Looking for a baby food feeder? Read on to discover the advantages of a baby food bottle feeder, mesh baby food feeder, silicone baby food feeder, reusable squeeze pouch baby food feeder, and a baby spoon feeder. These can help your child learn how to start to transition from baby feeders to more soft foods and someday solid foods as they get older.
I love my kids when are babies, but I don’t always love taking the time to sit there and feed them baby food from a jar (and I certainly don’t love taking the time to make my own baby food purees). I’m all about that baby-led weaning and finger foods! I am a busy mom with other kids and work and school so easy is my approach to introducing baby foods.
I wait until at least 6 months before introducing any type of baby food. I usually buy some rice cereal and mix it with a little formula or pumped breastmilk (if I have any pumped) and give it a go. I may then try spoon-feeding some simple, single-flavor jarred baby food to my infant.
Once they get more a hang of the idea of food, and can move food around in their mouth and swallow better, I start giving the baby small, soft bits of whatever we are eating at the table, along with baby-friendly puffed cereals, freeze-dried yogurt bites, and more pureed baby foods perhaps from a baby food feeding pouch.
The biggest fear I have every time I start feeding babies is the fear of them choking.
This is one of my greatest fears, not just at the dinner table, but as they crawl around and find all the tiniest bits of whatever all over the floor and stick it in their mouths! I have pulled so many pieces of paper, leaves, grass, and toys out of my fifth baby’s mouth. It’s nerve-wracking!
And that’s why I love the idea of a safe baby food feeder.
Why it works for easy feeding
Using useful tools like a mesh baby feeder is perfect for helping your child transition to soft foods and solid foods. It’s also an easy way to help your baby’s gums transition to eating a small size of food as well. Baby fruit feeders are great because they are made of safe materials with tiny holes that allow your child to hold onto the food-grade silicone handle and start to figure out the best way to eat.
This is a great way to introduce small amounts of food to a teething baby or to introduce them to new flavors of food in a fun way.
Keep in mind that a baby’s age and the baby’s diet needs to be kept in mind. Young babies shouldn’t be eating the same thing as an older baby so you still have to be very careful as well.
Use these for little hands. They also work great to work on hand-eye coordination as they’re putting them up to their mouths. I also love that they’re made for easy cleaning, too!
Baby Food Feeder
Using a baby food feeder is a new thing for me to try with my fifth baby, but I like it so much!
Not only does it make feeding babies safer but makes mealtime less messy! (See my post on limiting messy eating toddlers for tips for the slightly older crowd!)
I discovered that there are several very popular baby food feeder options out there today, so I wanted to discuss the various options and what makes them each great or not so great and where you can pick them up.
Munchkin Baby Food Feeder
To help facilitate this discussion, Munchkin sent me a few baby food feeders and a cool sippy cup cleaning brush set to review.
#1 Baby Spoon Feeder
This type of baby food feeder is where you dispense baby food through a baby food dispensing spoon. You simply fill up the soft silicone end with soft pureed foods or things like yogurt and then you squirt baby food out from the silicone part out onto the spoon!
I tried ours out with some Greek vanilla yogurt. While it still ending up being messy and it made all sorts of fun “farting” noises as I pushed out air along with the yogurt, which then kinda sprayed everywhere, it was pretty easy to use.
What I like about this versus a bowl or jar that you are spoon feeding your baby from, is there is less back and forth from the jar or bowl to the baby’s mouth. When babies are at the “swat at everything” stage, it means less chance of baby food ending up on the floor, or my lap.
So, still kinda messy but better!
It’s pretty easy to clean out, and you can take the squeeze feeding spoon on the go as it comes with a hard plastic cover you just snap on to the end of the spoon.
They come in colors blue, green, and pink and are $7 each on Munchkin.com. You can also find them on Amazon (though for more).
Munchkin Baby Mesh Feeder
I have seen many friends over the years who use and love these mesh baby food feeders (and even pediatric occupational therapists highly recommend mesh feeders)! They are especially handy as a baby teething feeder! You can put some frozen raspberries or other frozen fruit or even an ice cube in it and let your baby safely gnaw and gum it, cooling their poor aching teething gums!
The Munchkin fresh food feeder is perfect in that you can give your baby chopped up pieces of fresh fruits and vegetables without having to puree them to a pulp! The mesh prevents large pieces from coming through so they won’t chock on the fresh food! Yeah!
I put some cut grapes, pieces of chicken, and more in mine when I tested it out to give to my 8-month old baby. She loved gnawing on it!
