Friendly Friday #3

This Fridays “Friendly Friday” blogger is Yashy! I’m so happy that she was able to write an entry for me on baby’s first foods! This is an awesome entry and I’m sure you will learn lots! Enjoy!

Foodie Baby

The term foodie defines me pretty well. At least I like to think so! So it was no surprise that I was eagerly awaiting to try out solids with the little one. These days there’s so many  dos and don’ts when it comes  to babies that it can be quite nerve wracking and mind boggling. Initially we were dedicatedly monitoring the poops  (remember those days?!) and now there’s the weight  and food intake to monitor.  The general guidelines stipulate that your baby will show signs of being ready for solids when they have good neck control, can sit up on their own and/or are reaching for your food and drooling. We hit these milestones at the 4 month mark so our foodie adventures started earlier than the recommended 6 month mark.

Many cultures have different suggestions for first foods ranging from cereal to meats and everything in between. Again… pretty daunting and confusing.
Having gone through the journey and done quite a bit of research (don’t start early…. Your baby will be a fussy eater!) or (start early and she’ll be eating all sorts of food!) I decided that the best route was doing what felt right for us. This is my best advice to any new parent. Trust your instincts and listen to your baby (and pediatrician).

Our journey started with homemade rice cereal which to be quite honest, wasn’t as tasty as the boxed variety. Secret about me… I love baby cereal. I know. I’m bizarre.

I made my own rice and oats cereal for the first month but found that it was hard for me to cook in small batches ( I liked making two meals AT MOST each time). While you can grind and have the powder ready, you do need to boil the required powder for about 15 minutes to get it to cook. She needed four tablespoons of powder and 1/4 of a cup of breastmilk/water per feed…good luck finding a pot that small. Yes I burnt many a pot. This is why I quickly moved to the fruits and veggies. They were easy to steam, purée and make in small batches. She wasn’t a fan of my homemade rice cereal but loved the blue steel oats and fruits. We quickly ate our way through avocados, prunes, carrots, sweet potatoes apples, pears, peas, and yup, even mangoes.

After two months of experimentation we moved onto some fun dishes sprinkled with spices like cinnamon, coriander  (helps with constipation!) and curry powder. There are lots of fun baby food recipes to be discovered simply by having a bit of fun!

Here are of our biggest hits during the first four months of eating :

•  Carrot and spinach purée with coriander water (Boil coriander powder in a cup of water, filter through a paper coffee filter, and store in the fridge. Use a tablespoon whenever you want to water down a purée.)
• Pear purée with a dash of cinnamon (sweet cinnamon powder, not the sticks)
• Sweet potato and pea purée (add garlic when they’re ready!)
• Lentils with a dash of curry powder
• Watermelon flavoured oatmeal (Puréed watermelon makes a juice. Use the juice to boil the ground oats in!)
• Prune flavoured everything! In our household sneaking in a spoon of puréed prunes into dishes that aren’t popular (homemade rice cereal!) made for a super popular dish during the initial stages (fast forward two more months and it’s a different story!).

Advice to early starters :

1) Listen to your baby : You can tell pretty quickly what’s a fave and what’s not. This works well when trying to figure out if certain items cause gassiness or discomfort. Cauliflower was a no go for us for quite some time.

2) If it doesn’t look/taste/smell appealing to you…probably won’t for them either: Case and point, puréed bananas in our house are a huge failure. Pieces are a hit!

3) It’s okay to not feel like eating. Yes, even if you’ve spent twenty minutes prepping the food. Some days…aeh! Milk is all they want. Go with it.

4) Don’t be afraid to experiment: Foodie babies love to experiment.

5) Have fun. Let them touch and smell the food. More often than not, there’s a huge mess to clean up. But they look so cute with all than goop all over them! Oh and we do eat in front of the TV or iPad on occasion, distraction helps at times.

6) Schedule meal times as close as possible to bath time

7) Know the difference between gagging and choking. Quite a few gags in the initial stage, especially when she’s allowed to feed herself.

8 ) Let them feed themselves super steamed veggies/fruits that can be picked up or purees that can be given on a spoon. You’d be surprised how fast they learn that the food goes in their mouth! I try my best to allow her to feed herself for the last five minutes.

9) Figure out your tiny tot’s favourite  fruit or veggie. Always have it in stock so that you can easily incorporate it into unpopular dishes.

10) Buy organic as much as possible. Remember the dirty dozen must ALWAYS be organic (Peaches, Apples, Sweet Bell Peppers, Celery,  Nectarines, Strawberries, Cherries, Pears, Grapes, Spinach, Lettuce & Potatoes)

Good luck! Please share your first food stores with us! We love hearing about what worked for your little ones!

 

About Yashy: Born in Sri Lanka, raised in Dubai, Bahrain, Pakistan, the U.S, Australia and England, Yashy now finds herself settled in Toronto, where she met her husband. Her passions include entertaining, fashion, wine, dining, cooking, cocktailing, travelling, hunting for random fun events in the city and now… exploring all things baby related.

A branding specialist by profession, Yashy is now at home on maternity leave with nothing but poop and time on her hands. She blogs at www.babyandlife.com where she talks about her passions and how she strives to strike a balance between baby and self from the very start of motherhood. The blog discusses “lifestyle” – travel, entertaining, food and drink and for the most part- all with a baby on the hip. Chat with Yashy at www.twitter.com/YashYanthi.