Baby Food Recipes

but how do you know if the baby is going to have the same allergies as you?

what was said above re mushed veggies. That's what I gave mine too. And a tip - mush up a whole bunch and freeze in ice-cube trays. Then when you want to use it just pop the little cubes out and defrost/heat up. made life MUCH easier. At first it was just one food - eg pumpkin - but with time I started to mix things up like pumpkin + beans + zucchini or whatever.

And now, all she eats is egg and rice. >:(

elphie754 wrote: »

jemhh wrote: »

Is this your first baby?

For the most part, we used regular whole foods, mushed up, when our daughter started on solids. She was EBF the first 6 months. Then over the next 6 months she ate maybe 2 T solids a day. Mashed sweet potatoes, bananas, applesauce, and prunes were her favorite. The prunes we did buy in jars but the rest was just homemade. They eat very little in the way of solids to start. At about 8 months we started just giving her regular non-mashed whole foods--half of an entire peach, large steamed broccoli stalks, homemade blueberry oat pancakes, tiny pieces of meat, etc.

Yes it is, is it that obvious? Lol. Thank you.

No no no I thought it might just have been your first since the allergy diagnosis.

When I say food allergy restrictions, I mean recommendations for when to introduce certain foods, i.e., at what age it's safe to introduce shrimp, strawberries, peanuts, etc. My original post was kind of vague haha

elphie754 wrote: »

We are likely going to buy the small baby food containers, so I can make big batches at a time.

"Big" batches will seriously make a ton of food in baby-sized servings--you will need many many containers to make and store an assortment of foods. A second vote for making them in silicone ice cube trays and then transferring them to a single larger container (one per flavor) once frozen--you can take just a cube or two out, thaw and feed, and not have to wash a million little jars for reuse.

Somewhat related topic--doing the same for storing breast milk, too (freeze in cubes and then transfer to a larger storage bag). I thought I was being economical storing 4 oz per bottle/bag, but at my son's childcare center they would throw away what was left in a bottle after a feeding (food safety laws)--lots and lots of my milk was thrown away. I would have been better off sending twice the amount of bottles with half of the milk--that way they could have pulled out another bottle if he was still hungry, but throw away way less milk if he wasn't (since he hadn't drunk from it).

lacandona wrote: »

Look up baby led weaning. Thank me when your baby is six months old! It's really easy and a fairly old fashioned concept. Like a lot of things these days, it gets a new name and renewed interest. Your baby just eats whatever you are eating, barring choking hazards. We did this, also occasionally mashed banana or avocado, and used pouches when the mess or timing was inconvenient.

I also agree about making smaller breast milk bottles. I used plastic breast milk storage baggies for my milk. I made bottles that were less than 3 ounces each. Ain't no pain like wasted breast milk.

I did this too, you have to be careful about salt but other than that it's really convenient...And it's led to a really adventurous eater.

I usually made 4 oz bags of milk. We froze them flat and then "filed" them standing up in Uncrustable boxes in the freezer.

Baby led weaning is worth considering. I just fed my babies what we ate, not ever mushed but obviously small pieces and softer foods (banana, avocado) first. It's a really chill way to go.

Another vote for making big batches, freezing in trays, and then storing in separate containers by flavor (I just used BPA-free ice cube trays and then Ziplocs; my kids were probably thoroughly poisoned because I didn't store it in organic hand-made glass bowls, but whatever). That's what I did and it worked great. One afternoon in the kitchen every 2-3 weeks, bake/steam and blend for a few hours, and you're set. If we were eating something at a meal that was easily mashable we'd include that, but having the cubes on hand made life really easy if we weren't eating something baby-appropriate or to send to daycare.

I also started with single-ingredient foods, then moved to combos - cube of this, cube of that, nuked carefully to ensure it wasn't too warm.

I baked apples and sweet potatoes and winter squash and pears, and then steamed peaches and mangoes and green beans and peas and summer squash and carrots and berries and broccoli and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff I can't remember, and just used my regular food processor or blender. I pureed the potatoes and blueberries with no texture issues. Everything except for bananas and avocadoes should be cooked before you serve it, at least at first (sometimes it can be hard on tummies otherwise). Don't use the water you steamed carrots with to blend (something about nitrates), but other than that it's a great idea. If you do berries, make sure to strain the seeds out as well as you can. When stuff was out of season, I occasionally would use a bag of organic frozen fruit/vegetables and would steam and blend it and that works great, too.

Don't bother with cereals, bananas and avocadoes and sweet potatoes are great to start with. I did use a bit of baby oatmeal or brown rice cereal mixed with fruit for breakfast sometimes just because it sounded good to me , but there's no need to use it.

Baby-led weaning is awesome, but if you/your partner isn't going to be staying home full-time with the baby make sure that your care provider is on board with the concept before you get all excited for it. Some people aren't comfortable doing it (I wasn't with my first; I was fine with it for my second but she was an easy choker so we had to back off and stick with ultra-pureed foods for a long time) and a lot of daycare centers simply can't since it takes more time/attention than purees. You might be able to have success doing it part-time, but what I've heard from some friends who have done it is that it's kind of hard to get it rolling at the beginning if you're not doing it all the time.

Particularly once the baby is a little older, don't be afraid of seasonings and flavors. Obviously nothing too spicy or salty or that might cause tummy upset (too much onion or garlic, for example), but a teeny pinch of cinnamon or garlic powder or paprika or whatever you're cooking with to create some variety and familiarity isn't a bad thing.

I also did baby led weaning and my son is such a good eater. He eats pretty much anything. A good book I used was by annabel karmel. Loads of good, healthy recipes that the whole family can eat

One of the first foods that you traditionally start feeding a baby is cereal--but it looks like your allergic to many grains... Can you eat rice/brown rice?

i used whole fruits and veggies. steamed or boiled until very soft. blend or strain and then freeze in ice cube trays for individual servings. at dinner, i would put breakfast into the fridge to defrost. at breakfast, i took out lunch, etc. you can find lots of books online for cooking methods/food blends.