pudding recipes for baby

[iamamummy]

my ds is 5 months and has a farleys rusk for beakfast and a bit of veg in the evening at about 5ish. i have been making all of his food ie brocolli, parsnip, sweet potato, carrot but what can i do as something sweeter for him?

at the moment i just bulk steam every couple of weeks, blend and split into ice cube trays and defrost as required. is this the same for fruit? can it be steamed? can i freeze banana? im just a bit lost on this one.

thanks

I puree loads of different fruit and freeze it in ice cubes.
Not sure about banana, but don't do pineapple or kiwi as i tried these and they were really nasty when they defrosted.
but peaches, nectarines, raspberries, mango, papaya, apricots, pears, and apples are all good to freeze (i'm sure there are others but i can't think)

up until 6 months i either gave fruit puree on its own for pudding or mixed it with baby rice for a fruity rice pudding.
once he was 6months i started to add the fruit puree to plain yogurt sometimes greek yogurt (my DS loves it and this is so nice that i make up enough for me to eat it too) or fromage frais.
I take out a couple of cubes of frozen fruit in the morning and add the yogurt (etc) to it in one of those little tommie tippie snack pots. then he has half after lunch and half after tea.

very easy, no cooking and he is 17months old and hasn't got bored yet because he has different flavours everyday

Oh sorry, forgot too say,

I don't know about steaming but
apples and pears are cooked then blended

nectarines, peaches, apricots etc are given a cross with a knife on the top then put in a saucepan of water, brought to the boil and then cooled, peeled and then blended.

raspberries, mange, papaya etc are just peeled (if necessary) then blended, no need to cook.

I'm sure you know that weaning isn't recommended until 26 weeks and have made your own decision about it, but as someone with coeliac disease I have to say that gluten should definately not be given before six months (it is on the list in the weaning booklet that would have been given to you by your HV).....ie if you do wean early, it should only be rice or potato based....no cereals such as oats/barley/ or the wheat that is in Farley's rusks.

Regards puddings, you can mash the banana down to a pulp with
a fork and add a little milk or yogurt to get the right consistency; no need to freeze in portions...it doesn't freeze well anyway. The same goes for soft pear or some gently stewed apple.

He will also be able to have finger foods from 26 weeks onwards, so bits of soft pear, banana, rasps, grapes cut into pieces etc.

thanks ladies.

lackadaisycal - i aware of the "weaning at 6 months" rule but i went with what my ds wanted. he was a very hungry baby and milk simply was not enough, he has been on baby rice since 3 months and only now at 5 months am i trying him on "normal" foods such as veg and fruit.

thanks for the tip on finger foods also as this was another thing i did not know when they could start having things a bit more solid.

some good tips on recipes and finger foods here

I'm just very aware of the gluten thing due to my coeliac disease. My poor DD didn't have proper bread or pasta or anything like that until she was 9 months as advised by my dietician, although she did get some of my gluten free stuff.

i must admit i did not know about the no cereals etc rule so i shall certainly be laying off of the farleys rusks - good job i ate most of them

my hv wont discuss weaning other than the fact it shouldnt be done so most of what i do is picked up from here or just in general.

thanks for the website

I'm shocked at your HV. she should be giving you advice on this. Mine handed out a weaning booklet and some leaflets and they organised a weaning talk for us when all the bubs were arounf 4-5 months of age.

lol about the Farley's. I do the same with the little apple and cinnamon rice cakes you can get....three for DD, the rest of the packet for me

they have weaning leaflets on the wall so once when i was getting ds weighed i reached over to grab one - she sharply came over and asked me how old ds was and swiftly told me he was far to young to be thinking about weaning at this stage and basically i had to put it back i just wanted a read!

on another note - baby treats are great arnt they?

I bought a really good little book from Sainsbury's (£2.99) called Feeding your baby, it has some lovely recipes in as well as advice about what to give and when (from 4months)

Apples and prunes mixed with a little water is lovely. Apples, pear and kiwi.
Apple and mango.

All simmered and pureed. Can be frozen in batches too.

You can freezed bananas whole in their skins or however you like - they go very rich and creamy and can be eaten frozen and taste like banana ice-cream - VERY VERY GOOD way to eat them IMO

I'm probably reading your original message wrongly, but your baby doesn't need sweet things! Obviously he needs fruit, but if you're looking at it specifically as something sweet then there's no need - he doesn't need puddings [remembers HV who told me to give DD chocolate puddings when she was 5 months old!!]

But yes fruit can definitely be steamed and frozen, not a problem at all. I didn't know that you could freeze bananas though, so that's interesting! There is lots of fruit you can give without cooking though - DS would chew through the highchair to get at orange, strawberries or blueberries before I've even had a chance to wash them