Tips for travelling with weaning baby (7-8 months)

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We are travelling for just over 3 weeks with our baby who will be 7-8 months at the time and looking for tips on how to deal with weaning while out and about without relying too much on convenience food which I assume is usually high in sugar. It's a family visit so will have access to a kitchen but will be out during the day a lot of the time visiting different family members and probably eating out a bit too. We just started weaning now at 6 months, fairly gently with vege purees once a day but plan to try finger food soon.

What can I expect a 7-8 month baby to eat? Should we be doing 2 or even 3 meals a day by then? Is it OK to feed them our food if we didn't cook it and don't know if salt has been added or better to prepare food for the baby separately like boiled vege?

My other major concern is what to feed her on the plane? Our limited experience with weaning so far has been super messy and even with a coverall it will be hard to do a full clean up on the plane. Also with no highchair on the plane it will be hard to avoid us also ending up covered in food? Should I be getting her eating Ella's kitchen pouches before we go direct from the pouch? This goes against what I want to do as I've read they are high in sugar and sucking food from a pouch without seeing what you are eating is not a 'natural' way to eat. I guess convenience might win out while travelling.

If we are travelling how long is it acceptable to not offer food for at this stage if it's a one off? The overall trip is 40+ hr door to door. Would this be too long to not offer food?

Weaning isn't a linear process. Babies and toddlers often go several days without eating if they are feeling unwell so it's absolutely fine not to offer food for 40 hours if you're travelling as long as you give as much milk as she wants.

Is there a reason that you're only offering fruit purées? Are there allergies in the immediate family?

I would try baby on finger foods like you might easily be able to get on a plane /in the airport.
Bread rolls, crackers. Maybe some chunks of fruit in a fruit salad? Get them used to those things now, and then offer similar on the plane.

It will partially depend on how baby takes to solids what you do. Mine would have been on 3 meals by that age, and wouldn't have stood for me eating infornt of him and not sharing.
Others would happily have taken a spoonful of something and milk the rest of the time.

I wouldn't offer too much off a restaurant meal, but think the rule "anything goes on a plane" probably has merit in this situation. Probably not "anything" but I'd be much more likely to ignore salt and sugar intake for the 40 hours of travel. If baby gets a taste for cheese, they could eat my cheese portions on the plane!

Pouches are great for this. Spoon feed on the go. No need to warm up or keep cool (unless opened) contrary to popular belief they aren't filled with sugar etc.

Sandwiches were also big favourites for us in the early weaning days. Peanut butter, humous, cheese spread, marmite etc all good.

On the plane take pouches and spoons to limit mess. You can get disposable bibs as well which will help a bit.

When I flew with mine, I gave them jars provided by the airline (ba) and whatever junk they had on offer (turns out 9 month olds like sucking on kitkats!) I generally gave mine whatever we ate anyway and family don't use salt in veg etc plus have a hand blender. No pouches then as an option, and yes the bassinet (provided by the airline) did get mucky!

How much they eat varies a lot, some kids will take too it immediately and want 3 meals a day by 8 months old, others will still only be having a few teaspoons. In any case they'll still be relying on milk as main nutrition so if you end up missing a meal because you're traveling I wouldnt be hugely concerned.

I would get some pouches for convenience but spoon feed if possible. The idea of sucking cold spaghetti Bolognese puree from a pouch is just gross! Finger foods can be pretty easy, things like bread sticks, banana etc. If you have a house your staying in you could prep stuff there for the day like veg sticks, cold meat, boiled eggs etc and just bring them along in a lunchbox.

Thanks all for the advice! Lots of good suggestions.

We are less than a week into weaning so I’ve just started with the vegetable purées (not fruit) following a rough plan from the Made for Mums app but do plan to do finger food too. There are allergies in the wider family but will also introduce allergens soon. I have found spoon feeding quite messy so far as she prefers picking up a preloaded spoon herself and smearing food everywhere to being spoon fed but things might have changed by the time we travel.

We've just spent 3 weeks away with family with my DS who is now nearly 7 months.

As we've been staying with family, he's had a lot of home cooked dinners without salt. Some simple stuff like steamed vegetables but also more adventurous things like stuffed vine leaves (he loved it) and roast meat/chicken.

If we eat at a restaurant, I typically order a salad and ask for the dressing on the side. Then I can pick out a couple of suitable bits for him like roast or raw veg and grilled meat. Then I'd give him a bit of bread and butter too.

On the day of our flight he had some fresh fruit (from a pret fruit pot) in the airport and a bit of bread roll and cucumber on the flight. Not the most exciting/energy dense meals but still things he was able to explore and eat for himself. Could have prepped something for him but I was too lazy preoccupied with the logistics of getting him onto the flight.

Like at home, some meals/days he eats masses, other times he just nibbles something and is finished. Its actually been pretty fun introducing him to new foods and a different culture around eating - enjoy it!