Starting Solids and Baby Food on the Go - How Do You Do It?

Baby food is what anthropologists call a "socially acquired need". Babies don't *need* baby food. They just need food that can be eaten without teeth. If they need the dead-smooth consistency of commercial baby food, they're probably not ready for solids yet. Babies are ready for solids when their protective gag reflex calms down and they express an interest in eating. This can happen anywhere between 3 and 15 months.

A few things my babies liked:
avocado, mashed with a fork
banana, mashed with a fork
rice cereal
milled puffs
Veggie Booty

I always let my kids feed themselves at home. I'd generally skip the plate or bowl (they tend to throw it), and just put a pile of food on the high chair in front of them. This presumes, of course, that you have a high chair tray that can be removed and scrubbed well with soap!

Put a small blob of food (1-2 tablespoons) in front of the baby in the high chair and let them have at it. If the child finishes it and seems to want more, give them more. Expect to give the baby a bath after every meal!

When we were out and about, I usually fed the baby sitting in my lap and focused on much neater foods. I mostly did the puffy foods that dissolve in the mouth: Veggie Booty and millet puffs. You can hand these to the child one at a time and sweep up any spills. You can also use a teaspoon to take tiny bits off the end of a banana or avocado and feed to baby.

I would not recommend feeding a reclining child anything but milk. Try laying down on the couch and eating a banana. Compare it to eating while sitting up. Eating while reclining is a choking hazard, at any age.

Also, keep in mind that when babies are newly exploring solids, they should be considered recreational eaters. That is, they're eating to explore new tastes and new textures, not for nutrition. The baby's primary nutrition comes from milk. It is just fine for to reserve solids for eating at home, and just feed the baby milk when out and about.

I never did formula, so I can't advise on that. I can say that the poop explosions will go down significantly, but don't presume they're gone!! :)

Water in a sippy cup is fine. For water in sippy cups, filling it full is usually easier for the baby, because they don't have to tilt the cup as much. (When they graduate to open cups, only put in half an inch or so, to minimize spillage.)

You can't overdo it on water. If the weather is hot/dry or you notice signs of dehydration, make sure you offer more water. Breastmilk self-adjusts to be more watery in hot weather, denser in cold weather. On formula, you may want to be more diligent about offering water.

If you really want/need to feed your baby with a spoon on a given occasion, we used the three-spoon method. Baby had one spoon in each hand, and the adult had a spoon. Adult would give the baby a bite of food. Baby would drop a spoon onto the high chair tray and grab the one in his/her mouth. Adult would pick up dropped spoon and fill it with food. Repeat the rotation of spoons until baby is done eating.

Hope this is useful. Congrats on your little one!

1:) You don't have to feed her solids yet if you don't want. Our 3rd just turned 9 months and he has only had baby food 3 times. And only 2 or 3 small scoops each time. We prefer to wait as long as possible since it is not necessary (nutrition wise.)

2:) 2 to 3 Tablespoons mixed with either water, breast milk, or formula is fine. If she shows signs of being full, just stop and toss the rest. Don't try to get in that "last spoonful" if she doesn't want it. Each child is different as to when they want more. But they don't need it till 1 year. Main nutrition should be breast milk or formula at this point.

3:) Give her a baby spoon to play with! That way she won't keep trying to take yours! Worked very well for all the daycare babies I ever had and our own! You can definitely put some baby puffs on the high chair tray and let her try to feed herself. She won't be manipulating a spoon to do that for another good 6 to 12 months.

4:) We use tap water. But we have a separate one that does NOT run through the softener. (We drink this as well.) We also have well water as we don't want our kids to drink fluoride.

5:) Yes you can introduce a sippy. Try the nubby kind. I always had it on the tray when I fed solid foods and would offer a couple drinks during the feeding. Once they got the hang of it, we would always have a fresh cup of ice water available at their height throughout the entire day AND night. That way they could drink as much water as they needed.

6:) Just bring a bottle bag with an ice pack for the opened jar of baby food. Not ideal, but we couldn't think of another way....... Another reason why it was more convenient to just breast feed on those days where we would be out and about...... Worked for us. But not everyone wants to skip baby food those days.

In my opinion, if she is not sitting very well yet, I'd hold off another few weeks on the baby food. Once she is sitting, then I would try again........

Good luck!

You've gotten some great advice about feeding, making baby food, how to do it when out, etc that I won't duplicate. I too made baby food right from the start and found it easier, cheaper and I threw out less.
The important thing to remember is solid food at this age is practice, not nutrition. Primary source of nutrition until age 1 is breastmilk (or formula if you're not nursing). We started very slowly, cereal first and a few other foods here and there. I did do prunes pretty early because the consistency change of poops with the solid food also meant some painful ones, be warned!
Good luck with the transition.

