Baby Led Weaning and WIC

[WifeofAnt]

Has anyone done Baby Led Weaning while in WIC?  Were you able to get real food instead of jarred mush for the baby?  Which state was this through and how?  If you weren't able to get an exchange, what did you do with all the jars?

[Amanda_Reyasmom]

My dd does eat some baby mush, and enjoys it.  I really never saw that coming! We give the bulk of it to my friend's church.  In KY she gets 3 jars of food a DAY and 3 boxes of cereal.  She eats maybe 1/2 a jar a day and no cereal sooo.. there's a lot of surplus.  Our dog really enjoys the meat mash as a special treat too! LOL

[BetsyS]

We don't get WIC, so I can't speak specifically to that, but.  My kids have done a mixture of BLW and baby food.  I like to mix baby food fruit into their oatmeal (regular oatmeal, not baby cereal) in the morning.  My older kids (2 and 4) like baby food fruit in their oatmeal, too.  LOL.  If you like smoothies (and your baby probably will by 11-12 months), you can throw the baby food fruit in there.  My current baby (11 months old) loves, loves, loves food, and he eats what we eat about 90% of the time.  But, he doesn't mind baby food, and every now and then, we break it out. 

You can put baby food vegetables into spaghetti sauce, meatloaf, sloppy joes.  Really, you can put them in just about anything, especially the orange varieties.  Think of it as increasing the nutrition of your food (cause maybe baby food is a little too processed to be "real food", but it is only vegetables/fruit, so it's not terrible for you).  Then, you feed your baby the meatballs or spaghetti or whatever.  I have never bought baby food meat, but I'm sure you could do the same thing there, too.  Just add a jar into a pot of chili or something. 

[KempsMama]

We BLW and are on WIC.  I donate the cereal and meat back to the WIC office, and I the rest I buy fruit for smoothies, or I throw a jar of veggies in pasta sauce, occasionally I give LO a jar and a spoon to play with.  I have a TON of it, so I just requested that we not receive the next three months of vouchers. 

[minkajane]

DD's not old enough for solids yet, but I don't have a problem with the pureed foods. I just make sure to get the kinds that are just the fruit or veggies, no added salt or sugar or anything. With the cereal, I'll probably mix a little bit in with the fruit purees to give them more bulk to get her used to heavier foods. I know they give you a ton more than you actually need but it's not like they'll go bad if you don't use them immediately. An older baby or toddler would love a bowl of fruit puree, especially if you tell them it's pudding.

[tzs]

nah, they won't substitute but we used alot of them...just google "recipes with baby food" or something like that. you can use the fruit ones to make muffins, banana bread, carrot cakes, add them to pancakes. applesauce is applesauce so there's alot you can do with it. you can add them to yogurts. people already mentioned adding to sauces and meats. sometimes i would just coat pasta in something....like pasta coated with peas and cracked black pepper with ricotta...pretty fancy shmancy!

during the summer i would mix them with coconut milk and freeze for popsicles. or you can just freeze them straight.

the meats are nasty but i had a friend with a sick cat who needed them.

the rest i donated or didn't get.

it was actually pretty fun trying to use them in new ways....like a challenge!