Can I Travel with a BLW Baby?

Katie Ferraro (1m 15s):

Hey, there I'm Katie Ferraro, Registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in baby-led weaning here on the baby-led weaning made easy podcast. I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, leaving you with the competence and knowledge. You need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby Led, Weaning Anyone out there, Hitting the road, leaving town, going on a trip. Curious if you can travel with your baby-led weaning baby? Yes, yes, yes. The answer is absolutely. Yes. And in this episode, I'm going to share a couple of tips for kind of smooth in the transition out of the house.

Katie Ferraro (1m 58s):

If you're finally venturing out and about, and you want your baby to be able to enjoy foods, but you're a little hesitant because you're not going to be like in the comfort of your own home kitchen. This episode is all about, Can I Travel with a BLW Baby? And as someone who has experienced a lot of travel with our babies, we're a big road trip. Family had seven kids, three and under for a while there. And I remember my quadruplets, we had a singleton quadruplets and twins. The twins were baby babies, and the quads were toddlers. It was actually kind of easier. I remember to like have them be able to eat foods that we were eating that have nothing to worry about, packing a whole bunch of extra quote unquote, baby food. So one thing I'm going to give you guys a couple of tips, but one thing I want to kind of start out this conversation with is if you're stressing about Hitting the road with your baby led weaning, baby, think about your mindset.

Katie Ferraro (2m 48s):

Okay. Sometimes you're like, Ooh, travel, thrown a wrench. In my plans. One thing I always try to think about when it comes to traveling is this is an opportunity for my baby to try new foods that I would normally not prepare at home. So instead of thinking of, gosh, there's all the things that I don't have at home that we're not going to be able to eat. Think of it actually as an opportunity to try a bunch of new foods. So if you're working your way through my a hundred first foods list, some parents, you just travel, they take the hundred first foods list with them and be like, I'm going to try to find some of these weirder foods that I maybe don't have at home. So mindset babies can eat so many more foods than we give them credit for. And another thing that might help ease your concerns as you hit the road is that if you are, you know, between the sixth and 12 month period, you're doing baby led weaning here, baby is still getting nutrition from infant milk, right?

Katie Ferraro (3m 37s):

Breast milk or formula. And particularly early on in baby led weaning six and seven for some families, even eight months of age, grass milk or formula remains the baby's primary source of nutrition. So it's not like they're going to need to get 100% of their nutrition from the foods that you're offering when you're on the road. Now another nutrition consideration is that it's not the end of the world. If your baby gets a little bit of salt or a little bit of sugar, cause you're on the road and someone else's preparing the food and I've had parents that are like, oh my gosh, is it okay if my baby eats a French fry when we're out at the restaurant? Yes, of course, those are foods. You guys are eating as long as you're okay with the texture of it and the baby's seated properly safely.

Katie Ferraro (4m 17s):

If you were give them a french fry, it's not the end of the world. Okay. We just don't want to compromise on safety. So we still want to avoid offering any crunchy, crispy or hard foods. Now, when families hit the road, they oftentimes ask about the highchair. So what do you do? You going into a restaurant? You've seen restaurant highchairs. They never have a foot rest. Half the time. They never have a strap that works. I was like, do they just make restaurant highchairs with broken straps? Like I wonder sometimes if someone who worked in a lot of restaurants, I feel like a hundred percent of this wraps on the high chairs were broken. So do you put your baby in the broken highchair where they're not maybe going to be safe? Some families are like, you know, if I've been doing this for a while, this is not ideal, but for one or two meals and observing them, it's not the end of the world for other families that might be really new to baby led weaning.

Katie Ferraro (4m 60s):

And that they're perhaps in a phase where they're as rightly so more concerned about potential choking risk, bringing your own portable highchair. I generally don't carry like the full-blown highchair that I use at home, but there definitely are some great highchair options out there that pack down quite small. I have a whole blog post with my favorite portable highchairs for feeding on the go I'll link to that in the show notes. For this episode, if you go to blwpodcast.com/233, I think there's like six or seven different options. I'm sharing. Some are really small, really affordable, but a lot of them, the way they operate is they pop up and then you have fix them to an adult chair or an adult barstool, their straps that go behind the chair and then underneath the chair.

