A good hint that will help ease traveling with baby - with or without homemade baby food, is to try to serve some meals at room temperature. Serving meals at room temperature will allow your baby to become accustomed to food that is not "hot". You never have to worry about a meal being rejected because it is not heated! This week's topic will address some of the concerns parents may have about feeding their infants when traveling. Here are a few:
Storage and Packing:
Take along a mini-cooler packed full of the food cubes you will need. This will require you to plot out how many cubes of each particular food you will feed to your baby during the given time frame you will be away from home. If you have been using the freezer bag storage method - simply take out each freezer bag of food cubes and arrange in the cooler with ice packs. As the cubes are already frozen, they should be able to withstand a journey of 6 hours with minimal thawing.
How Foods will Travel:
Baby Food Cubes do travel well and may be thawed/heated as you do at home if appliances are available OR may be thawed over a gas stove or camp fire via the submersion method. If using a camp stove or camp fire - warm a pot of water over the fire and place the number/types of food cubes needed into a container that will not melt and thaw the cubes. Be sure to keep a close watch on the cubes as they are thawing so as to avoid overheating!
Cereals will also travel well and you may either take your ground grains and cook as needed or take cereal that has been frozen in ice trays and prepare as usual.
Fruits are a bit tricky when taking along on a vacation. Unless they are already pureed and frozen into cubes, be sure to purchase fruits that are "almost" ripe. If you take along fully ripened fruits, you may find they will rot or go bad before you are able to use them.
Vegetables will travel well and if you will be preparing them during your stay, we recommend peeling, and if possible, cutting/dicing prior to leaving your home. Store them in an airtight freezer bag and if possible, fill the bag with some water to help maintain freshness.
Dairy/Eggs should be of the dry powdered kind, especially if you will be camping and won't have access to refrigeration. If you will have full refrigeration where you are going to be staying, purchase your needed dairy and eggs at your destination and point of stay.
Most Recommended Tools You May Need:
Manual Food Grinder will allow you to grind as you go! This is great for when you will be eating out in restaurants as well. You will be able to order fruits and veggies and grind them up fresh right there!
Extra Storage Containers/Freezer Bags for when you leave your quarters to go day-tripping. It is also good to have extras if you need to divide servings and save them for another feeding.
Whisk or Potato Masher in case you need to further mash or mix up foods to the right consistency.
If all of these Tips seem too overwhelming or cumbersome, don't hesitate to pack jars of commercial baby food and boxes of commercial cereal. If you decide to go this route, we suggest serving your baby some commercial baby foods a week or so prior to your journey. There are babies that will refuse to eat commercial baby foods, especially if they have been brought-up thus far on only homemade baby food. You do not have to use only commercial during this time, simply offer either a fruit or veggie or cereal for one meal along with your homemade baby food.
Happy Traveling!