Click through from my homepage for tips on baby feeding magic.
Thanks to Plum Organics for sponsoring my post about tips for baby feeding magic. What if you let baby choose what’s for dinner? Check out their cute “Quest for Yum!” video and see what happens!
I’ve never understood the rush to get babies started on solids, and that’s purely for selfish reasons. Baby food is a freaking mess and a hassle! And it can be stressful. At least, that’s my experience.
Alas, babies eventually have to eat something beyond breastmilk or formula, so here are a few techniques I’ve adopted over the last few years that make baby feeding a little less hectic for me:
1. Bananas, avocados, and sweet potatoes for the win!
I’m never without these in the house. Any one of them makes for the perfect, fast, easy baby meal. Avocados and bananas are great because you simply peel and mash (or not, if you’re baby led weaning). They’re easy to throw into a diaper bag and take out with you, too.
Sweet potatoes require the extra step of microwaving (poke holes in the skin with a fork, put on a plate with a tiny bit of water, cook about 8 minutes, cut open and cool before serving), but they can be a quick option, too. And while avocados and bananas don’t keep very well from one meal to the next, it’s easy to refrigerate the leftover half of a sweet potato for lunch the next day.
2. Keep the plates and cups to a minimum.
Because, really, who wants to do more dishes? Actually, we don’t even feed Leyna on a plate. We just wipe down the table before we feed her and lay the food directly on it. And cups? Don’t go nuts and buy a ton of sippy cups. Kids really only need a couple, and at the table, while you’re there to assist anyway, try helping them drink water from a regular cup with no lid. Less pieces to clean and great practice for them. Just make sure you have a hand towel near by for any spills.
3. Skip the white rice cereal.
Have you heard of Dr. Greene’s White Out movement? Dr. Greene states that feeding your baby white rice cereal is like feeding them a spoonful of sugar, and he’s working to eliminate the traditional idea to start baby on white rice cereal as their first food. Instead, the campaign slogans is “Let every child’s first food be a real food.” The idea is to start babies on either whole grain cereals (brown rice or oatmeal) or skip cereals altogether. You can learn more about it here.
We didn’t start either of our kids on solids until 6 months old, so we skipped the cereal altogether.
4. Behold! The baby food pouches!
Okay, obviously this post is sponsored by Plum Organics, who happens to make our favorite baby food pouches, but that’s precisely why I agreed to this sponsored post in the first place. We love them!
These things weren’t around when Kendall was in the baby food stage (at least, not readily available where we are). With Kendall, I’d pack coolers with frozen cubes of homemade baby food when we went out (because as a mother of one, I had time for that).
Now? No way was that happening. I felt a smidge guilty about it until we tried some Plum Organics baby food pouches. Leyna LOVES them, they are SUPER easy to take with us, and way, way less mess. Not to mention, they are made with organic ingredients. At first, we got a couple Plum Dispensing Spoons by Boon (which, by the way, have worked on all brands of baby food pouches we’ve tried), and they were great for that early baby food stage. Now, though, we don’t even need that. She’ll just suck the food right out of the pouch!
5. Dress baby in a rain coat so you can hose her off.
I kid. Sort of. That thought does cross my mind, though, as I change her outfits about 4 times a day.
Now, what would you add as a tip for baby feeding magic? I’m always open to new ones.
I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. To learn more about Plum Organics, visit their Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/PlumOrganics.
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18 comments
Ha I still love the pouches for the 2 year old. Quick and sneaking veggies! WIN! I second the using real cups. Our daycare doesn’t do sippys. He was drinking out of a little cup at about 9 months. People are still floored how well he does!
We’re on the verge of starting so this is super helpful (ha! That sounded like spam). But really, we are going to skip the cereals and start her at 6 months. The anticipation is killing me but I figure she can celebrate Thanksgiving with us by having her first taste of solids. I’m hoping it helps with the staying asleep longer department, but who knows.
I definitely want to make all of her stuff or use organic only baby food. Hopefully this will be a kick start to getting Ava eating healthier again too!
It’s certainly helped us all get back to eating a little healthier.
My 2-year-old son loves the baby food pouches. I buy them in large quantities when they go on sale since he will eat one a day. I only buy the ones that are veggie-fruit mixtures. They are one of the few ways I can get him to eat vegetables. and are one of his favorite snack options.
Question–do you still worry about introducing only one food at a time and waiting a few days before trying something new? Or…not so much? It’s been a few years since we did all this! 🙂
Nah. In the beginning, I started her out on bananas, then I added avocados a couple days later, sweet potatoes a couple days after that. Then it was just full force with whatever she wanted to eat.
Great post! I think you hit a lot of major (and maybe some not so well known) tips! I started my daughter on rice cereal at 4 months, but I will definitely do things differently next time.
Baby lead solids for the win! Seriously, this has been so effortless and awesome for us. Emilio has great hand eye coordination, he loves all sorts of food, and we get to eat with him instead of taking turns. Also, he’s a blast to eat with. Yes, at the beginning it is scary when they gag, but it is how they learn and now he’s such a pro. Even better- it makes me keep healthy foods in the house for all of us! That’s my baby feeding magic- he likes food, meal times are fun (not battles), and he’s developing killer motor skills!
I wish we could have made BLW work for us! The gagging just made me too anxious. But I’m glad it’s working for you 🙂
My tip- NAKED feeding. Our 3.5 yr old & 18 M old roll this way. Also, it’s great fun in the summer to hose them off outside. I do MUCH less laundry now too…and never really did bibs ever. Stains come off skin much easier than fabric 😉
We are going to have to adopt this technique. I hate bibs.
I found we all eat healthier now because of the kiddo! I LOVE plum baby food pouches, but still make most of her food. I wouldn’t say Charlotte is a picky eater per se, she just likes “good” food. Never did rice cereal, she spits out soupy jarred food and wont touch stale goldfish. We’ve got a high-class foodie on our hands!!
Thanks to you we totally skipped cereal and went right to veggies. I didn’t even think about white cereal as a crap carb but it obviously is. We started with pureed sweet potatoes thinned with some breast milk. Super easy and cheap to make. I made a big batch about a month back and have it stocked in my freezer in individual cubes.
Thankfully it appears we don’t have a picky eater on our hands. She sees a spoon and it’s game on!
So happy to hear that!
We did rice cereal for about a minute…. then Ruby tasted bananas and it from then on we just went with actual non-powdered type food. We still use the Plum pouches – I just found them at Vons! I am pretty sure I freaked the lady buying diapers out with my shrieks of glee when I saw them! Especially the ones with oatmeal and quinoa in them! Seriously I eat them sometimes – mixed with yogurt in the morning… SO good.
That pic is the best thing I’ve opened my Google Reader up to in a long while.
I. Die.
I can totally vouch for the avacado, banana, sweet potato… these are the trifecta and super healthy!!! I can’t wait to try the baby food pouches, even though my little man can eat substantial foods now, it sounds like this would be easier than trying to find things suitable for him at restraunts when we are out and about. Thanks for the tip!
Yes, even though Leyna eats table food now, it’s nice to bring the pouches with us to places where I don’t think we’ll find many healthy options for her.