Weaning- Homemade or bottled? Organic or not?

Baby food: Home made or bottled?

If u ask me, I am fine with whichever option. As long as baby gets fed and gets nutrition, i'm fine.. I'm all for balance... If i can afford the time to make the food myself, that would be best but if i am too busy to make puree for baby or no time to defroze the cube? bottled food is fine by me.

There are lots of options avaliable for bottled food. Gerbers or Heinz? Organic or non organic?

I go for... value!! hahaha... i choose the bottle food based on the following:

1: type of flavours avaliable.. (like there is only one brand avaliable for bottled prune puree.. etc)

2: price and value (i go for size of bottle and price.. i will go for the cheap one. hee..)

3: avaliability (some brands are not avaliable everywhere. I just get what is avaliable.)

BabyS has mainly had home cooked meals. but occasionally I'll have to resort to bottled food. Especially when overseas. I dont want to lug a slow cooker, rice, ingredients, etc etc for my holiday..

one of the weird concoctions BabyS had on her 1st overseas trip. Plain porridge from hotel's breakfast buffet, frisocrem (cos i think plain porridge tastes BLAH), Heinz parsnip/ carrot/ sweet potato puree and.. macdonalds french fries for some saltiness (she didnt mind this, she loved fries)!!! hahahahh... but amazing BabyS just ate it with no fuss... Thank GOd for a non fussy baby!

I usually keep the opened bottle for no more than 48 hrs. So once the bottle is opened, baby S will have to have this for 3 meals.. Any unconsumed portion will be discarded.

I ever asked those companies (Heinz and Gerbers) if i could take the puree out and put them into the ice cube trays to freeze so as to minimize wastage. Their reply was either "The glasses are not suitable for freezing" (Although i already mentioned i'll use ice cube trays) or no reply.. And so i didnt attempt, cos taking them out of the jar, into another container to freeze, might just cause more contamination.. So i rather waste the food than risk BabyS having a tummy upset.

Then friends ask me, organic or not organic?

I have not done any indepth research nor have i seen any piece of news that says babies MUST HAVE organic  foods or how 'poisonous' non organic foods can be.. i dont usually buy organic foods for myself also. And honestly, organic food can be expensives at times. SO i dont buy organic fresh food for BabyS. I've only bought a organic pumpkin before cos it was the only kind of pumpkin avaliable and it wasnt expensive..

I dont really insist on bottled organic food also.. As per my criteria for choosing bottled food, i dont really bother if the word "Organic" is on the bottle or not..i just buy..



Weaning.. Moving along from purees to porridge

I kept BabyS on her cereal and puree diet for about 2 months b4 I decided to move her onto porridge and meats (So she could get her iron intake from meats)

I had alot of questions as to how to make porridge for babies..

 "cook rice grains as per normal, stirring occasionally to get smoother consistency?"

"soak the night b4 and then cook as normal, and stir occasionally to get smoother consistency?"

"grind the rice grains into smaller pieces then cook?"

"mash the porridge after its cooked?"

In the end we decided to make it more water and after that mash it with those mashers meant for mashing potatoes and it worked pretty well. Less time consuming than soaking the night b4, stirring constantly etc..

We used a slow cooker to cook the porridge. THe amount of water you add to the pot also depends on the size of your cooker too.

We bought a small slow cooker from Cornell with a High, Low and Auto function. This cooker was a good investment. If you are like me and dont have an extra pair of hands to take care of the baby while you stay at the stove to watch over the porridge, invest in a slow cooker.

Amt of rice and length of cooking time:
One chinese soup spoon of rice will give you one rice bowl of porridge.

I cannot remember the size of my cooker, but it was the smallest one. And my mum and I would usually add in water till its 1 inch about the rice.

For my slow cooker, to achieve mushy enough porridge, it will either take 3 hours on low or 1.5hours on high (although 1hr is sometimes more than enough)

More on how to cook porridge in the next post!

The basics of weaning (Part 4)- How long

BabyS started on solids at 5.5 months old and I continued giving her cereal and puree for two months.. Here's what she has had and what she likes/ hates. (not in order of consumption)

Made by mummy:
Apple- likes (of course, she got me on a apple frenzy when i was pregnant with her cos my constant food craving was for Fuji apples. )
Pear- ok..
carrots- likes
pumpkin- likes
sweet potato (local and japanese)- likes
brocoli- ok (but it stinks man.. oh the smell when i pureed it.. but we gave it to her with other purees so mask the smell)
Australian blue pumpkin (no special reason y i bought this.. i just bought it cos only this was available- it doesnt taste as nice as local ones..next time will buy local one.)- ok
cauliflower- Dunno, never tried cauliflowe puree cos mummy cannot accept the smell so never given to her.
 Plums (sweet b4 steaming but dunno why it became sour after steaming. She didnt quite like it. i guess it was too sour)
Tofu- like.. with sweet cereal it tasted like tau huay.. (give plain silken tofu and not egg tofu, unless your child has taken egg already and is ok with it)

Bottled stuff (Step 1)

Squash (gerbers)- likes
apricot (gerbers)- likes
peach (gerbers)- ok.. maybe a bit too sour for her
Prunes (gerbers)- LOVES!!!!! (but causes her to poo poo alot also haha)
Parsnip/ carrot/ sweet potato
broccoli (i think they do a better job pureeing than me)

Cereal:
Frisocrem- likes..
Brown rice powder- likes! (makes her frisocrem smell nice too!)

