Baby Food Recipes, News and Information

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If you've never cooked plantain for your baby, then why not give this tasty and nutritious sweet potato and plantain soup recipe a try?

Plantain is a type of banana and - like banana - it's very high in potassium. Plantain, however, needs to be cooked and is used in many different ways - from a vegetable side dish to a sweet dessert, according to how ripe it is.

• Green plantains (as used in the baby food recipe below) taste quite like potatoes and are usually boiled.

• Yellow plantains are at the next stage of ripeness and are slightly sweet.

• Black plantains are very ripe and sweet and are most commonly used for desserts.

This recipe is suitable for babies from 6 months of age. If your baby has a sensitive tummy, you may wish to wait until he's a little older before using garlic and onions - but many babies will enjoy them from a surprisingly early age!

Plantain baby food idea - sweet potato and plantain soup

1 green plantain, peeled and sliced
1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced
a little olive oil
1 small onion, chopped finely
1 garlic clove, crushed
16 fl oz homemade chicken stock
1 bay leaf
4 fl oz milk (you can use breast milk or formula if you prefer)

Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan and saute the onions and garlic until tender.
Add the sliced plantains and brown all over.
Add the chicken stock and bay leaves and bring to a boil, then add the sliced sweet potatoes.
Lower the heat and simmer until the plantains and sweet potatoes are soft (20-25 mins).
Pour the mixture into a food processor (don't forget to remove the bay leaf) and blend until creamy.
Return the mixture to the pan and stir in the milk. Simmer gently for 10 mins, then serve!

If you have any good plantain baby food recipes, we'd love to see them - just click on "comments" below, fill out the form and share your recipe with our visitors.

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December 20, 2006 13:46 - Netmums and the "Seeing is Believing" Christmas Appeal (UK)

Today we heard about how Netmums in the UK is helping with the Sunday Times Christmas Appeal "Seeing is Believing", so we're helping to spread the word!

The "Seeing is Believing" appeal aims to prevent childhood blindness in the third world. There are 1.4m blind children worldwide, the majority in Africa and Asia. Up to 500,000 children go blind each year... but most of these cases can be prevented or reversed.

So how can you help?

Tell everyone you know about Netmums and, for very person that joins before 31 Dec, Netmums will give 50p to the Sunday Times Appeal. 50p is enough to pay for sufficient vitamin A to prevent blindness in a child. £5 can provide a basic eye test and glasses, meaning that a child can attend a normal school - or - £5 can pay for surgery to stop someone going blind from trachoma.

To further help the appeal, Standard Chartered have agreed with the Sunday Times to match any contributions made to the appeal, which means each 50p donated by Netmums will become £1.

Netmums is an excellent site, offering support, local information, competitions, offers and advice to parents in the UK. Joining won't cost you a penny - but it will save a child in the third world from blindness. So just log on to www.netmums.com, choose your area and complete the simple log in details. Thank you.

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December 21, 2006 14:42 - Butternut Soup Recipe

Here's a delicious butternut squash soup recipe for your baby that's easy to prepare and full of goodness!

Butternut squash is a very nutritious food for your baby - rich in vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene), potassium, vitamin C, manganese and fibre. Click below for the full recipe, or visit our pureed baby food recipes page to learn how to simply prepare butternut squash and other vegetables as first foods for your baby.

Read more...

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December 21, 2006 14:51 - How Limiting Sugary Drinks Prevents Disease In Later Life

Research carried out at Penn State's Center for Childhood Obesity Research has shown that heart disease and diabetes symptoms are now being seen in adolescents - suggesting that limiting sugary drinks in childhood can prevent diseases like these in later life.

Traits like insulin resistance, abdominal obesity, hypertension, and high triglycerides combined with low HDL - good cholesterol - are believed to be related to cardiovascular disease and diabetes in adults. But these traits are being seen at an earlier age than ever before.

A study of four groups of teenage girls showed that girls within the risk groups for hypertension and metabolic syndrome (clustering of the above traits) had greater increases in weight and fat mass between the ages of 5 to 13 than the other girls tested. They were also found to be consuming greater amounts of sugary drinks between the ages of 5 and 9.

The researchers could not say for sure that these girls would go on to develop chronic diseases, but felt that the development of metabolic syndrome in children could be prevented by controlling weight gain and the intake of sugary drinks.

Of course, the best approach is not to introduce sugary drinks to your child until as late as possible - what your baby doesn't know, he won't miss! When the time is right, giving your baby water is the healthiest option. Many parents say that their babies won't drink water... but babies that refuse water have usually been introduced to sweeter juices first - having tasted these sweeter drinks they are then less willing to settle for water!

Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com

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December 21, 2006 15:24 - Recall Of BABYBJÖRN Feeding Spoons (US)

BabySwede LLC is recalling BABYBJÖRN® Feeding Spoons because they may present a choking hazard.

It has been found that - after extended use - the soft plastic tip of the spoon can loosen and break off, which is clearly hazardous to young children. There have been no injuries reported in the US, but other countries have reported 11 incidents of the plastic loosening.

The spoons were sold under the brand name BABYBJÖRN - this is printed along the front of the handle - in packages containing 2 spoons. The spoons are around 6-1/2 inches long, with a soft, flexible tip and come in 2 colour combinations - blue/red or green/yellow. They were sold online, at speciality stores and through catalogs from January 2001 through November 2006 for about $9.

If you are using these spoons, please stop immediately and contact BabySwede LLC toll-free at (866) 424-0200 anytime, or through their website at www.babyswede.com to receive a refund or replacement spoons.

Source: http://www.cpsc.gov

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December 22, 2006 14:42 - Safety Tips When Shopping With Baby

With many of us rushing around to do our last minute Christmas shopping, it's worth taking a moment to consider the safety of our babies and young children when we're out and about.

So I strongly recommend you take a look at an article I came across today that looks at the dangers of shopping carts/trolleys and offers some great tips and advice on how to keep your children safe.

As the author of the article states, shopping carts CAN tip over and I personally know of a situation where this has happened - so placing your infant in a carrier on top of the cart is not as safe as many parents assume.

If you have any good tips for making life easier when shopping with an infant, please click on "comments" below to share them.

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December 24, 2006 13:57 - Merry Christmas To All Our Visitors

We'd like to wish all our visitors and their families a very MERRY CHRISTMAS

It has been wonderful reading all your e-mails and kind comments about our website and, next year, we plan to make our site even bigger and better!

If there's anything else you'd like to see (or anything that you DON'T like), then please let us know! We take all your comments and opinions very seriously and love hearing about your babies!

We'd particularly love to hear about how YOUR little one enjoyed his/her first Christmas. Tell us what he did and which part of the Christmas meal he enjoyed sharing. If you'd like to send a photograph, please let us know in your message and we'll e-mail you the instructions on how to submit it to us.

Remember, our Christmas baby food page will give you some meal ideas for your baby on the big day tomorrow!

Have a safe, peaceful and magical day.

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