Some of the best foods for a mesh feeder include:
- raw apples
- chunks of melons
- frozen blueberries
- pears
- peaches
- raw carrots
- nectarines
- chunks of meat
It is recommended to empty and wash out your mesh feeders shortly after use to make it easier to clean out and prevent any food going bad in there! I found it super easy to rinse out with a little dish soap at my sink. But some foods like bananas can be more difficult to clean out of it.
The Munchkin Fresh Food Feeder comes in pink/purple, green/blue, and yellow/green colors for $3 each on Munchkin.com. You can also opt for one of their Munchkin Deluxe Fresh Food Feeders that come with a convenient on-the-go cap with snap-tight closure for $4 each on Munchkin.com. Amazon has the 2-pack fresh food feeders that I received for $5.99.
Munchkin Silicone Baby Food Feeder
Similar to the above fresh baby food feeder, there is also a Munchkin silicone baby feeder too (but I didn’t receive this product to try out).
The silicone baby feeder is actually designed for babies ages 4+ months whereas the other ones are designed for babies 6+ months old.
The silicone baby food feeders are easier to clean, but smaller and actually designed for baby food purees rather than large fresh food, though some people still put large pieces of food in them (but it’s harder to fit them in these).
Munchkin silicone baby food feeders come in pink, green, and blue and includes an on-the-go cap for $4.50 on Munchkin.com.
Baby Food Bottle Feeder
I don’t use baby bottles hardly at all, so maybe that is why I had never heard of a baby food bottle feeder before!
There are some bottle manufacturers that offer alternative bottle tips that allow you to squeeze out baby food from inside the bottle to the base of a replacement bottle head – a food dispensing spoon!
With our baby twins we had used baby bottles that could swap out tips for sippy cup tips, and we used those silicone sippy cup nipples with moderate success (until they got teeth and stuck utensils, pencils, and other objects into the opening making anything but spill-proof). The baby food feeder bottle nipples also make sense!
It doesn’t appear like there are many bottle companies that actually make these anymore. Nuby used to make one called the Nuby Infa Infant Feeder and the Nurtur Care Infa Feeder but they are no longer available for purchase. I did find that Sassy offers a baby food nurser bottle (on BuyBuyBaby and Amazon).
The cool thing about this product is that it has a vacuum disc that keeps air out and moves cereal or baby food without clogging. Plus there is a handy travel cover so you can take baby food on the go much easier. The spoon is also like a soft nipple which is easier on those little mouths than a regular spoon.
Reusable Squeeze Pouch Baby Food Feeder
I recently got a reusable squeeze pouch baby food feeder from Noobie Box‘s Noobie Eat Box. I have always wanted one of these because I hate how wasteful and expensive all these baby food pouches out there! You can easily fill one of these up with apple sauce, your own fruit purees, or yogurt and save yourself a ton of money, time, and trash!
Squeeze pouches are super handy for feeding soft pureed foods to babies (and older kids too – let’s be honest!), especially on the go! No utensils required and when they get older can safely suck them down themselves without making any messes.
My baby at 8-months old cannot manage one of these on her own (she loves to squeeze them) but uses baby food squeeze pouches has helped her develop some sucking skills, skills that will come in handy when introducing sippy cups with straws.
If you are interested in picking up reusable squeeze pouches, there are many options on Amazon from brands like Squooshi, WeeSprout, Baby Brezza, Kiddzo, and others costing about $9.99-$19.99 for multiple reusable pouches.
Munchkin does not carry any baby food pouches, but they do have Click Lock Food Pouch Spoons! They work with most leading pouch brands. The spoons are twisted onto the ends of the pouches, allowing you to squeeze baby food from pouches onto a baby-friendly spoon. They’re designed for kids ages 4+ months. It’s pouch feeding without the mess (hopefully).
You can get a 2-pack of the Munchkin Click Lock Food Pouch Spoons for $4 on Munchkin.com.
If you want to pick up several of these great Munchkin baby food feeders, remember that you get FREE Shipping on Munchkin.com Orders Over $25 + FREE Returns! Plus, you can also Sign up to receive an additional 10% OFF!
I’m so glad there are so many great and innovative baby brands making products to help me feed my baby safer and cleaner!
I’d love to know what you’ve thought about various baby food feeders you’ve used over the years, sharing your own reviews of which one(s) is your favorite.
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bonsi says
this is a really amazing and interesting article about the baby food feeder. thanks for sharing this article.