Do it yourself (Baby Food Hints/Tips)

Member Name: jessyclown

Product:	Baby Food Hints/Tips
Date:	13/09/01 (1348 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheaper, fresher, better

Disadvantages: more dishes

The big day came, my youngest child was ready to have more than just her milk, and it was time for some solid food

I was ready; I had stacked my shelves with packets of dried food and tins of food. The packet food was easy to make up you just add a bit of water to some powder and it is good enough to eat. Well I am not so sure it is good enough to eat. As for the tins and jars all you have to do is open them and feed the child you can heat them if you wish. Food fit for a king or maybe just a baby. Well I hadn't actually stacked the shelves but I did have some food ready.

The packet food is easy enough but when I looked at it I thought would I want to eat this and on the whole the answer was NO!!! I did like the smell of cheesy food and one breakfast cereal well it is in fact seven cereals I could imagine would be quite flavoursome but on the whole I did not want to eat any of the dried gloopy food.

May be the tins would be better. I think maybe they were the food smelt more realistic and taste is largely smell after all. I started to feed my child on the tins and Jars I had but one thing bothered me and that was the price. The price they charge is more than they are worth you get such small helpings, just right for a baby but pay more than you pay for a large tin of family food!

At this point I decided that I should just do it myself. I cook meals for my family every day so what is wrong with doing a little something for her.

With babies you have to be careful what you feed them. There are so many theories going round and woe behold anyone who flouts them!

1) Salt is a no no. A baby can not dispose of excess salt from their body so you do not put any in, there is enough in their food already.

2) Gluten can lead to problems with gluten intolerance so it is best to avoid gluten ‘til the baby is at least 9 months old.

3) Nuts are a big problem with babies as they have a two p
ronged attack. If you feed you baby nuts to young then they may build up an intolerance which leads to an allergy which can kill. If you feed a young child whole nuts then they can choke on them.

4) Lumps, small babies can not cope with lumps every thing has to be smooth for them. As they get older then they learn to chew and need lumps in their food.

As I said I decided the time was right for home made solid food. I used to own a baby mouli-grater, unfortunately this had been given away years ago so I had nothing to mush up the food easily so I bought a blender which is great for mushing up small quantities of food. I was kitted out and my daughter was in for a treat.

Since starting to feed my daughter on home prepared food I have stopped adding salt to any thing it gets added at the table by whoever wants to add more. I do not generally need to add much, it is amazing how quickly your pallet can adapt. At first I had to mush up the food and that was a bit of a nusance but time soon passes and now she eats what we have but chopped up a bit more than ours.

Food which is easy to adapt to a baby includes most vegetables, potatoes and carrots were regularly all my baby ate. Chicken is an easy meat to feed to a baby as it is soft enough to mash up, mince is great as it is already quite small. Soup is a great food to feed a baby as mine is usually made from home made stock which has lots of goodness in it and the vegetables are either already pureed or else very easy to puree if you need to. Fruit is great for little ones, my children are a site when they eat their bananas. Apples are easy to stew up and mush up, there is no need to add sugar as they are sweet enough.

Things to avoid at first, when avoiding gluten are bread, pasta and any other wheat based products, that means no Wheatabix for the first few months of feeding. It used to be quite common for small children to be given peanut butter sandwiches as they
were an easy sauce of protein, now it is regarded as a bad idea. No food containing nuts should be given to a baby but I have not found that to be much of a limitation.

It is important for food to be enjoyed by your baby and not to find it a battleground. If your child does not want to eat solid food leave it for a while they will soon enough. The main source of food for a baby for a long time is their milk. Mind you, you are not supposed to give them cows milk as their milk until they are a year old, now what is that about?

What is feeding an 11-month-old baby like? It is fun and it is messy but the food is easy to prepare!

Summary: