I was just wondering if you made your own baby food, what did you do it with and how? Did your baby like it?
I started giving Brendon one solid meal a day (breakfast) such as rusk or baby rice but when I tried him on a bit of food that didn't taste like baby milk at all he loved it but then soon after he sicked it back up! I was wondering if this was because it's 'shop bought' baby food.
So can you give me some recipes and methods to make my own baby food please?
Thank you!!!
PS - I don't know if I have posted this in the correct bit of the forum!
BabyChrissy1993 wrote:Hello! Sorry I haven't being on for a while!
I was just wondering if you made your own baby food, what did you do it with and how? Did your baby like it?
I started giving Brendon one solid meal a day (breakfast) such as rusk or baby rice but when I tried him on a bit of food that didn't taste like baby milk at all he loved it but then soon after he sicked it back up! I was wondering if this was because it's 'shop bought' baby food.
So can you give me some recipes and methods to make my own baby food please?
Thank you!!!
PS - I don't know if I have posted this in the correct bit of the forum!
We use to make our own baby food. The soft meat from chicken wings was often used, various vegetables, and gravy if available. Sometimes the very soft meat from a roast cut into very small pieces was used. A slow cooked pot roast was probably the best for this purpose. We beat the ingredients in a blender to a mush consistency, when the baby was very young, and made the pieces larger as the baby got older.
The selection was often what adults ate by selecting the less fibrous pieces, and reduced to mush in the blender. Soy beans were introduced blended in small quantities at an early age. Various fruit was utilized in the same way. Too much fiber at an early age is probably hard for a baby to digest. Our view was it had to be better than commercial baby food, which is probably more of a convenience for the parents than beneficial for a baby. A wide variety of products was our aim, but heavy on protein. We never attempted to make large quantities, and kept at most one or two days in the refrigerator. A boiled egg hand mixed with soft bread and a bit of butter was often utilized at an early age. 'we avoided the "convenient" commercial cereals. I am not writing from lack of experience, since we raised six children.
It could also that his tummy is still a bit underdeveloped for it. Current guidelines for weaning are 6 months, though of course many babies are ready before that. I think about 20 years ago, 3 months was the usual age; but if I remember correctly they started looking at possible links between allergies and intolerances such as coaelic disease and weaning at 3 months.
How soon after did he sick it up? Was it just after he swallowed it, or like 5 or 10 minutes later?
I did traditional weaning with my eldest. I made most of the purees / mashes myself, but did occassionally rely on a jar (long journeys where I couldn't keep homemade stuff chilled, for example). I wasn't going to beat myself up and listen to all the uber-mums who told me I was second rate if he got the odd jar of Hipp. You CAN make rusks but, to be honest, it's a lot of potching about if you're busy with a young baby. If you've got the time and energy to hand-craft baby rusks, good on ya; but it's no failing on your part if you open a packet (after all, who makes their own cornflakes?).
Purees are dead easy, just steam (or boil) your fruit or veg until soft, and then blend (hand blender is good) or mash through a sieve. My son loved 'individual' purees (i.e. just apple), but some combinations he loved were:
- Carrot and Apple
- Apple and parsnip
- potato and leek (quite watery mash, using formula milk or breast milk if you're breastfeeding to water it down so more like a soup)
- Carrot and sweet potato
I think they advise to not introduce meat, fish, citrus, tomatoes, strawberries and gluten based foods until 7 months as they can cause tummy upsets; and it's best to introduce new flavours and types of food gradually in case of a reaction, it's easier to spot if they are having simple food, so if he had carrot one day and the next day he has carrot and apple and feels unwell, it's the apple. If you give him a casserole it's harder to work out what's caused the upset, IYSWIM.
You can, of course, pretty much puree whatever you're having; but be careful on the salt front - I personally wouldn't give gravy unless it was from salt-free stock; and obviously lots of things like pasta sauces, pesto, baked beans etc has a lot of salt in it. It's definitely worth introducing herbs and (tiny amounts of) spices though when he's older, say 8 or 9 months - I'm not saying to whip up a vindaloo or a killer chilli con carne, but the more taste sensations they get when they're small, the better I reckon - particularly if your family meals use spices, as the whole aim is to get baby eating the same food as the rest of the family.
