What do you feed your baby?

[Briar Rose@]

I hope this doesn't sound too silly, but I am a new mom. My son will be 9 months when we visit WDW, he currently is eating more and more finger foods for meals. I tend to make him toast/French toast, pasta or I heat some frozen veggies. We are hoping he will be completely off jarred baby foods by then. But then how do we feed him at the restaurants? We have the meal plan with one CS & one TS. I don’t really want to be sharing my food or my husband’s food, and I don’t want to be paying full price for a children’s meal when he doesn’t eat that type of food. Does anyone have any suggestions? What worked for you?

 

[aanderson5]

We eat out a lot and our 3 year old still shares off our plates for the most part. He is not a picky eater at all and prefers adult choices.

When he was very young (around 1) we would bring a snack to keep him happy till the food came (cheerios, crackers, vegi puffs etc). Then as he got older we would order him soup and thicken it with crackers. It comes right away, he loves most kinds and pretty much any sitdown restaurant serves it. He would then share our meals.

The portions at Disney are for the most part very large. If you suppliment with snacks you bring or buy the occasional extra for your DS you should be fine. Plus if you eat at buffets you can give him what ever you want. Have a great trip.

 

[mrstomrice]

We went when our ds was 11 months old. We still used a lot of the stage 3 meals for him. We ordered them to be delivered to our hotel from garden grocer. We also ordered bananas, applesauce cups, gerber graduate snacks, yogurt, goldfish, etc. Oh yeah, we ordered our diapers too.

 

[brymolmom]

At about that age - I brought some stuff and shared some stuff with my babies at WDW. I would always bring either apple sauce or dole fruit cups in my backpack - plus some cheerios and/or crackers - and instant meal for baby. Also - I would sometimes get meals that are good shared - little bits of my pasta, little bits of turkey from my turkey sandwich, apple sauce or a banana as a snack credit. So I would share and bring along supplements in the diaper bag.

Also - for Table Service meals - BUFFETS are huge with young babies...you don't pay for them and there is always 'soft' stuff on the buffet - mac n cheese, pasta, soup, fruits.

 

[Colleen27]

DD is going to be 10mo on her first trip to WDW. I'm planning on ordering some Gerber Graduates diced fruit/veggies and dry snacks to tuck in the diaper bag, but I'm interested to hear what others have done for little ones around that age.

She's already starting to eat off our plates a bit at home, so I'm debating whether or not I might want to take the food mill to be able to share a bit more of our food than she might otherwise be able to chew. With the deluxe dining plan and 4 Disney adults in our group (3 real adults and an 11yo), I'm sure we'll have more than enough food to share, and since we're staying in a cabin we'll have a dishwasher to give it a good cleaning each night.

 

[Ariel on Land]

well, ours turn two next month and they're STILL eating some jarred veggies.... I am planning on bringing plenty of snacks, and some cut up PB&J sandwiches along with us to supplement whatever they eat off of our plates. The servings are so large, there's no way DH and I will "run out" of food. And I may order them a kids meal here and there to share. Your little one is still pretty young, and even if he is "off" jarred foods, it certainly wouldn't hurt while on vacation to toss a few jars of veggies, some applesauce, diced fruit cups, etc... in the diaper bag just to have on hand. And since you say he's eating pasta, I've heard of plenty of folks on here mentioning their kids were able to get plain or marinara covered pasta for meals, I would assume a small kid sized portion wouldn't be very pricey.

 

[geishagirl81]

Get one of those mesh baby feeders. They are really cool and you can wash out the mesh bags in the bathroom sink. (Buy refills so you have a fresh one in the parks). You can put pieces of veggies,fruit, breads ect in the bag and your baby can gum on it and eat it with no risk of choking. It also keeps them occupied! That way you don't need to grind food. However, do NOT do bananas in there. The resulting goo is too much to clean! No, it may not be an efficient way to deliver an entire meal, but it is great!

 

[dragop21]

well at nine months your baby should still primarily be having breast milk or formula. everything else is gravy. I would maybe bring a long some finger foods and let him pick at will. just avoiding the usual highly allergic stuff, like eggs, peanut butter, honey, etc. I am a child led feeder in that department, when they start eating solids its such a pain anyway! I would just follow his lead and see how much he wants. my second never had a special diet, but she had mostly breastmilk until she was 15 months. which I know makes me a FREAK in most worlds

 

[Manda]

well at nine months your baby should still primarily be having breast milk or formula. everything else is gravy. I would maybe bring a long some finger foods and let him pick at will. just avoiding the usual highly allergic stuff, like eggs, peanut butter, honey, etc. I am a child led feeder in that department, when they start eating solids its such a pain anyway!

What she said, LOL. I didn't do the jarred foods, etc., but at 9 months, I didn't really worry too much about what real food he managed to eat because the bulk of his nourishment was still his milk. We'd usually get our two meals and he'd gnaw on the table bread or soup crackers or croutons from our salads or some cheerios I'd bring a long and sometimes I'd ask for a bowl of fruit or a banana or an extra side of oversteamed broccoli or rice or noodles or something for him. Whatever I thought he'd be interested in or however hungry I thought he might be or how much time I was trying to fill.

I don't recall seeing this at any Disney world restaurant, but a lot of real world restaurants even happily bring little ones a "baby plate" with crackers and banana slices or something similar - and complimentary. Those restaurants always got our return visits.

 

[aanderson5]

well at nine months your baby should still primarily be having breast milk or formula. everything else is gravy. I would maybe bring a long some finger foods and let him pick at will. just avoiding the usual highly allergic stuff, like eggs, peanut butter, honey, etc. I am a child led feeder in that department, when they start eating solids its such a pain anyway! I would just follow his lead and see how much he wants. my second never had a special diet, but she had mostly breastmilk until she was 15 months. which I know makes me a FREAK in most worlds

When I answered I missed the part that your DS is only 9 months. I have to agree with the above poster (PP you are not a freak). My DS didn't get 'food' till 6 months so by 9 months he was still getting his nutrition from breastmik and solids were a suppliment.

 

[DISNEYNV]

Actually as som ppers said breastmilk or formula should still be their primary source of nutrients before a year old. We were at Disney when DS was 13 months and he ate off our plates or his sisters plus we brought along cheerios, puffs, applesauce, juice boxes, fishy crackers ( the baby ones), and a few other Gerber baby foods and snacks. If you are on the DDP you will get plenty of food to share with the baby.... A ton of food Have a great trip!

 

[msmama]

Like some said, primary nutrition should be breastmilk/formula, but try telling that to a baby that wants to feed himself.

My guy was 9 months old on our trip. He ate off my plate just fine. I did have cheerios, puffs (though he lost interest in those), some dried fruit, etc for snacks but the portions were fine for sharing.

And as others suggested, buffets were great. I also snagged a banana from the buffet for him for later, too. Snack credits worked for him, too.

Have a great trip!

 

[Colleen27]

Like some said, primary nutrition should be breastmilk/formula, but try telling that to a baby that wants to feed himself.

Exactly! DD7mo crawls over to her high chair, pulls herself up to standing, makes chewing motions, and looks up at me when I start dishing out dinner for the rest of the family. She definitely wants to eat with us! Sure, she only manages a few steamed baby carrots or a couple of fruit puffs at this point and it isn't a significant source of nutrition yet, but it is enough to let me know I'd better be thinking about how to share with her at Disney because she's not a happy baby watching us eat without something tasty of her own!