Best way to heat up (sometimes defrost) baby food when out

apples1

Is there a nifty way of warming up baby food when out and about? When I had my first child (over 6 years ago) most cafes and places serving food (including M&S, John Lewis cafe, McDonalds etc) would happily heat up my homemade food it it's little pots in their microwave.

Now with my 7 month old hardly anywhere will do this (don't want the risk) so I end up having to take flask of hot water or ask for hot water. This may be ok for warming milk but is useless for food especially if it's still frozen (as I forgot to take it out the night before!). Is there a gadget that plugs into car power socket or any other simple solution I've not thought of?

I am asking re homemade food (as opposed to jars) as this has to be chilled in my fridge or frozen so it's too chilly for her to want to eat it even if it is defrosted;) .

Js_Other_Half

apples1 wrote: »

Is there a gadget that plugs into car power socket or any other simple solution I've not thought of?

Would this work?
http://www.kiddicare.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/productdisplayA_545_10751_-1__13038_10001_

ailuro2

stick it in a pocket next to your body half an hour before she needs it, it will take the chilll off of it - and take a thermos of warm water with you when you leave the house.

Or warm up milk and add baby cereal to it - nice and easy, just give her a lunch earlier on, babies don't know when dinner should be served.

sooz

most places won't do it for you any longer, but many will still allow you to use a microwave that they supply for that purpose.

all debenhams cafes & ikea have them, as do moto service stations. There must be others. Plan your trips around these - usually they are the same places that are the only ones to have decent loos that you'd consider using, or changing your child in.

I think I've bought every gadget available for warming food & milk, & sold them all in original boxes 'as new'. They were all rubbish.

jamsandwhich

We bought a little aladdin food flask which cost £5.99, the size you can fit a tin of soup in and it is really compact - heat the food up and pop in the flask (although I have had to cool food down before now!). It was great and worked really well for us - don't need it now the girls are 18months as they will eat anything:p

tessie_bear

im sure u can warm up food in ikea if u ever go there

jamsandwhich

Ikea is good, they have microwaves etc in the restaurant - our local has a bit of a cleanliness problem though and everything needs a bit of a clean before use (bring out the milton wipes:p )

Debenhams is great - they even do free little feeding packs with a disposable bib and bowl and plastic cutlery! and they have microwaves out in the eating area.

M&S will provide hot water which has to stay on the counter incase you are incapable of using it and burn yourself:rolleyes:

Little chef will microwave things to your instruction

Must admit it though - is a lot easier now they are older!!

wish

we used the avent bottle/food neoprene bag to put the pre-heated food/bottle into - i heated the food/bottle quite hot and the temperature dropped by the time it was needed. Hot water takes forever to heat up a cold meal especially with a hungry and cross little person!

Dizie

I've given up taking home made food out and about for this very reason. I tried one of those plug in warmers, but it took about 15 mins to get warm! Could just have been a faulty one of course.

I now use jars if I go out somewhere unless I know there is a microwave that I can use where I'm going. I tend to use the HIPP Organic jars or Cow and Gate as they do actually taste like what they're supposed to (some a quite nice too!)

apples1

is it safe to carry warm food around for a few hours? does it not breed bugs then? I do heat at home and take out sometimes but only if i know i'll be feeding within an hour.

Thanks for mentioning the places like debenhams but these are few and far between. I am looking at solutions for when i am NOT at places that provide facilities.

I do not want to switch to jars as that would mean too many jars and i don't use any. i would do one in a blue moon but not that frequently. I know many of you have mentioned hot water but as i said in my post this takes too long and will not defrost food still partly frozen. The water just gets cold really fast - making a pot of pood warm is nothing like as easy as warming a bottle of milk!

nadnad

i dont think there is a way round this unleass you

- plan you trip round shops with microwaves
-feed baby earlier or later - maybe just take finger food to see them through if they're hungry - i always bring a snack pack of rice cakes, home made rusks, biscottis etc