My six month old son has officially been given the green light to start on solids. He was a low birth weight so the pediatrician had him wait until he was double his birth weight. He's there now and I had a question...

The pediatrician says to give him two servings of baby cereal and one serviing of vegetables during the day. The cereal won't be a problem and will be easily carriable in the diaper bag. The serving of vege's however, I am wondering what mothers do. Can you take jars of baby food into the park? I didn't think they allowed glass bottles into the parks. Also, what should I do about the whole refrigeration thing? Since he's only supposed to eat like one tbsp at a feeding, I'd be throwing almost a whole jar away. I guess maybe the answer is to re-evaluate what time I feed him what on those rare days when I get to the parks.

You can take baby food containers into the parks. And here's a big tip for you - each park has a Baby Care Center. Go there for feeding times and some quietness. They will have everything you need - for a price, of course. But it'll be a nice break for both of you.

Here's one suggestion regarding the unused portion. In the past with my son, I would divide the jar in the room and put the unused portion into the hotel frig (Requesting one might not be a bad idea. If not, just fill your ice bucket and insert the jar.) The best thing to carry the food in is one of the ziploc extra small reusable storage containers. Be careful with them in the bag as they may leak. (You can put them in a bag for extra protection). By doing this, you have just the right amount for later in the day and some reserved for the next day. Also, you can buy rice cereal (Gerber brand) in individual packets, instead of the entire box. This way, you can use however much you need from the bag and save the rest for later. I think there are 8-10 small bags per box.

Disnut8 has a wonderful suggestion with the baby centers. We were there in Jan 04 with our then 10 month old and the centers offer a nice relaxing retreat from the parks. They were never crowded and have wonderful things to help you (like changing tables, microwaves, high chairs, family restrooms, diapers, food, and formula for purchase, etc.) And to let you know, we had no problems bringing in jar food, juice drinks, or snacks for my son.

My 'baby' is now ten, so, I don't know if this is still out there.

They had vegetables like the rice cereal, in flakes, that you made as you needed.

I can't remember which company but give your market aisle a good look. I also remember those tiny jars...

Also, when is your trip? He may be up to eating more than that amount by then.

I hope you have a great trip!

This shouldn't be a problem for the simple reason that they sell the babyfood in jars in Baby Care Centers. Personally, I'd just pack them well into my diaper bag. My money says that the bag checks don't even find the baby food jars. :eek:

A couple of notes on unused portions:

1- you can buy the small jars of baby food instead of the larger jars, for days you're going to DL.

2- Get a little insulated bag, like a soft-sided insulated lunch bag and stick a frozen blue ice thingie or a bag of ice in it. During the day you could refill your bag of ice at any restaurant. Just keep unused portions in there. :)

Adrienne

Thanks for the suggestions. We'll try to see what works best. I'm leaning towards seeong how big the jars are that they sell.

Yes, we've been to the Baby care centers. They are really pretty nice.

Some companies now sell their most popular foods in plastic "jars" I don't know how big of a selection there is but this might be an option so that you don't have to carry glass containers.

You can also buy a little insulated bag made to keep a bottle of milk cold. This is just the right size to put a jar of baby food in along with a small bag of ice.

Hope this helps.

New here--and I don't have any children at all--but....

My mother is a mid-wife, and I was raised on normal table food-no commercial baby food at all. What she did was take normal vegetables (and even meat!) and steam or boil it. Then, she ground it up into a puree and that's what I ate! Back then (mid-70's), baby companies sold table food grinders. I think you can still find them. This allows you to order, say, a side order of steamed green beans or whatever, and then grind them at the table and feed them to your baby. No real mess, no "left overs" and fresh baby food! I think you can still find food grinders out there. After all, that all that real baby food is, only with the addition of chemicals and preservatives.

Good luck with the little one.

New here--and I don't have any children at all--but....

Good luck with the little one.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I've pretty much decided that as long as he is on such a little amount of vegetables right now to just go ahead and re-arrange his feeding schedule a bit so that I can feed him the jar stuff when we are at home. The cereal is easy carriable in a plastic container.

The cereal is easy carriable in a plastic container.

Definitely look into the plastic containers from Gerber (as mentioned above by wwithers)...instead of glass, they have the same 2 1/2 ounce servings in plastic containers. I've only seen them for fruits, though...I haven't noticed any vegetables. Ask your doctor if you can start your son on fruits...I don't see why not, but I'm not a doc. My son's eating both fruits and vegetables, and we just started him on bottled foods about a month ago...and he's already eating an entire jar of vegetables (he loves green beans) at one sitting. I know it might be a waste, but consider bringing at least some vegetables...even if he doesn't eat the whole thing, those jars are only 50 cents each.

Geez, I sound like I work for Gerber, don't I?

Thanks for the suggestions.

dsnyredhead, I just thought of something I saw at Target the other day (I couldn't find it on their website, though). They have those little mesh pouches with a handle on them. You can put fruit or cooked vegetables in them, and the baby can hold them and eat the mashed food that comes out through the mesh...I know I'm not describing this well. Anyhow, most of the restaurants serve some kind of cooked vegetable that can be mashed...like cut carrots and peas...maybe you can buy one of those and just have your son "eat" the vegetables this way.

Someone out there please help me try to describe this better.

I'll check into what I can find. Honestly, at this point, it seems just as easy to feed him the jar stuff at home either before or after we go to the parks. I appreciate everyone posting suggestions to this thread. I've never heard of the mesh pouches.

Now, if I can just teach my child to sit up so that he can sit in a high chair at the baby care center...life will be easier.

mom to the slouching child....

I'm with ya! Looks like both our sons are about the same age. Mine just turned 6 months as well! Good luck with the veggies! Definitely see if you can find those mesh pouch things at Target. I've also seen them in baby catalogs...or maybe try Babies R Us. I'm probably going to buy one soon.

By the way, if you have trouble getting him to sit in the high chairs, just feed him outside the baby center on one of those picnic benches. You can keep him in the stroller, and he'll be propped up just fine.

We have one of those "feeding chairs" at home. Too bad it's not portable. I guess it's just all part of the fun of having a baby at home.