Author Topic: What to Feed Baby When We're Out  (Read 1394 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline mbasilio

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 1
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 29
  • Location:
What to Feed Baby When We're Out
« on: February 18, 2006, 22:23:32 pm »
Hope I don't sound too silly asking these questions...  :P

My baby has been on solids for a few months now but I still haven't resolved the problem of feeding her when we are out, especially when we're travelling. I tried giving her commercial baby food when we're out but she refused to take it.  I make my own baby food and I'm not quite sure how I should be transporting the food.  So can I heat up the food and put it in a cooler bag with hot paks?  How long can the food be kept this way before it's unsafe for the baby to eat it?  Is 4-5 hours ok?

We're not supposed to add salt and seasoning to baby food, so when can the baby start eating what we eat from the table?  Salt and all.

And when does the baby eat dinner at the same time as the family?  She has her dinner at 5:30 pm now while we eat at around 7.  It seems like she'll always be having dinner on her own since her bedtime is about 8.  My family can't advise on this since I come from a culture where most of our babies are not on a schedule and 10pm is their bedtime.

Offline cwolff

  • BW Devotee
  • ****
  • Showing Appreciation 8
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 389
  • Location: Los Angeles
Re: What to Feed Baby When We're Out
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2006, 22:43:02 pm »
To answer your first question about feeding while out, if you make your own baby food, then put it in a little container and wrap in tinfoil (keeps the cold in longer).  Then use one of those little lunch packs that you can put an ice pack in.  They make them with a little compartment just for the ice pack.  Then you are good to go.  4-5 hours at room temperature while you are out is fine.  Don't leave it in a hot car or anything.  When we go out, I'll usually make up her lunch and do the tinfoil thing.  Then I throw a bottle in there just in case too also wrapped in tinfoil.  Heating them up, you can either feed cold or just get a cup of hot water wherever you are at and set the container in it for a few minutes.  Or the bottle.

As for the eating dinner with the family, the only way I see that happening with you guys is if you switch your meal times closer to 6pm, and push the baby's closer to 6pm.  You don't want to have her eating at 7pm, but your family might not want to eat earlier.  If that's the case it's OK, your family will just have to accept that for a while you all aren't going to be eating dinner together.

As for the salt issue, I would refrain from adding additional salt to homemade foods for as long as possible.  However, if you are cooking for the entire family, you can't make your food so bland that you all hate it.  But you can add as little as possible and let everyone add salt afterwards to match their own tastes.  That way you can offer her table foods now and see what she likes and doesn't like.  Just make sure they are very well mashed up.  And also make sure you know exactly what is in the table foods, because you will want to know if she develops a reaction, what is causing it.

Offline tylersmommy

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 172
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 3433
  • Nebraska, USA
  • Location: Nebraska
Re: What to Feed Baby When We're Out
« Reply #2 on: February 19, 2006, 03:14:37 am »
I made Tyler's food too, and I never heated his food. It was always room temp or straight out of the fridge. If you can get your LO used to that, it makes it soooo much easier to be out and about. I'd do what cwolff said and put Tyler's food in an insulated lunch bag with an ice pack and it would be fine for a few hrs. If we were planning to be out any longer than that, like for an entire day trip, I'd put his food cubes in the lunch bag straight from the freezer, and they'd be mostly melted by the time he ate. If not, I'd just ask for a mug of hot water if we were at a restaurant and put his little bowl of food on top of it for a few min until it was done melting.

Dinner together, we moved our dinner to the halfway point. We eat at 6:15 now and Tyler's bedtime is 8:30. If you don't want to do that, it's not a huge deal if you don't all eat dinner together.

I agree with cwolff on the seasonings...babies actually have more taste buds than adults, so it's a good idea to keep their food pretty bland for awhile.
Melissa
Mommy to Tyler, 12/30/03 and Mackenzie, 10/17/06
<img src="http://b5.lilypie.com/Uavem6.png" alt="Lilypie 5th Birthday Ticker" border="0"  />

Offline sa

  • BW Aficionado
  • ***
  • Showing Appreciation 7
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 245
  • Location: london
Re: What to Feed Baby When We're Out
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2006, 00:59:37 am »
does she like cereal or baby rice?
some brands you only need to add hot water, that's make it nice and warm to serve.
you can add a mashed banana.

how about fruit/dessert in baby jar? does she like those? these also give energy and it will taste good to serve cold.

mum to samuel 25JAN05
textbook/angel baby

Offline mbasilio

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 1
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 29
  • Location:
Re: What to Feed Baby When We're Out
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2006, 04:47:52 am »
Thanks for all your replies!

I usually give my DD her food at room temperature when we're out.  The question of heating up her food came up when we visited my in-laws last weekend and my MIL saw me feeding her "cold" food at the church's potluck lunch.  She told me that it wasn't healthy for the baby etc.  It didn't help at that time that my LO decided to go on a "hunger strike" (you know how they just refuse to eat sometimes) and my MIL equated that to the temperature of the food.

Will it be alright if I heat up the food at home and place it in a thermos food jar?  The food jar keeps the food warm for up to 5 hours.  Will it still be safe for the baby to eat after so long?

Offline Katet

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 608
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 14364
  • Sydney Australia
  • Location: Sydney
Re: What to Feed Baby When We're Out
« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2006, 05:08:59 am »
Heated food will grow bacteria faster (like in under 5 hours), so I would suggest that you take the thermos of boiling water & heat the food (kept cold) with the water if you are somewhere you can't heat it up as otherwise you run the risk of gastro for your lo.

I too serve it cold if I am out & to be honest if someone passed comment I'd turn around & say "oh she doesn't like eating with people in her face, it's not the food, she just likes a bit of space"...
dc1 July 03, dc2 May 05

Offline mbasilio

  • New & Learning The Ropes
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 1
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 29
  • Location:
Re: What to Feed Baby When We're Out
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2006, 23:15:03 pm »
Haha.. :D 

There have been so many instances when someone would say or do something that makes my blood boil.  My husband's boss adores my DD so she would ask to babysit her some weekends.  And she fed my LO cake icing when she was 6 months old!!!  When we went out for lunch with her family one day, she attempted to feed her food from the table with salt and all.  I told her she's not allowed to eat that yet.  You know what she said?  "Oh, poor baby.  All you eat is junk food.  My son was already eating steak when he was 10 months old."  ??!!!  I had to bite my tongue to refrain from saying something I'd regret later.  Aaarrghh!!!

OK, enough of venting.  Thanks for your advice.  I'll bring along hot water when we are out.