Product Spotlight 10/18: Solid Feeding

kbrown2385

This week we are discussing solid feeding. What items did you find were essential to have on hand?

Please use the prompts below to try and share as much relevant information as possible.

For S+TMs:

What items did you love?
What items did you hate?
Additional thoughts?

For FTMs:

Please post any products you are considering and ask any questions you may have.

kbrown2385

We did babyled weaning with ds and plan on doing it with the babies as well. We had so much fun doing it and I’m convinced that is why we don’t have a picky toddler. 

What items did you love? We used the graco blossom high chair. It had a seat that transitioned from infant to booster and I like that the seat could be removed and attached to chairs so he was actually sitting at the table with us. 

-the ezpz mat. It sticks to the table so they can’t pick it up and throw it around. Also dishwasher safe.
-graco graduates silverware. I liked that they are metal and actually pick up the food. A lot of baby utensils don’t.
-replay plates and bowls. I like how sturdy they are and they are made from recycled milk jugs. We still use them at 4 years old so they last.

Other than that ds ate naked so we didn’t use bibs and we put a shower curtain liner under his chair so it caught any dropped food.

What items did you hate? Plastic Utensils. They don’t easily pick up food.

Additional thoughts? We loved baby led weaning. Ds started eating normal food at 6 months and we have yet to go through a pick stage at 4 years old. I highly recommend reading the book Babyled Weaning and joining some fb groups to learn the correct and safe way to go about doing it. 

marebear15

What items did you love? 
- Graco Simple Switch High Chair: This high chair is under $60 and DD is still using it as a booster. Everything comes off easily and can just be thrown in the wash. Right now we don't have on any of the straps or cover because DD prefers to be able to climb in and out of her chair and it's easier to wipe up spills without the cover. The legs come off to covert it to a booster seat that just straps onto a normal kitchen chair. 
- Suction cup bowls: Again DD is still using the bowls today because they stick so well to the high chair and table and she still has a hard time getting them to move. 
- Sectional containers: I bought these on Amazon, and they were perfect when DD started eating at daycare. I would usually fill one with a protein, two fruits, and one veggie. I only had to pack lunch for daycare, they provided two snacks.
- Any sippy that had only two parts, the cup and the lid.

What items did you hate?
- Those soft plastic spoons that turn white when the food is hot. DD would bite the spoon instead of just sucking the food off. She preferred the hard plastic spoons.
- Complex sippies including the 360: These always got so much junk in them and basically had to be cleaned after every meal. If I just stuck them in the fridge, they would get gunk in all the parts really quickly. A milk spoils more quickly in a small cup than in the gallon, btw. I had to throw away a few of them that got left in the car or a backpack because I could never get all the mold out.

On my list this time:
- Full Smock Plastic Bibs: I usually just took DD's shirt off when she ate for easier clean up, but I wish I had bought a few full coverage bibs for eating out and at other people's houses.

Additional thoughts?
We did baby led weaning (BLW) with DD, which I loved some aspects of, but I'm not going to go crazy with this time around. BLW is an approach to solid feeding by letting the baby feed themselves. It helps prevent pickiness, over feeding, rejection of solids over purees, etc. I liked the no-fuss approach to feeding, but sometimes I felt like DD would have eaten more and possibly sleep better if I had topped her off with some purees. I'm still going to allow DD2 to get to choose her finger food options and give her a chance to feed herself, but when she's done, I'm going to offer her some spoon fed foods to see if she's still hungry.

kbrown2385

@marebear15 that style bib is supposed to be awesome. I might have to pick up a few this time around too. It’ll probably make my life easier not having to fully wipe down two. 

cats_in_a_window

I'll third the recommendations for BLW.  Anecdotally, DS was fed with homemade purees while DD did BLW and DD is by far the less picky eater.  It was easier too, since she just got a little of what we were having.  We weren't militant about it, though, we'd still help her eat things like oatmeal, apple sauce, or yogurt with a spoon if that's what we were having (fyi, the cheapo kiddy spoons from Ikea were our favorite for baby feeding).

