Feeding Baby: Encouraging a Reluctant Self-Feeder

September 20, 2011 By

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I like to move on pretty quickly from purees to real foods via finger foods. Someone forgot to tell Baby Boy.

He did the same thing with sitting up, the silly boy. Even though he was physically perfectly capable to sit up - and proved so on occasion - he preferred not to, choosing rather to sit on someone’s lap or with some other supporting edifice, or even just to lie down. Whenever we tried to sit him on his bottom, he would arch his back so that there was no way no how to set him down. It wasn’t that he couldn’t, he simply chose not to.

Same with finger foods. Even though he could find the smallest tiniest crumb on the floor in his crawling adventures, pick it up firmly in his little pincer grasp, and deposit it in his mouth before I could stop him, he absolutely refused to pick up his own food off his high chair tray to feed himself.

He’s still a little reluctant, depending on what he’s given to eat, but I have found a few tricks that helped me encourage him to feed himself more often. It’s a process, like anything else in child-rearing (or life), and he’s definitely not as receptive to it as his older brother was, but we’re getting somewhere. Today, he actually fed himself (quite happily, I might add!) some carrots and chicken! Success!

Here’s what I did to help him over his little hump:

1. Make sure Baby is physically capable of eating finger foods. He has to have a good pincer grasp - able to pick up small items between his thumb and fingers - but also has to be able to insert the item into his mouth. Baby Boy demonstrated his pincer grasp quite readily on many other occasions, so I was sure that wasn’t the problem here. Besides which, he had eaten a whole pile of diced squash all by himself before refusing to feed himself anymore.

2. Pick up the food yourself and put it in his mouth. Seems simple, no? This was my sister’s advice, and it was very effective. Not a magic pill, by any means, but it definitely helped him out. It was like a visual demonstration of what he was supposed to do, a reminder of how it’s done. I would give him a piece, wait a while to see if he would try it himself, then give him another. Sometimes, I ended up feeding him the whole serving, but other times, he would get the nerve up to feed himself a few bites, too.

3. Try sticks of food instead of small pieces. Proponents of the Baby Led Weaning method swear by this. It’s been a mixed bag for me as far as results go, but over all, I’ve had some good success with it. The stick shape is successful because Baby can hold it in his grasp and chew on the other end. My Baby Boy can only handle really soft foods with this method, like cooked sweet potatoes, squash or similar.

4. Try foods Baby really likes. He’s not going to make much effort for something he’s already demonstrated that he hates, so stick to the yummy stuff.

5. Use a net feeder. My Certain Little Someone never really got into these, but Baby Boy loves them! And while it doesn’t help with the whole grasping food issue, it does give him some measure of independence with very little struggle. A break for Mommy and a break for Baby!

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Feeding Baby: When Baby Gets Constipated

September 13, 2011 By
photo courtesy of morgueFile, idahoeditor

My Certain Little Someone has never struggled with constipation, not even a little bit. It’s incredibly rare for him to go a whole day without… well, you know… pooping. (How is it that moms’ conversations always inevitably end up on the topic of their children’s pooping habits?!)

Baby Boy, on the other hand… Let’s just say that since he started on solids, he has been far from regular. The poor little guy will go sometimes several days without pooping, and then has to strain so hard it makes him cry. This is a whole new ballgame for me since it never even crossed my mind with my first baby, wasn’t even a minor concern.

Thankfully, my pediatrician prefers to approach the problem through diet, rather than getting out the big guns (meds) from the get-go, but I know many pediatricians are not so wise. Here are some tips, both from him and from other smart mamas I consulted, that have helped me get Baby Boy on a more regular schedule.

1. Make sure Baby’s getting enough liquid.

This is easy enough if you’re feeding him or her formula, because you can clearly see how much liquid Baby is getting. If you’re breastfeeding, it’s a little more tricky, and frankly a little disconcerting at times. It’s difficult to know if Baby’s getting enough to eat (and drink!) at times, and unfortunately, constipation can be a sign of a supply problem. However, if Baby has enough wet diapers (4-6 in a day), and seems satisfies after feeding, then your milk supply is likely not the issue.

