I shared on my IG stories a few weeks ago that my foodie/amateur chef of a husband is absolutely obsessed over the idea of what our son will be eating as he begins the journey into food. While I'm really excited to watch him be a mother hen over our baby's puree's until he's ready to begin solids, it's also a lot of information that I'm expected to learn and remember as we embark on this journey. So, I wanted to make it easier not only for myself, but for everyone who helps us care for our son because every ag teacher knows that it takes the biggest village around to care for a young child with all of the additional responsibilities we have.
That being said, as we dove into researching the foods before 1, most specifically the "100 before 1," and found that it wasn't going to be a perfect fit for our family, and all of the record keeping charts on the market for what baby has tried we didn't feel kept an accurate record of the development of our child's taste buds, desire for foods, as well as what he had tried. Gathering all of the information I could from the various charts claiming to be the 100 before 1 to follow, as well as edits recommended by my husband we created our own foods before 1. While we still have some disagreements on categories of different foods and I'm currently regretting not alphabetizing everything, motherhood has shown me that not everything has to be perfection. However, I do believe that our version is more perfect than the ones you can buy and it's free!
Our chart, unlike the others, has the option for you to check if your child likes, dislikes, or is indifferent to the food that you are trying out. This was the most important thing that my husband wanted to keep a record of as he was creating different foods for our child and implementing different blends.
Additionally, there are only a few different store bought foods that meet his rigorous standards that he has set for food. This was one of my requirements if he insisted on making all of our child's food, I needed a store bought option in case of emergency. After he researched the different brands, ingredients, and what was available around us he settled on the following: Little Spoon (I believe this is only available for order online), Once Upon a Farm (this is available to order/subscribe to online or in-store at our local HEB but is not shelf stable and must be kept refrigerated), as well as Cerebelly (I have found limited options of at target in store but many at Target online, but this one is shelf stable).
If you're in need of this chart hop on over to the favorites page and grab the free PDF download for yourself. I printed ours on cardstock, laminated it, and it is now on the fridge with magnets. I do recommend either laminating or marking with pencil as your child's taste for things might change over time.