Baby travel gear for feeding and eating
From feeding the youngest babies to toddlers feeding themselves, below is some baby travel gear we’ve found useful for feeding a baby while traveling (and some for at home too).
We prefer to travel light, as we find it makes our travel experience a bit easier and less stressful. You don’t need specialty baby travel gear. Depending on your trip length, destination and reason for travel certain gear can be more or less helpful. We switch up what we bring with us depending on the length and type of trip. Also, you can always borrow (from family, friends or your accommodations), rent (from BabyQuip or other similar services), or buy certain items at your destination.
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Baby travel gear for feeding your baby on trips
1. Nursing cover
This is my favorite nursing cover – White Sateen Classic Nursing Cover – Large Coverage. I’ve tried so many, but I like this best because it’s extra-large (keeps everything covered even with a squirming baby) and has boning (in order to see the baby). I know not everyone likes to use nursing covers, I don’t always, it can be like a tent. However, I actually like to use it as a tent intentionally sometimes. Really. I’ve found them helpful for blocking out other stimulation while traveling so the baby can concentrate on feeding and sleeping. It is also important to be cognizant of other countries laws and customs when it comes to breastfeeding, despite your own views, covering up is required in some places.
2. Hakka breast pump
If you occasionally need to pump while traveling, I recommend the Haakaa Silicone Manual Breast Pump. It has to be the easiest, lightest, low frills pump out there. It’s a single unit, no power necessary, it works off of suction alone. Since it’s only one piece, it’s easy to clean. Make sure you try it out at home beforehand as it’s a different approach than other pumps. It doesn’t work for everyone, or for pumping large quantities, but tons of people love it.
3. Lobster high chair
Not all restaurants have high chairs, they’re more or less common in certain countries. If you’re traveling somewhere where there are likely no high chairs and you need one, this clamp-style Inglesina Fast Table Chair is a great option. It’s durable, easy to set up and the cover is machine washable. It can be attached to a kitchen island counter and even a thick wooden table.
You can disassemble and reassemble easily, but I simply fold one of the sides in and it can fit in the car seat bag. It’s not the most compact thing to carry if you’re traveling around to several different places, but if you only have 1 or 2 destinations and really want to have a guaranteed high chair this works well. We travel with this when visiting family/friends and if we’re staying at a vacation home for a week or longer. I also found my baby was able to sit up in this easier and more securely at a younger age than in the standard wooden style high chairs we see in the USA.
4. Fabric chair cover high chair
A more compact high chair option is the Portable High Chair (there are several others out there similar to this too). You slip it on top of almost any chair and strap the baby to it. Keep in mind, with this one baby will be sitting on whatever chair is at the restaurant which may or may not work well for a baby. I think this works well to have baby confined at the table, and/or if you’re feeding your baby. We followed baby-led weaning, so our babies fed themselves once they started solids. Since this is only a chair cover with straps they weren’t boosted up enough to reach anything on the table to feed themselves. Nuby also offers another similar option with a little booster built-in.
5. Silicone Bib
We’ve found the all-silicone bibs to be the best for travel. They are easy to clean and dry quicker than any other fabric so it makes post-meal cleanup easy. There are a bunch of options out there, but the Happy Healthy Parent Waterproof Silicone Bibs are my favorite. They feel like higher quality and they have a little weight to them, which makes them hang properly and catch any dropped food. This is an extra important baby travel item in my opinion so you don’t have to change your baby’s clothes excessively.
6. Disposable placemats
We didn’t give our baby food on a plate for a while. He indicated he was done eating by swiping everything off the table, and we didn’t want to sacrifice any plates. At home, we put everything directly on his highchair tray. While out at home at restaurants, or traveling, we used these Tidy Tyke Collection disposable placemats. They have a strong adhesive around all 4 edges so they stick well to any surface. They allow babies to have plenty of room to explore food. Post-meal cleanup is so much easier as you just pull up the placemat and any mess altogether, roll it up and toss.
7. Happy mat plate
When we started to trust that our baby wasn’t going to dump his whole plate, we used this ezpz Mini Mat – One-piece silicone placemat + plate. It suctions very strongly to some surfaces but doesn’t work on everything. Like the silicone bibs, cleanup is easy and the plate dries fast. It’s small but has sufficient space for baby’s food. It easily fits in a backpack/diaper bag and fits on an airplane tray table.
