By Janelle Fowler
Are you planning to start your baby on solid foods? It can be very difficult to decide what food is suitable for such a young baby. I worried that my child wouldn’t be able to digest the food properly or might be allergic to something I chose. It worried me so much that I decided to do some research before making a change.
The best book of guidance I found was a book called “Breast, Bottle, Bowl” by Anne Hillis and Penelope Stone. It gave me some great hints and tips on how to progress through stages, what foods to feed and when. One of the best suggestions was to make your own baby food.
As a mum who is conscious of what I feed my child, I preferred not to give her jarred or pre-packaged food at every meal. The thought of processed food or food containing ingredients I didn’t know really concerned me. Instead I took the active role of making my own baby food.
I knew that steaming some veggies would be easy and beneficial to bubs. I gathered a few other new mums and we had a ‘puree party’ to steam 5 different foods for our kids to try for the next few weeks. Like most new mums, we were tired and didn’t want to have to think about meals for the bubs as well as for the adults while still managing the rest of our lives. Having pre-steamed veggies ready to warm up and serve was a major time saver.
One of the best gifts I was given was individual food freezing trays. At our ‘puree party’ we each brought our trays and spooned in the sweet potato, apples, potato, pear and carrot to take home and put in our freezers. The next day we were able to take out a cube or two out, pop it in the microwave (or put in a bowl inside a bowl of bowling water for non microwave users) slip a bib onto our babies and we were ready to serve our new solid food eaters!
As the kids grew older, the puree parties stopped but I kept on using the containers and making my own baby food. I have moved on from puree and instead steam some different veggies and put them in the freezer container cut into finger food size for later use. I can also use the containers for rice, pasta and even cooked mince (with sauce if you want!) which can save on even more cooking on the nights when my child is not able to eat what we are eating.
Healthy eating starts from habits learned when young and that nothing is better than the love and care a mum can produce in a meal. I enjoy knowing that I am feeding my daughter healthy, pure, homemade food and that I have been able to give her best start to life.
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