I found giving our babies their first taste of solid food to be an exciting and daunting milestone in their first year of life. I’m sure most mums and dads feel this way.
Starting solids definitely requires you to be more organised. So having the right equipment and recipes really helps. Up until this point I had exclusively breastfed both our children on demand, following their cues as to when they were hungry. I found this pretty instinctive and because I am lucky enough to be able to breastfeed, feeding was uncomplicated and could happen anywhere, anytime! Here are a couple of tricks that helped make starting solids a much simpler and less time consuming process:
- Make purees in bulk and freeze straight away. I am a bit bias, but the Munch Baby Trays and the Food Pouches are awesome for freezing baby food. (Don’t forget to label them!)
- Cook extra vegetables and meat for your evening meal and turn them into baby food.
- Make sure you have a good feeding spoon. Again (not bias) but I love the Bamboo Baby Spoons by Munch and the one that comes with the Munch Eco Hero Dinnerset. Both are great sizes, soft, smooth and easily cleaned.
- Use our natural and soft Baby organic facecloths to wipe your little ones face after a messy meal.
- Leave out the salt when you are cooking slow-cooked meals so you can make this into baby food. If you are worried that the flavours will be too strong you can always ‘water’ it down with a root vegetable puree.
- I love going 'out and about' with my babies and I find the Munch Baby Feeder and Food Pouch fantastic for taking food to the park or to friends places.
- If you have other children puree up their meals and feed them to your baby.
- Have a stash of baby food in the pantry for those days when you’re not quite so organised!
Each baby is so different and they are likely to have their ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’. Just like adults. As a baby my little one LOVED mashed banana and wouldn’t eat avocado where as my other one absolutely LOVED pea puree, she is a complete eating machine and I’m yet to find something she won’t eat!
- Butternut Squash
- Pumpkin
- Carrot
- Kumara (sweet potato)
- Courgette
- Avocado
- Banana (ripe and squashy)
- Pea
- Apple
- Pear
- Potato
- Chicken & Lentils (after about 2 weeks)
If you are confused about which foods your baby can eat check out the list in the Munch Baby Cookbook or the watties printables as they have a helpful guide to baby feeding. Once you have introduced a few foods you can start to mix foods to create some tasty purees for your baby. Here are 3 purees both my children have enjoyed.
ROOT VEGETABLE COMBO
Root vegetables are a great way to start you baby on solids as they are easy to puree and sweet tasting. The first food my little one ate was Butternut Squash. I used this puree as a base when I introduced stronger flavoured solids and also added meat to it later on.
1/3 Butternut Squash
1 Orange Kumera
1 Carrot
Wash, peel and cube all the vegetables. Place in a saucepan and cover with water.
Boil on a medium heat for 10-15 minutes until soft.
Remove from the heat and place the vegetables into a container for blending. Do not drain the water away!
Blend add the cooking water bit by bit to achieve the consistency desired.
BUTTERNUT SQUASH, CHICKEN & APPLE PUREE
1/3 Butternut Squash
80 – 100g chicken breast
1/2 apple
Peel the butternut squash and apple. Place in a saucepan and cover with water.
Boil on a medium heat for 10-15 minutes until soft.
Meanwhile poach the chicken breast in water until cooked through. Place into boiling water, bring to the boil and then take off the heat. Check about 10 minutes later or if you are not in a hurry just leave in the water to cool. You’ll know they are cooked because they are firm to touch. I find chicken purees best after poaching.
Combine all the ingredients into a container for blending. Do not drain the water away!
Blend and add the vegetable water bit by bit to achieve the consistency desired.
Cover and cool then freeze into portions immediately.
We have a lot more great healthy and nutritious Baby Food in our Munch Baby Cookbook and our Munch Baby Puree Ebook.
Enjoy the journey!
xx