feeding while away from home

[runningviks]

PLEASE HELP!!!!! My DD is 7 months old and we're in the middle of the weaning process. Next weekend we're travelling about 4 billion miles to a wedding. We'll be on the road for most of Friday, travelling to and then at the wedding for most of Saturday and on the road for most of Sunday. DD loves her food but won't eat it cold, no matter what we try. We did a dry run last weekend when we went to a local wedding and took a flask of hot water and a bowl and tried to heat up food that way but we just couldn't get it warm enough for madam and she refused to eat it. By 8 o'clock she was starving and screaming.
How on earth do you feed a 7 month old when you're mostly in the car? How do you heat food up? I make all the food myself, as it's cheaper, so I'll be armed with bowls of cold veg. The only thing we can guarantee we'll have access to is hot water, but last week couldn't heat the food up enough to get her to eat it by hot water alone.
Any advice would be very, very gratfeully received. I'm going out of my mind worrying about how to feed her.
Cheers

[dilemma456]

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[dilemma456]

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[Bumperlicious]

Will she eat finger food? Banana, rice cakes, bread sticks?

[ceebee74]

Will she eat sandwiches instead? Could you make a supply of a variety of sarnies to take with you instead - wouldn't hurt not to have a hot meal for a couple of days.

[HeadFairy]

My ds is the same... if you're on the motorway, most service stations will have a microwave for public use so you can heat up food. I've fed ds many a time as we trundled up the M1, it's quite a good way of making a car journey go quicker

If you're not on the motorway, places like Little Chef are usually quite happy to accommodate. I've just got very good at asking if I can have something popped in the microwave, hotels, pubs, restaurants, everywhere!

[Bumperlicious]

To be honest, just based on my own experience here, as long as she is having enough milk it won't hurt her to miss a meal at this age, especially if she will graze on snacks.

When you are travelling can you stop at a service station and use the microwave?

[HeadFairy]

Oh and the other thing I would suggest if you're worried about things staying fresh, I freeze a meal in a platic/microwavable bowl and then it slowly defrosts during your journey and ta-da, no worries about freshness!

[oeufflorentine]

More milk and less food ? 7m is still very young.

[Bumperlicious]

Can't blame them for not liking cold mush really can you?

[runningviks]

thanks for all the advice. I'm going to look into the large thermos (ebay!!)which has been suggested. She's too little for finger food yet but I'm hoping that a large thermos might be able to warm something up. The trouble is that we're leaving home really early Friday morning and can't guarantee any form of food heating until we return home Sunday afternoon. The whole weekend we're travelling between home and the wedding and staying in motels. GRRR!

[MrsBadger]

7mo isn't too little for finger food at all - try her!

[ruddynorah]

good grief what a faff! ditto what mrs badger said, as ever

[runningviks]

is she really old enough for finger food? won't she choke? sorry to sound like a complete idiot, but I'm very new to all this and am doing everything by the book. what sort of finger foood could she eat? lord I never thought parenting would be THIS difficult

[ruddynorah]

babyledweaning.com

[MrsBadger]

the DOH recommends finger food from 6m - which book are you looking at?!

and anything softish is fair game - pasta shapes, steamed veg batons, slices of soft fruit like peach or pear, banana, toast, cheese, anything. No (um) nuts, honey or chokey things like whole grapes though, and watch salt levels

This is a fantastic blog by two MNers who did finger foods right from the start and never bothered with mush or spoons at all - it's a brilliant resource.

[littone]

Lots of ladies on here will be able to tell you about BLW. I usually cook for my DS (now 14 months) but probably would have taken some jars of food on a trip like this as easier to get places to heat these than home made food. I have a food thermos (heat food and then keeps hot for about 4-6 hours). You can also heat the food by mixing some hot/boiling water into it. Would you consider using food like heinz baby custards (I use as an alternative to youghurt when travelling and no fridge access). Could you just give fruit ie mashed banana and extra milk?

[Bumperlicious]

Finger food? Well she can eat most things:

sandwiches (philly or humous)
rice cakes
tomatoes
sticks of cheese
fruit
breadsticks
organix crisps (see the baby aisle)

She most probably won't choke, she might gag, but that's her just getting used to moving food around her mouth.

Also, I assume you and DH will be eating, you can just give her some of what you are having, pasta, baked potato, chicken, sandwiches/baguette etc.

Honestly, you should give it a go. DD has only ever had finger food and whatever we have eaten. You've got a week to practise! Tomorrow you could start her off with a bit of toast with homous or soft cheese. Then maybe banana halved and split down the middle. Don't expect her to get much down at first, she's just exploring. Your mantra is: Food is fun until they are 1!

[runningviks]

I've just read the Babyledweaning blog. Wow! I've spent the past 4 weeks tied to my Annabel Karmel book. Tomorrow we get a high chair and steam some carrot sticks!!!!!!! But here's a question-DD can't sit up yet (she's a very lazy 7 MO) How do I feed her if she can't sit in a high chair?

[Bumperlicious]

Yay a convert!

You can get high chairs with backs that prop your baby up. Give her a try and if she's ready she will feed herself. A warning with carrot sticks though, to get them soft enough for young'uns you have to steam the life out of them (IME anyway)! Roasted veg are a bit softer but still taste as nice at this early stage. But give everything a go. Just hold of with tiny things (blueberries etc.) until she has her pincer grip.

Did you see the forums on the BLW site, loads of recipes and ideas and other people going through the same thing on there.

Seriously though, I wouldn't worry about your trip, she'll be fine, make sure you offer her lots of milk and water. Check out the Organix range for sin free snacks. Good luck, glad you've seen the light! [biased]

[RhinestoneCowgirl]

Snacks/finger food and lots of milk definitely the way to go - she's only 7 months old, don't worry about her 'forgetting' about food by missing a few meals.

BLW is a revelation btw - DS enjoyed roast lamb and veggies with my family one Sunday at about 8 months. The lamb mostly got a severe sucking, but roast potato, parsnip and a bit of carrot definitely went down.

Enjoy the wedding

[Elf]

Finger food great idea. However, if you HAVE to heat something I have always found motels, hotels, restaurants whatever, to be extremely happy to quickly microwave something or bring out some hot water or whatever you want.

Sounds like you've got lots of advice here. I found that when we had to do things differently it was a great learning experience and there was always something that was good to have discovered. Hope you enjoy the wedding.

[runningviks]

Thankyou so much to everyone for the great advice. I've just been surfing for high chairs and DD spent the day today guzzling toast. Apart from the occasional cough which had me and DH dashing towards her with our hands in the air, she loved it. Tomorrow we're going to sit her with us at the dinner table and try to eat properly. I wish I'd known about this sooner.
Thanks again!

[ruddynorah]

bring on the sandwiches!!