Help me with Weaning/Baby Food Recipes

Cafe Society
1

So, my daughter turned 6 months old today (obligatory pic). We have started feeding her a little rice cereal once a day, and have also tried pureed potato mixed with her formula, which she seems to like. I have found a couple of sites that have some interesting recipes for first “solid” foods, but I really want the Straight Dope from you guys - what foods/blends/unique weaning recipes worked for your kids?

I have some good books and have spoken with HRH’s paediatrician, but I would also appreciate Dopers’ thoughts on when to introduce specific types of food, e.g. when can we start giving her meat, eggs, wheat, etc. etc. (Please, no fights)

BTW, I will be going back to work full-time next month ( :frowning: ), so things I can make ahead and freeze in individual portions would be really useful!!!

(Mods, I figured this is about food so belongs here in Cafe Society, but feel free to move it to wherever you think it belongs)

2

We only did a few months of baby food. For homemade babyfood there is no “recipe” because you don’t want anything other than the peas, apples, whathaveyou. Cook fruit or vegetable, peel if necessary, put through ricer, freeze in ice cube tray was the recipe I had (but seldom used, returning back to work and making my own strained peas was not in the cards). Within months we were at finger food, which is “anything mom and dad eat that doesn’t have a high allergen possibility, cut small enough to be swallowed whole.”

Good first foods - my kids both loved sweet potatoes (though they don’t now), peas, applesauce (no sugar, but if you buy no sugar grown up applesauce its cheaper), bananas - eventually small chunks of cheese (there were two years or so of cheese curds at every meal). A “more hippie than I am” friend swears by firm tofu cut into cubes (soy is an allergen). Elbow noodles, cut up hotdogs, and peas are a great toddler casserole.

If you introduce juice, do yourself a favor and start watering it down AT LEAST two to one right out the get go. And if I had to do it over again, I’d throw out all the white bread and pasta before I started weaning. We didn’t because I though Brainiac4 wouldn’t go for whole wheat - then when we did transition, he transitioned easily, but my kids had become bleached flour fans - a year later and its still a guess if they will eat the whole wheat pasta.

Avoid - strawberries, honey, peanuts, shellfish, anything with a lot of sugar or corn syrup.

We moved pretty quickly and pretty successfully from rice cereal to bratwurst - my son was eating brats by his first birthday - so we weren’t ‘careful transition’ people. And the stuff we’d intended to hold back on my mother introduced (what do you mean kids aren’t supposed to have peanut butter and strawberry jam!) so my kids had it all far too young. My sister, whose husband has all sorts of allergies, has been a much more careful transitioner.

3

If you haven’t already, check out wholesomebabyfood.com. We basically followed that. Some of our kid’s early favorites: banana, beets, sweet potato, cantaloupe.

4

this time of year is a great time for early baby food. My kids did very well on the fall and winter squashes. Simply cut them in half and bake in the oven until soft. Let cool and puree in a blender. I also froze mine in ice cube trays. As soon as a tray is frozen, take the cubes out and place in a freezer baggie. You can stock up pretty well and the food will last three months, which is about as long as you want to be feeding your baby completely pureed, single ingredient food anyway.

Yellow and acorn worked best for me, being soft enough that they pureed smoothly but still not overly watery.

You can of course do peas and green beans and spinach as well, but I found they didn’t freeze and store quite as well as sweet potatoes, yams, or squash. the greens are very easy to just take a portion of the grown up side before you serve and puree at the meal anyway. (Leave out the salt when you cook it if you are concerned about that.)

5

Baby food can be expensive, so we took whatever we were having for dinner and pureed it. My SIL used to feed her baby Campbell’s Soup out of the can…not diluted. Go for the low sodium varieties.

I also found mushed up bananas helped the cereal go down.

Whatever you do, once you introduce finger foods, keep the baby in the high chair where you can keep an eye on them. If they start to choke or gag you want to know immediately.

