with heating them up for me, but they also will warm in a bowl of hot water if your ship won't.

My biggest tip is to pack all consumables (food, diapers, wipes, disposable bibs, etc) in a cardboard box. Tape it well with packing tape, and check it as luggage. These are items you won't come home with, so there is no need to lug an extra suitcase which would go home empty. When your trip is done, just leave the box in your cabin.

 

[thedonduck]

Also if baby is 8 month maybe try and do some Baby-led weaning. We didn't do any baby food with DD. We followed BLW (Google it) and she did awesome!

Breakfast with DS... A couple times we did the sit down bfast and the server was able to purée some apples/other fruit and we let DS munch/suck on toast strips and bananas

 

[deanimal]

I know they will puree regular food for you, but I still found it a bit tough. The applesauce was pretty chunky, nice for an adult but not ideal for a baby used to smooth purees. I wanted to mash up a banana from the poolside restaurant once and they had to send someone to find a metal fork for me since they only had plastic ones there; they were great about it but it was a real hassle. My little guy was super picky about textures and gagged a lot so maybe that's why I found it harder than most. I would recommend finding a brand that your baby likes that comes in pouches and bringing that. Do you do baby cereals? It's easy to pack a pouch of rice or oat cereal and that goes a long way. We also used to request a carafe of hot water from room service with our breakfast and use it to warm up food and bottles. Hope this helps!

 

[michelelashuk7]

Yes, this is all helpful! Thank you! I'm going to buy some pouches today and see what he likes. He too is picky with texture and gags. I will pack some baby cereal too. I'm nursing, so I really don't have to worry about bottles, unless he will be in the nursery, which is a whole other topic! Lol I have tons of frozen milk here, but can't bring it with me. So, I'll bring my pump and pray I pump enough to have a bottle for him in case he needs it. I also don't want to spend my trip nursing and then pumping too! If I didn't have a bottle for the nursery would I be able to nurse him there and go back to my activities?? I wonder...

Packing everything in a box seems logical, but I think I'd rather have the extra suitcase in case we buy a lot of souvenirs! Lol

 

[Runnergal]

We travelled with a 7mo and they were happy to make purees for us. They made a chicken/veggie blend and a banana/strawberry/something else blend. It was very well puréed and they made enough to last me several days, though they insisted on making fresh every night. I would bring the leftovers back to our room and store it in the fridge and give it to db the next day. So maybe pack a few pouches for the first day and after you leave the ship but that should be plenty.

 

[aymekae]

We cruised with our 9 month old last December. He really pretty much refused all food at the time, and I was nursing exclusively, so we didn't have to worry much about solids. I fed him bits of what I was eating, and we tried the puree for one meal (beef and broccoli, I think) but he wouldn't touch it. I think the main complaint I read about the ship's purees is too much salt.

As for the nursery, I was used to dropping him off, and occasionally getting a call to come back and nurse him when he was getting fussy. He wouldn't take a bottle!! It was a bit inconvenient for me, but I really didn't miss all that much, and they had a nice chair in the crib room that was mostly private.

 

[michellekcm]

My son was 10 months old last year, and wasn't eating much. They pureed veges for us every night. Each night they came to us and asked us what we wanted for the next night.

The first night it was really salty, but we asked for no added salt (the head server was horrified that they added salt to a baby's food), and after that it was fine.

During the day we did things like yoghurt, fruit, etc. from the buffet, and some packaged stuff we brought with us. I always bought the organic, no-added-anything baby food in pouches. They travelled well.

 

[mcbrideluo]

The applesauce was pretty chunky, nice for an adult but not ideal for a baby used to smooth purees.

 

[justhat]

We're talking about a 9 month old? I'd skip the purées and go straight for whole foods in small pieces. None of my kids had teeth before 10 months (3rd was over a year), but they all did small pieces of softer food initially (~6 months), then all foods. If I waited till they had teeth they wouldn't have eaten. We did do cereals with my oldest, but I am not a good pumper at all, so we skipped them entirely with kids 2 and 3. Kid 4 is still exclusively breastfed but by the time we sail (October), he'll be 10 months and eating solids. I am planning on him eating whatever we do, just cut up in baby-sized pieces. We actually have a wdw trip planned next month and I am waiting till we're home from that to even start solids just for convenience.