Baby Led Weaning

Growing healthy babies with healthy appetites

Archive for July, 2006

Hummus

Tuesday, July 25th, 2006

Ladies and gentlemen, if it's good enough for Apple Paltrow-Martin, it is good enough for my daughter…

I should, of course, be making this delicious mix of chickpeas, sesame seed paste, garlic, lemon juice, salt and olive oil myself but I'm afraid that a month of baby-led weaning has left me reluctant to approach the Magimix. Perhaps some day…

Actually, I have made it before but I do prefer the shop-bought stuff. It's creamy-licious. The baby has it on toast, rice cakes (more of which elsewhere) or banana if she's feeling adventurous and I am too frazzled to clean her up between courses. It does go everywhere but it's quite benign really, thanks to the pale colour, and easily wiped off.

Now, some people might want to shy away from hummus as the sesame paste can be a trigger for allergies but neither my partner (he's actually my husband but that makes me feel so OLD) are allergic-y and we eat a lot of Lebanese food so we've decided to go for it. We were in a cafe today enjoying a spot of meze and Babybear was perfectly content to suck hummus off some flatbread. The pickled, hot red pepper that the Husband handed her by mistake was another story…

PS Marks & Spencer has just brought in a couple of new hummuses (hummi?).
There's an organic one, which is tasty and whatnot and only available in the smaller size. But the real stroke of genius is their idea to package three tiny little pots (say, two sandwiches worth) so that you don't have to keep throwing out unused hummus after three days. Wonderful, wonderful work. Although only available in Reduced Fat and containing maltodextrin, which is a bit of a bummer.

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Pasta (with chickpeas, spinach, lemon, garlic, chilli and anchovies)

Tuesday, July 25th, 2006

Ye Gods. This is a rather delicious recipe that the Husband and I frequently enjoy but even I wouldn't just have handed it over to the baby… he had no such qualms.
She loved it, of course.

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Pear

Tuesday, July 25th, 2006

Aaah, that most capricious of fruits, with its three-minute period of perfect ripeness book-ended by weeks of rock hard-ness or headily perfumed squishiness. I can't be bothered with them, really.

I've given them to the baby a couple of times, and she thinks they are okay. I don't bother giving her chip-sized portions, i just slice the bum-cheek off one side and had it over. It is kinda messy but at least it's wet and clear so it's easy to wipe up.

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Cucumber

Tuesday, July 25th, 2006

Well, it's not the most interesting ingredient but it's pretty useful to take out with you as it's pretty clean. I used to cut it lengthways in the chip shape stylee (taking the seeds out) but interestingly the baby has recently decided that she quite likes it in the form of a thick-ish disc.  I think it might be because it is nicer to chew on, and the cooler the better, what with her poor teeth…
 

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Why Not Try It?

Tuesday, July 25th, 2006

I think my main top tip is ‘Try It Out’ – you really don’t know if your baby will like a food unless you try them. Today, for example, baby Boomer loved some crayfish tails with pretty spicy sauce. Grandmaw was quite surprised especially as she drank quite a lot of water after her spicy crayfish salad.

 

Other surprising things Boomer has tried and liked are ;

 

Lovely juicy organic mint and lamb burger (eaten outdoors at a food fair)  – admittedly I held this while she sucked at a bit but she was peeved when I removed it.

 

Very, very, very mature cheese – this stuff was strong, the kind of stuff that even the smell makes you wince

 

Bit of Naan dipped in curry sauce – admittedly quite a creamy sauce , and before you shriek in horror it was only a tiny bit so she could join in with the social side of Mummy and Daddy’s Friday night take away binge.

 

Please don't judge me harshly , these represent only a small section of our diet, there is plenty of fruit and veg in a normal day – honest.

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Quick Tea

Tuesday, July 25th, 2006

We’ve all just returned from holiday and needed a quick dinner plus we had some pears looking a pit peaky.

