10 Wal-Mart Foods to Buy for Baby-Led Weaning
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10 Wal-Mart Foods to Buy for Baby-Led Weaning
Say what you want about Wal-Mart, but their grocery selection is pretty spot on in most parts of the US. And as the nation’s largest grocery retailer, there are a LOT of foods at Wal-Mart that work great for baby-led weaning. Here are 10 of my top BLW foods at Wal-Mart…
And you might also be aware that Wal-Mart is the largest purveyor of organic foods in the United States. I applaud Wal-Mart for offering organic foods at affordable prices, but I never want parents to feel pressured about needing to buy organic.
If you’re curious about feeding your baby organic vs. conventional foods, check out this podcast episode I did called, “Are Organic Foods Better for My Baby?” .
1. Canned Pineapple
Yes you can safely feed your fresh pineapple, but if it’s not in season or is too expensive you can also consider canned pineapple.
It is safe for babies to eat canned foods, but for canned fruit like pineapple, you want to make sure you’re choosing cans of fruit that are not packed in added sugar. We don’t feed babies under age 2 any foods with added sugar and so steer clear of fruit packed in syrup (even if it’s light syrup).
You can find canned pineapple packed in its own juice or in water. That is fine and that is what we’re looking for.
As for the shape, I do use crushed pineapple as an ingredient in some BLW recipes. But for the first few times the baby has pineapple, I like to do pineapple rings. I cut the canned pineapple rings in half so they’re half-moon shapes and offer a few of these pieces in a suction bowl to the baby.
Even before babies have their pincer grasp they can use their whole hand (palmar) grasp to rake and scoop the pineapple half-moons up and into their little mouths.
We start with single foods on their own for the first few tries to ensure baby can safely tolerate that food.
When you are ready to move from individual foods on to combination food recipes, I have a free Facebook community that is packed with great ideas for baby-led weaning recipes that you can join.
2. Butternut Squash
Any type of squash can work for baby-led weaning. And it depends what time of year it is as to what may be available at your store. While pre-bagged butternut squash is convenient, it’s usually cut into cubes that when cooked are too small for early eaters to pick up and self-feed on their own.
I do like to buy butternut squash whole to prep for baby-led weaning. Simply cut it in half, scoop the seeds out, cover the flesh/cut side with oil of your choice (I love avocado oil) and roast in the oven at 350 or 375 degrees F for 90 minutes or until fork tender.
Then I let the squash cool on the counter until I can handle it (but not all the way to room temperature) and you can easily cut off the skin. Then cut the cooked squash flesh into strips about the size of your adult pinky finger and place a few in a suction bowl for your baby.
Of course butternut squash is not a food unique to Wal-Mart, but I’m including it here as a reminder not to pass up the produce section, getting 1 new fruit and 1 new vegetable each week to feed your baby.
Using my 5-STEP FEEDING FRAMEWORK for baby-led weaning, each week you introduce 5 new foods to your baby: 1 new fruit, 1 new vegetables, 1 new starch, 1 new protein and 1 new challenge category food (...these include the Big 8 allergenic foods + the trickier textures and more complex flavor foods babies don’t always get to try but certainly can eat!)
If you want to learn more about giving your baby a safe-start to solid foods (and how to implement the 5-STEP FEEDING FRAMEWORK for your baby…) come check out my free online workshop: “BABY-LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS: How to get your baby to try 100 foods before turning 1 without you having to spoon-feed purees or buy pouches!”
Everyone on this free workshop gets a copy of my 100 FIRST FOODS list & you can sign up for this week’s workshop times.
3. Shredded Frozen Potatoes
Potatoes are a great carbohydrate or starchy food to feed your baby. We don’t feed babies potato peels, and the flesh of baked potatoes can be dry which in turn is a choking hazard.
Babies love mashed potatoes and they work great if offered on a preloaded spoon. Older babies can learn to dip and scoop and self-feed mashed potatoes too...just watch out for the sodium.
Another great option are shredded frozen potatoes. Most frozen potato products have way too much salt for BLW (...think frozen french fries or tater tots) but this brand at Wal-mart is just potatoes:
You can use the shredded potatoes as a base or crust in muffin tin meals you make ahead of time for breakfast. These freeze great and can be used for busy morning when you don’t feel like cooking from scratch.
Here is one of my favorite BLW recipes using the frozen shredded potatoes.
4. Beef Liver
If ever there was a more nutrient-dense food than liver, this dietitian does not know what it is!
Liver is an excellent food for baby-led weaning. It’s the most iron dense food you can serve plus it has other fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin A.
Liver is a unique texture that babies don’t always get to try...but they honestly do love liver (especially if you fry it in butter).
I remember one time I was doing BLW and my 100 FIRST FOODS approach with my baby twins. My neighbor walked in and said, “What are they eating?” ...and when I told her it was liver she said, “Why...what did they ever do to you?!”
Liver is one of those foods that as adults many of us have become conditioned not to like...but babies can safely eat liver.
There are some precautions to take with organ meats, and I have a whole BABY-LED WEANING MADE EASY podcast about how babies can eat liver along with other organ foods. That episode is called, “Liver: How to Offer Liver Safely to Babies” and you can listen to that here.
5. Bamba Peanut Butter Puffs
New research and updated guidelines indicate that early introduction of peanuts may be helpful in preventing peanut allergy down the road.
So we want to introduce babies to peanut protein early and often but thick globs of peanut butter are not safe for babies to eat.
One of my favorite ways to introduce peanuts to babies is using soft peanut butter puffs. The brand Bamba is an internationally available brand and it was the product used in the LEAP study (Learning Early About Peanut Allergy).
