How to Get Everything You Need to Feed Your Kid From Target

This is like the Cadillac of high chairs: well-designed, ergonomic, and generally endorsed by every feeding expert you’ll be following on Instagram. That said, it is expensive. And full disclosure, I don’t have one. (I went with the super-cheap Ikea Antilop.) But I do wish I had just registered for this, since it’s attractive and lasts from starting solids well into toddlerhood when it transforms into a chair.

Great for apartments and travel, this hook-on high chair is small and easy to use. I don’t use it as our main high chair (see above re: Ikea Antilop), but this is something we have at the ready and would be great if say, grandparents, don’t want to own a bulky high chair for visits.

Teaching babies how to eat is messy, and it will stay messy for like… years?? Long-sleeve bibs like this help protect clothing and skin, and can also double as art smocks.

While the smock-style bib above helps keep your child clean(er), a bucket bib like this helps keep your floor clean(er), and has the added bonus of reducing food waste a bit, since before offering seconds you can take food out of the bucket and put it back on the plate.

Even if you’re skipping purees and starting right with table food, you’ll want a food processor to help you make quick mashes, spreads, finer-ground meat, and to help get your baby hooked early on kale pesto.

Steaming is a fast, easy way to get vegetables soft enough for a baby to chew or to mash in a food processor. I use this basket inside the Le Creuset pot I keep on my stove at all times.

When your baby’s pincer grasp develops around 9 months or so, you’ll start wanting to offer food in smaller pieces. Spare yourself the trouble of using a knife to cut a million meals into a million pieces and use kitchen shears instead.

I personally don’t excel at meal prep, but feeding a toddler means a bit more trying. I use these for storing washed and dried berries, cucumber slices (in water), as well as batches of grains like quinoa and farro, shredded chicken, and anything else I can manage to get into the fridge. I like that these are BPA-free and designed for the microwave.

A great starting place for the solids journey, this set has a tiny open cup, a combination placemat-and-bowl that will take a baby at least a few months to figure out how to flip over, and a spoon.

This is a nice big, open plate, too — but the ears are separate and perfectly sized for dips or sauces. Note that this plate does not have any suction so it will be better for older toddlers who are actively learning to leave plates on the table. (I actually have the rabbit version, but purchased this one during the course of writing this article because it’s so cute.)

Babies are babies, not dummies. Mine quickly realized our forks and spoons were metal and hers were not, and once we started using metal utensils like these, her interest in practicing with them skyrocketed.

Skip sippy cups and head straight to teaching straw cup usage to cut down on the amount of products you’ll buy with ultra-short shelf lives. Here’s the catch: They aren’t totally leak proof. No baby product that says it’s leak proof is — but these are pretty clean in the grand scheme of things.

Use this to attach a straw cup, like the one above, to the stroller so that when your baby inevitably tosses the cup it doesn’t get lost.

The case for getting a thing designed to hold Cheerios while slowing down the rate of spillage is self-evident. Pro tip: Use these clips, designed for pacifiers, to attach the snack holder to the stroller strap so it can’t get tossed overboard.

Related to the above, Bamba kills two birds with one stone: allergy exposure plus crunchy food biting and chewing practice. Bamba is delicious for grownups, too. Stash the little baggies in your diaper bag for snack emergencies.

A nutritious alternative to flour pasta, Banza are on heavy rotation in my household. I like the Rigatoni shape because my toddler enjoys trying to stick her finger in it and it’s a good size for a baby to grip with their palm.

Not to get too into it here on Eater.com, but the time will come when you’ll be grateful to have these prune pouches in your cabinet. Given how sweet they are, I can’t imagine many babies would reject them, and if offering pouches isn’t your style, I also recommend mixing into applesauce or yogurt, or using as a spread on toast.