Older babies might benefit from sips of purified water when they eat solids to help it move on through the digestive system. Learning to drink from a cup is a valuable skill, too, so you can kill 2 birds with one stone here.

2. Make sure a specific food or type of food is not bothering Baby.

Try and figure out if there’s a particular food or type of food - like dairy, for example - that might be constipating your little one. Eliminate it from the diet, and give him a few days to recover, observing the results. If the food definitely seems to be an issue, avoid it for a while, then bring it back slowly into the diet in small amounts. If constipation recurs, take the food out of the diet again. Note: this is probably not an allergy or even a sensitivity, just a sign that Baby’s not ready for XYZ food.

3. Try some “moving” foods.

My pediatrician’s advice was “Eat prunes every day”. And let me tell you, that’s some great advice! If Baby Boy goes more than a few days without prunes, he gets really backed up, but as soon as I re-introduce them, things start moving again. I also try to feed him other foods that keep his bowels moving. Some foods that seem to help him out:

  • prunes
  • pears
  • beans
  • sweet potato

I just buy prunes in the baby food jars because they take too much time to soak and puree at home, and I dont’ consider it worth the cost in terms of time and health benefits. But if you want to fix baby prunes at home, just soak them until they’re rehydrated, then puree them in a blender, adding water as necessary to get the texture you desire.

My mom also suggested corn, which I haven’t tried yet because I’m still trying to keep him grain-free for a little while longer. But older babies and babies who are already accustomed to grains might want to give that a try.

4. Try a little bit of pear juice.

This is not my favorite recommendation, but it does seem to help keep him regular if I give him a bit of pear juice (diluted in water) every day when he eats solids. I avoided juice entirely with my Certain Little Someone until he was 2 years old, and even now he rarely drinks it because I just feel it’s not all that nutritious. However, if it keeps my Baby Boy’s bowels moving along, and keeps ups from resorting to laxatives (which I consider even worse), then I’ll compromise!

5. Avoid “binding” foods.

Stay away from these foods, as they’ll likely increase the constipation:

  • bananas
  • white potatoes
  • rice, rice cereal, rice snacks
  • applesauce
  • refined white-flour based snacks

Do you have any tips for helping Baby deal with constipation?


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Feeding Baby: Moving On from Purees

August 31, 2011 By

Ideally, the baby food puree stage shouldn’t last all that long. As baby gets accustomed to different tastes, and the process of mashing and swallowing, he’ll quickly be ready to try more textured foods. Right on the heels of that will be his developing pincer grasp, which will enable him to eat finger foods, too.

Baby Boy is now 8 months old, and has been eating progressively more chunky and textured foods for the past few weeks. I’ve also experimented off and on with finger foods, but have started in earnest now, as I’ve noticed his pincer grasp developing quite nicely.

So how to transition from the purees to real table food? Here is what I’m doing:

1. Gradually decreasing the smoothness of the purees so they become thicker and chunkier with more texture. Homemade baby food is rarely quite as fine as store-bought anyway, which is actually a good thing, because it’s far more like real food that baby will eventually eat. But you don’t want her to be stuck on purees forever (It can happen: if textured foods aren’t introduced soon enough, some babies refuse to try them and can be difficult to wean completely to table food.) in any case! Some babies will go with ease from purees to real solids, but my Baby Boy has a strong gag reflex still, and also doesn’t really seem to understand the concept of mashing. Inhaling is more his style. A few times, I gave him some “real” table food, and he wasn’t really quite sure how to handle it. However, when I offer him some purees that are quite chunky, he handles them fairly well, so now we’ve been able to move on from there.

You can create a chunkier texture simply by processing the food for a shorter time in the blender or food processor. Also, if you’ve been adding liquids of some kind (breast milk, formula, water or broth, for example) to help thin out the purees, you could start eliminating those to retain a more accurate texture of the food in question. I also recently read a suggestion to grate foods on a grater instead of pureeing them.