Wal-Mart carries Bamba, which does have more sodium and is crunchier than my preferred baby-led weaning peanut puff.
The peanut butter puff that I like for baby-led weaning is called PUFFWORKS BABY and it comes from a company called Puffworks.
The Puffworks Baby peanut butter puffs have no added sugar, only a smidge of sodium (less than Bamba and it’s only in there for the minimal amount of preservative required to be shelf-stable), plus the Puffworks Baby product is softer so it dissolves easily in your baby’s mouth.
You can get 20% off your order at puffworks.com when you use the code BABYLED (this is my affiliate code). Be sure to get the Puffworks Baby peanut butter puffs product for BLW (the bag has an elephant on it) ...but if you’re a peanut butter fan they have some pretty amazing adult options for puffs on the Puffworks site too.
The code BABYLED works for 20% off on everything at puffworks.com and you can shop here.
6. Smooth Peanut Butter
The key with allergenic food introduction is we need to do these foods early and often to help prevent food allergy down the road.
You can do peanut butter puffs for initial introduction, and once you’re comfortable with your baby trying out some trickier textures, move on to thinned-out peanut butter.
Again, we don’t feed thick globs of nut butters to babies, so they can’t have peanut butter on their own.
I like to thin out peanut butter with unsweetened applesauce, breastmilk or formula or plain, full-fat whole milk yogurt. I get the peanut butter mix combo thin enough to drop off the end of my spoon, which indicates to me it’s no longer sticky and is safe for the baby to try.
When buying peanut butter to feed babies we never do crunchy PB as that is a choking hazard. Babies can’t eat chunky peanut butter, but you can do plain, smooth, unsweetened, unsalted peanut butter thinned out and offered on a pre-loaded spoon. Wal-Mart has a few good options that are also affordable.
For more on how to safely feed your baby peanuts, listen to this podcast episode, “Peanut: How to Introduce Your Baby to this Potentially Allergenic Food” here.
7. Sardines
Sardines are a superb food for baby-led weaning. Babies can eat fish and sardines make it easy to safely feed your baby fish.
You want to look for sardines that have no added salt. You’ll notice there’s still salt on the food label, but that’s because fish and seafood foods are rich in all minerals, including sodium. We just want to ADD any sodium on top of that.
I like boneless, skinless sardines with no added salt if I can find them. You can also buy packed in oil and extra oil is always good. Oil adds moisture and moisture helps reduce choking risk.
For more info on how to feed your baby sardines, I did a whole podcast episode - basically a love-fest to sardines as one of my favorite BLW foods. That episode is called, “Sardines: How to Offer Sardines Safely to Babies” and you can listen to that here.
8. Panko Breadcrumbs
Panko breadcrumbs are one of my MUST HAVE pantry staples when starting baby-led weaning.
Panko is Japanese-style breadcrumbs that have way less sodium than traditional breadcrumbs. They go great in fritter recipes which is how we make harder-to-handle foods easy for babies to self-feed.
Read your labels on panko because some brands have more sodium than others. Panko also includes wheat - a potentially allergenic food - so make sure your baby has been exposed to wheat protein a few times without any reaction before introducing a new food along with panko.
And if you’re looking for more ideas on foods to stock your BLW pantry, I have a free BLW PANTRY PLANNER GUIDE you can download here.
This BLW PANTRY PLANNER GUIDE is jam-packed with different categories of canned and dry good foods that are helpful to have on hand when you start solid foods.
9. Wheat Germ
Wheat germ is another pantry staple I like for baby-led weaning. It’s rich in fiber and iron and is great for rolling slices of slippery food in.
If you’re looking for more ideas on how to make slippery foods easier for babies to handle, check out this podcast episode I did called “Make Slippery Foods Easier to Pick Up (+ Add Iron) with these 5 Ingredient Hacks” and you can listen to that here.
10. Tahini
I love love love tahini as the easiest, safest way to introduce babies to the potentially allergenic food sesame.
Now sesame is not one of the BIG 8 allergenic foods (...the 8 foods that account for about 90% of food allergy); but sesame allergy IS on the rise, and is considered #9 in many circles.
Seeds can be hard for early eaters to eat, but tahini is sesame seed paste and can be made safe for babies to eat.
We don’t feed thick globs of nut or seed butters to babies, but you can thin out tahini in yogurt or applesauce or with breastmilk or formula. You then offer on a preloaded spoon & babies can self-feed this way.
I also use tahini in homemade hummus recipes. Commercial hummus you would buy in the store tends to be too high in sodium, but homemade hummus is super easy to make. Just combine a scoop of tahini, low sodium canned beans and olive oil and process until smooth, adding more oil to thin as necessary.
More BLW Grocery Shopping Goodness
If you can’t get enough of this info on what to buy or not to buy when you’re grocery shopping for baby-led weaning, I have a BABY-LED WEANING MADE EASY podcast I recorded just for you!
It’s called “Grocery Shopping for BLW: Stocking Up Smart & What to Skip” and you can listen to that episode here.
Download my free list with all of the items to buy to stock your pantry here.
And if you like this list of 10 WHOLE FOODS TO BUY FOR BABY-LED WEANING, I have a similar post for 10 different BLW foods to buy from Trader Joe’s, Costco, Sprouts Farmers Market & Wal-Mart too:
Lastly, don’t forget to join my free online workshop BABY-LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS: How to get your baby to try 100 foods before turning 1 without you having to spoon-feed purees or buy pouches!”
Everyone on this free workshop gets a copy of my 100 FIRST FOODS LIST...so you’ll never wonder what foods to feed your baby next! You can sign up for this week’s workshop times here.
Thanks for stopping by and happy feeding...but happy grocery shopping too!
