Homemade with Love: a new little baby food series

Hello there,

On my last post I shared Makena’s first solid food -avocado! Today I would like to share some of the other fruits & veggies we have introduced and in the order we decided to do them in.  It’s been over a month now since we started giving M solids and she is now 7 months and up to 10 different fruits & veggies in addition to oatmeal cereal! As suggested by many books, websites, and our pediatrician we waited some time in between introducing new foods just in case M experienced an allergic reaction. The average wait time between new foods is 3-5 days, so we kept it easy and went with 4 days in the beginning. Now that M is a bit older and has been exposed to several foods we now only wait 2-3 days to introduce something new.

Here’s a chart I created of M’s food over the past month.  I have been having lots of fun mixing & matching foods and creating my own recipes.  Since I’m enjoying making M’s food so much I have decided to create a little series called, “Homemade with Love” where I will share with you simple tasty baby food recipes and also give you tips on how to store baby food and all of the wonderful benefits of making your baby’s food. 

Weeks	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
1	Avocado				Acorn squash
2		Banana			Rice cereal
3		Pears		Pears w/oatmeal cereal		Apples
4		Butternut squash			Plums
5	Sweet potatoes			Peas			Nectarines

I hope you find this helpful and please feel to share your tips & recipes!

Abrazos,

Nat

M's 1st solid food

Makena turned 6 months old a few weeks ago and we have started her on some solid foods.  She is still primarily breastfed, but we have started giving her solids once or sometimes twice/day. Making Makena’s baby food is something I’ve been looking forward to for quite some time. However, once the time came I got a little overwhelmed. What can she have? What should I feed her first? Will that make her constipated? Prior to starting her on solids, I read through a couple of books So Easy Baby Food and The Baby & Toddler Cookbook, and realized I already knew most of the information. I guess it just seemed overwhelming at first because it was new.

We decided to give Makena avocado as her very first solid food. We simply mashed it up and mixed it with a little bit of breast milk to thin it out and she really enjoyed it! It took her a while to get the hang of eating other foods such as acorn squash, bananas, and apples but she’s getting the hang of it and becoming quite the little eater. As I mentioned before, we started off by offering her food once a day or when we would think of it and now give it to her consistently twice a day for lunch and dinner.

Why Avocado first?

Well, through lots of reading and research I found out that avocado is a great first food for baby for many reasons: 1) its smooth texture & creaminess 2) its full of “good” fats and has a high nutrient content 3) barely any preparation at all –simply mash and serve! :)

Avocado is full of awesomeness like:

ü  Unsaturated fats- known for normal growth & development of the brain and of the central nervous system

ü  Lutein-eye health

ü  Postassium-30% more than bananas and reduces blood pressure

ü  Fiber

ü  Vitamins A, E, K, & B

ü  Folate-folic acid & a healthy heart

ü  Iron

As you can see, Avocado is a great choice for a little one’s first solid food! For more information about the great benefits of avocado checkout Avocado Central. So far we have tried avocado and avocado mixed with acorn squash, butternut squash, and even pears! I look forward to sharing more information, recipes, and tips on solid foods. Please feel free to share your recipes and any tips you may have!

Thanks for stopping by!

Abrazos,

Nat