I think that your baby should only be getting very minimal cereal at this age. She is really kind of young, in my opinion, for as much as you are giving her. Feed her at home and you don't have to worry about carrying it with you.

We took bottles of nursery water already in the bottle with the plastic cap on it. We carried the powdered formula in the can in the diaper bag. We mixed them as needed through out the day. We always rinsed out the bottle when the kids were done with it to keep the smell down in them plus it is just easier to clean.

When she is a couple of months older you can feed her more foods. Just put the jars in the diaper bag and a spoon in a zip lock baggie. Feed her when she is hungry. You can also use plastic spoons or take and toss and then just toss them when you are done. That way no food dribble in the bag.

Hi! Baby shouldn't be eating much at this point. Mine would eat about 1/3 of those small jars of baby food. I didn't get in to making my own food. I thought the organic jars were cheap enough and would help expose them to a lot of different flavors. Like others said...milk/formula is their primary source of nutrition until they are one.
When I was out and about I had a sippy cup full of water. I use filtered water - less plastic to toss into the environment and it's safe to drink. If they were still on breastmilk I'd also bring a bottle (or 2 depending how long I'd be out). For formula I'd heat up the water before leaving and measure it into the bottle. I'd have the formula measured out already in one of those formula to go containers like: http://www.diapers.com/products/Munchkin-Powder-Formula-D... So when it came time I'd just pour the formula into the milk and shake it up. For the baby food I poured some food from the jar into the Boon spoon. Best invention ever! http://www.diapers.com/products/Boon-BPA-Free-Squirt-Oran... I also would use this at home b/c it makes the feeding less messy! Always have a bib in your diaper bag! Makes it super easy to eat while on the go. At home it's good to let them play with their own spoon so they start to learn that coordination skill - it's terribly messy for awhile but that's life!
Also, always had a snack trap full of puffs. Puffs dissolve really easy in their mouths and they feed themselves. This is once they start crawling I believe.
Once they are a year and as long as they have a good amount of teeth by then - they are pretty much eating what you eat but in small cut up pieces and they are feeding themselves the solid stuff - might still need help w/ yogurt, etc.
Good luck!

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We made homemade babyfood for my son. It's so much cheaper, that you will save money even when you throw a lot of it out. For instance, we bought a big bag organic carrots. We peeled them, cooked them, ran them through the food processor and frozen them in ice cube trays. You'll end up with a months worth of carrots for pennies per serving. We would use a large bag of frozen peas and do the same thing. It's not as much work as you think it is since you can store the food in the freezer.
We used nursery water and would buy it in a big container and keep iton the counter. We went through 1 container a week.
We didn't start giving water until he was 1.
We only fed him babyfood at home, until he really seemed to get the hang of it. We gave him formula when we were out. It just seemed easier.

Did your doctor give you a schedule for introducing solid foods? My son started solids at 4 months because he was always hungry. The pediatrician gave us a schedule such as start with one table spoon of cereal the first week, then gradually increase each week and gradually introduce new foods. You want to introduce new foods one at a time in case there is an allergic reaction. We used bottled water too. However, we're in LA also and we would go to the water machines outside Vons or Ralphs and fill up empty gallon containers for 25 cents. We would reuse a bottle for awhile then buy a couple of new gallons and reuse those. We would bring the jars of baby food with us and feed our son in a restaurant if we were eating out or just in his stroller. If you don't want to waste jars of food, then just give him jars at home and bring cereal with you for when you are out for the day. You just give him the cereal mixed with milk or water. If your daughter seems hungry after giving her what you're currently giving, then increase the good. My son ate a lot and he still does! Definitely let your daughter try to feed herself!! The sooner the better for you! It will be messy at first but she needs to learn and it will help develop her motor skills. (get a splat mat for under the high chair) With a first child parents tend to do too much for them and they don't develop their skills as fast as 2nd children who have to do more on their own. My son is an only child and I did way too much for him so I had to stop and let him do things himself even if it was messy or took a long time.

At 6 months you daughter still needs mostly formula. We tried introducing water to our son around 8 or 9 months. He didn't like it at first but we kept trying and he started drinking it on a regular basis. We would let him drink from a regular water bottle or try a sippy cup - do whatever works for you. My son is 8 years old now. He drinks milk in the morning and then he mostly drinks water the rest of the day.

Good luck with everything. Hope this helps.