2. Offering certain foods in their whole state for him to gum and mash. Foods perfect for this are:

  • soft, ripe, melons on the rind
  • bananas
  • sweet potato fries
  • peach slices (although these can be stringy, so watch carefully)
  • soft-cooked green beans (canned or French cut)

3. Experimenting with finger foods. Certain vegetables and fruits lend themselves well to a baby perfecting her pincer grasp. Anything is game as long as it is soft, either naturally or cooked. If baby is eating grains, I have read suggestions to roll the pieces of food in dry crushed cereal, or rice cereal, or oatmeal to help give more of a grip to a struggling eater. You can cut the food into small pieces or cubes (small enough to go down her throat whole without gagging or choking), or you can take a cue from Baby Led Weaning, and cut it in a French-fry shape so that she can hold it in her fist and eat what’s sticking out the top. Some healthy finger food ideas (no Puffs or Cheerios!):

  • sweet or white potato (diced or in sticks)
  • diced banana
  • very soft cooked carrots, diced or in sticks (Be careful: I find that carrots sometimes harden back up as they cool, so make sure they are truly soft enough for baby to mash.)
  • diced cooked squash or pumpkin
  • diced or sliced cooked apples
  • soft cut green beans
  • beans (any kind)
  • cooked peas
  • broccoli ( baby can hold the “trunk” and eat the “foliage”)
  • diced peaches and nectarines or very ripe pears
  • chicken thigh meat, cut in strips or diced
  • ground meat of any kind
  • grated cheese

One thing my Certain Little Someone enjoyed as a fledgling self-feeder was fishing peas out of mashed potatoes. Simply stir some cooked peas gently into a dish of mashed potatoes, and let baby fish them out with his fingers! Fun and filling!

4. Moving on to grains when ready. I’m holding off on the grains for now, but once we start with those, a whole new world of finger foods opens up, including:

  • homemade teething biscuits
  • pasta
  • small pieces of bread, any kind (tortillas, wraps, sliced, rolls, etc.)
  • organic and all-natural cereals (this for a treat, not a mainstay in the diet)
  • rice
  • barley

Here’s a delicious recipe for one of Baby’s First Finger Foods:

Spicy Diced Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

  • 1 sweet potato
  • dash paprika
  • dash cumin
  • dash garlic powder
  • dash onion powder
  • 2 tsp olive oil

Instructions

  1. Peel the sweet potato and dice. Steam until easily pierced with a fork. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat; add sweet potatoes. Stir and saute the sweet potatoes for a few minutes until lightly browned. Sprinkle with seasonings. Cool until safe for baby to touch and eat; then serve.

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Feeding Baby: Baby’s First Meats

August 3, 2011 By

Not very long ago, the common recommendation was to avoid meats until baby was 9-12 months of age. I’m sure many doctors and other experts still advise the same, however, there’s a growing number of professionals who advise that meats be among the first foods offered to baby rather than the last. The biggest reason is because at the age of 6 months or so, babies begin to require more iron and protein from their diet than they previously did.

That doesn’t mean that you need to go rush out to the store and buy every iron-fortified baby product you see (and there are a lot!). No, no. Remember, babies are small, and too much iron can be as much of a bad thing as not enough. Furthermore, supplemental (aka, fake) iron is not nearly as effective or as well absorbed as naturally occurring iron.

There are also those who suggest that maybe Baby doesn’t need as much iron now as s/he did before, hence the depleting supplies, and the truth is that I don’t know enough of the biology and development of babies to be able to say whether or not that is the case. However, my conclusion is that beyond the age of 6 months, it isn’t going to hurt Baby to introduce some naturally occurring iron into his diet, and it may be helpful at that. If baby is ready to eat solids in general, then she can probably handle some meat with the beneficial iron and protein.

The problem with meat is that it in its normal cooked state, it’s not soft enough to mash with the gums, therefore for any babies younger than 9 months and without teeth, it’s useful (although not 100% necessary, especially if you are following the Baby Led Weaning method) to puree the cooked meat first.

