Dining with our baby daughter

Dining

How and what do I feed my baby when traveling..?!

To us it seemed really important that we could all sit together whilst eating. Ideally at a table together rather than on laps. After a delve into the travel high chair options we settled for the Mountain Buggy clip on high chair. And so far it’s been a real winner for us. It’s not fail proof as some places have tables that are too deep, but I reckon it’s the best of the bunch. We ordered the Phil and Teds lobster chair at the same time, and on weight alone the Mountain Buggy surpasses. I mean we have to carry these things on our damn backs and Phil and Teds seemed well heavy.

Whilst quite a few places have had a high chair, many haven’t and it’s been a pleasure to sit with Milla and eat with her. She’s coming up for eleven months old soon. At about 5 and half months we started baby led weaning. The best thing we’ve ever done. She can decide what she likes for herself and she can chew with her four teeth and gums which gives her a level of independence and a greater flexibility at meal times. Saying this I was super worried about food and meals before we left the UK, and sent Ol out to buy over 30 baby food pouches. He returned with a massive heavy bag full. So much bulkier and weightier than the small tidy packing cube I’d had in my mind, and after laughing at him buying them all, started to wonder if we could actually fit them in. 

After some ninja packing between us, we did it! And it seemed crazy. But, well, I’m glad of them. I can give Milla one a day and know that she’s getting something good. She’s an awfully slow eater when it comes to solids so getting a good meal down her can draw into the day. It’d be meal and sleep with nothing in between! Don’t get me wrong she’s been amazing at trying new foods. The first two weeks she mainly ate Thai curry which for a ten month old was impressive. However to get enough volume into her, the pouch back up has given peace of mind. I haven’t seen any baby food in the 7-11’s out here apart from formula, and least not veggie baby food. 

She’s still on the boob too, however dwindling the supply feels. Again this feels nice to have as a safety net. I thought she’d be feeding more in the heat but it’s just the same as at home really, and is her main intake of fluid. Although after a few curried veggies she seems to glug quite a bit of water down!

I also packed a zip lock bag of porridge oats which I make for her every morning with some fruit purée added. She loves it and I know she’s getting some good stuff to start the day. In fact breakfast has been her fave meal, starting with porridge, fruit as an interlude and followed by egg. A bit of a winning combo.

Other essentials to note:
A silicone bib, silicone food mat, a couple of muslins, an amazing spoon courtesy of Emirates, and a cloth rather than wet wipes. We’ve used a few wet wipes - again courtesy of Emirates, however these have been few and far between and we still have a pack left. So I’m guessing ten wet wipes used in three weeks. And in my book that’s ten too many. I hate the things. And I reckon the planet does too.

Another notable thing we packed were a couple of refillable pouches. These were great to give Milla the lions share of our smoothies. She started becoming pretty adept at using one of the aluminium straws we’d packed too. All things I’d defo pack again.

The only other life saver that I would definitely pack - rice cakes!! They have nipped in the bud many a melt down. If the traveling is seemingly getting a bit overwhelming, give her a rice cake. If she starts to get a sad face on a plane, give her a rice cake and if she’s just looking a bit bored and peckish - rice cake! Now it sounds as if we never stop feeding her rice cakes, however we took a couple of bags out for the 5 weeks … and they’ve had to last. Finding any kind of replacement was nigh impossible without tonnes of sugar. And we’re not going down that road. So eeking them out was a priority. So they were used extremely sparingly. It made her appreciate them more and so therefore delivered high results. Boom!