A lil here, A lil there: Baby Food: Baby First Food

This is long overdue lol. When Ezra my first born turn 6 months, I was so excited about introducing solid to him. BUT as a first time mom, I'm almost anal most the time about everything and particularly how I want my boy raised, from A-Z, so the subject of feeding solid was not something I fare well. Not really keen on relying on my mom or MIL for advice because they were formula moms, I had this thought implanted in my head that their methods are just so different from me as a breastfeeding mom that I gotta do my own reading and research, which is sorta true for some matters. Not like they're inexperienced. They are, but with a formula fed baby, but when it comes to breastfeeding, the do's and don't's is also something new to them, it's a learning process to them as well. SO I read that the first food that I should introduce rice and breast milk as their first food. I did just that but unfortunately, Ezra gagged and clearly didn't like it. Why would he when I didn't even like the taste. Assuming he wasn't ready, I delayed his solid intake to about 8 months. Till this day I believe Ezra is a picky eater because of me. I was lousy and unadventurous and the food I made was so limited that he didn't enjoy a lot of other yummy food out there. So when I had Cadence and after chatting with many many moms on what they've introduced and done for their little ones, I made sure that I didn't repeat the same mistake I did with Ezra. My experience with Ezra became my learning curve to Cadence. So when Cadence hit the 6 months mark, I went on full speed mode to prepare purées in batches to freeze. A week before 6 months, I actually let her hold slices of pears and apples to suck on just so she can get an idea there's more to breast milk in this world. She was a lot easier to feed and she seem to enjoy her food, almost all of her food that I've made for her. It could be she was very prepared for solid, I don't know but I would like to think I didn't do a good job with Ezra. The first food I introduced to her was apple purée. She gave a very positive response to her first food and I couldn't be more glad. I can safely declare that she loves her food because she would open up her mouth every time a spoon full is offered to her. And by 6 months is also when I started to introduce water to her to ease the intake of fruits purées.

To date, for fruits, I've made apple (red delicious), pear (packham), plum, peach, mango, banana (I use pisang berangan) and avocado. While for vegetables I've made, sweet potatoes (orange & Japanese yellow sweet potato), pumpkin (American & Kabocha (Japanese pumpkin/winter squash), green bean, baby corn, baby carrots and parsnip. For some reason, whatever that's from Japan always taste so much better like the Japanese sweet potato and kabocha. It's always so much sweeter naturally. Not to mention, for grains, instead of rice cereal, I've opted for oats. I bought a packet of roll oats and blended them myself. It was well received by Miss Cadee when the oats was cooked with breastmilk.

Anyways, to prepare myself for the whole process of preparing her solid food, I had a few items on my 'to-buy-list'. I made sure I bought a packet of labels so that every time I prepare her food, I could actually label the purées of what the ingredient is and the date I've prepared it. It is important because as you start to purée the food, the colours of sweet potato, pumpkin and carrots is almost similar that it's best to just put a label on the food storage compared to having to spend the few minutes to guess, followed by the date because you'll want to practice first in first out just like how you do it with expressed breast milk. Next up was I made sure I stocked up on the food storage container. As you can see from the picture, I bought 3 boxes of the Baby Food Storage Cups which is really handy when you first introduce purées to baby of 6 months onwards. The quantity you feed is about there, you start with a tablespoon then two and you gradually increase to an ounce to two during the introduction stage and it stores the perfect amount of purées required. So for every box, it comes with 8 storage cups on a tray that can store for a maximum of two ounces. It cost about RM 20-25 for each box. I really love this storage cups because not only does it store the perfect amount of purées, it comes with a tray that you can easily stack up on top of the other one, saving more space for other stuffs you might need to keep frozen. Like in my case, my expressed breast milk. Having enough of space in the freezer is crucial. So this storage cups are highly recommended. And thirdly, for the whole purpose of JUST preparing her food, I bought a new pot that comes with lid and a separate steamer insert for easy steaming. I just wanted a pot that is specifically just for making baby's food. While this was not in my to-buy-list, the last important item is having a blender for the sole purpose of puréeing. My mom got this blender/juicer that's from China, it's a 6 piece set. She already have blender and a juicer so she gave me so that I can use it just to make baby's food. The blender served us good. Still is.

I usually opt to steam the fruits and veges and some other that taste better through roasting, I'll opt to roast. The food which I usually steam are apples, pears, plums, peaches, sweet potato, green beans, carrots and corns. The food I roast is pumpkin and parsnip. They taste so much better when it's roasted compared to steam. As for banana, avocado & mango, I purée them as it is. For every food I've made for Cadence, I will always taste the food to make sure that the food I prepared would be something I would eat. If it taste bad or if I can't bring myself to stomach it, then I wouldn't want to give my baby something I wouldn't eat. At least that's the motto I practiced now after learning my lesson from Ezra.

Apple Purées or Pear Purées
Ingredient:
> 2 Red Delicious Apple
or
> 2 Packham Pear

Method:

Wash the apples or pears. Cut the apples/pears in 4. Remove the seeds & core. Place on a plate.
Steam for 15 minutes or till soft.
Scrap the apples off the skin. Put in blender together with the juice from steaming.
Blend & store.

** The same approach goes to peach & plum and sweet potato.

Baby Green Bean Purées or Baby Corn Purées
Ingredient:
> A packet of baby green bean
or
> A packet of baby corn
> water

Method:

Wash the green bean or baby corn. Cut the vegetables in half or 2 inches long.
Steam till soft. Approximately 20 to 30 minutes long.
Put in blender and add the juice from steaming. In the event the juice from the steam vegetables is not enough, you can always add water to water down the purées.
Blend & store.

Banana Purées or Mango Purées or Avocado Purées
Ingredient:
> 2 very ripe banana
or
> One small mango
or
> One ripe avocado
> breast milk or milk or water

Method:

Cut the banana or mango into smaller portion (blendable portion). For avocados, spoon the avocado into the blender.
Add in some water to ease the blending for banana and mango or you can add in some breast milk to reach your preferred consistency. For avocado, preferably add in breast milk or milk so that it comes out creamy.
Blend & store.

** In the event if the purées are too thick and too creamy for your baby, you may add in breast milk or normal milk even after it's thawed to thin out the consistency.

Pumpkin Purées or Parsnip Purées
Ingredient:
> Quarter pumpkin
or
> One parsnip

Method:

Wash and clean the pumpkin, remove the seeds. For parsnip, wash and remove the skin.
Cut into ideal size. Place in the oven. Place the pumpkin skin down or sideways, parsnip any way. Place a little bit of water in the oven. (As Cadence was 8 months old, I drizzle a bit of olive oil on the vegetables)
Roast for 40 minutes to an hour long at 175 C. Skin of the pumpkin would be wrinkled and the pumpkin would feel soft when pressed. Parsnip would be tender.
Scrape out the pumpkin "meat" and then blend and store.

** You may mix the purées after its thawed to your liking or you may store the purées half and half in a cup as you like.


Labels & pen to label the purées and the date.

Baby food storage cups. 8 cups per tray that stores 2 oz each. Cost about RM20-25

My steamer and pot with lid bought for the whole purpose for making her food.

Mango

Mango puréed in blender

Mango purées into the storage cups


Apple & Pear steamed

Steamed apple scraped

Apple sauce purées & pear purées

Avocado

A comb of banana. This is pisang emas which Cadence doesn't really favor. She prefers pisang berangan or Cavendish banana. They don't turn black as fast. And I usually gotta keep it till it's very ripe.