Baby Healty Food

Paula Burch's Baby Food Cookbook

By http://www.kinderstart.com

Introducing Foods to Babies

Some foods can make babies sick; some may increase the risk of serious food allergies later in life; and some may even increase the risk of Type I diabetes. Early introduction of solids (before four months of age, or preferably six) may increase the risk of allergies and eczema. It's worthwhile to carefully choose which foods to introduce to a baby, and when.

I have found no scientific explanation for the frequently-made observation that some foods cause very serious allergies, while others do not. However, it seems to be obvious that, while allergies to wheat and diary products are common, they are almost never life-threatening, whereas allergies to nuts, peanuts, and seafood occasionally kill people. There is also another important issue--choking kills many children every year. Therefore, I place foods to avoid into three categories of avoidance....

Dangerously allergenic foods

The most dangerously allergenic foods appear to be peanuts, other nuts, and shellfish (including shrimp). I've also heard of cases in which eggs or seeds (including strawberries and kiwi) cause dangerous allergies. I believe that all parents should do their best to avoid these foods in their infants' diets until at least the age of one year, and preferably a few months beyond then, whether or not anyone in the family has any allergies. It's just not worth the risk.

Current wisdom is that peanuts should be avoided in the diet until the age of three, although I don't think I personally am willing to try beyond the age of two unless I see evidence that this makes a big difference.

Choking Hazards

Hot dogs are dangerous unless sliced lengthwise, which takes no time to do anyway. I've read that grapes should be halved for toddlers and quartered for infants. Both of these plug the airway rather neatly.

Latex balloons are not a food but are particular offenders for children of all ages; babies should never be allowed to touch them--they are decorations, not toys.

Some say that popcorn is too dangerous for young children. Whole nuts and peanuts are particularly bad as choking hazards. Not infrequently, a case diagnosed as chronic asthma is actually a peanut that has been aspirated iunto the lungs.

Foods that are allergenic, but less frequently life-threatening

Those with allergies in the family, food or otherwise, even hay fever, are supposed to be at risk of food allergies in their children. Those who are concerned about allergy prevention try to avoid dairy products and wheat until a child is a year old. Some avoid corn, because it's a common allergen and quite a pain to live with. (Even Bandaids and postage stamps are based on corn, as are most processed foods with any sweetening.) Citrus fruits, tomatoes, and fish are generally recommended against for babies under a year.

Formerly, peas were reported to be allergenic, but as far as I can find out this has turned out not to be the case.

Summary

We avoided wheat, milk, yogurt, cheese, formula, soy, corn, all seafood, eggs, citrus, tomatoes, strawberries, kiwi, all nuts, and peanuts, until our son was a year old. We are continuing to avoid strawberries, nuts, peanuts, shellfish, and eggs for a few more months, and peanuts at least until he is two.

What *do* you feed a baby, then?

Starches. Grains that are generally considered low in allergenicity include rice, buckwheat (botanically unrelated to wheat), and millet. White potatoes are not very allergenic.

Vegetables. Some consider legumes to be more allergenic than other vegetables, and cabbage-family vegetables give some babies gas. That leaves carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash as favorite baby food choices. We found peas and green beans to go over well, and our peditrician told us they are not allergenic.

Fruits. Good: Bananas, peaches, apples (may give some babies gas), pears, nectarines, grapes, cherries. Bad: all berries, including kiwi. Who knows: raspberries and blueberries. (Sure, Gerber makes baby food with raspberries, but they have added all sorts of innappropriate things to their baby foods so many times, so that doesn't tell us whether it's wise.)

A health food store is a great resource. They cater to those with allergies. You can buy frozen waffles that contain no wheat, dairy, or eggs; these make great fnger food for an older baby.

We started mushed foods at six months, relying on breastfeeding exclusively until then. In the US, it's typical to begin with instant Rice cereal, although you can make some good mushed rice yourself if you prefer a tastier product that doesn't have to be mixed with formula or mother's milk to increase its palatability. Some claim that introducing vegetables before fruit prevents the devlopment of a sweet tooth; this is laughable to anyone who's ever tasted formula or human milk, as both are quite sweet. Instead of using rice fortified with inorganic iron, we used whole grain rice, and introduced homemade mushed meat as an iron source at 8 months. Both approaches work

Paula Burch'sBaby Food Cookbook

The Recipes

Basic Recipe

Get a pound or so of food, add water, cook it until soft, then mush it in a food processor or mechanical food mill. Use an ice cube tray to freeze the food; each cube in a normal 1-pint tray is one ounce, an ideal unit size, and a pound of food should make something like one tray's worth. When the food is frozen, pop it out and store it in plastic bags. To serve, just heat a couple of cubes--microwaving is fine if you stir well before testing the temperature.

