Hotel Breakfast Buffet Babies can Safely Eat

Katie Ferraro (25s):

And when you think about oatmeal packets, usually if you're talking about like in North America Quaker oatmeal for example, in a variety Pack, there's going to be some types that babies can't have, like the kind with maple sugar and brown sugar. But there will always be the plain oatmeal that's perfectly fine for your baby to have. These are parboiled quick cooking oats, which means they've already been partially cooked. So you can either, they might already be prepared or If, you have the packet and you have hot water from the tea station. You can make the oatmeal packet yourself. Of course you just wanna cool it until it's safe for the baby to eat. They can do it with the preloaded spoon or half the time, you know, they're probably gonna just pick the oatmeal up with their hand and that's a perfectly fine approach as well. Hey there. I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in babyled Weaning here on the Baby-Led Weaning Made Easy podcast.

Katie Ferraro (1m 11s):

I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, leaving you with the confidence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby-lead weaning. Well hello there and welcome back. Today's episode is for those of you who might be a little bit reticent to hit the road and travel with your baby once you start solid foods. At the time of this recording, I am coming off of two separate three week road trips that our family did earlier in the summer and we spent a lot of time in hotels. So my husband travels a ton for work and he's like a big Marriott person. This is not sponsored by Marriott.

Katie Ferraro (1m 53s):

I I, I feel like they should sponsor my life at this point. He spent so much time in a Marriott. But as a result we stayed in Marriotts most of the summer. I'm not exactly a camping person, so I like hotel, but we have seven kids so we'd have a couple of rooms. At one point we had our old au pair with us. Then we also had a different babysitter with us 'cause we were both kind of working off and on throughout the summer. Long story short, I spend every single morning at a breakfast buffet and I am constantly amazed by how many foods there are at a breakfast buffet that your baby can safely eat. So this episode is hotel breakfast, buffet foods that babies can safely eat. So let's get started about mentality for travel. We've done a ton of episodes on traveling with your baby.

Katie Ferraro (2m 34s):

I'll link some of the other ones below where you're listening to this actual episode. If, you just need more travel in spo like you can do this, you can get out there, you can travel with your baby. The whole point of doing babyled Weaning or one of them rather, is that your baby is learning how to eat modified versions of the same foods that the rest of your family is. So when you travel, hopefully you're not having to pack or prepare special foods for the babies. So even from a baby's first bites, I wanna share three components from a a hotel, breakfast, buffet or breakfast menu. If you're at a regular restaurant that most babies can eat. A lot of this is specific to the residents in throughout the country where we stayed because there are some constants and I'm like, not that we wanna feed babies the same thing every day, but like most people probably aren't gonna be at a breakfast Buffet for six weeks out of there ever.

Katie Ferraro (3m 18s):

So If, you're at a breakfast buffet. Well, what can your baby eat? For this outline, I'm going to follow the three different components of the plate where I put food. So I use the ezpz mini mat for building a balanced baby-led weaning plate. I do this starting in day three of my program for the first 10 minutes of the meal. We're introducing the new food of the day to the baby. In the second 10 minutes of the meal, we swap in a plate that contains that new food from the day plus two familiar foods from previous days. So again, by day three, when your baby has three foods under their belt, that's when we start utilizing this approach. Now if you're on the road, sometimes families have to pause on new foods, but I also encourage families, hey, maybe traveling or eating at restaurants is an opportunity for your baby to try a new food if it's something you don't make or not as inclined to prepare at home or maybe just I've never even heard of.

Katie Ferraro (4m 5s):

So you can either use your travel opportunity to try new foods or to continue reintroducing familiar foods. So with the ezpz mini mat, there is one four ounce portion pocket. It's kinda looks like a smile. And then there's two two ounce portion pockets that's kind of like the eye sockets of the mini mat. The mini mat is the original silicone suction mat and it's perfect for babyled Weaning. I do have an affiliate discount code KATIE10 if you're ever shopping for feeding gear. But I bring my mini mat with me if I'm feeding a baby because otherwise some of these foods don't work. And for babies early on, if they don't have their pinch or grasp, which your earlier eater will not have, they can't pick up these foods. You need a suction mat that has a pliable barrier that the baby can use their whole hand or their palmer grasp to rake and scoop the food up and out of.