I just puree a little bit of whatever meat I have prepared for the family; which in this case was chicken. I used my Baby Brezza machine, but any blender or food processor will work. There’s no need to cook up a whole batch of baby-specific food, especially since he’ll eat so little of it. Honestly, I pureed about 1/2 cup or less of meat over a week ago, and he’s still working through it (I keep the extras in the freezer).

A few tips to keep in mind when feeding Baby meat:

  • Watch for reactions, as with any other food. My Certain Little Someone is allergic to beef, of all things, and there was a time we were concerned that he was allergic to turkey.
  • Meats can be difficult for Baby to digest, so there’s no harm in holding off if they cause intestinal distress for your little one. You can try re-introducing meat a little at a time by adding in tiny bits of it to foods that are well-received by Baby (like applesauce or pumpkin, for example).
  • Baby might not like plain old meat, but don’t despair. Mix it in with something she does like! Baby Boy was not at all excited about plain meat, even though it was tastefully seasoned. I mixed it in with some mashed banana - one of his favorites - and suddenly he was all over it! Since then, he’s had it in green beans, applesauce and sweet potato, and has loved it each time.
  • Puree with a bit of chicken broth for added nutrients and flavor. Breast milk is a good liquid to add as well, if you pump.

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Ice Cream Even Baby Can Eat!

July 20, 2011 By

Welcome to Ice Cream Week here at Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy!

Ice cream is the topic of the hour, all week long. I’ve got some sorbets to share, plus some fun ice cream flavors I’ve been experimenting with, and some other ideas for what to do with all the ice cream you make.(Note: All the recipes are intentionally dairy-free; but with the exception of the sorbets can be made with regular old cow’s milk and cream should you desire.) Come back every day this week for a new recipe!

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Ice cream that baby can eat? Ice cream that is completely devoid of cream of any sort? Ice cream without sugar? Creamy ice cream? Ice cream that is all those things and also delicious?!?!

Why yes, my friends. And once again, you need go no further than the humble banana. (Maybe I should have called this Banana Week instead of Ice Cream Week!) Except this time, instead of just exploiting the banana’s attributes to make a regular ice cream even better - whether by flavor or by texture - we’re just going to use the banana. Just the banana, that’s it.

OK, you can add in some things if you want. For instance, cocoa comes to mind, or chocolate chips. Or maybe a big spoonful of peanut butter (or non-peanut substitute). Coconut, maybe? Some berries or berry syrup?

All right, now I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself. First, let’s make the “ice cream”.

Baby’s First Ice Cream, aka Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients

  • slightly overripe bananas*
  • splash of vanilla
  • freshly grated nutmeg

Instructions

  1. Peel the bananas and slice them into 1/2″ rounds. Place the rounds in a single layer on a pan and freeze for an hour or two. Remove from the freezer and put into a blender (or put in a bowl, and use an immersion blender, in which case, don’t freeze them rock hard - they should still be a tad moist). Blend, blend and blend some more until you have a creamy ice-cream-like consistency. Add water, a tablespoon at a time, if necessary to help the blender run. Stir in vanilla and nutmeg. Serve immediately soft-serve style, or place back into the freezer for a harder ice cream. I found the ice cream tasted better the next day after the flavors had some time to blend. *There are no specific quantities. Each banana makes about one serving, so adjust to however many servings you want to make.

 

Instead of the vanilla and nutmeg, consider other flavor combinations, such as:

  • dried ginger and candied ginger
  • cinnamon and cardamom
  • almond extract and coconut flakes
  • grated semisweet or dark chocolate
  • small chunks of fresh mango
  • a drizzle of honey or maple syrup
  • a tablespoon or two of peanut butter
  • a tablespoon of cocoa (you may want to add a little honey or sugar, too, to offset the bitter)

Take the simple to the sublime by topping it with:

Bet you never thought ice cream could be so QUICK!

Or so EASY!

Or so CHEAP!

Or so HEALTHY! I didn’t feel the least bit guilty offering it to my Certain Little Someone just now as a mid-morning snack.

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Feeding Baby: Spice it Up!