Katie Ferraro (5m 42s):

And then sometimes they're adjustable. Very few are, but a few are adjustable where you can move them up or down so that the baby's feet are resting flat on the adult seat. So I have a couple options for you inside of that blog post, if you want to check them out and sometimes they just go right into your diaper. So if you're at a restaurant and there's no highchair and you going to feed the baby on your lap, one thing I would encourage you is that you remember that if your baby chokes a choke is going to be silent and the baby will be facing away from you sometimes in, you know, the way you have your big position on the lap, it might not be where you're able to directly observe them. So do try to position the baby if you can get their feet flat. Great. But also just so that you're observing them when they're eating in the event, that they do have a choke, you don't want to have the baby turned away from you.

Katie Ferraro (6m 25s):

Another sanitation, the concern is sometimes about, well, when I get to the restaurant, if I don't have my plate with me, do I just put the food on the table of the restaurant where we're eating now, again, having worked in restaurants, there's varying degrees of sanitation. When it comes to the rags that are cleaning the table, that you're now putting the food on. I always feel better bringing my own babies mat. So I use a suction mat or bowl. The ones I use are from the company, easy peasy. And they suctioned to flat surfaces that are dry and clean. So if you're at a restaurant where the tables wet or has food on it, or has a distress top, it's not going to suction, but that's still better than just putting it directly on the table because we put it on the table, especially for early eaters.

Katie Ferraro (7m 7s):

They don't have their pincer grasp yet. So they can't pick the foods up and they just smash it all over the table. And that kind of makes the BLW mess even messier. So I will always take my ezpz. I like their mini mat. This is a pro tip that I learned from Dawn who helps design the easy-peasy products. Is that the bag that the easy peasy bowls and mats come in, that's actually a wet bag. So don't throw it out. It has ventilation holes on the side, so you can take it with you. It's like reusable. And then even though you have a dirty mat, put it back in the bag, take it home, wash it. So again, those are from ezpz. I like the mini mat. It's at three little compartments. It's great for taking to a restaurant. You can suction it onto the table. You can use that wet bag to get it in and out.

Katie Ferraro (7m 47s):

Just a little bit more sanitary. The website for ezpz is ezpzfun.com. And my affiliate discount code. Katie10 works for 10% off everything there. So I think maybe taking your own plate is helpful. And then depending on your level of comfort, like with the restaurant, I'll sometimes even take my own splashmat for baby -ed weaning. And that's a big mat that I put underneath the high chair, just because I will always go get the broom and ask where the broom is and try to clean up the mess if I can at a restaurant. But sometimes it's easier just to let the mess go on the splash mat, wrap it all up, put it back in my diaper bag and deal with it at home so that the restaurant staff doesn't have to. And the splash mats that I like for baby led weaning are made by the same company that makes the bapron and bibs that we use. They're like a pinafore style bib.

Katie Ferraro (8m 28s):

Those are great to have one with you at a restaurant, the company's bapron baby. So a bapron is like a hybrid between a bib and an apron. And my affiliate discount code. Katie10 also works for 10% off their splash mats and their bibs. I think those three pieces of gear, maybe a big, a splash mat and an ezpz minimat. Great to have with you if you're going to a restaurant. And again, this applies if you're at home, but I think a lot of families, the first time they experience restaurant eating might be when they're on a road trip or a vacation. And they're like, oh my gosh, I didn't even think about transporting part of my kitchen to the restaurant. But obviously you want to have an enjoyable evening, a lot of your, like, that's why I leave the baby at home. But if you're traveling with your baby, I think you definitely can make it happen.

Katie Ferraro (9m 8s):

Now, what about snacks, parents at Katie? I know you say babies don't need snacks. Okay? If you want to offer snacks, you are more than welcome to, but from a nutritional or developmental standpoint, babies do not need to eat snacks. Okay? As, especially for your older infants, as they get towards three meals with the milk in between the meals serving as a snack, you don't need to be pumping them full of snacks. However, travel days, all bets are off, right? You're going to do whatever you can to keep that baby entertained. Okay. And well, as a registered dietitian, I wouldn't recommend feeding your baby as a method of entertaining them and keeping them quiet. I know what it's like to travel with babies, especially on an airplane. So as far as snacks go, okay, when you're looking for things to take with you and let's talk about particularly an airplane.

