Okay, so I lied, Gwen is actually not going to be guest posting. But, hey, we can pretend. A few weeks ago I sent out a plea to my Tweeps asking for their most loved out-of-highchair snacks for their babies between 10-12 months old. You see, despite the fact that this is my second rodeo, I still feel like I have no clue what I’m doing about 90% of the time. I forget so much about Evalyn’s infancy. I try to remember what she was doing/eating/saying at what stages but, basically, unless there’s a photo to look back on or a specific blog post, I don’t remember.
So a few weeks ago I found myself stumped about what to feed Gwen for (at least mostly nutritious) snacks. The thing is, she doesn’t like to be contained – having 3 meals a day confined to the high chair is bad enough as it is. Plus, we’re busy. We’re on the go. We don’t typically have time to be sitting around in the high chair more often than we already have to. So I needed to come up with some ideas of things that would be easy and relatively non-messy for her to eat on her own, out of her chair.
If you know our Gwennie, you know that she’s super picky about fruit. A kid who doesn’t like fruit! It’s absurd to me as Eva would live off fruit if she could, and has always been a fruit lover. Unless it’s in pouch form, I usually have to trick Gwen into eating fruit. As in, soft pear chunks mixed with beef stew. Delicious, right?
Sometimes she’ll be more apt to eat fruit if she’s on the go, grazing, but you know, this gets messy. Fruit is juicy and sticky and a lot of it stains. Anyway, that whole fruit tangent is a bit beside the point…
After reaching out for ideas on snacks I started racking my own brain – trying to remember what types of snacks I took with me on the go, to church, to friend’s houses, and so on, when Evalyn was a baby and what other things would be ideal for this stage. So here are a few ideas I’ve come up with that may help you if you’re looking for some new ideas.
Before I start the list, I should also note that since Gwen has been very adventerous with her food right from the start, many of the typical go to’s don’t really work. She laughs in the face of mum mums and even cheerios, which used to be thrilling and marvelous barely get the time of day anymore (unless, of course, they are in her sister’s bowl .. then they are amazing). Puffs give her a little bit of a thrill, but I don’t often shell out the money to buy them. She also is very good at self feeding and regulating her food. There are very, very few times when I have had to be concerned with her putting too much in her mouth, or taking too big of a bite or whatever. She is a pro star at pulling things out of her mouth if she can’t chew/swallow it, so that also helps with the variety I can give her.
Without further adieu, here is a list of our favourite snacks at 11 months:
- Fruit smoothies - frozen fruit, milk, banana, yogurt, spinach, probiotic, frozen veggie cubes.
- Pouches – or juicies as they are lovingly referred to in this home. We could not live without our juicies.
- Shreddies - new on our menu this week – she’s loving them – they may be too crunchy/difficult for smaller babies or babies who don’t do much self feeding.
- Peas, corn, black beans, lentils – throw a mixture of any/all of these things in a snack trap and she’s a happy girl.
- Cheese – cubes, shredded, sliced, strings … whatever. If she has cheese, all is right in her world.
- Steamed edamame beans – up until this week I had been cutting them in half but she is now able to eat them no problem as they are. Again, a snack trap full of these and she is good to go.
- Graham crackers – these were suggested by both Lynsey and Karla and so I tried them while we were making s’mores at the cottage. She likes them but doesn’t go crazy over them and I do find they’re a bit messy. So, she’s only had them a few times.
What are your favourite (older) baby snacks? Especially for when you’re out of the comforts of the high chair?
4 comments:
This post came at the perfect time in my life. I feel like I am in a food rut with HP. Like Gwen, he's a self-feeder and pretty much just eats what we eat. Cheese cubes are his favorite and I am fairly certain he would be happy to live off of them if we let him. Edamame is a great idea--we haven't tried that yet. HP has also been off fruit lately, with the exception of citrus. He used to LOVE bananas but has thrown them on the floor or rubbed them in his hair lately (a joy to clean up). I wish I had awesome suggestions for you, but we do most everything on your list--veggie pieces, smoothies, and cheese. I recently discovered his love for eggs, but that's not as great on the go, unless Gwen would be into hard boiled eggs? He also thinks tofu is candy--not even joking--so we take cubes of it along with veggies when we're out on the town.
Thanks for the new ideas!
Make your own yogurt pennies? (Sorry, I don't know the correct name for them...can we blame it on mommy brain?)
Boiled baby carrots cold is a favourite around here. I also have refillable snack packs (Squishy Snak Pak or Sili Squeeze) that I'll fill with yogurt, smoothies or apple sauce for on the go.
Ok this isn't really "on the go" but it's a fruit idea. I saw people dipping blueberries in yogurt and freezing them. Sounds delicious if you ask me. Also good for teething, I'd imagine.
If she won't do puffs what about unsalted crackers? Or pirate's booty? I can't remember what age we gave those to D, they might be too large and chokeable. I was pretty lax because he was also good at pulling stuff out of his mouth.
D always prefered the rice chex, wheat chex any kind of chex over cheerios. And they dissolve pretty easily and are cheaper than puffs.
I can totally imagine that I'll forget everything when I go through this all again. Oy vey. I should have blogged more.
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