10 Costco Foods to Buy for Baby-Led Weaning

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. I spend a LOT of time and money shopping at Costco, but none of the content in this post is sponsored by Costco or any of the products mentioned 😉 (This post does contain affiliate links.)

If you’re a fan of Costco and you have a baby in your house, here are 10 easy foods that you can buy at Costco that also work for baby-led weaning.

This is not a “first 10 foods” or the only 10 foods you could purchase at Costco by any means! It is simply a list of 10 foods from Costco that you might NOT have thought your baby can eat.

Keep in mind that the greater the number of foods, flavors, tastes and textures that you can expose your baby to early and often - the easier it will be to raise an independent eater (and prevent picky eating!)

(...and if you’re looking for other BLW shopping ideas, check out my post: 10 Trader Joe’s Foods to Buy for Baby-Led Weaning)

So here goes...10 Costco foods you can buy and serve your baby safely with baby-led weaning:

1. OATMEAL

One question I get a lot on my baby-led weaning workshops is, “What type of baby oatmeal should I feed my baby?”

My thoughts are and response always is, “Your baby doesn’t need special baby oatmeal.” You can feed good old fashioned oats, just the way the rest of your family eats (without the added sugar of course :)

Early on when your baby is JUST starting out on solids (at 6 months of age + when baby is exhibiting the other signs of readiness to eat…) you MIGHT consider pulsing the oats in a food processor just to make the grain a little finer.

I do this for the first few times I feed babies oatmeal, just to make sure they are safe to swallow this new lumpier texture.

You can offer baby oatmeal and still practice baby-led weaning by pre-loading the spoon with the prepared oatmeal and offering the spoon to your baby handle-side first. At first he may need a little help bringing the spoon to mouth, but pretty quickly your baby will get the hang of this and be able to self-feed foods like oatmeal.

I buy the two-pack of old fashioned Quaker Oats from Costco. I use a 2:1 liquid: oat ratio and usually make it with whole milk for my older kids if I’m also feeding the babies. For our 7 kids I usually make 4 cups dry oatmeal with 6 cups of milk, maybe 1 cup water and 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce for taste (for a total of 8 cups liquid). You could also do all milk and no water/applesauce depending on your taste preferences (...and how much milk you have in the fridge :)

Now, I know you’re wondering, “Wait...I thought babies weren’t supposed to have cow’s milk until after age 1?”. Partially true. Babies should not have liquid cow’s milk in place of formula and/or breastmilk until after age 1, but milk as an ingredient or yogurt is perfectly fine for younger babies who are eating solid foods. Stick to whole milk and avoid reduced fat milk products until after baby is about age 2. 

2. ALMOND BUTTER

Almonds are a tree nut and tree nuts are one of the “Big 8” - the 8 foods that account for about 90% of food allergy. Barring an outright tree nut or peanut allergy or other risk factors for tree nut allergy, babies can and should be introduced to tree nuts early and often. But intact nuts and thick globs of nut butters can be a choking hazard.

You CAN feed your baby almond butter, but it’s wise to thin it out. Nut butters are also not one of the first allergenic foods I introduce to baby because even thinned out they can be hard to clear from the roof of the baby’s mouth and could pose a choking hazard. 

There are easier allergenic foods to start with. In my 100 First Foods Approach to starting solid foods, I recommend one new allergenic food per week. Start with the easy and common ones like milk, egg and peanut.

After your baby has been eating for a few weeks, thinned out almond butter is appropriate for most babies. One of the easiest ways to serve to baby is to mix into applesauce or yogurt. If doing yogurt, make sure baby has already been exposed to milk protein so you’re not introducing 2 potentially allergenic foods at one time.

When selecting almond butter look for a brand that does not have added sugar or added salt. I like the Kirkland Organic Creamy Almond Butter from Costco for this reason. If you’re looking through my 100 First Foods Content on my Instagram page @babyledweanteam - I did Peanut Butter on Day 65 and the way you introduce almond butter safely is the same as PB.

If you’re interested in learning more about my 100 First Foods Approach to starting solids with baby-led weaning, check out my FREE online workshop “BABY-LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS”...it’s all about how you can get YOUR baby to try 100 foods before turning one without you having to spoon-feed purees or buy pouches.

I give away my list of 100 FIRST FOODS FOR YOUR BABY TO TRY to everyone on this workshop and you can click here to sign up.

