Weaning and Making Baby Food

Weaning and Making Baby Food lists all the food that are suitable for baby led weaning, as well as food you should avoid. Make your baby's first taste of solid food fun with a wide variety of vegetables and meat. For Baby Food Maker and Bottle Warmer Product reviews, just click here.

* Note that Breastfeeding is best for babies up to 1 year of age. In fact, exclusive breastfeeding is recommended at least for the first 6 months of a baby's life.

It is important to remember when giving a new food, always introduce one at a time, so that you can check if your baby is allergic to the food.

Ted.com Video : What's wrong with our food system | Birke Baehr | TEDxNextGenerationAsheville

How to Make Baby Food

Home made baby food is easy to do, you can start your baby on the best baby food diet and provide wholesome baby food.

I steam everything, except the fruits which I add in after the vegetable or meat is cooked. I rotate the combinations, but not more than 3 different varieties at one time.

Finally, I think that the food we eat while pregnant & breastfeeding also plays a part, because apparently, the taste of the food you eat goes into the amniotic fluid 5 hours after the meal and when I was eating a lot of fish during my confinement, I tasted my own breast milk and it tasted absolutely fishy, no kidding.

Happy eating!

Baby Food Guide -

Vegetables and Fruit

When to Start Baby Food

You can start feeding baby first foods at about 5-6 months old.

The following are the best baby food to start with :

Coloured Vegetables : Carrots, Pumpkin, Avocado, Cauliflower, Squash, Parsnip, Celery, Red lettuce, Lotus root/buds, Winter Melon, Luffa, Capsicum, Red Cabbage, Corn

Green Vegetable : Broccoli, Kai Lan, French beans, Asparagus(Baby's urine is smelly after), Chye Sim, Zucchini, Brussel Sprouts, Spinach(Normal, Red & Chinese), Water Cress, Garden Peas, Sweet Bean, Lettuce, Dou Miao, Pwe Leng, Long Beans, Bittergourd(Someone swears their children's skin was very good from eating lots), Tang-Oh, Bayam, Wolfberry leaves, Xiao Bai Chai, Di Hwan Miao, Sugar Beans, Japanese Cucumber

Fruits : Apple, Papaya, Banana, Orange, Honey Melon, Pear, Jambu or Water Apple, Mango, Peaches, Guava, Plums, Strawberries, Kiwi fruit, Starfruit, Persimmons, Pineapple, Grapes, Prunes (give this if baby happens to be constipated), Blueberries, Raisins, Figs, Raspberries

Lastly, Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes(Japanese) which I rotate with Brown rice as a base.

I freeze the vegetables in ice cube trays if there is too much and reheat them by steaming. I tried oven toasting and microwaving, but both lost some of its taste.

When steaming, try and save the juice from the steaming and use it with the rice. I very much prefer using Brown rice cereal that does not require any cooking.

I buy organic if I can, but I don't restrict myself. The best combination I have hit on so far is : Sweet Potato, Water Cress and Cauliflower. I scraped every last bit and ate it myself.

Rice Powders

Initially I used rice powders with the vegetables that I steamed and ground for my baby. This was for several reasons :

• The Rice Powder acts as a base to make the baby feel full.
• The liquid saved from the steaming of the vegetable is mixed back with the food and not wasted.
• I was able to adjust the consistency of the food. Some babies want it slurpy and others want a thicker consistency.
• The rice powders are fortified with vitamins and minerals such as Iron.
• Chinese believe in feeding Si Sen powder which contains 4 herbs to promote appetite and well-being in children.

When there is no need to grind the food anymore, I made normal porridge and added brown rice for good measure. The vegetables and meat were chopped and minced, and then added after.

The following were some of the Rice powders I used :

Bellamy's Organic Baby Porridge

When starting baby first foods, I found the finest Rice powder I could that was organic and fortified. The first few feeds have to be more watery until baby gets used to semi-solid food.

If you have to feed your baby when you are out and on the go or travelling, it is definitely more convenient to bring baby food jars from brands like Gerber baby food, Heinz baby food or organic baby food such as Earth's Best baby food.

You can use the rice powder to thicken the feed as your baby gets older.

When baby is about 5 to 6 month's old, the iron that the baby was born with will become depleted. You should begin giving Iron enriched food.

Healthy Times was a great brand that my kids enjoyed. Try other brands though, every child has a different taste.

They come in several varieties of rice cereals : white rice, brown rice, wheat and barley cereal. Stick to white and brown rice till about 9-10 months to prevent any allergies.

I used the brown rice powder for all my kids.

Nestle Cerelac Rice powders come with Milk, DHA and Pro-biotics added which are great for fussy eaters. They also come in different varieties of rice cereals with chicken or fish added; in white rice, brown rice or wheat too.

I am one of those moms who wants to cover all her bases. This rice powder comes with milk and so tastes very creamy which my son loved. He is a real milk fiend.

I just switched around the different varieties so he wouldn't get tired of eating any of them. The rice cereals come in stages suitable for different ages.

The Kiasu in me always wins. I also mixed the Si Sen Brown Rice powder in as I wanted every meal to be packed to the maximum with nutrients. ;D

This rice powder is extremely fine. My son did not much like it when it was added on its own with the food. So to get around this, with every meal I just added only a level tablespoon to the prepared food. He didn't notice any difference in the taste of the food.

Meats

I know it is counter-intuitive and mothers are very concerned whether baby is getting enough fish, but the meats that cause the most allergies are fish and beef. So I held off feeding my kids any fish and beef until they were almost 1 year old.

I introduced pork (Minced, Fillet and Liver) at about 6 months old, then chicken (Breast meat or Drumstick) at about 8-9 months old.

Food to Avoid

Keep away from : Tomatoes(might cause allergies in kids later on), Eggplant, Kang Kong, White Cabbage, Ladies' finger or anything that is sappy. Remember to wash your Mango before cutting it open as the sap on the skin of the fruit can cause allergies too.

Eggs and peanuts have been commonly known to cause allergies and should only be fed carefully after your baby is 1 year old. The egg yolk should be fed before the egg white to test for any allergic reaction (I know this is also counter-intuitive but apparently the egg white causes more allergies than the egg yolk). Test peanuts after 1 year old in very small quantities as the allergic reaction can be severe.

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