Starting Solid Foods with Baby and Making your Own Baby Food

Knowing when your baby is ready to start solid foods

At Addison’s four-month wellness check-up, our pediatrician asked if Addison seemed ready to start eating solid foods. The telltale signs for determining if your baby is ready for solid food include if your baby can hold his/her head up and control head movements, sit-up with support, seems unsatisfied after milk feedings or is starting to demand more frequent milk feeds, starts putting things in his/her mouth, seems interested in what you are eating during mealtime, and starts waking up in the middle of the night as a result of hunger having slept well previously.  Not all of these signs need to occur, but many should.   Babies typically start eating solid foods between 4-6 months, but the large majority of a baby’s nutrition for the first full year should come from the nutrients in breast milk or formula.  The purpose of introducing solid foods is mainly so babies become familiar with different food tastes and textures as a building block for when solid food constitutes most of their diet after they are a year old.

 

Making Your Own Baby Food

Addison seemed ready to begin solid foods at five-months, and our pediatrician said that she should try three different foods by her six-month wellness check-up.  I have always known I would make my own baby food, because I love to cook, and I love to know exactly what’s in the food I eat and the food I serve my family and friends.  It’s also much cheaper to make your own baby food compared with buying premade food in a store.  Making baby food is easy, and I already owned all of the necessary tools.  

To make baby food all you need are some good wholesome ingredients, a steaming basket, a pot with a lid that fits the steaming basket, and a food processor or blender.  Since most baby food recipes make more than your baby will eat in the two days it will keep in your refrigerator, it is a good idea to freeze what’s leftover so you can pull it out and have fresh food for your baby on a day when you don’t have time to make it.  I try to avoid using plastic containers for food storage because of the chemicals contained in plastic material.  I looked everywhere for one-ounce covered portion containers not made out of plastic that I could freeze leftover food in. I couldn’t find any, so I decided to use a plastic covered ice cube tray (which makes one ounce portions) to freeze the food, and then once frozen, I pop the individual portions out of the freezer tray and store the food portions in eight ounce glass food storage containers (like Pyrex) labeled with the type of food and the date it was frozen (in general, frozen baby food should be consumed within one month of freezing it).  To de-thaw the food for your baby, just take however much food you want to serve your baby out of the freezer, and de-thaw it in your refrigerator over night.  The benefit of freezing food in one ounce portions is that you can feed your baby a little bit of a few different foods to diversify the different foods that your baby gets at one meal.  Also, less food gets wasted if portions are frozen individually.

When you serve your baby a new food for the first time, it is a good idea to serve that food to baby exclusively for three days in a row. That way, if your child has an allergic reaction to the food, he or she will have eaten it in isolation, so you know exactly what food caused the allergic reaction.

Recommended First Foods (6-7 months)

Vegetables (steamed or baked): beets, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, celeriac, fennel, parsnip, peas, potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, rutabaga, squash, spinach and zucchini

Fruits (steamed or baked): apple, apricot, berries, pitted cherries, pear and plum

Fruits (raw but soft or very ripe): apricot, guava, mango, banana, avocado, fig, melon, nectarine, papaya, peach, persimmon and plum

Other: whole grain rice cereal, oatmeal, millet and barley

Fluids: breast milk, formula, water

(Information taken from The Top 100 Baby Food Recipes by Christine Bailey published in 2011 by Sterling Publishing Company NY, NY)

Baby Food Recipes

Sweet Carrot Puree

What you need:

5 medium size organic carrots washed, peeled and sliced into even-sized pieces.

What you do:

Steam the carrots in a steamer basket in a pot with a lid with one inch of water in it for 10 minutes or until the carrots are tender.  Put the steamed carrots in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.  Before serving, add breast milk or formula to desired consistency.

Baked Butternut Squash or Pumpkin Puree

What you need:

1 small butternut squash or pumpkin cut in half length-wise.

What you do:  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Scoop seeds out of squash or pumpkin with a spoon and put cut-side down on a baking sheet. Pour enough water in the baking sheet to come ¼ inch up the side of the squash or pumpkin (this will add a “steaming” effect when baking).  Bake squash or pumpkin until tender when pierced with a fork (45-60 minutes).  Remove squash or pumpkin from oven and let cool slightly. Scoop out flesh from inside of squash or pumpkin into a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.  Before serving, add breast milk or formula to desired consistency.

Pear or Apple Cinnamon Puree

What you need:

3 organic pears or apples peeled, quartered and evenly chopped

Dash of ground cinnamon

What you do:

Steam the apples or pears in a steamer basket in a pot with a lid with one inch of water in it for 8-10 minutes or until the apples or pears are tender.  Put the steamed apples or pears and a dash of cinnamon in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.  Before serving, add breast milk or formula to desired consistency. 

Sweet Potato, Broccoli and Cumin Puree

The reason to combine these two vegetables is because broccoli has a very strong flavor, so many babies do not like it at first. The sweet potato adds a sweetness that most babies enjoy.   The cumin is a great accent flavor for these two vegetables.

What you need:  

1 small organic sweet potato, washed, peeled and diced into ½ inch cubes

5 organic broccoli florets

Dash of ground cumin

What you do:

Steam the sweet potato in a steamer basket in a pot with a lid with one inch of water in it for five minutes, and then add the broccoli to the steamer and continue to steam for 8-10 more minutes until both vegetables are tender.  Put the steamed vegetables and a dash of cumin into a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.  Before serving, add breast milk or formula to desired consistency.

