Just how bad is it to keep unfinished baby food till later?

[Malaleche]

Half an avocado mashed up with boiled water and babyrice. DD2 8.5mo eats only one spoonful (i know she's not very hungry), food now has her saliva in it. Can i put it in the fridge and try again 3 hours later?
Or will it be heaving with bacteria and nasties by then?

it would probably be ok, but it'll turn black from the avocado - yuk!

Hmm, could you add some lemon juice to save the avocado or are they not meant to have citrus yet?

From a bacteria point of view I reckon you're fine esp as you won't be reheating anything.

she's not on citrus yet but I dont usually have a problem with avocado turning black. ok will give it to her later....

In theory your not supposed to. In practice I have always done this and not poisoned any of my three.

Yeah, I make a judgement on different factors:

how likely the food is to go off, so things with dairy in more likely to go off than just veg or your avocado and rice

how bad a cold LO has had the moment (he always has a cold since starting nursery but if it's running down his top lip at the time he's eating I don't keep the left overs! Urgh, babies are so gross)

how much later I'm planning to try again - 2-3 hrs usually feels okay to me but not 8 hrs.

how drooly he is at that meal

how lazy I'm feeling

how long it took me to prepare it

how much I want him to eat whatever it is

I have another factor to add to lovage's - how much I want to eat whayever it is....