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.

 

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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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