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Introducing solids to baby with a Fresh Food Feeder

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If you’re in the process of introducing solids you’re entering a whole new world with your little one. While you’re in for a lot of interesting faces and a ton of new messes, there are many fun steps you’ll get to enjoy on this process.

 

This post probably contains affiliate links. That means if you buy something using one of my links I may receive a small commission – at no additional cost to you! How cool is that? It’s kind of boring, but feel free to read my full disclosure if you want more info.

 

A fun way to introduce solids to your baby is with a fresh food feeder. These handy gadgets have handles and allow fresh foods to pass through either mesh or silicon, allowing your baby to experience the food without risk of choking! If you're struggling to get your baby to try new foods, these fresh food feeders may be just what you need!

 

I’m not going to go into a full-blown guide to introducing solids – but if you’re interested I’ve written about that too. I just wanted to let you all know about this awesome gadget that we used when starting our little lady on solid foods.

 

We’d already gone through the cereals, yogurt, and pureed vegetables and fruit when I found this fresh food feeder. I wish I’d found it earlier because my little one hated textured foods. She gagged on almost everything we tried to feed her if it wasn’t cereal or yogurt.

 

I’m fairly confident her caregivers at daycare thought she was never going to eat a meal. She loved herself some milk, but we couldn’t get her to sit down and eat a full meal to save our lives. However, she loved chewing. When we found these fresh food feeders and put fruit in them, she was hooked.

 

What exactly are these awesome fresh food feeders?

 

Here’s an image of the exact one we bought from Amazon. It’s basically a ring pop made of silicon and holes in it. They have mesh feeders available too, but we didn’t have one of those.

 


 

 

I specifically liked the silicon version since she used it as much as a teether as she did to eat. The silicon encouraged chewing, and once she started tasting the fruit juice she kept going.

 

The handles are a great size for baby hands.

 

Here’s an option with a pacifier like cover so it can stand up:

What to use them for

 

We used them for fruit, but that was mainly because it was the only thing our little would eat. I think you could put fresh veggies in there, or anything soft you wanted to encourage gnawing on with the silicon.

 

I don’t really see the need for putting puree in here as it will just drip out, but anything that will mash up and fit through the holes should work. These aren’t limited to just fruit.

 

It may go against the principles of baby led weaning because you’re not allowing the baby to pick up the food directly, but this is good for anyone who has moved beyond the strictly pureed foods stage.

 

Another great benefit is that these feeders encourage self-feeding, and allow infants active participation with whole foods, even when they aren’t yet able to eat the solids on their own.

 

Additional Benefits of the Silicon Fresh Food Feeder

 

Although the primary purpose of these feeders are for nourishment, an added benefit is that the silicon encourages chewing and is gentle to relieve teething discomfort. When you’re using something like fruit, most babies are excited to try and extract the sweetness from the fruit.

 

The added benefit is twofold – a distraction for your cranky and teething baby and gentle gum stimulation to help relieve the pain. Bonus points if you’re able to put chilled fruit like pineapple or watermelon in the feeder to further soothe.

 

I’m going to keep this one short and sweet. Just wanted to let you all know about this awesome gadget. If you’re working on solid foods and need a new trick for getting in more nutrients, they’re definitely worth a try!

 

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11 Comments

  1. Figuring out all the ins and outs of feeding your baby can be tricky. I love that this product alleviates the fear of choking, yet they get the benefits of eating the foods, and you don’t have the hassle of creating a baby food puree!

    1. Hi Lisa – YES! I’m all about figuring out faster ways to get things done, so not having to puree something was high on my list of fantastic things about these feeders!

    1. They were awesome for us! There are so many things I’ve found out about recently that I wish I’d had two years ago when my little lady was an infant.

  2. We were gifted one of the mesh feeders with my daughter, but I never used it. I am interested in trying it with my son, though. However, I am liking the silicone ones you describe in this post. I can definitely see this as being a good tool for feeding baby. The fact that it doubles as a teether, encourages chewing and gives baby some nourishment makes me interested in trying it when my son reaches the point of trying solids. I’m not rushing him though!! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it and your little one is adorable 🙂 It looks like she had a lot of fun eating her fruits with this!

    1. I totally agree with not rushing solids. We just got stuck when our little didn’t want to eat! This was a huge help, but hopefully you don’t have that problem once you introduce food!

  3. We tried to use these, but my son was totally not interested. It may have been because he had already been eating solids for a bit before my MIL got them for him, but whatever the reason they did not get much use. I really liked the concept though and packed them away for the next baby.

    1. Hi Lauren,

      Yes – babies do seem to be particular 🙂 I don’t know how our little would have done had we already been established on solids or with finger foods. Maybe they’ll get some use with baby #2!

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