I bought healthy times brown rice but didnt give to her in the end..

Snacks
Baby bites biscuit (original)- LOVES! She tried her first biscuit on (22/3/2010) and she finished it in 5 mins! previously tried a heinz teething rusk, about 2 weeks back but she didnt seem to know what to do with the melted biscuit pieces... this baby bites one, she ate it without any fuss.... DaddyS put her in the high chair and put her in the kitchen where i was doing puree... she bit off one piece at first.. when daddy and mummy were worrying if she'll get choked, our dear friend was there happily sucking on the piece of biscuit in her mouth like how u would suck on a sweet...

The basics of weaning (Part 3)- What to steam, how to steam..

I started BabyS off with sweet potatoes, then carrots and other root vegetables b4 moving onto vegetable..

Sweet potatoes, carrots, potatoes & Pumpkins: these were easy to prep and steam.. Just steam till soft, mash and serve.

Note about carrots and pumpkins and all other orange coloured veges: they may be good cos there is beta carotene but dont feed it too often. Some of my SMH forum friends fed their babies pumpkin or carrot so much that their babies skin started turning yellow! I gave it about only about max 3 times in a week..

Sweet potatoes: I find japanese sweet potatoes sweeter and easier to puree than local potatoes.. Purple sweet potatoes are harder to find, so I only worked with that once b4. Same texture as japanese sweet potato, but warning.. purple potatoes makes babies produce weird coloured poo.. dont be alarmed. (my friend's son had turquoise poo)

Pumpkin: I prefer to buy local pumpkin. I once bought a blue pumpkin from australia at NTUC.. doesnt taste as sweet. (Or maybe i didnt choose a good one)...

 
Butternut pumpkin/ butternut squash has never failed me in terms of sweetness and texture: always sweet, always soft..


BabyS first cereal meal with side dish: Frisocrem and sweet potato (the sweet potato looks like kaya right..)

Vegetables: I remember pureeing broccoli and cauliflower only.. Both are very strong smelling veges. I searched the internet and found a tip for steaming these veges. To lessen the smell of these veges after steaming, put a slice of bread, then put the veges on top b4 you steam it. I tried it and it really works for broccoli! It didnt really work for cauliflower though.. oh boy i can still remember the smell of the pureed cauliflower..not very pleasant..

Fruits: I remember giving apple puree (very yummy), pear, banana and papaya. For babies below 8 months, its safer to steam these fruits first, so as to get rid of any germs of organisms that their little tummies may not be able to take.

Some diet therapy tips i learn along the way: If baby has loose stools/ diarrhoea, give apple. (Part of the brat diet for diarrhoea. Bread, Rice, Apples, Toast)

If baby is constipated, give pear.

some mummies puree meats to serve along with cereal but i just find that weird. Sweet rice with meats? neh.. When BabyS was on cereal, it was a vegetarian meal for her. Protein came in the form of steamed tofu (but also given in moderation)

I frequently bring BabyS out. What I did was, I'll steam the puree to defrost it and heat it up and transfer into a leak proof container b4 leaving the house. When its time to eat, i'll usually just add in some hot water into the puree itself and mix b4 serving to her. BabyS had no tummy troubles with my method.. But of course, it will not be longer than 4 hours from steaming to serving.. and say your grace b4 eating.. hahah..

The basics of weaning (Part 2)- lets start mashing!

Now that your baby is used to this idea of eating and is ok with rice cereal (or whatever other cereal u have introduced) lets introduce some variety!

I had lots of fun making puree for BabyS.. I love to cook, and cooking is destressing for me. With a baby on hand, i didnt have time to cook normal big meals, but pureeing was good enuf to destress me..

Some basic equipments you'll need are:

a sieve

This is good for straining the puree to make sure u've gotten rid of all the big lumps or any fibres that might be hard for junior to chew.. Good to invest in one cos even though BabyS is way past this puree stage now, i still use this when preparing her pasta (i dont like to mix her utensils with utensils meant for adults..)

Ice Cube Trays (with cover)

I got my ice cube trays with cover from Daiso. Anabel Karmel's book recommends one ounce of puree per meal, thats equivalent to one ice cube. So after I puree it, i just pack it into the ice cube trays and pop out one cube whenever i need to. And a tray with a cover is better cos u'll be ablet o protect it from contamination from other stuff in the freezer. Be sure to put a lable on the cover, to help you identify what puree is what.. I prefer to put a piece of plastic cling wrap over the puree b4 i put the cover on..