July 12, 2011 By

Whoever said that baby’s food has to be bland? I am actually having difficulty pinpointing the origin of that practice, which appears to be largely North American in its scope. To be sure, different countries do feed their babies bland foods like porridge (aka oatmeal or some other grain cereal), but they also feed them more exciting and exotic - to us - foods as well.

I am also having difficulty pinpointing the reason for avoiding all spices and seasonings in baby food: the best I can come up with is that it might upset baby’s developing digestive system. I suppose there is merit in that thought, but so far have found no proof of it.

The only other reason I can find for keeping baby’s food bland is that baby isn’t used to strong flavors, so you don’t want to scare them away from solids by feeding them something spicy or heavily flavored. Now this one I can refute with confidence: if baby has been breastfed, he’s already enjoyed a variety of flavors. Whatever mommy eats goes into the milk, and that includes spices and seasonings. Even if baby has been fed formula hitherto, the sooner she experiences different flavors and spices, the more likely she is to incorporate them into her diet later on.

Not to mention that different cultures around the world are not afraid to give baby whatever spices and strongly flavored foods they enjoy as adults. Some examples I’ve found around the web:

  • India: turmeric and curry
  • South America: cilantro, cumin, hot peppers
  • Thailand: lemongrass, tamarind
  • Russia: teas made with mint, thyme, chamomile, anise and other herbs
  • Israel: sesame

My thoughts on the subject can be summed up thus:

  • I can think of two valid concerns regarding feeding spicy foods to baby. They are: 1.)It might upset baby’s delicate tummy. and 2.)Baby might be allergic/develop an allergy to said spicy food.
  • Both statements can be true of any food you introduce to baby, spicy or not.
  • A wise mommy watches her baby carefully for signs of digestive distress or allergic reaction, such as constipation, rashes, vomiting, and gas pain, no matter what she feeds the little one.
  • Therefore, spices and seasonings and strongly-flavored foods can be introduced to baby with the same care and caution as any other food.

Furthermore, I have additional thoughts on the subject that are more opinionated than logic-driven:

  • Traditional North American baby food is bland and yucky. Why should Baby be forced to eat bland and yucky food?
  • Introducing Baby to a wider range of foods and flavors from a young age is likely to broaden his palate as he gets older, a useful tool in developing a healthy diet and eating habits.
  • Certain spices and seasonings are very high in antioxidants and other nutrients and are beneficial additions to baby’s diet.

If that doesn’t convince you, I’ve read quotes from different medical and nutritional professionals who admit that there is no reason to avoid strongly-flavored or spicy foods when baby is otherwise ready to begin solids. And here are two other authorities on the subject that agree with me: Wholesome Baby Food and BabyCenter.com.

A few things to keep in mind when adding spices and seasonings to baby’s food:

  • You don’t need much. Since baby’s portion is small to begin with, you just need a tiny pinch to add flavor.
  • Avoid salt and sugar until at least 12 months. There are a lot of other options besides those two standards of adult fare.
  • Do watch for reactions to spices just as you do with more substantial foods. For example, cinnamon can sometimes irritate skin (although it’s not an allergic reaction, just evidence of sensitive skin). Just avoid cinnamon until the baby is older, or can avoid getting it on his skin.

Now, the fun part! Here are some of my favorite spices and seasonings to add to common baby foods. Please add your suggestions in the comments section!

Pumpkin/Winter Squash

Sage

Rosemary/Oregano/Thyme

Cinnamon/Nutmeg

Sweet Potato

Red pepper or Paprika

Cumin and Garlic

Cinnamon and/or Nutmeg

Ginger, fresh or dried

Avocado

Cilantro and Garlic (Guacamole anyone?)

Mint

Banana

Cinnamon

Nutmeg

Peaches

Cardamom

Ground cloves

Pears

Ginger

Vanilla

Cardamom

Cinnamon/Cloves/Nutmeg

Carrots

Garlic and Onion (powdered or fresh, cooked with the carrots)

Dill

Of course, the possibilities are endless. However you like to fix your fruits and veggies is how you can fix them for baby. You love Mexican food? Throw on the cumin, cilantro, and red peppers! Thai food your thing? Add the lemongrass (be sure it’s ground finely enough for baby, as lemongrass is rather tough and fibrous) to everything. Whatever your culture or your favorite cultural food, feel free to incorporate those flavors into baby’s food.

