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HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN BABY FOOD
Making your own baby food
will ensure that what your child is eating is fresh, nutritious
and
free of additives. By making
your own baby foods, you'll be saving money, up to 50%. And to
top it off, it's easy;
making baby food at home is probably a lot less time-consuming
than
you may have thought.
In order to make your own
baby foods, you'll need something to cook in. A steamer basket is
cheap and by cooking fruits
and vegetables in it, you'll be sure of keeping the nutrients in
the food, instead of in the
cooking water.
To puree your foods, you can
use a fork, a food mill or blender.
A blender quickly purees
almost anything into the finest consistency. When your baby first
starts on solids, you'll be
pureeing things to a very fine consistency and, as baby gets a
little older, you will make
foods a little coarser.
You may wish to buy a food
mill which comes in large and small sizes. It is very handy and
inexpensive. The food mill
strains most cooked foods to a very smooth consistency, although
meats can be a problem as
they will have a coarser texture.
As babies are susceptible to
digestive upsets, you'll want to take note of the following tips
concerning the handling of
foods:
- always work with clean
hands.
- always use clean utensils.
- prepare foods immediately
upon removing them from the refrigerator.
- freeze immediately after
cooking any foods you want to store.
You can prepare large
amounts of foods at once and freeze them.
Take your prepared foods and
plop by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet. Freeze the plops right
away and then take them off
the sheet when they are frozen and put them into plastic bags.
Label and date. You can also
freeze the food in plastic "pop out" ice cube trays.
Small
tupperware jars with lids
serve the same purpose and stack easily. Frozen baby foods can be
stored for up to two months.
When you take frozen foods
out for baby, warm the food in a cup placed in a saucepan of boiling water with a lid on.
Cereals are typically the
first foods given to a baby because they contain lots of iron.
You
can buy the commercial baby
cereals, or prepare your own, by running oatmeal through your
blender, for instance.
Fruits are generally given
next. Except for raw, mashed banana, you will need to cook all other fruits till they are
soft.
Try making your own
applesauce and pearsauce; don't add any sugar, as these fruits
are sweet
enough on their own. You can
also peel peaches, plums and apricots and boil or steam them.
Use fresh vegetables
whenever possible in order to provide the best nutrition and
flavor for your baby. Frozen vegetables
are better to use than canned. Steaming vegetables is the best
method of preparation.
Carrots and sweet potato are two popular choices to begin with.
Yogurt, mashed cottage
cheese, mashed pumpkin, baked potato,avocado and tofu (oriental
soy bean curd) are all popular
with babies. One good idea is to blend together cottage cheese,
banana and fresh orange
juice - delicious!
Meats should be added
slowly. They can be boiled or broiled,then put in the blender
with a
little milk and perhaps
banana or cream of rice to get the right consistency. Chicken is
generally the first meat
baby is introduced to and usually goes down fairly well.
There is no rush to start
your baby on solid foods. Milk is his/her most important food.
Your
doctor's recommendations and
your own intuition will help you to know when to begin
introducing solids to your
baby's diet. Always remember to be patient with your
baby and allow at least a
few days between newly added foods to
make sure baby doesn't
suffer any reactions.
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