Baby Food Chapter One...

I accidentally had a dinner plan for tonight.  Most of my plans are quite accidental.  I was working on something totally unrelated and the thought of what to do with the mushrooms we got via the produce co-op come to mind.  I open the fridge to grab another handful of chocolate and spot the beef I took out of the freezer to thaw.  Happens to be cubes.  Hmm.

A few more trips for chocolate, one for lunch and I discover some carrots, a pepper and tada, dinner of beef stew is planned!

Then I remember it is Wednesday and most of the kids wont be home for dinner.  (bells and music class).  Ah well.  Tomorrow night I might get the same inspiration and make beef stew.

Instead I made 'newdus'  that Baby Girl requested (noodles), and channeled my cooking energy into making baby food for Little one.

When I first had my oldest I read several fancy books on 'how to make baby food'.  Now that I am on my fifth, and having made baby food for all, I might be ready to write my own book.

Here we go....

When to start and what/how to cook it.

Start feeding them around when they start stealing your food.  If a baby is going to work that hard for your meal, they are pretty ready.  (just don't start with your steak, start with baby food)  This is prolly between 4 and 6 months.  Wait much longer and they start having strong opinions.

Though just because your baby is ready to start eating food doesn't mean it will come easy.  They certainly are trying to talk to you right out of the womb, and they don't manage to get that straight for around year(or 3), so give it time, try a spoon full and scrape it back up try again.  When it stays in, you have an eater.

Step one: cook food till soft enough to mash up
Step two: mash it up (puree with a hand blender, use a fork, whatever) add water as needed.
Consistency should be somewhat thicker than milk and thinner than pudding.
Don't worry if you mess it up, you can always try again.
Step three: feed kid
Step four: stop when they don't seem to want it (turn away, wont open mouth, try to ignore you)

Yep, that's it, my book.  Think I can get it on the best seller list?

I suppose there is one other tip.  If you added too much water when you puree it, add in some rice cereal, that is about the only thing it is good for.  (would you want to eat plain rice?)

I guess they don't pay for ridiculously short books like that though.

Really you don't need a fancy book, tonight I nuked a sweet potato for 5 minutes, scraped out a tablespoon mixed with a bit of water and viola, fancy baby food.

I put half the potato in the freezer, the other half in the fridge, I can grab another tablespoon for the next two days.

I read lots of charts on what to feed when, while some info doesn't hurt in general the food you have on hand is pretty easy.

My Pediatrician simplified them all to: 'orange veggies,  yellow veggies,  green veggies, NON citrus fruit, the rest of the foods'.  Not a bad line to follow, Easy to remember if you know the colors of the rainbow (skip Red, go to Orange Yellow, Green then for Blue it is open for fruit)

No one seems to mind if I rearrange it.  Least of all the kids. (BTW Corn is not a veggie.  )

Sometimes I think our information age is making parenting harder instead of easier.  Everyone flying around with their 2 cents when so much of the time a simple answer is best, feed your kid the way you wish you ate.  chock full of veggies some fruits and save the calorie fillers (grains) for when they are done nursing.

just me adding my 2cents......