And cos it was all in one tray, it was easy for me to bring the purees to my mum's place for her to feed BabyS when she was with grandma..


Some mummies also buy this. Individual food cubes. I didnt get this plainly becos it was more expensive and Daiso doesnt have such a thing.

Both have their pros and cons. Ice cube tray is more convenient in a way i dont have to close every single lid (i'm lazy ok..haha) and easy to store in the freezer. But if I want to bring the puree out, the food cubes are more convenient, becos if i used my ice cube tray i'll need to decan the ice cube to another container..

Whichever method u use, jsut make sure its well covered and keep pureed food in the freezer for no more than a month. (but i never got to keep puree for that long.. i dont have that much time to prepare puree for one month at once. usually the puree is abotu 2 weeks worth of food)

I also got a new sauce pan, bowls, and cutting board just to prepare BabyS's food..

To steam the foods, u can either do it in a pan/ pot over the fire or do it my lazy way, in the rice cooker. Just get a metal steamer and put the foods on top or into a bowl and on top of the steamer, put more water into the rice cooker and cook away! dont wait for the 'cook' button to turn on.. ur food would have turned to mush by then.. Occasionally check if the food is steamed to your desired softness.

The rice cooker method works when you want to steam stuff in bulk.

At the start, I thought pureeing and mashing was simple. Just steam till soft and mash. Whats so hard right.. until i mashed sweet potato..


Oh man.. this portion here is equivalent to 2 medium sized sweet potatoes.. it took me 45 mins to mash it ok!! Its easy to mash but i wanted it to be smooth and lump free. I took the pieces of steamed sweet potato and individually pushed each cube thru the sieve.. not a easy job!!! Mashing it with a fork then passing thru the sieve later on didnt make things much easier also.. After this ordeal i decided to get a piece of equipment that I have not regretted getting..

Electric Blender!!! I bought this Phillips HR 1361 blender from Courts at $49..

It made blending stuff (even sweet potatoes) such a ease! And it only took a min or two to blend it all into fine mush.. something that took me 45 mins previously!

The basics of weaning- Introducing solids (Part 1)

Its recommended that you may start weaning babies to solids at 6 months or if you notice signs that they are ready, such as those listed here..

For me, I started BabyS on solids when she was 5.5months old. Her neck was steady by 3-4 months plus, she was really interested in what we ate also..

I read up on the internet and got some additional info from my girl's PD b4 i started.. I also went to borrow some books from the library..

Annabel Karmel's books are good in some ways, but alot of the ingredients or recipes that she has are very 'ang moh'/ western.. but still its good cos it gives u a idea of what u need to do, how to prep the food for pureeing and some good tips..

PDs have some pamphlets that are very useful... Polyclinics do have some too but i find those are quite outdated.. but better than nothing right..

The advice I got from the PD was to start baby on rice cereal first. Start with white rice cereal and not brown rice cereal if you want to be careful. Cos he has seen some kids who have an allergy to the rice husk. So if you start them on brown rice first, you wouldnt know if they have any allergy to the husk or the rice, etc..

Then move on, starting from certain fruits then to veges then to meats. (I have a chart, I'll add in whats there when I can get the chart)

I started BabyS off on Frisocrem Rice based milk cereal..
 
Why Frisocrem?

Cos alot of reviews said this was not as sweet as nestle. And i have personally done a test taste of both. THe frisocrem didnt taste as sweet to me..

But pls note, frisocrem is a milk based cereal. So do not add in milk when reconstituting the cereal becos there already is milk. Other cereals like Nestle, Healthy Times, etc, will require you to add in formula milk/ breastmilk or water..

If your child is lactose intolerance or requires certain kind of milk only, then you may want to consult your doctor on which type of cereal to consume. I have friends who make their own rice cereal becos of allergies..

BabyS was fine with this becos she was taking Friso..

Use a clean container/ bowl and a clean spoon. Follow the instructions on how to make it carefully..  This is not the time to start experimenting..

Frisocrem doesnt include a scoop so I just used the scoop that came with the Friso milk step 1 (blue scoop).

For the first few times i gave two scoops of cereal and mix with boiled water till the correct consistency. The consistency should be like melted ice cream, just slightly thicker.. Books suggest giving it after a milk feed (dont let baby finish all the milk). I dont get that concept. I am already 3/4 full. Would I wanna eat cereal? So i gave cereal first, then top up with milk. I just made her normal amount of milk. She can finish it if she wants,if she didnt, fine also, since she already consume cereal.

I gave it for 5 rows in a row (books and drs suggest 3 days but i am kiasu). When she didnt show any signs of rejection, I started to add in puree.. more of puree in the next post!