Sensory Taste Test for Budding Self-Feeders

I love this stage. I call it “I do it myself but I can’t do it myself.” Such a tightrope of joys and fears and successes and messes… Ah, toddlerhood.

Due to the fact that my youngest is now officially leaving the baby stage behind, he is becoming more and more independent. “A child of 15 months, independent?” You say. Yes, yes he is. It is INCREDIBLE how even though he can’t utter more than “Mama” or “Dada” or “hi,” he has very definitive opinions of just about everything that goes on.

Any other parents feel me? I know I can’t be the only one.

Anyway, as a result, we try to give him activities that are just at the edge of his skill level but still able to be accomplished (in some way, usually with a good amount of mess involved), just to keep everyone sane. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes it ends in tears. But we try—like all parents, we try.

Since we just got the chance to pick up some Gerber 3rd Foods Lil’ Bits (and this pint-sized boy is SO interested in big kid foods), we decided to have some fun with it this morning. #5 knows how to hold a spoon pretty well, and he’s definitely seen the others shovel food in with one enough times, so I let him have a go.

That white stuff? Whipped cream. I thought about finding organic low sugar gluten free soy-based crap, I swear. But at the end of the day, I grabbed the good stuff. Basically cause I’m a mom of 5 and I have little enough time to go grocery shopping as is. And toddlers need some epic in their lives just like we do.

The thing we LOVED about this is that, although it has somewhat of a time constraint to eat before it flattens—being whipped cream and all—it actually gave some GREAT added texture to the Lil’ Bits without any choking possibilities, making it easy for #5 to scoop up his own bites and explore. He got his fingers into it too, of course. But did a pretty good job with that spoon.

I thought he’d gravitate toward at least one of the Gerber 3rd Foods Lil’ Bits flavors, but he actually sampled them all pretty evenly. Can’t blame him, either… I had to help him out here and there when he needed cleaned up a bit, and those flavors all tasted—ahem—smelled delicious. Just sayin’. There are a LOT of baby foods I wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole, but Gerber’s got something great going here.

We may have also snacked on another flavor or two in the backyard. Cause it’s just that good. #5 seriously couldn’t get enough of his newfound favorite food.

We love how Gerber 3rd Foods Lil’ Bits are helping our little guy make the transition to big kid foods without us having to worry about choking hazards. The chunks are just right, and the flavors are on point. It is truly incredible how many delicious varieties of Lil’ Bits there are, too! Check it out… (Feel free to click any of these to find out more about them, they’ll open in a new tab/window.)