babyled weaning tips

Baby led Weaning On Vacation (Part 2)

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Read time: 5 minutes
Babyled weaning vacation

In Part 1 of this series I spoke about how you can prepare and plan for a vacation with your baby. In this post I will give you meal ideas for baby led weaning vacation.

I have also listed everything my son ate on our recent weekend getaway. This can serve as an idea as to how a baby led weaning vacation looks like.

Always keep an eye on your baby when eating. Do not leave your baby alone while eating.

Depending upon your travel plans, you can either stay at an accommodation with an attached kitchen or stay in a hotel. Each has its own benefits. Sometimes it’s difficult or economically unviable to find a decent hotel and you would rather prefer to cook your own meals. Other times you’d prefer cooked meals. So, what food can be offered on a baby led weaning vacation?

Babyled weaning on vacation- whole food

Accommodation with Kitchen

This is the better option as you have complete control over your baby’s meals. You can pack a few essentials and buy fresh produce from a local market.

Essentials you can pack are:

  • Dal (Lentils)
  • Rice
  • Quinoa
  • Whole wheat pasta
  • Oats
  • Dalia (Spouted Wheat)
  • Onions
  • Potatoes
  • Tomatoes
  • Cheese

It’s easy to cook a variety of dishes with these ingredients even if you have limited kitchenware.

Staying at a Hotel

Hotels usually carry a kid friendly menu and are happy to make adjustments to the dishes with regards to salt and spice.

Examples of foods you can offer at each meal are:

Breakfast

  • Steamed Idli
  • Paratha
  • Scrambled egg (made from whole egg for babies over 1 year or egg yolk for younger ones)
  • Fruits
  • Cheese
  • Plain Yogurt
  • Plain Oats

Tip: Add fruits like berries, mango, chikoo, soft plums to plain oats and it becomes a complete meal of its own.
Lunch/Dinner

  • Pasta
    Tip: Ask the chef to prepare with no salt and spices
  • Steamed veggies
    Tip: Ask for a tablespoon of olive oil on the side, to add over the veggies.
  • Potato Wedges
  • Grilled Chicken
  • Steamed Fish Fillet
  • Fish Fingers
  • Potato Patty

Snacks

Carry reusable pouches and fill them with oats and locally available fruits. Little ones are adept at eating from a pouch by the time they are 9 months old. Other snacking options are;

  • Fruits
  • Apricots
  • Raisins
  • Baked Sweet Potato
  • Boiled egg
  • Hard cheese
  • Plain yogurt pots

What my toddler ate on our recent trip

Recently we planned a short weekend trip to Pune. We stayed in a room that came with an attached kitchen. We requested the hotel for kitchenware like a saucepan and some spoons.

Day 1: We had a 4 hour car ride to the hotel. Breakfast and a snack were packed for the journey.

Breakfast

  • Methi Theplas
  • Oats Pouch – To the oats I added almond butter, cinnamon and flaxseed powder. This porridge is thick in texture and easy for my little one to suck out of the packet.

Snack 1

  • Boiled sweet potatoes.

Lunch

Even though our room came with an attached kitchen we went for room service for lunch as we were tired from the journey.

  • We ordered Pasta with cottage cheese and spinach from the Kids Menu (without salt and spices on request).

Snack 2

  • Left over Sweet potatoes and an Avocado that I carried.

Dinner

  • Leftover pasta from lunch and chapatti.

Day 2:

Breakfast

  • The buffet had a lot of options; Little A had scrambled egg, papaya and watermelon.

Snack 1

  • The hotel room provided with complimentary fruits, Little A had Banana and Apple.

Lunch

  • We cooked dal khichdi and served along with few slices of avocado. He also ate a chapati from my husband’s plate.

Snack 2

  • We were out during the evening so I packed the same dal khichdi in the reusable pouch and a few medjool dates.

Dinner

  • I cooked quinoa in the room and ordered steamed veggies from the menu. I also asked for a tablespoon of olive oil on the side which I drizzled on the quinoa and veggies along with some pepper.

Day 3:

It was time for us to leave and again a 4 hour journey back. This meant preparing another oats pouch for the road.

Breakfast

  • Steamed idli and egg omelet from the buffet.

Snack 1

  • Banana

Snack 2

  • Oats Pouch [Oats, cinnamon and flaxseed]

We were back home by lunch.

