Here are some things to definitely bring with you, when travelling with a toddler/baby

His/her own bowl, spoon/fork, bib. They help them to recognise that it is time to eat, and that what goes into that bowl is food, no matter how new or strange it looks/smells. It has really helped Gypsy. Even if she turns her nose up at something, if we put it in "her" bowl, then she will try it.

A drink bottle/sippy cup. We use the explora series and have a spare aswell. It is great and again, helps her build those all important associations.

Oatmeal. If your little person likes oats, (and I highly suggest you get them addicted before leaving home) bring some oats with you. Oats are available everywhere, and are so quick (just add hot water/sultanas/honey) and easy to make, not to mention healthy and versatile. We usually give them to her for breakfast, so you don't need to venture out at 5 am trying to find something to eat! Adding some sultanas or banana helps to keep it exciting aswell! And it's wonderful for a dinnertime comfort food during those wonderful teething days too!

Taiwan - NO
Japan - YES
Thailand - NO
Fiji - NO
Australia - YES
Malaysia -YES
Sri Lanka - NO

In general we have found that the types of baby food available are very different to what we would normally get at home..
In Fiji, you pretty much can't buy baby food! Everything is made fresh! Which sounds wonderful! BUT, it's swimming in sugar..
We were wondering why Gypsy liked it so much, then we walked into the kitchen one day...
Luckily she also loves her fruit!! She ate alot of fruit after that fateful sugar filled day...

In Japan it was a bit easier. You can atleast get plain rice, tofu and miso soup everywhere and the flavours are quite simple and gentle on a child's palate. Noodles, spaghetti, rice dishes, bread, savoury breads and premade baby foods (with pretty healthy sounding ingredients) are available pretty much everywhere.

In Malaysia baby food was a bit harder to come by. You can find some pre-made stuff at myden and other supermarkets, but that was about it. Gypsy was 1 yr when we were there and we found she enjoyed some plain rice porridge for breakfast and roti for lunch. Luckily she loves her rice so we usually had fried rice for dinner. 
As much as the restaurant owner will tell you there is no chilli in the dahl or curry, ALWAYS try it first as we found that only 1 of them was actually chilli-free.
Fruit is super cheap and fresh and easy to find. 

In SriLanka it's actually pretty easy to feed a toddler. Premade baby food is non-existent except for rice cereal which you can find everywhere, and a small selection of packaged stuff at the super expensive import supermarkets.
BUT, Srilankans LOVE babies and will go out of their way to make food for you! Just say those magic words "for the baby" and they will run out back to whip something super fresh, super healthy and super chilli-free up for you!
Winning foods we have found so far include: dahl, paratha, snacks (deep fried lentils), hoppers, string hoppers, ada, kothu, fried rice, and of course, the beloved papadum!
You can also buy bananas, papaya and, most importantly, yoghurt at about 15metre intervals along every street in the country! 

Even fussy miss Gypsy is always full!

The first couple of flights we took we didn't have a bassinet and it was hard. It's hard enough sitting still yourself for hours on end, let alone trying to contain a wriggler!

So for our first 8 hour flight we booked one and wow!!

Pros: Bubs not only has a special place to sleep/ play/ eat in the bassinet, but with all that added leg room mum and dad will be thrilled and you have space to let them crawl around!

Even though gypsy is getting too long for the actual bassinet now, we plan to continue to book it so she has space to play on the ground.

Cons: cost and availability.. They are expensive to reserve and there are usually only 2 or 3 available per flight.

Try it!

We started out with normal cloth bibs which were fine during the newborn phase, but for solids this bib is amazing! Let me list it's amazing qualities:



1) it has a fixed pocket to catch any dropped food! And unlike some other bibs, the pocket actually stays open in this one!



2) it is foldable! Yes, even though it's a moulded shape, you can fold or even roll it up super small!



3) it's so easy to clean! Being a plastic material, you simply need to wipe it to clean it. Easy as!



4) it's adjustable! Behind the neck is a clasp that is adjustable allowing it to grow with the baby.



Cons:

Honestly the ONLY thing I can think of is that the neck adjustment doesn't go smaller. Gypsy has a pretty small neck so sometimes food still finds an escape route.. But that is the only complaint I have.



It's awesome!



But, be warned...

The bib alone doesn't guarantee a clean child... Lol

We were always planning to buy some sort of travel chair but the totseat was the most expensive so it wasn't necessarily our first choice. The online reviews were great but we couldn't get over the cost...

And then we found one online on special and thought, why not?!

And it has been SUCH a great investment!

At the beginning we completely forgot we had it and were just feeding her on one of our laps! But since we remembered and started using it, there has been no going back!

It's soooo easy to use, it folds up soo small, it weighs only 100grams or so, it's machine washable, it fits almost all chairs with backs, it's comfortable for her and easy for us!

We can't really offer a comparison to other similar chairs, but for us, the totseat will definitely be staying in our backpack!