8 mo weaning: some idiot questions

[macneil]

1. When defrosting do I microwave until piping hot and leave to cool? My mum seemed to think defrosting a frozen cooked chicken dish was the best thing to do but I think she is talking smack!

2. Is a stock cube labelled LOW salt (not no salt) but with no salt listed on the ingredients usable? The Marigold low salt had salt in the ingredients, but this one doesn't. It takes me like a day to make the Annabel Karmel stock and I could just get going if I used a cube. I know it's easy to make stock, but...

3. She is going nuts for the finger foods bread, apple, bananas. I've basically been steering away from gluten, but is bread okay at 8 months? We started weaning at 6 months.

4. Is all this a bit precious? Can she actually eat KFC by now?

1. Like you would if you were cooking it for yourself, ie thaw in fridge or at room temp, zap till piping hot, leave till edible.

2. Use it anyway, her portions are so small that low salt stock should be fine. And bin AK while you're at it, she will rule your whole life if you let her.

3. Gluten is fine from 6mo unless you have allergies etc in the family.

4. A teeny bit . Apart from salty things, choky things like whole grapes, honey and whole nuts she can basically eat whatever you're having...

1. If you have cooled the food quickly you could just defrost it and heat it a litlle. If you want to be on the safe side, heat it to scalding then let it cool.

2. Don't bother with stock. Use water from the kettle or from boiled/steamed veg. If you want to add flavour, use herbs.

3. If there is no reason to worry about it (eg family history) then bread should be ok.

4. No. No.

Heh heh, thanks! Those are almost exactly the same answers, so must be right. Annabel Karmel already rules my life! But I've been staying with my mum so that I could get some work done, and she's been giving the baby her own 'invented' baby recipes and the baby isn't having any of it. Then I gave her an AK one today and she went wild and sucked it down like crazy. I think there's something in those recipes that, in the exact combinations, actually makes baby drugs. I think it works even better if you use an official Annabel Karmel pot rather than an ordinary Tommee Tippee pot to serve it from. But, I very much like the idea that she can eat what I eat now.