Babies & Toddler Information

Is your baby about to start solid foods? Are you thinking of makingyour own baby food?

When you make baby's first foods, you can save money and reducewaste. You also can choose more nutritious options. Fresh foods are typically more nutritious than canned, and you can purchase organic food to prepare for baby if you wish. You can also avoidunwholesome ingredients that show up in commercial baby food.

Making baby food doesn't have to be expensive or time consuming.In fact, the easiest and cheapest way is the best way!

The easy way to making your own baby food:

1) Don't bother with buying one of those baby food grinders. They're hardto clean and too much hassle.

2) If you wait until your baby is 6 months old to start solids, you can almost always just mash with a fork to the desired consistency.

If you're breastfeeding, you can even wait until baby's"pincer grasp" is developed and offer him small finger foods like peas,bits of grated apple, and the like. The pincer grasp is developed whenbaby can pinch small objects (like those bits of carpet fluff or foodon the kitchen floor!) inbetween his thumb and first finger. In fact,if you have a family tendency towards food allergy, waiting longer to start solids may be preferable. No matter what baby's age, alwaysoffer one food at a time and wait several days to watch for signs ofallergy before offering another. Take it slow.

3) Start with fresh single ingredient foods like:

Banana
Steamed carrot, turnip, potato, yam
Avocado
Ripe pear, peach, melon, plum
Cooked squash
Grated apple- raw or steamed
Peas
Well cooked beans
Hard cooked egg yolks (avoid the whites until 1 year)

Some of these foods could be served raw. Others are lightly steamed (steaming retainsmore nutrients than canning), to make them softer for baby.

4) It's not necessary to make a big deal of preparing baby's food.

If you want to take a lot of time blending food and freezing them in icecube trays, you could certainly do that. But I'm all for the easy approach!

Although you do want to avoid giving baby salt and sugar (and spices that may upset the tummy), you can usually just take an ingredient from your own menuand "make" baby's dinner.

For instance, if you're steaming veggies to serve at dinner, take a tablespoon of them out of the pan before you add butter and salt. Put this in baby's plateand mash away. Voila! Instant baby food with no extra work. Or take a bit ofbeef from your roast and mash mash mash until it's very soft.

Even when you're at a restaurant, you can either bring an apple with you and "grate" it finely with a spoon at your table, or bring along a banana or otherportable food. Any restaurant with a salad bar would have cooked beans oravocado. Or give baby a bit of your baked potato (before you add the goodieson top).

Life with a new baby is challenging enough. Keep starting solids simple!