I did Baby Led Weaning with my youngest, which was hell of a lot easier. He just got given the same as his big brother, and if he could get it in his mouth, hurrah! You can't really start BLW much before 6 months, though, as they need to have the head control and enough hand control to reach for the food and know where to put it! I believe it's what the WHO recommend these days, though. I WAS, however, very lucky in that my two were both happy on milk until they were 6 months.
I'm gutted - I gave all my baby cookbooks away to a friend of mine, otherwise I'd have been popping them in the post for you right now. Darn it!
I took my dog to play frisbee. She was useless. I think I need a flatter dog.
Hi there, I do think it could be because it is a wee bit early for bubs to start on the solids. I don't think the digestive tract is developed enough at three months but the recommendation here in Australia is to wait until 6 months for solids. My youngest was definitely ready at 5 months, he stole a pancake from my plate when he was sitting in my knee and ate the whole thing up to my astonishment. So he was started on solids then but very messy!My older boy wasn't really ready at 5 months even though I was...he had tummy pains and spat the food out so I held off a bit until 6 months. it can be hard esp. if you have a reflux bub like my youngest 'cos you just want him to start on solids (it didn't cure him BTW.. he just out grew it around 14 months).
I would probably hold off on solids but if both of you are really keen I would restrict it to baby rice even though it seems fun to feed more interesting foods, bubs probably can't digest it yet.
As for recipes I found that mashed pumpkin and/sweet potato is great, pea and spinach purees, porridge. Nice easy to make foods that our bubs loved. From about 8 months of age I was giving them more Proper food" which was my food with no added salt. Our boys don't mind a bit of spicyness and there is no real reason to avoid flavour that isn't salt if the bubby likes it.
Have fun!
PS isn't it great that with children you can become an expert having done it the once! Everything else (bar marriage i guess) you need to do repeatedly but having kids, once or twice will raise you to semi expert level (at least with babies.. if anyone is an expert on toddlers let me know.. I need you!)
"Never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.”
I always remember reading the 'expert' Annabel Karmel (why?? I must have been very bored / had a common sense bypass) saying quite categorically 'NO baby likes garlic'.
Wrong. My two love garlic, and always have. My eldest was eating potato and leek garlic mash at 7 months; my youngest (the Baby Led Weaned one) chose garlic bread as his first ever meal. Like you and your pancake, Jessiebean, Fin had that chunk of garlic bread off my plate and into his gob faster than I could shout 'Cow and Gate Pork Casserole'......
I took my dog to play frisbee. She was useless. I think I need a flatter dog.
i second that with children and garlic, my son loves the stuff - he eats it raw if ive crushed and mushed it up
with regards to baby food my little one didnt wean until his first xmas ( bout 5 1/2 months) and even then i only gave him pure veg and fruit puree to begin with and maybe a little bit of water if it needed it.
if your short on time though - hipp baby food was the best for my little one.i tried various brands but he seemed to gofor the more unusual stuff - like a pea and peach one but i dont think that was a hipp organic one.
if the little one is throwing it back up after it might be best to wait another month or two and try again. will give the LO digestive system etc to develop a bit more.
Can't offer much advice I'm afraid - so long since I weaned my LO - she's nearly 25 I do remember her first meal was cauliflower cheese - she loved it.
I've moved your thread to the eco-parenting section. You've got some great advice already but just in case some people go straight to a section rather than viewing all new threads someone with vital info might miss it.
Maggie
Never doubt that you can change history. You already have. Marge Piercy
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. Anais Nin
I used the Annabelle Karmel book too, it was great, lots of tips and ideas, and basic principals, one food at a time etc.
