Food for Weening?

[pebbles2004pebbles]

Hi Guys

Sorry this may have already been covered before, but im spending a fortune on cans and jars of food for my 5mo dd and she just doesnt manage to eat it all and it goes to waste. im not a great whizz in the kitchen but wondered about some home made stuff i could freeze - but i dont know where to start or what to do!

Please help!

Annabel Karmel. Fantastic. Weaning the DTs with it and they have loved everything and she even tells you how to adapt it for adults and older kids. Yum! Will go and find the title for you.

Feeding your baby and toddler. The complete cookbook.

Brilliant. About £14 now. hth

Annabel Karmel is good

but in terms of jars .. I open a jar, feed half (or however much) at room temp, then put in the fridge .. next meal just warm it up so you don't have to waste as much

veg purees very easy to make

peel and chop vegetables (like carrot or butternut squash or anything) just cover with water and bring to boil then simmer for around 20 mins until soft .. get a braun hand held mouli thing and mouli it to a puree .. then freeze in ice cube trays

when you serve it you can serve it plain / mixed or add a little milk and baby rice

same goes for fruit .. like apple / pears

bananas and avocados you can just mush up with a fork

potatoes mash them with a little of the cooking water (no salt)

actual recipes are in the karmel book but HTH

also in a month or so you could probably just puree up whatever you are having as long as you cook without salt .. like shepherds pie or chicken casserole etc

I used annabel karmel last time and am using it now. its a really good guide. its the white one (she has several) and well worth the money. she tells you the principles of it, and lots of recipes. it goes right through to pre-school so lasts a long time. but as a guide, i did about 2 days of baby rice at lunch only, then tried apple, then he seemed really hungry so i am not doing apple for lunch, carrot for tea. between 4 - 6 months you can use, apple, pear, banana, papaya, carrot, butternut squash, sweet potato, french beans, broccoli, cauliflower. all pureed. everything freezes but the banana. I make them in my food processor and freeze them in ice cube trays. as a guide its 1 - 2 cubes per meal although my first son so hungry he'd happily do 3. after a couple of try's of something new when you are happy there's no reaction you can combine food like pear and apple. that always goes down well. annabel karmel has some great combinations like butternut squash and pear which both of mine loved. hope that helps x

I second the Annabel Karmel suggestion pebbles. Definitely buy a blender - one of those cheap hand-helds does the job fine.

Just a few suggestions for now to get you going -at 5 months I would still concentrate on single and two ingredient purees - carrot, pear, apple, potates, avocado, banana, mango. For the stuff that needs cooking just boil or steam until soft then whizz with the blender. Freeze any suprlus in ice cube trays. To serve add a bit of cooled boiled water or breast milk or formula to get a runnyish consistency. In about a month think about introducing protein - white fish or chicken is ideal - again steam or bake until soft, blend and add to a vegetable / starch combo. Add a bit of cheese for interest if desired.

HTH - you'll soon get into the swing and it's so much cheaper. Deffo keep a couple of jars on hand for when you really can't be bothered though!

Another vote for Annabel Karmel, fab and really tasty. A spoon for baby one for mummy . One of ds fave purees was butternut squash and pear, couldn't bring myself to try that one though. The courgette and pea soupa is yum, my 1st bolognase ooohhh I could go on and on.

thanks for the tips guys.... ill give it a go!

Another question - how long before you get them on 3 meals, and what kind of gap between meals and bottles etc? DD2 is on 2 meals, has been for 3 weeks, and 4 bottles.

I'm not really into cooking and I found Sara Lewis's book (now out of print but she does others) much better than Annabelle Karmel's. Same advice, but I found Sara Lewis's recipies much easier to do as everything just went into a saucepan and then got blended.

I'm just doing a fish pie - frozen cod block, peas, sweetcorn, frozen spinach blocks, spud all in a saucepan with some milk (used to use formula). Simmer it for 15-20 mins, add some grated cheese then blend it.

I used jars and 'heinz simply' until dd was about 6 months old then started freezing what we were having. The plastic containers the 'heinz simply fruit' come in are great for serving food. I used to pour a bit of boiled water in it and on a spoon before putting part of the jar into it and heat and serve. Whatever is left of the original jar can go in the fridge and be used for the next meal.
At 6 months dd was having breakfast, lunch, high tea and dinner and 4 milk feeds a day.

This is where i keep getting conflicting advice.... DD has reflux problem so GP advised to give as much in the way of solids as possible during the day. Took DD to weighing clinic today and HV says only to give breakfast and lunch at a push but to ensure she is still having at least 5 7/8oz bottles a day - is there a lot of point if she keeps throwing the milk back up? Do I ignore HV and go with GP or other way round? DD loves solids, and can scoff half a jar and a baby yoghurt in one go.... just want to get her off jars as i feel more expensive in the long run!

pebbles2004pebbles,

We found that solids didn't in themselves sort out dd's reflux problem, especially since it coincided with her becoming more mobile. However there is no way she has ever had 7-8 oz of either ebm, formula or now cow's milk without throwing it back. Could you cut down on the amount and up the frequency instead or ensure that one bottle's worth of the HV allowance is mixed into her solid meals. Also using a thickener such as Thick and easy in her milk or a thick formula may help too.

I used to add baby rice to dd's purees to thicken them up a bit. Most of her purees were leftovers where I just cooked extra of our veg and blended them - either for the following day or to be frozen. Sometimes I'd follow Annabel Karmel recipes which I had done more so for ds.

Thanks LIZS... the only problem i have with dd is that by giving little feeds often, she screams at me for still being hungry! We have tried Gaviscon and Carabel both prescribed by GP and neither has worked! Im just sticking to the fact I have a very pukey baby and no-one I take her to see cares!!!