weaning the baby at the mo but is it just me that has a prob with the idea of microwaves?!

[thefoodfighter]

seems an unnatural way of heating?! any comments?!

I had never thought of it being possibly worrying but my partner did and it slowly infected me too. We microwave stuff for us but I have only done it once for my son and hes now 21 months. I bought a babycook which steam heats and defrosts and chops. Its pricey but I have used it every day since I started weaning. My partners concern was that they have only be around for 20 odd years so we don't know the long term affects. No scientif evidence just his gut feeling. A friend who is a very alternative lifestyle person (shes a qualified shiatsu masseur) is really against them but I can't remember all her reasons!)

Gosh its even more pricey than when I got it. They used to do them at lakeland for only £45. One of best things about it was steaming all the fruit and veg. You could just leave it to cook and turn off rather thatn hovering over the stove as invariably then your baby would need you!
babycook

Does "babycook" sound like a slightly sinister product to anyone else?

I do microwave food for the kids, but don't ever microwave in plastic containers, as I'm worried about the plastics leaching into the food. Microwaves aren't really that scary, they just make water molecules move about, warming everything up.

I mean, it sounds like a very good product with a sinister name ...

ha ha I had never thought of that! As its a french product I always said it in a frech accent to myself

its the micro'waves' that sound scary! have never used one for myself but now especially with re-heating baby food it would be so much quicker. just thinking about the rise in cancers these days and as u say jane the long term effects. the babycook looks like an interesting alternative, i will definately check it out, thankyou!

thefoodfighter, i used to worry about microwaves too!! but im afraid as time has gone on i have become a bit more relaxed and more lazy!! every morning i warm his readybrek up in the microwave

he is 2.8mths but if i have another baby i wont be using it until they are 12mths, dont know why 12mths but thats the age i started to get more relaxed with ds, so intend to treat second baby same way

i make no sense to anyone else, but i know what im on about

yes, makes sense! i can imagine giving in and using one later! he's 10mths now so give it a few months...weeks! not allowing myself to buy one now so theres no temptation!

On the other hand.................... I prefer using the microwave because I know that all the food, especially things with meat and egg, are being heated through properly. If I was standing by a stove with a crying hungry baby then I would be tempted to just warm things up a bit, whereas this way I heat them good and proper and then leave to cool which I think is less risky from a bacteria point of view.

I use the microwave with most off dd's food as I freeze batches and then defrost and heat them. The thought thst they werent right to use has never crossed my mind. At least I know that the food is cooked through.

good points. i suppose that the pro to match my con! bacteria getting zapped on the re-heat!

food cooked in a microwave cooks quicker and so leaches out less vitamins

I've always used microwave for re-heating pre-cooked food tbh and for defrosting .. no age limit for babies

I never use ours except for heating wheat bags for my sore neck! Have read scares about them and actually prefer food not cooked in them . But my bf swears by them and uses them for thawing and heating her ds's meals, so I guess you just have to do what suits you.

We bought our microwave to heat up our DDs babyfood jars when she was 3 months old (yes, things were different in 1986!). She is now 19 & seems to have suffered no ill effects.

blimey - never even think about it - only ever think about it being better that it only takes 2 mins to warm up food for a screaming baby than 10 minutes in a pan...! Or 40 seconds for his milk - drives me bonkers when we go round to his grandparents and they haven't got a microwave and we have to heat things up using the oven - means I actually have to think in advance about when to get things ready!!

I'm not remotely worried about microwaves. There was a discussion here ages ago, will see if I can find it.

here it is

another

I'm a food microbiologist and batch cook for DD and then reheat in the microwave. I have never thought of them as being unsafe as said they only use microwaves to push water molecules around a bit to create heat.

sweetkitty...pls excuse me if i'm sounding thick! don't mean to be a dunce, just being an over cautious technophob but what is the physics behind the microwave? surely if water particles are floating about can they not stagnate? i don't understand!

I've ne ver even used one in my life and don't feel I'm missing out.

Seem to recall a friend having one about 15 years ago, the door of which didn't work properly. He would order everyone to drop to the floor and crawl commano style across the kitchen when it was on! Lol!

Our nanny won't use it for ds's food but I do occasionally. Of course, you're not talking about using it for milk are you?

I use it for milk too. I don't see the problem as long as the bottle is thoroughly shaked, which I always do.

Here's the science bit (in the link www posted)

I used for milk. Why not if shake it first???

By JJ on Wednesday, 24 April, 2002 10:58:41 PM

Tinker, nope, no problem. This is much better than, say, cleaning the toys up in the oh so messy reception room.

Re: microwaves cooking the food after it's been taken out of the oven. Foods will continue to cook after being pulled out, but not by microwaves. This has to do with the hot spots and cold spots. Heat will transfer from a hotter object to a cooler object when they are in contact. So the hot spots will cook or begin to heat up the cold spots (this process, incidentally, is known as conduction). The hot spots can get really hot! When I microwave I usually give the food a rest for a minute or so if I can't give it a stir, just to let the heat even out throughout the food.

Re: hot foods. I don't know about very hot food, except the obvious it-can-burn-you type thing. Microwaves can superheat liquids (eg water), so you have to be careful about that. You don't want to get boiling water all over your hand! But the food isn't dangerous after it's cooled down to a reasonable temperature.

Re: yummy charcoaled bits. The carcinogenic charcoaled bits are the best part of any barbecue, I think! Truthfully, I don't know anything about them either. You're much less likely to get them in a microwave as it generally cooks a piece of food all at once. There's no making a nice, seared on the outside, bloody on the inside piece of lamb in a microwave.

Re: cold food. A botany teacher I once had was a big proponent of the whole natural, uncooked diet. He believed that any cooking killed natural somethings in the food. Again, I've no idea! He looked young and energetic for an old guy, although he had an unhealthy obsession with David Attenborough.

At any rate, the last three concerns you mentioned would relate to any form of cooking. The first is a quirk of the process.

I do think microwaving vegetables preserves more vitamins than boiling them senseless. Some vitamins are water soluble and will leech into the water used to cook them. That having been said, I rarely cook veggies in the microwave as I can't pop one out every now and then to see if it's done yet.