We got the baby food thing down to a simple process really easily;
microwave
blender
freezer
microwave
baby
steamed or cooked whatever, froze it in ice cube trays which allowed for mixing and also varying quantities [went onto yoghurt pots when they got older] freeze, then put frozen cubes into baggies in freezer to free up trays, defrost, warm and feed to baby.
Before you ever use jar food taste it yourself, much is unrecognisable.
do they still make those bibs with full sleeves etc ? or painting aprons are good
Yep, they still do those long sleeve bibs. I hate them!! They now fix at the neck with very weak velcro (instead of a good, old fashioned bow), so sproglet can get covered in food and then, usefully, undo the velcro and drag the whole food-encrusted bib all over himself, his hair, the table and anyone or anything else in the vicinity! Also...they are built for baby orangutans, so you have to roll the sleeves up, and my kids always hated that for some reason.
Give me a good, old fashioned, dicky-bib anyday - you know, the ones that have the curved 'catch tray' in the bottom? Thing is, I had a lovely, 'tough' plastic one for my eldest, we used it constantly until it eventually broke apart at the neck from toddler 'I shall tear at my bib in practise for being a sulky teenager' mode.
The manufacturers, in their wisdom, decided to make 'portable' ones in that funny soft rubbery plastic stuff so you can roll it up small to pack into your bag. Whoo-hoo, someone in design department was obviously childless, as if it's easy enough to roll up to put in your bag; it's easy enough for baby to scrunch up, tray full of food, and deposit it across a 2 mile radius.It's also very easy for them to tear at the back where you do it up, so it falls off constantly. And the tray flops over once something heavier that a crisp hits it, depositing food all over their lap. All in all, those 'roll-up' bibs are useless. I've reverted to a muslin square, to be honest.
Oh, and whilst I'm on the subject of bossing you around and generally telling you what to do, Chrissie - do NOT buy a load of specialist stuff. Tubs of various sizes that are microwave safe and come with lids are fab, but you don't need to look at brand names. We got Tesc-No! value ones for a fraction of the price of the branded ones and they are great - they've done 4 years of constant use. Same with weaning spoons. You'll get one with your next Bounty pack, I imagine, but the value ones are great, and only about £1.00 for 8. Whatever you do, avoid the gimmicky 'stick anywhere' bowls, plates or funny suction pads that stick to your table. They stick NOWHERE, apart from your bloody hands when you're trying to wash them up. Baby dearest will take about 1o seconds to pull it off it's suction and, joyously, throw it across the room....best to just hold the bowl steady when he's old enough to start feeding himself.
........And avoid 'Anyway Up' cups for water - not only does the water not go on the floor, it doesn't usually get in their mouths either (you try sucking from one!)The dentists hate them because they are not good for baby teeth; they just recommend the standard 'hard plastic' spouts which make more mess, but don't result in dehydration!
Don't get hung up on baby jars. They're pretty tasteless, yes, but they are well balanced and fine for occassional use. I know people (like my sister) who relied totally on jars, and her kids are fine. Just remember they are ludicrously expensive, and certainly not as tasty as stuff you've made yourself. They are ideal for things like journeys / camping trips where you don't have access to a decent fridge (in fact, one service station chain - Moto, I think - give you free baby food when you go into their 'restaurant'), but they are too expensive, IMO, to use more than occassionally. And they put preservatives in it that stain clothing like nothing you've ever seen - I could have dyed all my clothes bright orange on one jar of Hipp Carrot puree. You pay about 70p for a jar - you could buy a bag of carrots and make a month's worth of purees for that. But don't feel bad if you do fancy a jar every now and then.
In our house, we don't eat much meat - I don't eat mammals unless they've been shot in the wild, but OH does (he buys it for himself), so I was never in the situation where I could make baby food with meat in it, other than poultry or fish. It was quite handy to get the occassional jar of shepherds pie, or pork casserole, just to see how baby would like it. If it wasn't for the jars, he'd never have had the taste of beef, or pork, or lamb until he was old enough to chew it himself.
I took my dog to play frisbee. She was useless. I think I need a flatter dog.
I do remember her first meal was cauliflower cheese - she loved it.