The spoons that I like to use for baby-led weaning are the Tiny Spoon from ezpz. In my opinion they are the best baby spoons on the market. They were developed by the infant feeding expert and Speech Language Pathologist for ezpz and they are the perfect size for little hands and little mouths. The handle on most baby spoons is too long and the bowl of most other baby spoons is too large for the baby’s mouth. The Tiny Spoon - which is pliable food grade silicone - gets it perfect, and these are ideal spoons to offer to your baby from age 6 months of age and on.

You can get 10% off all ezpz products - including the Tiny Spoon with the code KATIE10. Click here to shop.

3. HARD BOILED EGGS

(Update: Jan 2020 - ok when I originally posted links to this content on Instagram, comments went ballistic with the extra packaging in this Costco product…which, I hadn’t even though about, but yes, totally ridiculous to have individually plastic wrapped cooked HB eggs. Of course Costco also sells in shell eggs with much more appropriate / less packaging and you can always HB your own. But just wanted to address the packaging issue and thanks for keeping my eyes open guys 👀….)

While we’re talking about allergenic foods, let’s mention eggs. Eggs are another “Big 8” food and it is a good idea to start introducing eggs to your baby early and often. Most people start with scrambled eggs - and that’s fine. You can also do fried egg strips which your baby can pick up by hand and self-feed.

Hard boiled eggs are another way you can offer your baby eggs. The unique rubbery texture of the white and the mealy texture of the hard boiled egg yolk are new and interesting textures for your baby to try.

We know that babies who are exposed to the greatest numbers of foods, tastes, flavors and textures early on are more likely to be independent eaters and less likely to become picky eaters. 

You can of course hard boil your own eggs, but I like the convenience of the already shelled option from Costco. Offer your baby both the egg white and the yolk: the white is where the potentially allergenic protein is and the yolk is where the iron, minerals and fat that baby’s brains need is located.

4. MOZZARELLA CHEESE

Most cheese is not appropriate for babies because the sodium levels are too high. It’s not a good idea to get your baby accustomed to salty foods as he will learn to taste the sodium and not the flavors of the food.

A little sodium is ok - and while there are no hard and fast US guidelines about how much added sodium babies should have, the UK guidelines recommend less than 400 mg per day for 6-12 month olds and less than 800 mg per day for 1-3 year olds.

Here is a good rule of thumb that I follow for baby-led weaning and sodium: if you try to make most of your baby’s food as wholesome foods that don’t contain added sodium, if and when you do packaged foods, look for 100 mg sodium or less per serving. 

Of course this 100 mg sodium per serving recommendation is an adult serving, and babies rarely eat the full listed serving amount...but to boil it down: when selecting cheeses, I only use those that have 100 mg sodium or less per 1 oz serving. (An ounce of cheese is about the size of a domino or a single slice of American cheese).

Mozzarella is a good bet because it is a soft cheese that is easy for baby to chew (even without teeth) and it tends to be lower in sodium. There are 2 types of mozzarella at Costco, the larger package you slice off and the marinated balls. Both have less than 100 mg sodium per serving (85 mg and 90 mg respectively, even though the balls are “marinated”). I like the balls if baby already has a pincer grasp, but slicing the larger “log” into strips is easy for baby to self-feed as well.

5. SEAWEED SNACKS

I’m not a huge fan of packaged snacks in general, and especially for babies. Babies don’t “need” snacks….but sometimes parents need snacks or need babies to have a snack and these are a good option.

The seaweed snacks from Costco are a unique crunchy texture, have an unusual fishy flavor and are surprisingly low in sodium for a packaged snack (40 mg per serving.) 

The “serving” is a little tricky. There are 10 mini packs in a large pack of Costco seaweed snacks. Each mini pack has 5 servings, so if you offer your baby ⅕ of the mini pack, you’re getting max 40 mg sodium - and that’s about max any baby would eat in one sitting.

Keep in mind these things are fishy smelling - I once took them on an airplane to keep my babies occupied and it was NOT appreciated by my neighbors :)

6. RICE ROLLERS

Another unusual item from the Costco snack aisle that works well for baby-led weaning are the brown rice rice rollers. These are a great alternative to teething biscuits which tend to have added sugars and sodium.

The organic brown rice rollers from Costco have 0 mg sodium. To be fair, they’re mostly air and there’s not a whole lot of nutrition in them...but the rice roller is a fun crunchy texture for your baby to try out.