Katie Ferraro (4m 49s):

And I like the ezpz product, the best designed by their feeding expert. So in the four ounce portion pocket, I'll always put the starchy food. So in the case of breakfast and a breakfast Buffet. And just to back up the rationale there is that starting at seven months of age, your baby starts to need slightly a greater percentage of calories from carbohydrate than they do from protein or fat. And again, I don't want you to get bogged down in the numbers, that's not what matters here, but it's why I put the starchy food or the carbohydrate food in the slightly larger portion pocket. Okay? There are no such thing as set portion sizes for babies. Anytime you see a portion guide for baby-led weaning, it's made up. You just kind of have to eyeball it. And so what I'll do for the breakfast Buffet foods is you almost always can find plain oatmeal.

Katie Ferraro (5m 31s):

Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back. Now, sometimes when you get your breakfast Buffet, you're like, oh, that looks gross, plain oatmeal. And then there's like, especially at Marriotts, there's my kids are like in heaven this summer. Like look, there's marshmallows and brown sugar. There's a whole bunch of stuff you can add for older kids if you're so inclined. But for Babies, the base of that plain oatmeal, they usually just make it with oats and water. There's generally If, you taste it, you can tell there's no salt here, there's no sugar here. So occasionally a restaurant will make their oatmeal with milk and provided that your baby has already been exposed to cow's milk protein, that's perfectly fine.

Katie Ferraro (6m 14s):

Remember, we don't substitute fluid cow's milk in place of breast milk or formula until after age one, but it's totally fine. We want your baby to be having milk ingredients as a way to introduce them to milk protein and hopefully reduce the risk of milk allergy down the road. So If, your baby's had formula, the base of that is cow's milk protein. So you're in the clear for exclusively breastfed Babies. You'd want to trial milk on its own a number of times without reaction before offering baby oatmeal that was made with milk. And sometimes at the breakfast Buffet you'll see the packets of oatmeal and sometimes there will be a like an assortment or a variety mix. And we never wanna offer the ones that are like brown sugar or maple syrup, right? Because those have added sugars in them. But in that variety Pack, if you're talking about in the United States, Quaker Oats, they always have the plain oatmeal and you would have to add boiling water to that in order to cook slash soften the oats.

Katie Ferraro (7m 2s):

But they're quick cooking oats, meaning that they've already been parboiled or partially cooked. So it's totally safe for you to make that for your baby. You would just wanna make sure that you cool it to the appropriate temperature so that it's safe for the baby to feed to themselves. Now the texture of oatmeal is a nice one for babies. Practicing, dipping and scooping a little bit older. Babies usually around nine months of age, sometimes 10 months of age, we'll see Babies starting to dip and scoop on their own. So you might want to bring your own babyledweaning spoon with you as well. And it sounds like a lot, oh my gosh, I have to Pack all this stuff. Hey, it's way easier to Pack one suction mat, an open cup, a bowl and a bib than it is to Pack all the food when you're traveling. The second portion pocket on the mini mat, I do one small serving of protein in the other eyeball socket, the other two ounce portion, I always do one small serving of fruit or vegetable.

Katie Ferraro (7m 49s):

We'll get to that. Next I wanna focus on protein. The easiest protein to feed to Babies at breakfast of course is egg. So hoping your baby has already had egg a number of times on its own without reaction, you definitely want to continue reintroducing egg. And there's lots of different ways to prepare eggs. If, you're not familiar with how to make eggs Safely for baby led weaning. I'll link in the Shownotes to another episode I did, which is seven ways to make eggs safe for Baby led weaning. And you'll get some ideas in there, but you're not actually making the food at the restaurant, so, or the hotel. So what are they offering now when it comes to scrambled eggs, right? Like most, you know, Hamptons residents in, they have a rotation If. you spend enough time in a hotel, you know exactly what breakfast you're gonna get on what day, but there's usually eggs.