6

My kids also liked low salt cottage cheese, bananas, yogurt (no sugar added), peas, sweet potatoes, apple sauce etc. Graham crackers softened in formula or milk. I second the diluting of juice. And make sure it’s 100% juice, not concentrate or high fructose corn syrup stuff. And don’t forget just plain old water. I used to put a large ice cube inside a bottle with a bit of water, and Baby would suck on that as it melted–it helped immensely with the teething. Meat was the last thing we introduced.

I don’t know if this is still in print, but there was a book I found to be helpful to some degree. (Like all parenting books, take it with a grain of salt). It’s called *Feed Me, I’m Your’s *by Vicki Lansky. It had lots of “organic” and “natural” recipes in it. Check the library. I’m sure there are tons of websites, too.

I also kept a few jars of commecial baby food on hand-just in case. This is heresy to many moms, but frankly, I don’t care.
bon appetit, HRH! :slight_smile:

7

Absolutely!

Also, take advice from an Aussie parent (well, uncle) - buy some Vegemite and smear it on the rusks for teething. Marmite will do -if you must. :smiley: I’m serious, by the way. Babies go gaga over that stuff.

8

Apparently my sister’s favourite weaning foods were pureed liver, mashed banana and mashed parsnip.

My mother is of the “put the adult dinner in the food processor and if the kid doesn’t like it, mash up what’s in the fruit bowl or vegetable drawer” school of weaning.

We all turned out ok, no allergies to food and I eat everything except baked beans, so it can’t have been that horrible a method.

9

Thanks for the advice guys - I am taking notes, so keep 'em coming.

BTW, TheLoadedDog, I am an Aussie, so the Vegemite is already in the fridge! I grew up on Vegemite, so HRH will be getting more of the same!

10

Another one that kids love but most parents never try is avocado, as a bonus they are easy to have on hand too, just chuck a whole one in the bag.

11

I did find a suggestion online for mashed avocado and kiwifruit, which sounded really weird, but I love avocado, so I figure we will get around to trying it!

12

Dang, I came in to mention avocado. It’s great because it purees with no tools other than a fork, and then when they can handle a bit more texture, you just mash it a little less, and then when they’ve got that pincer grasp down around 10 months or so, you can just give them cubed avocado and they’re already familiar with the taste. Plus, it has all those wonderful brain building fats. Oh, and when they’re older, a smooshed avocado with a little salt and lime juice on whole wheat bread makes an awesome lunch.

I’m sure your doctor mentioned it, but you should not be giving your baby anything “lowfat” or “reduced fat”. Brains are made of fat, and they need all they can get at this age (individual cases may vary due to medical need.) No normal child should be on anything lowfat until after 2.

Like Miss Woodhouse, I pureed a whole bunch of whatever - peas, carrots, sweet potatoes - and then smeared the mush in ice cube trays and froze it. Two cubes = a meal. They transport pretty well in an insulated pack, and your babysitter doesn’t have to figure out how to prepare food from scratch. (Not that it’s hard, but why do it everyday when you can do it once on Sunday and have enough for the month?)

I only introduce one new food a week, and see how it sits. That way if there are any strange rashes or behaviors, it’s pretty easy to figure out what might be causing it. Just jot down a note on your calender or planner - “Sw. Pot.” whenever you introduce a new food.

When you’ve got a decent menu of non-allergen producing foods, it’s time to spice things up a bit. Don’t fall into that common trap of only feeding your baby bland foods - that leads to picky eating. Throw some herbs in there, some ground pepper, even chili peppers or hot sauce. Not a lot to start, but get the kid interested in varied flavors so you don’t create the kid who only eats mac and cheese and chicken nuggets.

When you go to a restaurant, offer her tastes of whatever you order, and as she gets older, resist the lure of the kiddie menu and order real appetizers or half orders of real food instead, or order an extra side dish and split your meal and the side dish with her. If you’re a timid eater yourself, take this opportunity to broaden your culinary horizons. Varied diets tend to be more healthy diets, and she’ll learn a lot more from watching what you do than listening to what you say.