First Holiday. Weaning. Absolutely clueless.

[SweetBerries]

Hi everyone,

I'm going on my first 'mini break' with DS in December when he will be 11 months old. We go to Florida for Christmas to see DH's family, but I want to get this first trip out of the way before I think about that. We're going to Germany for the Christmas markets...I'm hoping that he'll enjoy the lights and change of scenery.

I'm not sure what to take with us, though. We've only just started weaning, and we are relying on pouches at the moment to try and see what DS has a taste for before I start buying ingredients in bulk that end up getting wasted. By 11 months were your little ones having a bit of what you had at mealtimes? And if you were going abroad, would you follow this there, or would it be better to rely on things like jars that have usually been heat treated? I'll be taking whatever milk he's drinking with us, but I'm not sure about food...

Also, I'm not sure about taking a steriliser. I'm hoping to stop sterilising everything in the next few months (he's 6 months next week) but if we go abroad should I ramp up the vigilance and take a travel steriliser with us?

Any and all opinions welcome. My first baby, first holiday, I have little to no idea what I'm doing (hence thinking about this 6 months in advance...)

Thankyou :) xx

[chloechloe]

Hi there! We did a 3 week road trip through Italy when DD was 11mo. I guess it depends on the baby (and you should have a better idea nearer the time) but our DD was eating some of our normal food at that age, but not so reliably that we could be sure she would actually eat what we ordered. We tended to order something we thought she might like and that we could mash up, but also had plenty of baby food with us. I was also still BFing - just in the mornings - and she had a bottle of formula at bedtime.

While we were away I didn't bother sterilizing the bottles - I think it's only necessary for the first 6 months.

I live in Germany and you can get really good quality baby food here. HIPP (think you can buy it in the UK too) is an Austrian brand that is all organic and readily available in every supermarket and also in DM (like Boots but not as good!)

The only thing I would say is that what babies like from jars / pouches doesn't necessarily translate into "real" food and vice versa. Our DD would never eat any of the complete meals from jars, but was fine with anything home cooked. Baby fruit in jars on the other hand she loved!

Given that milk still forms the bulk of the diet at that age you could also take some baby porridge that you just need to mix with hot milk or water. When we were traveling I just gave DD 1 "proper" meal at lunchtime. At breakfast she had a BF and baby porridge with fruit, then in the evenings a "Goodnight" porridge that you can get over here plus a bottle. I then started giving her evening meals at around a year.

Hope that helps!

[doesntmatterwhoyouare]

I travelled to the UK (live in Sweden) when dc1 was 11months. He mostly ate normal food so readybreak or Weetabix for breakfast, sandwich and soft fruit for lunch but indid a kids meal like spaghetti and sauce/ beans and egg/mash and meatballs for dinner as i was eating much later. He had a cup of cows milk first thing in the morning and last thing at night with a bowl porridge. I didn't bother with baby jars etc as the portions were nowhere near big enough for him by then.

[lookbeforeyouleap]

We did baby lead weaning and my ds is 11 months and can and will eat pretty much anything (except broccoli,but he eats that at nursery! ).

[Daisyandbabies]

At 11 months, I wouldn't be making anything in bulk at all...eat whatever you are eating!

[Caterina99]

My DS just turned 12 months. We didn't do exclusive BLW, he had purées and finger foods, but by 11 months he was on almost exclusively finger foods as he never really liked the pouches and only 2 bottles of formula per day - morning and bedtime. He's a good eater though. Eats loads and isnt too fussy. You have no idea what your DS will be like so I wouldn't worry about it too much just yet.

When we eat out, he usually just has bits off our plates, plus snacks etc that I bring with me, such as a fruit pouch or yoghurt pouch or rice cakes etc. it depends on the type of restaurant and what we've ordered and sometimes you just need to keep them quiet while the food is coming! DS has 3 meals a day plus 2 snacks, so I'd want to be prepared with some of his food so we didn't have to stop all the time so he could eat, but his actual lunch and dinner would be with us eating mostly what we eat. I'd probably take some familiar snacks that I knew he liked and then buy some stuff there like fruit and cheese and bread to mix it up with the prepackaged stuff (but he eats loads!)

I stopped sterilizing at 7 months, so I wouldn't bother with that. Especially not in Germany, which I assume has clean water.