Heads up: these get messy...like all rice foods do when feeding babies. But they WILL keep your baby occupied for awhile (...although of course never leave your baby unoccupied when eating).

7. DRIED SNAP PEAS

I’m not a fan of offering any raw vegetables to babies, especially snap peas. They are tough and stringy and not ideal for babies under the age of 1. They can even be tough for toddlers, so keep an eye out any time you’re feeding raw veggies, even to older kids.

Dried snap peas are a totally different story. Costco has “lightly salted” Green Pea Snack Crisps that only have 25 mg sodium per serving.

They are a good size for babies to be able to pick up and self-feed and the crunchy texture is unique and new to most babies.

Again, babies don’t “need” snacks but if you want to have some snacks on hand, these are a good buy at Costco for your baby.

8. SCALLOPS

Shellfish is one of the Big 8 allergenic foods, and introducing shellfish to your baby can be a tad tricky. I usually like to do shrimp - but the shrimp at Costco tends to have added sodium, which isn’t ideal for babies.

But their scallops...the scallops’ ingredient list at Costco is ideal as it is just scallops. Scallops are also shellfish (they are mollusks whereas shrimp are crustaceans - but both are shellfish).

Another cool thing about scallops are their rubbery texture. Rubbery is one of the trickier textures to offer to your baby, but these are a safe way to introduce a fun new texture plus a potentially allergenic food.

I like to fry scallops in butter, slice and serve to baby...but I also use them in scallop cakes - similar to the way I introduce babies to shrimp with shrimp cakes.

9. JARRED MANGO

Costco has raw cut mango, whole mangoes and jarred mango. I prefer the jarred mango for babies. First off, it is softer than the raw cut mango every time. Even in-season, the fresh cut mango can be really hard - which is a choking hazard for babies.

When it’s in-season, the fresh whole mangoes from Costco can’t be beat...but of course they’re not always available. If you’re up for the task, and if you can find them, the individual fresh mangoes at Costco are awesome - you just have to peel and remove from the pit, slice and serve to baby.

The jarred mango is almost always available and it’s softer and already cut in spears which is quick and convenient. There is additional mango juice added in this product, but there is no added sugar or syrup in the jarred mango at Costco.

You can offer your baby strips of mango about the size of your adult pinky finger, or the size of a fat french fry and allow baby to self-feed and try out the unique flavor of this tropical fruit. If the jarred mango is too slippery try rolling it in iron fortified rice cereal powder or formula powder for additional iron plus some traction to help baby pick up the mango.

10. AVOCADO

You are likely aware that avocado is one of the easiest starter foods for babies. (Click if you want to read my post about avocados as a perfect first food for babies that I wrote for the California Avocado Commission. Disclaimer: I was previously a spokesperson for the California Avocado Commission and this was a paid blog post.)

We live in Southern California and as a result I have access to fresh avocados from California, Mexico, Peru or Chile pretty much year round. Though, I do find the most consistently high quality avocados available in my area are at Costco.

As a spokesperson for the California Avocado Commission for many years, I’ve had the opportunity to tour numerous avocado groves and packing and shipping operations and I know the high standards that Costco produce managers demand. Sometimes their avocados are a little pricier than you might find in your market, but you almost NEVER get a rotten or off-tasting avocado when you purchase at Costco!

Avocados are an ideal starter food for babies. But if you’re looking for other foods your early eater can eat, check out my free download 10 EASY STARTER FOODS FOR BABY-LED WEANING.

DO YOU GO TO COSTCO?

With 7 kids, we are big Costco fans. I get asked a lot, “Do you take all 7 to Costco?” and the answer is, ALMOST never together. If my husband is traveling it would require 2 babysitters for me to go to Costco by myself, so I usually do Instacart.

Costco is a great place to buy fresh fruits and vegetables in bulk - which you may have noticed I did not include any of those here on this BLW list. That is because the fresh produce you can get at Costco is not remarkably different from anything you can find in your own grocery store at home. 

As far as going to Costco, I have on occasion taken my oldest Molly, or the twins and Molly, or even the quadruplets to Costco...and while it is quite the experience, they take up all the room in the cart! So I prefer to leave my shopping to the internet when I can :)

Hope you guys enjoyed this post about 10 Costco Foods You Can Buy for Baby-Led Weaning!