Baby food to avoid ?

Poncherello

As most of you on here take your diet pretty seriously I wanted to pose a query for those with Kids.
We recently had our first and he will soon be moving on to solids etc.
Just starting to look around and read about how to introduce them and all that and there seems to be countless products out there.
I am like most of us very weary of processed foods and was just wondering if anyone had any advice about what to avoid.
Thanks v much

How Strange

Poncherello, you might be better off asking for this to be moved to the parenting forum. You'll get advice over there from parents with young kids.

cruizer101

probably the best thing you can do is get some sort of small blender. Them just blitz up whatever you are having yourself. You need to watch out with strong flavors and that, but apart from that it means you know exactly what is going into the food.
But yeah parenting would probably have more and better answers.

r3nu4l

Poncherello, if you do nothing else then buy this book by Annabelle Karmel.

We've been using it for about three months now and it's fantastic. The book provides tons of very easy recipes using only natural ingredients and using a wide variety of different fruits and vegetables. The meal plans are excellent starting with pureed fruit and vegetables (single ingredients), moving to pureed fruit and vegetable mixes (more than one ingredient) and then onto mashed foods, fish and meats.

I really can't emphasise enough how good the book and recipes in it are. You do need to be prepared to spend time cooking up food and freezing it down. We use small food storage pots (you can buy specific ones in the baby aisles but there also available cheaper in other aisles ) and freeze the food down in those. To begin with we used ice cube trays and froze the food in that because they take so little to begin with

Happy weaning

EDIT: cruizer101, to begin with the baby shouldn't eat just what the parents are having but certainly within a couple of months they can Oh and you're dead right, a blender is a must!

Leax

I've three kids and on the first 2 I accepted the received wisdom that all babies start on grain-based, high sugar rices and cereals. Baby rice and cereals are well marketed and people generally accept them as THE first foods for babies in conjunction with purees. Personally I now don't see any reason to use them and didn't use them with my 3rd.


Personally I have never used any baby product containing meat, I just have a thing about it and like to source meat for the family myself. Baby food products I used were fruit pots & pouches as they are convenient when out/traveling, I like the Ella's Kitchen, Plum and Fruitapura ranges.

There are 2 main approaches to starting weaning, broadly they are either introducing purees at set times and building up from there, or using baby-led weaning- a google will give you lots of info if you're interested.

A basic way to look at introducing purees is to provide a single type of food several times to see how your baby tolerates it, then switch to a different one. I did this on my first but was lazier with the others.

Foods i'd stock the freezer to start with would be carrot, butternut squash, sweet potato, turnip, then try potato, broccoli, cauliflower etc. You can get silicone ice cube trays that hold a good amount and you can mix veg together easily from different trays. Most fruits puree well too and babies looove them. I did puree fruit at the start on my first but mostly used bought fruit after that.
Once they started on fish & meat I'd steam veg, cook the meat, puree them all together and freeze. Once you get the first few months under you you can start modifying family meals. On my last baby I mostly just mashed whatever the others were having with a bit of liquid. I find she is isn't bothered by lumps like the others were in the first couple of years probably because the food she eats has had more texture from early on.

My advice is whether pureed or baby-led, and irrespective of when your baby tries what foods, just use good food prepared yourself for the most part, and use processed foods for convenience but pick ones with short ingredient lists.

g'em

moved from Fitness

Moonbeam

have a look at baby led weaning too.
It worked really well for us.

crazy cat lady

I've always fed my litle lady 'mammy meals' from day 1. Started her on a tiny bit of baby rice mixed with breast milk, and then moved on to vegetable purees. Sweet potato and carrot purees are naturally sweet and so babies usually love them. I also stewed fruit, mostly apples and pears and then blended them too. When she was starting to get a bit hungrier I would bulk out the fruit purees with a bit of baby rice.

You should avoid honey until babs is 1, peanuts til babs is 5, and I think eggs should be avoided until about 6 months.

I know jars of baby food aren't always ideal, but due to standards etc.. I think jars of food are a lot more nutritios than they used to be

lynski

crazy cat lady wrote: »

, peanuts til babs is 5,

surely only if there are allergies int eh family? my 2 would love peanut butter, have had it since 2 and 1

Kimono-Girl

lynski wrote: »

surely only if there are allergies int eh family? my 2 would love peanut butter, have had it since 2 and 1

i think the general idea is you avoid nuts until they are old enough to tell you something is wrong if they begin to have a re-action.

crazy cat lady

I'm just going by the weaning book my phn gave me, it says to avoid peanuts til the age of 5. Obviously if your chaps are happily eating peanut butter I'd say you're safe enough.

I was giving Megan honey when she was 7 months cos nobody told me she shouldn't have it. So far she is fine!

Greystoner

Annabel Karmel (books) all the way! So easy for anyone to do. Tells you what is suitable and unsuitable for different stages.

I used to make up large batches of the purees and freeze them in large icecubes. Then you can pop them out on the day you need them and put in a small pot with a spoon and bib.

This is healthier and alot cheaper than the jar stuff and then they can move on to what you are eating, but without the salt and just mashed.

Young babies usually start off on the baby rice mixed with their usual milk and as they get hungrier the blander purees are good to start with; carrot, parsnip, pear, bananas etc.

Enjoy the change in the nappy contents and the messy little faces; it goes too quickly!!!

Just remembered that you can now get good ready pureed pouches called Ellas, they are handy to have when no time to puree yourself, but alot more expensive. Would recommend the stage 2 pouches for the meatier contents.

Cat Melodeon

I also recommend Anabel Karmel and baby-led weaning. we did a combination of both and did mostly home-cooked stuff. It's good to try them with a few commercial jars too though, in case you're ever caught out or get delayed somewhere. I like the Hipp organic range. Their finger foods are brilliant and the jars of food decent although a bit too reliant on tomatoes and sweetcorn for my lad's tastes. Some of the Heinz ones are good too. It's also worth looking at commercial baby food just to get some recipe ideas and then make them up yourself at home.

lynski

I knew my daugther was ready for food when she snatched a spoon her bro was too slow getting to his mouth and ate some of his dinner.
I started her for a few weeks on pureed/mashed single vegs - whatever we were having that day or Ella's Kitchen stuff and she was on more or less the same as the rest of us very quickly.

CeNedra

The new complete baby and toddler meal planner by anabel. You need a blender. I did not get a baby one, used to blend up larger portions and freeze. Sweet potato is a great food to start your baby on. Pear is another favorite of my kids. I used to mix baby rice through it. That book is a brilliant help. You can get really handy storage pots with lids and a tray for freezer storage on baby moments.ie. Level two pots are best I think. Best of luck!

How Strange

Btw, I saw in tescos last night these large icecube tray thingys with individual lids for freezing pureed baby food. They were probably twice the size of an ice cube and I just thought they were a great idea.