Beet and Red Plum Puree

To some, beets have a slightly bitter flavor. Combined with sweetish-tart red plums, this is a delicious and energizing combination. 

What you need:  

2 organic red beets washed, peeled and diced into cubes

1 organic red plum peeled and diced into cubes

What you do:

Put the beets and plums into a small saucepan and cover with water.  Bring the water to a boil over high heat and then reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.  If you want, you can save the water (which will have turned bright red) to use as a natural food coloring!! Once the beets and plums are cooked, put them into a food processor and puree until smooth. Before serving, add breast milk or formula to desired consistency.

Pumpkin Pie Root Veggie Medley

This sweet and creamy puree is a great way to get your baby to eat lots of vegetables!  Addison wasn’t crazy about eating carrots pureed by themselves, but she loved this combination of carrots, sweet potatoes and parsnip!

What you need:

1 small to medium size sweet potato washed, peeled and cubed

2 organic carrots washed, peeled and cubed

1 parsnip washed, peeled and cubed

Dash of dried ground Pumpkin Pie Spice

Tip: make sure that the veggies are cut into evenly-sized pieces so they cook evenly

What you do:

Steam the veggies in a steaming basket in an inch of water in a saucepan with a cover for 10-12 minutes.  Once the veggies are soft, remove them carefully from the steaming basket and transfer them to a food processor. Add a dash or two of pumpkin pie spice and puree until smooth. Before serving, add breast milk or formula to desired consistency.

 

Apricot and Carrot Puree

Since Addison didn’t love eating stand-alone carrot puree, I wanted to find other things to combine carrots with that she would like. Apricots are great because they give a sweetness to the puree that babies love.

What you need:

2 organic carrots washed, peeled and chopped

¼-1/2 cup unsulfured dried apricots

What you do:

Put the carrots, apricots and 1/3-1/2 cup water into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until tender.  Remove the carrots and apricots from the saucepan and keep the water. Put the carrots, apricots and some of the water into a food processor and blend until smooth. Before serving, add breast milk or formula to desired consistency.

Eating Organic

When I was pregnant, my doctor told me to eat organic fruits and veggies in order to avoid ingesting pesticides, fertilizers and other toxins that can be found in conventional produce.  I was also told to eat meat that was not treated with hormones and other artificial additives and preservatives.  In order to avoid having my family ingest unnecessary toxins, I tend to buy organic produce as much as possible. Some organic produce I can buy at my local grocery store, Sendik’s Market (http://www.sendiksmarket.com), and other produce requires me to take a trip to my local co-op, The Outpost (http://www.outpost.coop).

Now that my daughter, Addison, is beginning to eat solid foods (well, sort of ‘solids’—more like purees), I am especially careful about remnants of pesticides and fertilizers in the food I feed her.  Being that my local grocery store doesn’t carry the variety of organic produce I want Addison to have, I wondered—is it necessary to eat all organic? Are there some foods that are safe to eat non-organic? Since eating organic is not always available, and can sometimes be more expensive, I did some research about what it means for foods to be considered organic, and what foods are especially important to buy organic, based on the saturation levels of pesticides and fertilizers.

Defining “Organic”

According to the United States Department of Agriculture National Organic Standards Board, in order for a food to be certified as organic and carry the USDA Organic Certification Label, the product must abide by the following definitions:

◦                 “Organic agriculture is an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain and enhance ecological harmony.

◦                “‘Organic’ is a labeling term that denotes products produced under the authority of the Organic Foods Production Act. The principal guidelines for organic production are to use materials and practices that enhance the ecological balance of natural systems and that integrate the parts of the farming system into an ecological whole.

◦                “Organic agriculture practices cannot ensure that products are completely free of residues; however, methods are used to minimize pollution from air, soil and water.

“Organic food handlers, processors and retailers adhere to standards that maintain the integrity of organic agricultural products. The primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals and people.”

In order to ensure that products that claim to be organic are living up to the standards set by the federal government, organic food producers must pass regular inspections. 30,000 on-site inspections occur per year by certifying agents, and are performed to monitor compliance with USDA organic standards.  There is also a residue-testing program to verify that prohibited pesticides aren’t being applied to organic crops.

More information about the USDA’s organic certification program can be found at the following link: http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/ofp/ofp.shtml

Which Foods are the Most Important to Eat Organic?

According to the Environmental Working Group (www.ewg.org), the following fruits and vegetables are the most important to buy organic because they contain the highest levels of pesticide residue:

It is important to buy these foods organic, if you can:
 1.) Apples
2.) Celery 
3.) Strawberries
4.) Peaches
5.) Spinach
6.) Nectarines
7.) Grapes 
8.) Sweet Bell Peppers
9.) Potatoes
10.) Blueberries
11.) Lettuce
12.) Kale/Collard Greens


It is not as important to buy the following fruits and vegetables organic, because they contain the lowest levels of pesticide residue (and for many of them, you peel off the skin to eat them):


1.) Onions
2.) Pineapple
3.) Sweetcorn
4.) Avocado
5.) Asparagus
6.) Sweet peas
7.) Mangoes
8.) Eggplant
9.) Cantaloupe 
10.) Kiwi
11.) Watermelon
12.) Sweet Potatoes
13.) Mushrooms
14.) Grapefruit
15.) Cabbage