Katie Ferraro (9m 51s):

I was talking with one of the moms, they family lives on a boat. Geneva is mom's name and the baby's Skyler. We'd done a lot of her earlier. baby-led weaning. She just turned one. They went on a trip to London. She like came back and was like, oh my gosh, it was so easy because I didn't have to take any special foods. And baby Skye just ate everything that I eat. She was like, all the Brits were like, just raving over the foods that she ate. And I do think there's like this level of freedom that comes with knowing that your child can eat a lot of different options wherever you go, when you're traveling. But we were talking about ideas for the plane. And so I do think for the most part, you know, it's great to offer your baby wholesome, real Intacct foods, but in real life, packaged snacks play a role in our lives. And so, you know, having a few options on hand that you can use in a moment, if you're off your schedule or the baby's getting hungry, or you do need a distraction, I always try to travel with bananas and bananas are like amazing.

Katie Ferraro (10m 42s):

They come in their own hygienic carrying case, right? The banana peel really easy to offer your baby in a pinch, but obviously it can get smashed up in the bag and stuff. So as far as packaged snacks go, we just want to keep an eye on sodium in. I like these packaged peanut snacks from a brand called puff works. So puff works makes puff works, baby snacks. They have a baby peanut and a baby almond snack. We generally use these for the introduction of the potentially allergenic foods like the baby peanut snacks. I used to introduce peanut, the baby almond snacks. I use later in introducing treenuts, but they do make great travel snacks. They're a little bit on the pricier side for everyday use for sure. But I do know some families who are like, all right, I'm going, I'm going to go on a trip.

Katie Ferraro (11m 23s):

I'm going to cave and get a case just to have a no added salt, no sugar snack that I know my baby can eat. Now sometimes obviously some planes would be peanut-free or tree nut-free because of allergies, but you really don't see that so much, any more, at least that's anecdotally, as far as traveling where they say like someone on this plane, and if they say that you can't offer those foods, but in other environments that may be totally safe to have those. So the puff works, baby snacks. Just make sure if you're there on puffworks.com and you're looking them up, they have like adult versions of their snacks too, which just have more sugar and salt to make sure you're getting baby line. If you go to puffworks.com, I have an affiliate discount code. Baby-led. You can get those for a discount. And if you're stocking up on all this stuff, I'll link all of the codes on the show notes page for this episode, be blwpodcast.com/233.

Katie Ferraro (12m 8s):

I know some parents who also utilize pouches in a pinch, even if you're doing baby led, weaning can have some pouches with you, have a bowl, have a tiny spoon with you, just squeeze the pouch into the bowl, offer the pouch food off of the preloaded spoon and allow your baby to feed themselves. Okay. We don't want babies to be sucking directly out of the pouch. Kay. That's not developmentally appropriate or any sort of a feeding milestone that we want for your baby, but heck yeah, those things are convenient. They're certainly more expensive, but you know, if you're using them on a part-time basis because you're traveling, I think it's nice to have a variety of those, you know, just in a pinch. And then you can still honor the self-feeding principles of baby-led weaning, utilizing those pouches. Just try to do it using the preloaded spoon approach.

Katie Ferraro (12m 51s):

And if that term preloaded spoon is new to you, that's a term that was coined by Dawn Winkelmann. She's a speech language pathologist and baby-led weaning expert. She's the product designer for ezpz who made their award-winning tiny spoon that the first baby-led weaning spoon also did their tiny cup. And she was on the podcast teaching us how to do her preloaded spoon technique. That's back in episode 64. So if you go back to episode 64, you can learn more about that. And she talks about incorporating preloaded spoons and a little bit about the limitations of pouches from her speech, language pathology background, a couple of other tips for traveling hotels. Most hotels, you guys, if they don't already have a refrigerator in there, you can ask for a refrigerator.