Other foods you can carry for long journeys are:

  • Potato and Peas Patty / Chicken patty
  • Paratha
  • Theplas
  • Chapati [use nut butter as a spread, roll it, and offer baby]
  • Cheese sticks
  • Boiled root veggies like taro root.

I know baby led weaning purists are against the use of pouches. But I find reusable pouches to be great option for travel. You can make your own homemade food and your baby can eat on their own with minimal mess. I don’t think it’s bad if it’s used occasionally especially for travelling. It’s better than providing packaged food outside.

As you can see with proper planning you can have a stress free vacation with your baby led weaned baby. This way you wont compromise on their nutrition during travel.

Hope this post helps you with ideas. How did you plan your vacation with baby? Drop in a comment below.

Baby led Weaning On Vacation (Part 1)

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Read time: 4 minutes
babyled weaning on vacation

There is a lot to consider when planning a trip with a baby. New parents worry about providing nutritious meals on vacation and rightfully so. With a baby led-weaned child it’s easier to provide from varied food options, albeit the mess! In this post, I shed light on how to prepare for the trip.

If you are new here, check my first post introducing moms to the concept of babyled weaning, before you start.

Now back to babyled weaning on vacation.

Points to consider

  • What type of vacation are you planning? Local/Abroad
  • Length of the Vacation
  • Age of your child. Is the vacation going to be in the initial stages of babyled weaning or once the baby is more advanced with their eating skills?
  • Equipment to carry
  • Type of accommodation; will it be an accommodation with attached kitchen (where you can prepare meals) or a hotel room.
  • Will there be periods of intense travel with minimal access to fresh food like airplane journeys, long bus/train rides, long car drives.

How to prepare?

If your baby is 6 – 8 months old you may be still primarily breastfeeding or bottle feeding. At this stage, you have to plan about 2-3 meals a day. These can be simple finger foods, fruits & food pouches.

If your baby is older than 8 months plan extra meals or snacks along with the regular 2 – 3 meals.

Any vacation is bound to affect the baby’s routine. It’s best to be mentally prepared for any curveball that’s thrown your way. Always carry snacks like rice cakes, fruits, natural yogurt pots, cheese for any eventuality. Many baby led weaning moms also prefer to carry a few food pouches for baby on the go. It’s always good to have them as backups.

I will get into details of what can be fed to your baby in the next post; in this post let’s look at some preparations you will have to do prior to your trip.
babyled weaning on vacation, bowl of thai soup

Packing tips

  1. A portable booster chair which is lightweight and easy to wipe down.
  2. Carry a LOT of wet wipes. There are going to be messes! You have to be prepared.
  3. Carry a few Ziploc bags. They are handy to dispose of leftovers on the go.
  4. Pack your own baby’s bowls and plates. Preferably with a suction base. This helps when you are eating at restaurants or lovely hotel rooms. You don’t want baby flinging the plate in the air.
  5. Crumb catching bibs are super useful during travel.
  6. Pack foods that can be cooked even with a kettle of hot water like instant oats, homemade baby porridge mix.
  7. Buy reusable pouches, these are great for packing oats/homemade khichdi/thick soups and carrying on a long plane journey or car rides.
  8. If you have a kitchenette available in the hotel room you have more flexibility. You can pack rice, dal, quinoa, pasta, beans etc. Carry all staples you can think of to make quick meals. The hotel room will have sachets of pepper which can be added to give food flavor.
  9. Pack a small frypan and saucepan this helps to make quick meals like scrambled eggs, oats, porridge etc.

Our Experience

We found booking vacation homes through Airbnb more comfortable as it allowed us to be in control of the food we prepare for our baby. We prefer a vacation home as it comes with a kitchen. On our trips, we would feed him in the room and then go out between meals for sightseeing. This vacation routine put him at ease too, since he started expecting his meals at the room and snacks on the go.

When Airbnb has not been possible we have checked with the hotel for kid-friendly meals. Most hotels are happy to oblige. Breakfast we ate at hotel buffets. For all the other meals I planned a menu of what to feed my baby in advance. That way I felt better prepared to handle any changes that happened.

I hope my post on preparing for travel with your baby led weaning baby helped. In the next post, I will cover what can be offered to baby on vacation and a look at what Little A ate on one such vacation we took. See you in the next post!