You don't need to cook bananas, but I think it's probably best to cook firmer fruits at first.

Rice

This is the traditional first food for babies, in the US. Some start it as early as four months, others delay until six months because of evidence that delaying the introduction of solid foods may be healthier.

Why make it yourself, when instant baby rice is easy to buy? The advantage of home-made baby rice is that it tastes fine without adding formula or laboriously pumped breastmilk for the sake of palatability. It's the same principle as that which causes "old fashioned" (five minute) oatmeal to be so much tastier than one-minute oatmeal, which in turn is much tastier than the library paste sold as instant oatmeal. More proccessing means less flavor. This is important to those who have enough trouble already with pumping breastmilk, and don't have an excess to spare. (If you do buy instant baby rice, avoid Heinz, which, at this writing, contains potentially allergenic sunflower oil.)

The best rice for baby foods is short-grain; short-grain brown rice works quite well. If you prefer brown rice to refined rice, home-made is best because instant baby brown rice often smells a bit rancid, and rancid oils are not healthy to eat.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup short grain brown rice
5 to 6 cups water

COOKING

Cook on a very low heat, or, better, in a slow-cooker, for hours, or
until most of the water is absorbed.

PREPARATION

For a young baby, it's best to mush the rice. A food processor works
best for this.

Freeze what you don't need in the next two days,
in ice cube trays, baby food jars, Avent 4-ounce bottles (they are
short and fat enough to work well), or by dropping blobs onto wax
paper and later bagging the frozen blobs.

Vegetables and fruits

For vegetables and fruits, cooking time is much less than for rice or meat. A few minutes in the microwave is often enough. Cook until the food is tender to a fork, and then processor it, first without added water and then with added portions of cooking water until the texture is as desired.

Bananas do not need to be cooked. At first, most other vegetables and fruits do, until the baby can handle a greater variety of texture.

We've mushed sweet potatoes (peel after cooking), white potatoes (do not use the processor, as it makes a gluey mess of white potatoes--use a masher, instead, however you normally mash potatoes), red ripe bell peppers, carrots (organically grown ones taste best, in my experience), broccoli, green beans, and peas. I mushed ripe watermelon with a fork and fed it that way, or in little chunks. Once our baby was into finger food, he got nectarines, peaches, cantaloupe, quartered but unpeeled grapes, etc.

We generally just buy unsweetened all-natural applesauce, packaged for adults.

Meat for babies and toddlers

INGREDIENTS
2 to 3 pounds chicken thighs, or beef potroast, or pork chops
1 cup water

COOKING

Put the meat in a slow cooker on high, bring to a simmer, then adjust temperature setting downwards until you determine the right one for barely simmering. (Obviously, this is less trouble after you've done it once and know the right setting, but you can follow the instructions in the recipe book that comes with your slow cooker to guess the right setting, instead.) Cook either all night or all day. (You can cook it all night and then refrigerate the pot plus meat before leaving the house in the morning, or refrigerate before bedtime and start it cooking just before leaving the house in the morning.)

If you don't have a slow cooker, use two cups of water, and cook the meat on a very low heat for four or five hours, adding water if necessary, until the meat falls apart when poked with a fork.

It is best to cool foods quickly, especially when cooking for babies, which means putting the pot in a sink or dishpan of water to cool.

PREPARATION

After the meat has cooled down, remove any bones or hard gristly bits with your fingers. If chicken is cooked slowly enough, there will be no hard gristly bits--they will dissolve into gelatin, adding a smoother texture which babies appreciate.

For finger food, either shred the meat and serve as is; or prepare mush as below, mix with instant rice cereal, and roll into balls; or spread mush thinly on bread or crackers.

For baby mush, put the meat into a processor and process until finely ground, then add half of the cooking water and process to a mush. Add more of the cooking water as needed for the desired texture. Any leftover broth is good in other cooking, or can be used to mix instant rice cereal.

My husband thought that meat would be bland and tasteless without salt or other seasoning, but the meat prepared this way is delicious just as it is. It makes a nice sandwich spread for any age. For adults or
adventurous kids, try mixing it with a good curry spice mixture for sandwiches.