Food at Daycare

Inevitably, 10pm rolls around and I realize I need to pack food for daycare. I always have a stash of pouches on hand, but I like to use those sparingly, preferring to put together my own menu for them. But in a pinch, pouches rule. I've used Target's Up and Up brand, as well as Ella's Kitchen and Plum Organics.

But seeing as we're trying to do less purees and more textured food, a la Baby Led Weaning, I don't use them often. I've begun encouraging the daycare workers not to mush the food up completely and spoon feed, but rather to just put it in front of the babies and let them try to figure it out. They do really well with Cheerios so I know they can do it, plus I've seen them tear into a banana and a piece of hamburger without issue. Unfortunately I don't think daycare is quite ready to give them big chunks of food, so little chunks or mashed food it is.

Indigo gets upset because he just wants the food in his belly, and can't always grasp it, so they usually end up spoon feeding him in the end. But Periwinkle gets her hands dirty and has fun with it. That's my girl!

So today I sent a little bowl with half a scrambled egg and a cut up strawberry, for each of them. They might need to be fed the strawberries as they are little slippery pieces, but I know they can mash them up just fine with their gums so they should be okay once they get them in their mouths. And the egg was in big enough pieces they should be able to pick them up. I'll see when I pick them up how they did... I was pretty proud of that little breakfast menu so I hope it was a success! I've never sent those items before, so it'd be nice to have this new option available in the future!

I also microwaved a sweet potato (a fairly small one) and mashed it up a bit (but not too much). They each got half a potato. I also sauteed some baby spinach (baby spinach for babies!) in some EVOO. What started out as two cups of spinach got reduced to about 1/4c. sauteed spinach each. I mixed that in with the potatoes, and I'm hoping they just grab it all with their hands and get nice and messy trying to eat it.

A lot of my twin mom friends say their babies are only drinking 24oz. of formula/breastmilk these days. Mine still drink 30-32oz. Fatties? I doubt it. I think they just aren't being forcefed three pureed meals a day so they are still relying on formula for their nutrition, which is as it should be right now. They are trying new foods, learning how to use their hands to feed themselves, and not necessarily filling up on solids. Which is the whole point of BLW. Food is fun until one!

Any other suggestions on fun foods I can send to daycare? Stuff that is easily mashable by little toothless (or nearly toothless) mouths but that they can still feed themselves?