Why You Should Use Baby Food Feeders
I found out about the baby food feeders from one of the moms at my son’s Gymboree class and thought they sounded interesting. The basic idea behind using a baby food feeder is to introduce your baby to self-feeding earlier than his/her motor skills would normally allow. You can start using baby mesh feeder as early as 4 months or whenever your baby learns to hold a pacifier or bottle and is also starting solids.
Some foods that can be served up in a baby feeder include purees, thick milk or formula, and cereals (oatmeal, wheat, rice etc). Liquids and very runny foods may leak out before your baby can get it into his/her mouth. But, you don’t have to use foods as thick as green beans, peas, or sweet potatoes to make it work. In fact, foods that come in squeeze pouches (like the Plum Organics brand) work well and are easy to dispense into the feeder even though they will leak out if you hold the feeder end-down for too long.
Another great use of baby food feeders (that a friend told me about) is for assisting your baby with teething. You can put frozen cubes of milk, fruit or veggies into the feeder and it will sooth your baby’s gums when he/she sucks on it. The thick material of the feeder insulates the frozen food pretty well so it is not too cold.
I recommend the baby food feeder we bought on Amazon. It is called the Maxx Elite King MaxxFlo Nutritional Food Feeder Medium
Why we like our Maxx Elite baby food feeder:
Our son just started solids and feeding him with a spoon sometimes can be hard and pretty boring for both him and us. The food feeder teaches him how to feed himself by making the process very fun and easy. The Maxx Elite seems pretty safe. It is much to large to pose a choking hazard, yet it is light enough that our son can hold it in one hand.
The Maxx Elite King MaxxFlo Nutritional Food Feeder comes with 2 nipples. This means that you could load one while the other one is being sucked on. Although, for us, it usually means we can just do two feedings between sensitization/cleaning. The feeder itself is super easy to use. Here are some photo instructions.
