If you have been reading the blog for awhile, you may remember the baby food post I didn't back in 2009. If not, you can find it here. I quickly became a pro at making baby food for Jackson. At any time I probably had at least 10 bags of different types of food in my freezer. I'm not sure if it's the 2nd child, more laid back syndrome or just the fact that I have two kids and no time; but with Ava I have been terrible about making and feeding her baby food.
She is a completely different child than Jackson. While he would only eat pureed food and had big texture issues, Ava is happy to stick anything in her mouth. For this reason I've been a lacking in the baby food department and started to give her whatever we're eating at the table a lot more than I ever did for him. But, I did go out and get some fruits and veggies to maker her food a few weeks ago. If you're going to make your own food, I totally recommend taking an hour or two and making a lot at one time.
These are some of the fruits and veggies I started with.
Avocados (which I just mash up when I get ready for her to eat. No need to steam or puree)
Pears
Apples
Blueberries
Mustard Greens (not pictured)
I put each of them in the steamer pot by themselves and steam until really soft
Once they're done steaming I put them in the blender and mix in some water. Blend until pureed to the desired consistency. Some people go ahead and make their combination baby food in the blender. I like to make each one separate, freeze it in ice cube trays and then make my combos later.
After it's been pureed I pour it into ice cube trays and freeze
When I need food, I can just grab a few cubes out, thaw and serve. When we go out I can throw them in a bowl with a lid, and they're usually thawed to room temp. by the time we need them.
I was also recommended to check out the website Baby Led Weaning. This is big in the UK, but basically promotes skipping most pureed foods altogether and letting them learn to chew chopped up (soft) food before the learn to master swallowing. When they have baby food at first, they learn to swallow, but don't have to learn to chew until they start getting chunks of food. I know they don't have any teeth, but they can still learn to chew with their gums. This might have avoided a lot of issues when it came to Jack's texture issues. When it came time to start eating table food, he didn't want anything to do with it. At first, they don't really swallow a lot, but food for the first year is more about learning to eat.
So this is what we've been doing as far as food. I can say that I really miss the bottle-only stage. It's so much more work to fix actual food and feed it to her than it was to just nurse or give her a bottle.
Hope you are having a great weekend. Don't forget to check out my Facebook page and "like" it!
I also made all my own baby food -- the only pre-made stuff we bought was the cereal flakes. It was so much easier and cheaper to make it and I enjoyed it. It was such a short stage -- about two-three months for each kid -- and it was over so fast.
ReplyDelete