Category Archive: Baby Care

Feeding your Baby

How To Feed Your Baby

Every new mom hesitates when it comes to feeding solids. Most pediatricians will agree that most babies are ready for solids at around 6 months of age. You wonder just how successful you will be at feeding your baby? How do you begin solids?

  • Here are some clues that your baby may be ready to begin solid foods:
  • Your baby can sit with little or no support.
  • Your baby can totally control head movement.
  • Your baby opens his mouth when food comes near it.
  • His tongue is capable of moving food around on it. Can he get food from the front of the mouth to the back of his mouth?

Once determined that your baby is ready to feed solids, you wll need some equipment:

baby feedingYou will want to introduce foods one at a time. Normally start with rice cereal, than barley cereal. Rice cereal is less likely to have a reaction to it. With each new food allow it to be the only food for about a week. During this time, keep baby wipes handy. More may go outside the mouth than in it.

Once cereals are looking good and the baby is happy with the addition to the diet, it is time to give a taste of fruit. Again keep it to just the one food type for a weeks.

After sweet potatoes, squash, peas, apples, peas and peaches are well on their way to be Jr’s favorites, it is time to go to pureed chicken, turkey, or beef.

Keep a food journal and space the foods apart by at least weeks. In the journal record each food, when it was started, what reaction was yours. Record any reactions like vomiting, rashes, or even refusal to eat.

Dairy products such as whole milk, cheese and yogurt can be given once the baby is 9 months to a year of age.

By the time a baby is celebrating his/her first birthday the baby should be ablest oat the same foods as you do.

No matter how many foods you try, breast milk or bottle milk you be your baby’s primary food for the first year of life.

Never give honey to anyone younger than 18 months.

Do not give egg whites til the child is more than 12 months.

To prevent salmonella poisoning avoid using raw eggs.

Baby’s food does not need any added salt or sugar.

If warming food or a bottle in the microwave makes sure that you test the temperature before giving it to the baby. Microwaves are notorious for leaving hot spots. Always stir food and test it before giving it to your child.

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The Nutritional Benefits of Making Your Own Baby Food

Make Your Own Baby Food

Have you ever thought of making your own baby food? Do you think it would be hard to do? What would you say if I told you that it is less expensive and more nutritious to make your own baby food? Think about this for a moment: When you make commercial baby food purchase, you are paying for the jar the food comes in, the cost of processing the food, and the profit for the manufacturer. When you make your own food, the cost is for the food alone. The benefits are that you have total control over the food you are making and feeding to your baby. You choose the quality ingredients that you put into your baby food and you would of course leave out any preservatives or added chemicals too. You would not put in extra sugar or salt as commercial baby foods have. This is why your homemade baby food will be more nutritious for your baby than commercial baby food is.

baby foodYour baby is also exposed to a larger variety of nutrients, textures and also tastes when you make your own baby food so the transition from baby food to table food will be less stressful on your baby.

Your first step in making your own nutritious baby food starts with washing your hands and also wash the equipment thoroughly before using it.

Scrub, peel and remove any pits or seeds from fresh fruits and vegetables. When preparing meats remove all bones, skin, gristle and fat from them. Do not use leftovers to make your baby food, use only fresh foods.

You will want to bake, steam or cook food in small amounts of water just until the food is tender. It is better to steam and microwave vegetables and fruits instead of boiling them because microwaving and steaming preserves the nutrients and boiling can remove nutrients.

After the food is softened puree or mash the cooked food.

You can thin out pureed foods with leftover water from steaming. You can also thin out food using breast milk or formula.

You can package and label foods to store in the refrigerator or freezer. You can put pureed foods in ice cube trays and freeze, then pop them out in cubes and into sealed plastic bags. Each cube will be about 1 ounce and will keep for approximately two months in the freezer.

You should not add salt, sugar, or strong spices to homemade baby foods.

Use fresh produce only. Canned vegetables are high in sodium and additives. You may use frozen if you check the label first to be sure there are no added preservatives or other chemicals.

When microwaving makes sure that you check the temperature as foods heated in a microwave can have hot spots even after stirring.

Once you thaw food to use it, if there are any leftover after the meal do not save. Discard any leftovers. Bacteria can grow in leftover food, so you do not want to give leftover food to babies.

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