Another thing to keep in mind with solids is that the recommendations on feeding potentially allergenic foods (e.g., nuts) have recently changed in favor of introducing them earlier to avoid allergies.

marebear15

Just wanted to add that another reason I'm not going to be strict BLW, is that DD did go through picky phases. As soon as she turned 1, she only ate peanut butter sandwiches for nearly a month. Wouldn't even try anything else that she used to love. So while BLW might help you get a less picky toddler, it's not a guarantee. 

peppyj9

My friend plans on doing BLW with her new daughter and I've heard good things but I plan on making my own purees and still allowing DS to try whatever we're having. I guess I'll be trying similar to what @marebear15 is with her 2nd. I was just gifted a baby bullet so plan on putting that to good use. Haven't looked into spoons or bibs or high chairs yet. 

stashattack

@marebear15 Thank you for posting about the graco!! I actually really like that and totally made me rethink the 3-in-1 bumboo that I had registered for. Since that'll only be good for when she's small while the graco will grow with her. I hadn't thought of that!

leprechaunlady

We have the stokke trip trap & I really love it. Dd still uses it sitting at the table & will continue to be able to do so for a good number of years yet as it grows with her. We also have a couple of the cheap ikea high chairs at grandparents houses which she no longer uses.

with the actual feeding part, I absolutely winged it & continue to do so. Dd is quite a fussy eater, in that stuff she loved last week she might hate this week & she goes through phases of either eating loads or hardly anything. Im more of a snacker myself & I see that trait in dd.

MollySm

The thing I used most for baby feeding was just a regular hand blender.  Being able to just blend up any food the rest of us were eating was super helpful, it's easy to clean, and I use it in regular cooking too, especially for soups.  

As for how we feed, I just do it in the way that makes the most sense to me.  I blend some things, especially in the beginning when just swallowing food is a weird sensation to them.  And then other foods I cut into a stick, or French fry shape to let them chew on.  That seemed the easiest for self feeding at the beginning.  I also start food when they seem interested and ready (usually trying to grab ours) and follow their lead on that.  And the only food I don't give them is honey.  

ponyoisfun

@leprechaunlady I am seconding the stokke trip trap.  We got ours second hand and it has been amazing!

What items did you love?

For early days we used the inglesina travel chair with tray.  This is great because it is washable and you can take it with you. 

What items did you hate?
bibs! They were just another toy to dd.  We just use/d cloth napkins or had her shirtless.  It is so hot where we are it really didn't make sense to add another layer. 

Additional thoughts?
Feeding was really hard and stressful as dd had trouble swallowing.  I had always envisioned at least trying BLW, but it was not for us or my dd. I just had her eat what we had, but pureed everything.  This was actually very easy with all of our vegetarian food.  

It was hard to be around kids the same age and see them try all of these different textures, but to know that dd couldn't handle them yet.  Thankfully, now at 2.5 she can eat almost everything!  It is such a relief. 

jaceru

We had a Graco DuoDiner high chair
https://www.amazon.com/Graco-DuoDiner-Converts-Dining-Booster/dp/B07S6Z84KM/ref=sr_1_17?keywords=graco+high+chair&qid=1571753973&s=baby-products&sr=1-17
I liked that we could roll it around to wherever and we could also fold it up. 

We also did a mix puree and baby led weaning. Purees at school for a while and then let her have finger foods at home. I think it worked out pretty well. 
We switched to straw cups for milk at a year and also use 360 cups. 

c1kc1kpol1cn1k

@kbrown2385 I will definitely try baby led weaning this time, I had such a hard time with DD and she is a terrible eater now
@ponyoisfun I had the same situation with DD she just couldn't have textured food and would gag and vomit everything up almost until 12 months. 

What items did you love? suction cups / sectional place mat's / metal fork/spoon or bamboo cuttlery. I liked the 360 and or Wow cup. DD never drank from a bottle so she just transition right to drinking from a cup. I bought a steamer lid for one of my pot's and used it all the time to make her puree's. This time around I might go for a baby breeza food maker or something like that
What items did you hate? anything plastic didn't work
Additional thoughts? We had the Peg Perego Prima Pappa high chair, it was good but to be honest DD didn't really use a high chair all the often. Soon as she could sit on her own she was at her own mini table and chair set and would eat there or at the big table with us on an booster chair seat. 

ponyoisfun

@jaceru I totally forgot about the 360 cups.  We still use ours and they were super helpful when dd was little. 

@c1kc1kpol1cn1k The gagging!  The vomit!  I am sure just like me you are hoping for an easier time this time around.