[ddahl]

I took an entire suitcase of food with me to Russia as I could not imagine not having one thing I thought I might need. I took gerber rice cereal, gerber stages jarred food and organic jarred food as well. I did take a lot of repeat items with little variety. I also took the powdered formula and powdered pedialite. I took bottles as well and our son took them right away. I did not offer him a choice so when he was thirsty he got a bottle of formula mixed with whole milk. Everyone will warn you about diaper blow outs and we did not have any. I did bring rubber pants just in case though. We did give him some big people food like mashed potato and chicken noodle soup, bread and cheese. You will find the baby food causes the stool to be more liquid. THe more big people food the more solid the poop. I just really felt that our son needed the extra calories and nutrition of baby food. Additionally, as for the blow out diapers. I would rather be there having blow outs than at home. Too much is happening at home when you are first back to be dealing with food adjustments in my opinion. We did buy food there as well, yogurt, cottage cheese, and more baby cereal as he ate so much we were running out, and also some Russian cookies he loved. Good luck!