Gravy and stock cubes???????????????????????????????????????/

[choccybickie]

Can babies who are just beginning to wean have gravy or stock?

not unless you make it yourself and dont add any salt. Stock cubes are very salty especially for a baby you are just starting on solids. I'd stick to fruits, veggies, baby rice, etc - there is plenty of time to introduce foods requiring stock, gravy, etc. Its not really necessary at the start

I use either Marigold low salt veg stock powder, or Kallo no salt cubes. DH and I then add salt to our own food if needed. Now that DS is 13 months I'm starting to ease up a bit on salt, but definitely avoid it below a year.

use the water you boil your veg in for stock. It has all the goodness in from the veg.

You could also make a little sauce of some decription with the juices from meat and flour.

I used either the marigold stuff or made my own without salt (easy if you have a slow cooker and a freezer).

Normal gravy/stock is too high in salt.

Making stock is really easy and you don't have to actually do anything to it once you've chucked everything in a pan. Put some chicken wings or drumsticks in a pan with a carrot, a leek, a peeled onion and a bay leaf and just bring it to the boil and simmer with a lid on for a couple of hours. You have to be in the house but you don't have to actually do anything to it. I then freeze it in cubes to use later. You can also add garlic or other herbs/spices if you want to. And the meat from the chicken wings is very soft and good for first tastes of meat if shredded v finely and pureed.

If you want to make gravy, fry some onions in unsalted butter or olive oil until a bit brown and soft and use the stock to simmer the onions until they're really really soft. Then puree the lot and thicken with cornflour or normal flour.