Katie Ferraro (8m 32s):

So scrambled eggs can have a lot of added salt. Also, if it's a very, very small scramble, it can be into small pieces, which is hard for the baby to pick up. I generally prefer hard boiled eggs. And even if the hot bar has like only scrambled eggs, you usually can find hard boiled egg, maybe in the refrigerated section or somewhere else. And even If, you just ask the attendant, they sometimes will have hard boiled eggs available. And I like hard boiled eggs because you are assured that with the hard boiled egg, there's no added salt. Now, as we all know, a little bit of added salt is not a huge problem. The goal is to have your baby hopefully learning how to eat new foods and eating with the family. And when you're out and about, there will always be a little bit more salt. But If, you can find a hard boiled egg. It's really a unique texture for two reasons.

Katie Ferraro (9m 13s):

So this is a fun food for Babies to try. If. you slice hard boiled eggs into pieces that your baby can pick up. That rubbery texture of the hard boiled egg, which is perfectly safe for your baby to eat. The protein is where that allergenic part is that we want baby to be exposed to early and often. That's a fun new texture for your baby. But also the egg yolk, that's where the iron is. And the other valuable nutrition. And the fat, the egg yolk of a hard boiled egg is a very unique mealy texture, which is fun for babies to try as well. You can get your hands on some hard boiled eggs. You can also always ask too, depends upon, you know what the setting is. But If, they're able to make eggs without added salt. And when it comes to fat, sometimes parents worry, oh well what if they cooked it in butter? If your baby's already past cow's milk protein, then don't worry about them cooking in butter.

Katie Ferraro (9m 55s):

And when it comes to oil, whatever oil your family eats is totally fine for the baby to eat as well. We don't need to be particular there, but a small egg, hard-boiled egg cut into pieces. Some Babies will eat a couple of hard boiled eggs. It's pretty amazing to watch. I love traveling the summer too, because I try not to stare, but just like watching Babies eat at, at mealtimes with their families. And I remember this one little baby we were in went to Louisville, Kentucky, we took our kids to the Louisville Slugger Museum and we stayed at a Marriott that was around that area and there was this most adorable baby and he was just having his way with the scrambled eggs. And I thought it was so awesome. And my kids were like, mom, stop staring. You're so embarrassing. And then of course we started talking to them and the family was sharing that. They did do baby led weaning and they just loved it so much.

Katie Ferraro (10m 35s):

And yeah, the baby was making a mess. My kids cleaned it up. I was like, go ask the guy where the broom is. 'cause the mom was getting like, you know, sometimes eating at restaurants, you can be a little nerve wracking. oh my gosh, I'm so worried about the mess. But then I was telling them about a splash mat that you can put underneath the baby's high chair so that even if they drop food on the floor at the restaurant, you just kind of clean it up and you take it back to your room, clean it up yourself, If, you wanna help minimize the mess. So the third portion pocket of the breakfast Buffet the fruit or vegetable, you can almost always find some sort of soft fruit or fresh fruit that's available at a breakfast. Buffet melons can be hit or miss, right? Like kind of quintessential quantity. Food productions practices to cut up a bunch of melon, whether or not they're ripe. So for the melons that are too hard, what I'll do is I kind of cut 'em down into the pieces that I want them to picking the softest piece, and then I'll just pour some boiled water over them at the beginning of the meal just to let it soften a little bit.

Katie Ferraro (11m 24s):

And sometimes, again, you can't serve it super piping hot to the baby. You don't wanna burn their mouth. But it's the same effect that it has as when we poach fruits that aren't yet right, but it can soften them. You also can put a little bit of fruit in the microwave to soften it. And I use that usually just if there's a bowl for cereal, cut a pe, couple pieces of the fruit, put hot water on it, and then pop it in the microwave again, taking it out and letting it cool. Remembering that fruit for the most part, especially melon, is very high water content food, it will preserve its heat for a long time. So again, we just wanna make sure we're not burning the baby's mouth, but you can almost always find a banana, okay? And so bananas are a great, you know, automatically soft food for babyledweaning. If they're ripe, we cut them into spears. I usually cut the banana in half long wise.