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Feeding Baby: Is Homemade Baby Food Worth It? + My Top 5 QECH Baby Foods

July 6, 2011 By

Baby Boy with an Avocado Mustache

When pregnant with my Certain Little Someone, I determined that I was going to make all his baby food from scratch in order to give him the healthiest start to life possible. It would be hard, I told myself, cooking and pureeing and freezing huge batches of food, all for the sake of my sweet little baby… but I could push through! I read all the books, browsed all the websites, learned about all the different methods of cooking (steaming, baking, boiling, microwaving) and freezing (ice cube trays, flash freezing, made just-for-that-purpose little containers) and determined to do it all.

And I did. (Mostly. We did have some random jars of baby food when out and about, and/or as a last resort.) I discovered, however, that it wasn’t all that big of a deal.

Seriously, people. When just starting out on this food adventure, babies eat like a tablespoon at a time. Or less. And the puree stage simply just does not last long enough to justify freezing batches and batches of homemade baby food… unless you’re feeding triplets. Besides, you want to explore a whole world of tastes and textures with your little adventurer, and that’s hard to do when you have to finish half a gallon of mashed sweet potato, one tablespoon at a time!

I discovered a few more surprising elements to this whole homemade baby food venture along the way; namely, that it’s not always cheaper than the jarred baby food, and it’s not always that much healthier. And it’s certainly not always as convenient.

You know by now that my approach to life is QECH: Quick, Easy, Cheap, and Healthy. It’s pretty much my philosophy. If it ain’t QECH, I don’t do it. Most of the time. So the bottom line is this: Is making baby her own food QECH? Or not? Here’s my analysis:

Is it QUICK and EASY?

It can be. It all depends on the food in question, as some foods naturally lend themselves to easier prep. I found, for example, that unless I had pumpkin puree left over from some other purpose (like my annual fall pumpkin cooking extravaganza), it was simply not worth it to go to all that trouble of peeling, baking, and pureeing pumpkins and other winter squash just to give baby a few spoonfuls. There are plenty of foods, though, that just require a bit of smashing with a fork, or a quick whirr in the blender. Bananas come immediately to mind. Peel, mash, feed. That’s my kind of baby food.

You can also avail yourself of the tools available to you these days. This time around, I have a Baby Brezza machine that does most of the work for you: it steams and then blends whatever food you put into it. You do still have to peel and chop, but that doesn’t take a lot of time (depending on the food).

I also used these handy dandy little mesh feeders for my Certain Little Someone: all you do is put in a piece of fruit (like part of a plum or peach, for example), and they can safely gnaw away at it until it’s a little pile of pulp. Some people even put frozen foods in there for teething little ones, but I never tried that (was a little nervous!).

Of course, very little is as easy as unscrewing the cap off a jar, but there are many things you can feed baby fresh without a lot of time and effort.

But is it CHEAPer?

Again, I say, it can be. It all depends on what exactly you are comparing in cost. Do you pay full price for the jars? Then, yes, homemade baby food is definitely cheaper. However, if you use coupons and shop sales, baby food jars can be very inexpensive. I compromised by buying the jars when they were very cheap and saving them to use when we were away from home. I also shopped around and got the best price possible for all the foods I fed baby, just like the foods I fed everyone else in the family. If sweet potato was in season and on sale, that’s what baby ate. I remember he was really getting into solids during the summer, so I would buy him whatever was at the farmer’s market that week. There was one week in particular that nectarines were on sale. We gave one to him - whole - and he ate it all (we took out the pit of course), and loved it!

Some foods just aren’t any cheaper than the jars, no matter how you cut it. That’s when you have to decide what is more important to you: cost, convenience or the health factor.

Which brings us to the last question:

Is homemade baby food any HEALTHY-er?