Katie Ferraro (13m 37s):

So I remember this from like pumping days, if you know, ever your travel for work and need to pump and store my breast milk, there was always a refrigerator that could be delivered to the room. You could ask for the same thing in order to store whatever foods you might be offering. I found that hotel breakfast bars, like this is kind of pre pandemic. The hotel breakfast bar situation has definitely declined in the pandemic age, but back in the day, like a hotel breakfast bar. Heck yeah, there are so many foods Babies can eat, right? There's always cut up fruit. Would you just find the softest pieces? There's generally oatmeal, just plain old oatmeal that you can offer to your baby. There's always some sort of an egg product might have more salt than you would make at home, but there's a lot of times a hard-boiled eggs, which work great for baby led weaning.

Katie Ferraro (14m 19s):

So you've got protein, you've got a carbohydrate, you've got a little serving of fruit or vegetable and you can kind of also just pick off of the foods that you're eating. Right? And I think babies volume-wise eat so little that you don't need to order a specialty meal for them. And sometimes parents are floored. Like they'd never paid attention to the kid's menu until they had a kid. And they're like, oh my gosh, do you know what's on the kid's menu? And like, yes, I know it's on the kid's menu. It's generally white, brown fried foods that are high in salt, refined carbohydrate. They're really not foods that we want babies to be eating, you know, older kids, whatever you decide to feed your kid off the kid's menu. That's perfectly fine. But for a baby, you don't need to go in order, you know, a quezadilla off the kid's menu when your baby could probably just have modified versions of whatever you're eating.

Katie Ferraro (15m 3s):

So I always encourage parents to get whatever you were going to get. Okay. And then think about how parts of that meal you might be able to offer to the baby. Okay. So let's say you're out, you're at a restaurant on the road and there's a salad that you would eat for lunch. Now don't be stereotypical. I just happened to actually like salad, but I love fried chicken on it. Okay. So I'm going to maybe if there's avocado on the salad, offer that to the baby. I love Cobb salad with fried chicken on it. And the fried chicken. I would just pick the really crunchy, crispy, salty bread part out and give the baby the dark meat strips from the salad with maybe some cherry tomatoes that I cut up into quarters. If my baby is older and has their pincer grasp some avocado into babies, when they're a little bit older, offering them some bread to knock on, you know, all of this works.

Katie Ferraro (15m 46s):

It's just sometimes a little bit trickier. The very first few weeks of baby led weaning because you're just not so sure about some of those textures. What about eating in other people's houses? Okay. That's sometimes a pain point. I remember the first time I took my quadruplets to my mother-in-law's house and they were doing baby-led weaning, and it didn't bring high chairs. I was like, what was my end game here? Like how did I think I was going to feed four babies or let them feed themselves at once that they didn't have anywhere to sit. And I immediately ordered four different types of portable highchairs, which is how I got into reviewing portable. Highchairs is like literally testing them on my little quadruplet, guinea pigs and realized real fast, which portable highchairs you like or don't like, but having that portable highchair at grandma's house was key for like a getting them strapped in. So they weren't crawling all over the place and then be ensuring that they were safe and then C making it kind of like a more sanitary situation than just eating off the floor.

Katie Ferraro (16m 32s):

But the eating off the floor or eating and making a mess at other people's houses can be of course kind of stress inducing. And that's when I think sticking to safe foods, some parents like I've been trying five new foods a week, you know, I'm using your 100 FIRST FOODS list, but I'm worried if we're on the road, is it okay to slow down? Yes. Do whatever works for you. So you still enjoy your vacation or your trip, but you can also just rely on some familiar foods that, you know, your baby can eat safely. I always take a splashmat with me. I love those huge ones from bapron baby, the ones that go under like two different highchairs, but you can kind of just scoop your whole mess up and take it home with you as opposed to like leaving it all over somebody else's house. So I would encourage you to take that trip with your baby.

Katie Ferraro (17m 15s):

Think of it as an opportunity to try new foods. There's a few pieces of gear you can bring with you. I'll link up some of the ones I mentioned again in the show notes for this episode, and then try to keep that positive mindset, which this is an opportunity for your whole family to do something new. And I don't want it to be stressful because of food. And at the end of the day, your baby's still not getting a hundred percent of their nutrition from food. So if you have a little setback and they have a little more sodium or maybe, you know, you're relying more on a packaged shoe than you normally would, it's totally fine. I think it's wonderful that you're branching out and traveling with your baby. So good luck on the road, wherever you guys may be going. And again, I will link up some of those recommendations and products on the show notes for this episode, which you can find @blwpodcast.com/233.