Katie Ferraro (12m 5s):

And then I'll cut each half into four to six more pieces. So you get spears that are about the size of your adult pinky finger, and I put those in the bowl for the baby to pick up. We do not offer the banana to a baby that has the peel on it. This is a practice that I see, I think it's generated on social media. It's incredibly dangerous. The people will cut a banana in half. We're leaving the peel on and then cut half of that the peel away so that the baby's holding like the bottom of the banana. I kind of call it a banana lipstick with the peel on it. We personally know of babies who have choked on banana peels. They are a huge choking risk. You don't eat a banana with the peel on, please don't feed your baby a banana. With the peel on, it's very easy to cut up a banana and make it safe or find another soft fruit. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back.

Katie Ferraro (12m 55s):

Sometimes people ask about yogurt in a hotel, breakfast buffet setting. And for the most part, that's not gonna fly because the yogurt that you're going to find in most commercial establishments will have added sugar in it. And for the yogurt that we want to offer your baby, we want it to be no added sugar, full fat yogurt, supposed to be whole milk. So not reduced fat, not non-fat, not low fat because we offer whole milk, full fat dairy products to babies up until age two. They need that fat for their brain development. But it's like the fruited yogurts, like that's not actually fruit in there. And you guys, that's added sugar. And we don't wanna offer our babies plain yogurt with a bunch of added sugar in it. So the whole summer, I didn't see any whole milk full fat yogurt. It all had added sugar in it. Again, my kids were like in seventh heaven. But with bigger kids, you can feel a little more comfortable offering them some of those added sugar foods.

Katie Ferraro (13m 38s):

But I would steer clear of that for babies. So again, the meal If, you bring in your mini mat, put some plain oatmeal, either make it yourself with the packet in hot water or let some of the pre-made stuff cool If, you wanna practice with that tiny spoon so the baby can learn to dip and scoop. That's wonderful. If not, they're probably just gonna eat it with their hands. So make sure it's cool enough in the protein pocket. Try to do some slices of hard boiled egg or fried egg strips or scrambled egg if you're so inclined. And then for the vegetable doing soft pieces of either banana or other softened melons or whatever the other fresh fruit may be that your baby can pick up and feed to themselves and you've started your day with a meal at a restaurant. Hopefully the breakfast is included. I mean, some of these restaurants really lose it on us this summer. I swear to God with the amount of food seven kids eat.

Katie Ferraro (14m 21s):

But it also kind of helped us set the stage for the day. Everyone has a good breakfast in their stomach, it can get out sightsee or do whatever it is that you're doing for the reason you're staying in a restaurant. Thank you so much for listening. I wanted to say that the Shownotes for this episode with some more resources and some other related travel episodes, I'll link up at blwpodcast.com/363. And a special thanks to our partners at AirWave Media If, you guys like podcasts that feature food and science in using your brain. Check out some of the podcasts from AirWave. We are online at blwpodcast.com. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you next time.

Katie Ferraro (15m 2s):

Bye. Now If you're interested in doing baby-led weaning, but you're not exactly sure, like what does that mean? What does it look like? Where do I start? My online program called Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro has everything you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods and get them to eat over a hundred foods before they turn one, whether you're terrified of choking or maybe you've started but you feel like you're feeding your baby the same foods over and over. 'cause You don't know what to feed next, or you're looking for guidance on how to prepare foods safely for your baby's age and stage. My program has exactly what you need. There's five hours of concise self-paced video training. You can knock this thing out during nap time this week. You also get access to my 100 First Foods content library so you can see and learn exactly how to prep all of the a hundred foods as well as my original a hundred days meal plan.

Katie Ferraro (15m 46s):

I've been refining this program for the last seven years. Just today, a mom wrote to me and told me that the a hundred days meal plan has been a game changer for her busy lifestyle. When you join the program, you also get access to over a hundred phase two combination food recipes. So you're gonna try out the trickier textures, push your baby palate. And what's cool about these recipes is your whole family will enjoy them. So everything you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods is inside of the program. It's created by me, a registered dietitian who specializes in infant feeding. If you're tired of hunting and pecking around the internet trying to piece this stuff together on your own, I put it all in one convenient place for you. I invite you to check out the Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro program that's at babyledweaning.co.

Katie Ferraro (16m 26s):

Again, that website is babyledweaning.co and click on program to learn more.