Baby food !

[GoNz0]

well we have jar upon jar lined up for Lucy as its weaning time !

Kirsties started going to the local parenting group once a week and they have been talking about making your own baby food.

well i thought why the hell not and set to it this afternoon.

2 new spuds, 2 carrots and a bit of rice, started them boiling for 10 mins, then i threw in a handful of frozen suede, a few frozen peas, a couple of pieces of frozen broccoli and cauli. 10 mins later removed from the heat, there was no water left by this time so i added a bit of fresh boiled and set to it with the hand blender until it looked like baby food !

a taste test and personally i would have thrown in half a bucket of salt but it tasted like the best baby food i have tasted to date.

i spooned some in to half fill a baby food jar (she eats half a jar) and put the rest in the ice cube tray and into the freezer.

come dinner time Kirstie came in to warm it up and off she went, about 3 minutes later im called in to inspect Lucy's bib, expecting the worst i find one clean bib and a very happy baby

win win !

it must work out about 5p a portion compared to about 30p for half a jar !

tomorrow we are eating chicken so some of thats going into the pot with some more veggies so i start to build up a nice little menu for her

[angeleyes]

Home cooked food does seem to go down better than the jar's in our house and always did right from the word go.

She demolished 4 yorkshire puddings last night along with half a big bowl of roast dinner.

[Moby-Dick]

as above the yorkshires worked out really well

[Phage]

We never did jars. We used to take pretty much what we were eating and push it through a Mouli grater. They loved it and we saved a heap of cash. They are also much more likely to eat new foods and be less picky when they get bigger. I put this down to introducing all those new flavours at a young age.
Also, have you smelled that jar stuff ? I wouldn't care to eat it either...

[Tumble]

Small one generally eats what we do - it's a lot easier now as well, becasue we don't have to chop stuff up so finely or mush it down so much any more. I haven't cooked anything with salt in it for about 10 months... and feeling better for it too.

[menthel]

No jars for us either. We basically either make the boy non chilli/salty versions of what we are having or cook up whatever is knocking around. We then stick it into fairly big ice cube trays and break it out as necessary. Faves have been chicken stew, salmon and spinach in white sauce and as pud he loves stewed fruits, especially any mix with plum. He also had frozen summer fruits in yoghurt but he turned everything purple and the mess was amazing.

We are also rule breakers- he started weaning at 4 months and has quickly found himself having all sorts of stuff that would make the health visitors backflip. Thats what you get when 2 doctors try to find the scientific evidence behind what health visitors say!

[GoNz0]

lucy is on solids before she should be, she started at 4 months, technically thats 2 months corrected age with her being 2 months early

[menthel]

lucy is on solids before she should be, she started at 4 months, technically thats 2 months corrected age with her being 2 months early

Its not before they should be, babies tend to tell you (not literally!) when they are hungry and milk just isn't doing it. One friends son did this by grabbing a sausage of his dads plate and munching it!

[0iD]

Ice cube trays for the win here with weaning.

Once you've cooked all your individual veg (salt free) and liquidized it, put it in ice cube trays & freeze it. When frozen transfer to freezer bags & label clearly. This way you can build up a goodly stash of ingredients all ready to go.

All you have to do then is crack some cubes into a bowl & defrost for mix & match meals. Big faves when my kids were little were Avocado & Banana, and sweet potato and leek.

[GoNz0]

tonight was chicken boiled with pasta and sweetcorn then passed through a sieve., happy child !

[Lee H]

Any of you got a B&M Bargains store nearby?

They are doing 10 small plastic square pots with lids for 1 pound and they are ideal for storing the food you blend down in the freezer and also microwave safe.

As you can probably tell, we've been doing this since Hayden was weaned onto real food and now we hardly have to blend the food, more make it into bite-sized manageable chunks for her to handle and eat/throw around.

[Phage]

manageable chunks for her to handle and eat/throw around.

This ^^
I do miss those years. Take lots of pictures !

[angeleyes]

We use jars and i've got to say that we've had no problems with Lou eating anything (including paper!) She's getting more tastes of foods than she would if she was just eating what we were. I don't like lentils and i'm not overly keen on fish, but she will quite happily eat that out of a jar any time. Some of the food in there isn't too bad. We shared a gnocci, corgette and leek jar the other day.

We also weened her early (started with baby rice around 3 and a half months) as she was demolishing 9oz bottles, which according to the health visitor was bad for her, but somehow we were supposed to not ween her for another 2 and a half months and reduce her milk intake!

[GoNz0]

health visitors are full off baby nappy content as they have to follow guidelines.

[Lee H]

We use jars and i've got to say that we've had no problems with Lou eating anything (including paper!)

Sounds like my Little devil at home.

We took her to her friends party this Sunday and they played pass the parcel. Hayden spent most her time chomping on the newspaper that was wrapped around the parcel and decided to crawl to others who had won to take their paper away.

We weaned Hayden fairly early and our Health Vistor said it was fine. I think she's older and wiser than most and when we weaned Hayden she was saying it was fine as some children advanced more than others and as such some children can be weaned earlier whereas some start weaning later it all depends on the child really.

[angeleyes]

That sounds like our one! Loved Christmas, not for the pressies, but for the amount of paper it generated. I figure it's going to work it's way out so not doing her any harm. I was fighting a losing battle trying to make her not eat it!

I always take what the Health Visitors have to say, apply some common sense to it and then make up my own mind. I think this not weaning them until they are 6 months old makes sense if you are planning to wean them on to a diet of MacDonalds and Dominos, but if they are going on to a healthy balanced diet and they are shouting for more food then there isn't really an issue. I applied the same logic when i was pregnant to what you should and shouldn't eat. Certain things were a big no-no, others i had in moderation. It doesn't seem to have harmed the baby, except for her addiction to eating paper!