My Favorite Baby Feeding Gadget

One of the many things I love about practicing at Eastside Natural Medicine is that I get to see newborns and adults. I love babies but it also fills up my buckets to have a deep spiritual conversation with an adult patient. I love doing pediatrics because I get to see kids grow up in the ways of naturopathic medicine, something that would have changed the course of my health forever had I gotten naturopathic care as a child. Adults that didn’t grow up in naturopathic medicine tend to have a lot more layers to their health, and it brings me so much life to guide a patient through that process — I get to be the one to watch healing unfold.

On my blog, I am trying to balance the topics between recipes, life, and naturopathic medicine. When I started my blog during medical school, I was overly cautious with medical topics because I did not yet have a license to practice medicine. My super conservationism put me a bit out of balance with more focus on Life and Food posts rather than Medicine posts. It has been difficult getting out of these old habits from the early stages of my blog. I am really trying to make a shift  in writing more health focused blog posts that apply to my medical practice, which means topics for both kids and adults. This medicine changes people’s health, forever, and had I not found it myself, I would still be so incredibly sick today.

With all of that, today’s health post is to share my favorite baby feeding gadget: the Munchkin Fresh Food Feeder! The Munchkin brand is my favorite style of the fresh food feeder, but many other brands are available. Here are the 3 main reasons why I love this baby feeding gadget:

1. It Helps You to Offer Your Baby A Variety of Textures

The Munchkin Fresh Food Feeder gives you the ability to offer a variety of textures to your baby during the solid food introduction process. This is super important because the secret to raising an open minded eater is variety. Parents are pretty good at offering a variety of foods, but sometimes they forget to also vary the texture. Your baby needs to know that not all food comes in the form of a pasty mush. The infants who were only offered pureed foods tend to be the pickier eating toddlers.

2. It Develops Your Baby’s Fine Motor Skills

Another advantage of using a fresh food feeder is that it helps your baby practice his fine motor skills. He has to grab it, bring it to his mouth, and keep holding onto it while he gums on the food. This is an excellent way to build skills for utensil holding. Both of my girls were able to hold spoons and feed themselves by 12 months, and I often wonder if it’s because of their practice with the fresh food feeder.

3. It Works Really Well for Teething

Frozen blueberries in the fresh food feeder was a teething lifesaver for both of my babies. Frozen food helps to numb the gums and the taste distracts them a bit from the pain. You can also put ice cubes in the feeder instead of frozen food.

The best time to introduce the mesh baby food feeder is around 6.5 to 7 months. It’s OK if they only want to play with it at first. That’s how they learn about new things. By 7 months, most babies are able to grasp the handle enough to bring the food to their mouth.

From the product description for the Munchkin Fresh Food Feeder on Amazon:

“This award-winning product allows your baby to enjoy lots of delicious foods without the choking risk. Simply put a piece of fruit, vegetables or meat into the mesh bag and snap shut. Your baby can chew, suck and enjoy all the whole food goodness and taste, with only the tiniest, digestible pieces coming through. Your baby gets great flavor and you get great peace of mind.”

Please make sure to follow the safety warnings that come with the specific baby fresh feeder you choose to use. Do not leave your baby unattended while he is using the feeder and always discard & replace mesh bags that are weak, frayed, or torn.

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