My answer to this is: mostly, yes. The biggest advantage to homemade baby food is the freshness factor; because it is fresh, it retains the majority of nutrients. Who knows how long the canned baby food has been there, and if the food was fresh when it was processed to begin with?

Other than that, I don’t see where homemade baby food has any clear advantage in the health arena over the jarred baby food.

However, there are some jars you just don’t need to buy. I would stay far far away from any baby food jars that contain any of the following:

  • dessert (baby does NOT need “dessert”!)
  • yogurt (baby needs FRESH yogurt)
  • hot dogs (really, now, do we need an explanation?!)
  • grains (my personal opinion is that baby is just too young to process these properly, so hold off on them until they’re past the puree stage anyway)

I would also be very choosy about mixes containing meats as well. Personally, I prefer to make all his meat dishes myself, even if it is a little more work. To make it easier, I’ll just puree a portion of whatever meat the rest of us are eating for dinner until he’s capable of chewing it himself.

Whether or not you want to go whole hog with this homemade baby food idea, there are some foods that are just so easy to fix for baby that it would be silly not to! These foods definitely fall under my “QECH” philosophy, and can be incorporated into pretty much anybody’s routine. I’ve blogged about some of them before, but here they are again, in no particular order:

  1. Avocado When I told my people I was feeding my Certain Little Someone avocado, I got a lot of strange looks and a lot of questions. Just two years later, it’s a lot more widely accepted, but it still may be a new idea to you. There is no reason not to feed a baby avocado, and all kinds of reasons why you should. There are two main reasons why I personally chose it as one of my babies’ first foods: it’s high in healthy fats (every baby needs fat in their diet) and it’s soooo easy (just scoop it out and mash a bit. You won’t find it in any jars, but that’s only because it’s difficult to can. It’s pretty cheap, too: I can almost always find them around here for $1.50 or less, and some areas of the country are much cheaper than that. And since baby only eats about 1/4 of it at a time, it definitely costs less than a jar.
  2. Banana Just like an avocado, all you have to do is peel and mash. This one’s a no-brainer, folks. And if you consider that one banana costs about $0.20, and baby only eats approximately 1/3 of it at a time, it’s definitely one of the cheaper options.
  3. Frozen Butternut Squash At my local grocery store, one package costs $1.00, and it has at least 3 or 4 servings. It has all the goodness of homemade pureed butternut squash… but without all the work. Just defrost it and feed to baby: easy!
  4. Canned Pumpkin No, not pumpkin pie filling (please). Once again, almost as healthy as doing it yourself, but a lot less work. The main advantage of buying a can instead of jarred pumpkin for baby is that it’s a lot cheaper.
  5. Applesauce What could be easier? Making applesauce at home is easy, too, but I find that around here, jarred applesauce is often cheaper. Just be sure to buy varieties without added sugar, or - horrors - high fructose corn syrup.

And there you have it folks! Five super easy foods you can feed baby without breaking into one of those pricey little jars. Bon appetit!

Linked up at Frugal Food Thursday, Ultimate Recipe Swap.

 

 

 

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unBaby Food – Avocado

July 2, 2009 By

UnBaby food? What is that?! It’s my special little term for baby food that’s not found in the jars and boxes in the baby aisle. It’s perfectly safe and healthy for the littlest ones, but it’s a little outside the box.

I’ve met many internet moms who are savvy to this little unBaby food trick, but very few moms IRL have ever heard of it. Every time I mention it IRL, I get strange looks that range in meaning from , “Wow, never thought of that!” to “um… why?” to “Are you sure that’s OK?”!

And yet, this is one of the most perfect baby foods available:

~It’s not very allergenic

~It’s fresh and unprocessed

~It’s high in healthy fats, which their little bodies really need

~It ranks right up there with sweet potato as a baby favorite

~It adds much needed variety to your little one’s diet - I’ve never seen it in a baby food jar!

I’m talking about avocado, of course. It may seem odd at first, but just give it a try and see if your little one will love it! My Certain Little Someone is very particular about taste and texture, and he gobbles up avocado like it’s candy.

Still need convincing?

