Make Your Own Baby Food- The Easy Way!

Make Your Own Baby Food- The Easy Way!By Carrie Lauth
Is your baby about to start solid foods? Are you thinking ofmaking your own baby food?
When you make baby's first foods, you can save money and reducewaste. You also can choose more nutritious options. Fresh foodsare typically more nutritious than canned, and you can purchaseorganic food to prepare for baby if you wish. You can also avoidunwholesome ingredients that show up in commercial baby food.
Making baby food doesn't have to be expensive or timeconsuming. In fact, the easiest and cheapest way is the bestway!
The easy way to making your own baby food:
1) Don't bother with buying one of those baby food grinders.They're hard to clean and too much hassle.
2) If you wait until your baby is 6 months old to start solids,you can almost always just mash with a fork to the desiredconsistency.
If you're breastfeeding, you can even wait until baby's "pincergrasp" is developed and offer him small finger foods like peas,bits of grated apple, and the like. The pincer grasp isdeveloped when baby can pinch small objects (like those bits ofcarpet fluff or food on the kitchen floor!) inbetween his thumband first finger. In fact, if you have a family tendency towardsfood allergy, waiting longer to start solids may be preferable.No matter what baby's age, always offer one food at a time andwait several days to watch for signs of allergy before offeringanother. Take it slow.
3) Start with fresh single ingredient foods like:
Banana Steamed carrot, turnip, potato, yam Avocado Ripe pear, peach, melon, plum Cooked squash Grated apple- raw or steamed Peas Well cooked beans Hard cooked egg yolks (avoid the whites until 1 year)
Some of these foods could be served raw. Others are lightlysteamed (steaming retains more nutrients than canning), to makethem softer for baby.
4) It's not necessary to make a big deal of preparing baby'sfood.
If you want to take a lot of time blending food and freezingthem in ice cube trays, you could certainly do that. But I'm allfor the easy approach!
Although you do want to avoid giving baby salt and sugar (andspices that may upset the tummy), you can usually just take aningredient from your own menu and "make" baby's dinner.
For instance, if you're steaming veggies to serve at dinner,take a tablespoon of them out of the pan before you add butterand salt. Put this in baby's plate and mash away. Voila! Instantbaby food with no extra work. Or take a bit of beef from yourroast and mash mash mash until it's very soft.
Even when you're at a restaurant, you can either bring an applewith you and "grate" it finely with a spoon at your table, orbring along a banana or other portable food. Any restaurant witha salad bar would have cooked beans or avocado. Or give baby abit of your baked potato (before you add the goodies on top).
Life with a new baby is challenging enough. Keep startingsolids simple!
For more helpful tips on simplifying life with kids, visit:http://www.natural-moms.com/homekeeping_organization.html
About the Author: Carrie Lauth, mom of 4, publishes a freenewsletter for Moms doing things the natural way. Get your copyplus free subscriber goodies at:http://www.natural-moms.com/natural_mom_newsletter.html
Source: http://www.isnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=5439&ca=Parenting