More Stages of Babies’ Food

February 25th, 2010 by careforourbaby No comments »
Daniel Kreimer asked:


Once your babies eat rice cereal without difficulty for a couple of weeks, you can introduce baby-food vegetables. Offer one type of vegetable for a few days at a time so you can give each baby a chance to get used to the taste of a new food. This method also allows you to detect the off ending agent if one of them develops an intolerance or allergic reaction to a food item. Possible signs of food intolerance include vomiting, diarrhea, excessive irritability, or development of a rash. Once your babies have tried a variety of vegetables, you can add fruits.

Offer one new food item for a few days before adding another. You can also slowly increase solid-food feedings from one to three times a day over a period of several months. When your babies can sit well alone and can pick up objects between their thumb and forefinger, you can introduce some finger foods.

Babies typically reach this milestone anywhere between nine and ten months of age. Finger foods help strengthen your children’s feeding abilities as well as their fine motor skills (finger dexterity and strength).

My favorite finger foods for babies this age include softly cooked, chopped-up vegetables such as carrots, pumpkin, and potatoes. Be sure to cook vegetables enough so that they easily mash with little pressure. Ripe, diced bananas are also popular at this age. Other favorites include well-cooked pasta pieces, baby cereal bars, and soft breads such as homemade cornbread, biscuits, or bran muffins.

You can add foods such as soft tofu squares, grated mild cheese, and minced chicken for protein. By around one year of age, many babies can obtain the majority of their nutrition through eating. You can off er chopped up versions of your family meals at this age, provided that the food is soft or easily chewable. Formula-fed babies can start whole milk at one year as long as they are capably eating a variety of foods. You can also start moving away from bottles and make the transition to sippy cups at this age.

Take Your Time As you feed your twins, remember that solid foods will not replace the important nutrition in breast milk and formula until they reach around twelve months. So do not feel rushed in advancing your babies on solids. Continue to feed your babies breast milk or formula until they are at least one year old in order to ensure they are getting adequate nutrition while they learn to eat. Take your time introducing solids, and let your babies dictate their pace. Take lots of pictures, and enjoy every moment!



Annabel Karmel Helps Wean Your Baby

February 24th, 2010 by careforourbaby No comments »
Peter Gallacher asked:


Food writer and Mum’s favourite Annabel Karmel spoke to us recently about weaning your little one. It can be a daunting experience for many parents but here Annabel offers some advice which could make the process happier all round.

How important is the weaning process?

Really important because babies grow so rapidly during the first year of their life and their organs like their brain are developing. They need certain nutrients – they need essential fatty acids, it’s very important for brain and visual development. If you’re going to bring your baby up on jars of baby food it’s really hard to find a jar which has salmon, which has essential fatty acids. You can really only get them if you cook yourself.

Is it time consuming to cook yourself?

To be honest it really doesn’t take very long and what you do is you cook more than you need and you just freeze it in trays. So you could cook one day a week and have enough for your baby for the entire week.

Many Mums say they find the weaning process daunting. What advice would you offer?

It’s very confusing. First of all, When do you start to wean? The new regulations are six months but you go to the supermarket and look at jars of baby food and it says suitable from four months. I think I agree that if you can wait until six months that’s probably the best but some babies just aren’t satisfied with milk alone and therefore you could introduce very simple purees like potato, carrot, sweet potato, pumpkin, butternut squash. Babies need calories to grow so good fats like cheese, avocado or meat are foods that babies should be having more of earlier on.

Do we need to be aware of food allergies?

If there’s no history of allergy in your family I think the chances of your child developing a food allergy are quite small and if you think your child is allergic to a food you shouldn’t just take that food out of your child’s diet without getting proper medical advice because you may be doing them more harm than good.

When should we move from purees to more textured foods?

The muscles they use for chewing are the same muscles they use for their speech development and also if you continue to give very smooth purees for to long they get very lazy. I would start introducing texture from seven or eight months. One very good way is to take the child’s favourite vegetable puree and put tiny pasta shapes in it.

When would you expect a toddler to sit and enjoy a family meal?

From 18 months to 2 years you could be all eating the same food. Choose food that’s child friendly. It’s got to look reasonably attractive.