 

Boomer took the pieces of toast and obviously the pear slices fell off but she just picked them up once she had finished with the toast.

 

Ingredients

Slices of wholemeal bread

Pesto (I used red pesto as that’s what we had in the fridge)

Slices of pear

Slices of cheese (whatever type you like we had a selection of whatsleftinthefridgeous variety)

Some fresh basil leaves (admittedly we didn’t have this tonight but I’ve used it before and it’s delicious)

 

Directions

Lightly toast the bread (either on one side under the grill or quickly in the toaster). Slice the toast half to create smaller pieces to create a couple of

Spread the toast with a slather of pesto, place a slice of pear and a leaf of basil on top and finish with a thin slice of cheese. Place under the grill until the cheese is nicely melted.

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What To Do With A Freezer Full of Mashed Broccoli

Tuesday, July 25th, 2006

At about 5 ½ months I went to get Boomer weighed, I was instructed to immediately start feeding my undernourished baby (baby who is complete with bracelets of fat and double chin). I rushed home and started mashing everything in sight – cat escaped relatively unscathed. Over the next few days Boomer seemed nonplussed about any of the tepid mashed delights I offered her.

 

I then discovered baby led weaning, I instantly loved the idea unfortunately it left me with the slight issue of what to do with my ridiculous sized portions of frozen mashed carrot, broccoli, sweet potato  etc.

 

These are the few ways I have devised to use the frozen delights and still stay pure to my ‘waste not want not’ ethos

 

  1. make that margarita interesting and almost healthy with a carrot ice cube
  2. soothe those tired eyes with slices of frozen broccoli
  3. be the life and soul of  any party with pre-frozen comedy vomit
  4. have ‘conscience free’ playtime fun with you baby and biodegradable building bricks

 

or alternatively sod it and chuck it all out

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The Gagging Thing…

Tuesday, July 25th, 2006

So sorry about the lack of info on this subject, I'm having a think about how best to write the advice 'Just chill out for god's sake. They gag. It's what they do while they are learning,' in a more supportive way…

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Stains

Tuesday, July 25th, 2006

A lovely word, that…stains. Really sums up the glamour of being a mother, I find. Anyway, I am most flattered to have been asked (by a real live person called Jenn who I don't even know) to start thinking about how to get food debris out of clothing, bibs and soft furnishings. Hmmmmm.

I can tell you what NOT to do, for a kick-off… under no circumstances spray Vanish onto sofas or carpets, as it bleaches the colour right out of them. I am now forced always to sit on the same cushion to conceal the fact that it is markedly paler than the rest of the couch. My husband has pointed out that it also affords the best view of the television but he is just being needlessly critical.

As far as I can make out, banana is indelible. You could use it to write protest graffitti  on council buildings and it would be there until your baby is old enough to vote. I tend to dunk banana bibs in water as soon as she's finished eating. In fact, I think that's perhaps the secret. Make sure that you scrape any actual food off the bib and dunk it in water. After a few days in the laundry bin they start to smell, which I find to be a handy reminder that I need to put another bloody  washing on.

And I do use Vanish for other things, such as peach and pear, with some success, but I'd be very interested to see if anyone has any tips which don't involve me burning my Fairy-soft hands with an industrial solvent.

So come on Mysterious Jenn, whoever you are, or anyone else… can anyone help?

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Sometimes You Just Have To Grit Your Teeth And BELIEVE…

Wednesday, July 19th, 2006

Okay, this is really one for the people whose mums/health visitors/partners/husbands/grans/aunties/pals/work colleagues/fellow bus passengers and Karmelising friends keep telling them that their six-month-old should be on three square meals a day…

I think we just have to let it all wash over us and remember that babies get the vast majority of their calories from milk until they are 12 months old. Until then (according to what I've read) their food is just for fun, so it strikes me that about the worst thing you could do would be to get stressed about quantities. So ignore the baying crowds, ladies, and believe in the baby led weaning…

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