Providing CM with baby food

[Rob1n]

My DS will be 9 months when he goes to the childminders & I will be working full time. I need to provide all the food, which I am happy to do, but just wondering how on earth I will find the time to prepare it all and what sort of things can I make in advance? To start with it will be quite easy if he is still on pureed things, but what about when he is having more 'proper' meals?
Has anyone worked out an efficient system of prepping meals in advance with a varied menu?

Many Thanks

Save a bit of your dinner for his lunch the next day?

what meals will he be there for?
my DS is 10 months, and has lunch at the childminders. I provide:
a sandwich (avocado or tuna and cream chees, or peanut butter - something smeary). sometimes I give him oatcakes instead of bread.
a fromage frais (sainsburies kids ones are great as they have no added sugar, just fruit puree)
a bit of cheese (edam or cheddar, depending on which is least manky in the fridge)
a small pot of cut up fruit or veg - cucumber discs with the peel off, or a cooked beetroot (from the vaccuum packed ones) sliced up, or cooked baby sweetcorn.
a piece of fruit (banana, pear, or nectarine normally)
a biscuit (one of the plum organic or ellas kitchen ones, as they are the only ones he'll eat - he normally has 1 a day, so a pack of two lasts two days!)
a fruit pot or pouch.

If we've had pasta for dinner, I'll sometimes send a pot of the leftover sauce (cheese sauce with lots of veggies added is his fave!) with some pasta for CM to cook up. And occasionally, an egg to be boiled and had with toast instead of a sandwich.

this way it's a bit varied without being difficult for me to do. if he's refused his breakfast in the morning, I will sometimes put in a pot of porrige mix which the childminder just adds hot water to. we've done a mix of BLW and spoon feeding, but he seems happy with it. not a great eater at the best of times though...

I have a couple of children who come to me with all their own food and who have their main "dinner" meal at lunchtime. They both have good food which is essentially what their families have had the previous evening, just cut up very small or slightly pureed.

It will vary from a roast, fish pie, curries, pasta dishes, casseroles etc., and one of the mums said it is so easy just to serve up a portion for XXX for the following day. The parents seem keen on their children having their main meal at lunchtime so that when they collect them and take them home, they can give them a light tea before bed.

There really is very little that does not reheat ok. The ingredients in some of the meals are quite adventurous for children but the 18 month old happily eats all manner of vegetables including aubergines, artichokes, celery, parsnips and every kind of bean and pulse you can think of. I know I am very lucky in looking after children who have such a varied palate.

They also come with a dairy product, either cheese or yoghurt plus fresh fruit of some sort and the older one tends to have a "treat" which may be a muesli bar or similar.

I prepare all my DD's main meals and freeze them in portions. To keep a good stock of them it takes about an hour or so every week. As soon as the last of one type of food is finished I will make a new batch. She is at nursery two days a week and so I try and have four or five different frozen meals in the freezer as well as portions of soup and pasta sauce etc. I tend to cook the vegetables and pasta/ rice/ potatoes the day before so they are ready the next morning.

Some of the recipes she loves are:

Individual fish pie (cooked in a ramekin)
Bolognese sauce (can use for cottage pie or with pasta)
Veg curry
Chicken casserole
Beef casserole
Risotto

I know for a lot of people it is easier to give them something leftover from dinner the night before, but I am a really fussy eater not to mention vegetarian and some of the food is quite spicy, so I really feel she gets a better nutritional variety if I cook especially for her.

Thanks for your suggestions. I must have not thought enough about it as I didn't think about simple things I could do such as sandwiches. I think I'd looked at the nursery menus and got it into my head that he needs full cooked meals all the time, which i do like the idea of. I'm not really used to all the business of freezing meals and re-heating them in the micro as I've always thought eating from fresh was better but I've come to my senses and realised this is just not practical, especially given the amount of waste. I started weaning by cooking things freshly everyday & soon decided it was much more sensible to go down the route of the freezer cube tray, but I've just done fruit & veg so far, no proper meals yet.

From a childminders point of view, do you prefer things that you can leave them to eat themselves, rather than having to feed them? I'm also worried that he'll still be learning about food & still need a lot of help, will that be too much with two other young ones to look after (another will only be 7 months older)

I'm a CM - I've had a little girl from 6m, I fed her for 1 month then started giving her everything mashed rather than pureed and I left her to eat it with her hands, she's nearly 10m now and eats far more than my 22m/o, all using her hands. I wouldn't worry about it, there's no reason at 9m why he'd need much help if you're happy to give him the chance to learn - this is the baby led weaning approach.

On the flip side, my other mindee came to me at 14m and was being 100% spoon fed so I fed him for a month to let him settle in and then I let him get on with it. He's just turned 20m and I know that his parents are still feeding him with a spoon at home. It's totally up to you what approach you take and your CM will do whatever you'd like, your CM will be able to cope with more than one spoon-fed baby to feed so I wouldn't worry about that aspect.