Nothing could be QUICKer, not even a jar of baby food. All you have to do is slice it open, and grab a spoon.

It’s so EASY; if you can handle a knife, you can handle this!

It’s pretty CHEAP, too. At worst, it costs the same as a jar of baby food. At best, it’s cheaper. All depends on how much you typically pay for a jar of baby food (I personally try to buy it on sale with coupons and aim for less than .50 a jar) and how much you pay for the avocado. I don’t typically pay more than $1.66 for an avocado, and usually I pay $1.50. At least one grocery store in my area has it on sale on any given week. I usually get about 3 servings for my Certain Little Someone out of one avocado (your baby will take more or less, depending on their age or appetite), so that’s .50/serving. So, for me, it costs the same as what I would pay for a baby food jar, and like I said, I’ve never seen avocado in a jar, so it expands his repertoire of food.

It’s very HEALTHY, even for adults. Sometimes avocado gets a bad rap because it’s so fatty, but it’s full of healthy fats that your bodies need. Babies especially need a lot of fat (that’s why it’s a major component of breast milk!), so it’s a particularly useful inclusion in their diet. Avocado also has potassium, calcium, vitamin C and K, folic acid, copper, and dietary fibers, all healthy nutrients your little one needs.

I like to slice off and use the ends first, because the peel forms a nice little bowl. All I have to do is get a baby spoon and scoop out the fatty goodness:

Look at him, ready for the next bite!


 

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unBaby Food – Squash

June 22, 2009 By


UnBaby food? What is that?! It’s my special little term for baby food that’s not found in the jars and boxes in the baby aisle. It’s perfectly safe and healthy for the littlest ones, but it’s a little outside the box. Or maybe it is in a box, as in the case of our frozen cooked squash, but you know what I mean.

Because I’m just a wee bit passionate about healthy food, I was determined to get my baby started on the road to good health by feeding him only foods that were healthy for him. Part of that determination was to make my own baby food whenever I could. Not that there’s anything inherently unhealthy about the jars of baby food; but I can’t help but think that food I make him myself is fresher and therefore healthier. Furthermore, those jars might seem cheap, but they certainly add up! If I fed my baby exclusively with jarred food, he would quickly overtake our grocery budget, and his Daddy and I would end up hungry! (Slight exaggeration, but you know what I mean!)

So I buy the jars when they’re on sale and I can use coupons, and I feed him jarred baby food when I’m in a hurry or on the road (or sometimes if I don’t want to bother making the food myself, like prunes), but I try to give him as much “unBaby” food as possible.

As always, my goal is to accomplish this in a quick, easy, cheap and healthy way! I don’t have all day to prepare homemade baby foods, so I look for easier alternatives. Frozen cooked squash is now one of my favorites.

It’s so QUICK to fix up for my little one: 4 minutes in the microwave, a little stirring and it’s ready to go! So it’s a few minutes longer than opening a jar, but still. It’s not bad!

Definitely EASY because it’s already been cooked, so you don’t have to worry about cooking the squash, then cutting off the rind, chopping the flesh into small pieces and then pureeing it. All that is already done.

It’s CHEAP: Most grocery stores carry a line of frozen boxed veggies that are very inexpensive. My grocery store (Giant) has their own line of such frozen veggies, including the above pictured box of cooked squash. Each box costs just $1 and is 12 oz. Most baby food jars are 4 oz, so you are paying roughly .33 for each serving.

Frozen food is considered by most to be at least as HEALTHY as fresh, because it’s picked at the peak of freshness and quickly frozen. And unlike jarred baby foods, which sometimes have added ingredients and fillers, this box contains nothing but squash.

I heated the entire contents of the package in the microwave, then split it into three servings. One I fed the little guy right away, and the others I put in the fridge to use over the next few days:


I unfortunately cannot re-freeze it because that is not recommended for cooked frozen foods. But since there are only two additional servings, I will have no problem using them up in the next few days before they go bad, and it will be nice to have a ready-to-serve portion in the fridge for when I need it.

As you can see, the little one enjoyed his unBaby food immensely:

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