What to feed one year old when travelling?

[weealba]

We're going to be driving to France in the summer when my LO will be just turning 1. He's really good with solids in general but can be a bit fussy, e.g. one day he will only eat purees, the next day refuses purees and will only eat finger foods. When he started solids he lost interest in milk and drinks very little formula. As he'll be turning 1 when we go to France, I intend just to cut out the milk from around then anyway.

We're going to be on the road for 3 or 4 days, driving, ferry and then stopping at hotels until we reach our destination where I can make proper food for him.

My question is, does anyone have any advice what to feed him on the go for those few days? I won't be able to really make fresh food, we will be eating out but kids meals don't tend to be that great in my experience. Do I just bring some baby ready meals for those few days even though they aren't great nutritionally?

Any tips would be appreciated!

A long time to be travelling so make it as easy as you can.
grab a sandwich from somewhere, odd kids meal is fine.
I sometimes ask for a meal from adults menu but a smaller portion and never had any issues

Take a chilly box, with cheese, hummus, some carrots, grapes, apples etc. Take a knife and a small chopping board and plenty little Tupperware boxes. Crackers, puree pouches. The ferry/motel/ campsites will have microwaves you can heat ready made food in.
Have him eat what you eat. Bread from lovely bakeries. Don't fret about regular meals, just little and often and plenty veg and fruit.

I switched by baby to whole milk just before 1 because of the price of formula abroad, out worried week. Just be aware that not all French fresh milk is pasteurised (they are like the US, got a funny obsession with raw milk). The UHT milk is always pasteurised.

For travelling I took back up pouches (even though they are vilified currently!) because it meant we always had a low salt meal they didn't need the fridge, in case things went wrong.

I think you will be amazed by how much your baby's diet evolves over the next few weeks before you go, it makes eating out MUCH easier. You can get fresh fruit and veg from the supermarket and just let them have a go, they will eat sandwiches or omelette, they'll probably have a go at a savoury crepe or croque monsieur if that's what you are having. At one, I think it will be easier than you think 😊 I have certainly been enjoying how much easier lunch out had been the last month, I just make sure I have done fruit or veg as finger food and then I can be confident of finding cafe food the baby will eat.

They sell UHT milk in smaller bottles in big supermarkets - you’ll probably be able to find 250mL whole milk (lait entier -red tops) in a big hypermarket. In a smaller supermarket you might find ready made growing up milk (lait de croissance) in 250 mL bottles but not whole milk.
There are always 3 billion different types of yogurt, including sugar free plain yogurt (yaourt nature) so that’s always going to be an option even in a tiny little corner store sized supermarket.
You’ll probably find a decent range of premade baby purées in any mid sized supermarket and also in pharmacies. They have some weird system of what level of chunks/puree is good for what age so you’ll probably see ´à partir de 4/6/12/18 mois’ on the labels somewhere. It doesn’t actually matter though, there’s nothing in a ‘18mois’ meal that is dangerous for an 11 month old.
Restaurants won’t mind you feeding a little bit of your order to a baby that age. They won’t be upset if you don’t order a kid’s meal for a 1 yr old.

At that age I’d just be giving him whatever we have, so if that’s a sandwich, restaurant meal, snacks etc. My daughter turned 1 last month and she just eats whatever we have really, you don’t have to order a kids menu meal for him if you don’t want to, just share, I’d pack some extra snacks for him between meals just incase he is hungry but meals wise I wouldn’t stress, he can have whatever you have.

Thank you all so much the the advice, tips and reassurance!!! I definitely feel less stressed about it all now!