Baby Food Recipes, News and Information

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The big news across the world on the baby front today is that pureeing foods for your baby may be unnatural and unnecessary.

This comes from Gill Rapley, who is the deputy director of UNICEF'S Baby Friendly Initiative (although a UNICEF spokesperson said that these comments were made by Ms Rapley in a personal capacity and not on behalf of UNICEF).

Gill Rapley fully supports official recommendations that babies should be fed no solid foods at all before 6 months of age and that "... feeding a baby any other food during the first six months would dilute the nutritional value of the milk and might even be harmful to the baby's health."

Straight From Milk To "Real" Food?

The controversial aspect of her comments is the suggestion that purees are unnecessary - and that babies should be given a selection of pieces of solid food to choose from, in order for them to feed themselves. She says "... Sound scientific research and government advice now agree that there is no longer any window of a baby's development in which they need something more than milk and less than solids."

Giving a baby pieces of food from which to feed themselves, she says, enables them to control the amount of food they eat - thereby preventing problems with constipation and avoiding fussiness in later life. She also says that giving pureed foods to babies at a time when they are capable of chewing could delay the development of chewing skills.

Her comments have, of course, been largely dismissed by the commercial baby food industry who - she says - have convinced parents that purees are necessary.

Baby Led Weaning?

Although these suggestions are making the headlines today, Gill Rapley's concept of Baby Led Weaning is not new. She has previously produced an informational DVD on the subject and this page, already popular with many parents, is based on her research.

Many Mums are already successfully allowing their babies to feed themselves - this is a great blog to read if you're interested in this approach and contains lots of useful information from parents using it.

Ditching The Purees?

There have been no changes made to official recommendations as a result of these comments... and it is worth remembering that the decision of how to introduce solid foods to your baby is yours to make, based on available information and guidance from your baby's pediatrician.

Another point to consider here is that Gill Rapley advocates baby-led weaning from 6 months of age.

Giving your baby solid foods earlier than this may not just cause digestive and nutritional problems - allowing your baby to attempt to feed himself actual "pieces" of food before 6 months of age would present the very real risk of choking.

From the many messages we receive from our visitors - and from the results of our ongoing baby food survey, it seems that the great majority of parents are still introducing solid foods to their little ones BEFORE the recommended 6 months of age.

In fact, almost 64% of those who responded to this question in our survey introduced solids to their babies before 6 months - and in 16% of those cases, the babies were actually under 4 months of age.

If you choose to give your baby solid foods at this stage, then the baby-led weaning approach would be totally unsuitable. Developmentally, your baby would simply not be ready to cope with anything other than pureed foods.

Similarly, some babies of 6 months of age would still have difficulty in feeding themselves in the way the baby-led weaning process requires - although, of course, it is by no means essential that babies start solid foods at this point. In fact, Gill Rapley believes that a baby's ability to bring food to his own mouth and swallow it is an indication of his readiness to start solids - in other words, if he can't do it, he's not ready!

Overfeeding

We certainly agree that allowing your baby to choose the types and amounts of food he wants to eat is a good way of preventing overfeeding. We often receive e mails from parents concerned about how much their babies should be eating - and recent reports about obesity suggest that some babies are encouraged to eat more food than they need, thereby overriding their in-built mechanism that tells them when they are full.

If you spoon-feed your baby, then it is essential that you recognize the signs he uses to tell you he's full.

Interestingly, many babies naturally resist the spoon, with no guidance from Mum - and are far happier when THEY are in control.

Will Parents Accept This Approach?

The principles of baby-led weaning are interesting and we can certainly see the benefits of allowing our little ones to control their intake of food. But it may not be for everyone - indeed, many parents would find the idea of giving their babies "pieces" of food from the outset somewhat alarming.

Despite recommendations to the contrary, many pediatricians are still advising the introduction of solid foods to babies at 4 months - and if parents choose to follow this advice, then they will need to continue to puree their babies' food.

And there are other circumstances in which the baby-led approach may not be appropriate - infants displaying a hyperactive gag reflex, for example, would likely be unable to cope with pieces of food at an early stage.

What do YOU think about baby-led weaning?

Is it an approach that you've considered - or tried? If so, what were your experiences?

Would you feel comfortable in allowing your baby to eat ONLY the foods that he is able to feed to himself?

We'd love to hear your points of view - please leave your comments below...

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June 20, 2007 10:44 - Good Nutrition Starts In The Womb

We read an interesting article today which says that research has shown that a baby's dietary preferences can be influenced before he is born!

The article explains that "...Research conducted with groups of pregnant women found that infants exposed to carrot juice in the last trimester of pregnancy and during breast-feeding were more likely to accept carrot flavoured cereals at the time of weaning."

Many parents already attempt to influence the literary preferences and musical tastes of their developing babies by reading and playing music to them in the womb... so this could be an excellent way of ensuring that future generations get off to a healthy start as early as possible!

Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1351272/

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June 21, 2007 21:40 - Safely Cooking, Heating and Storing Baby Food

We have expanded the baby food storage and preparation section of our site to include some information that answers your most commonly asked questions.

How To Safely Prepare Baby Food offers you some great tips for the prevention of food poisoning. Please do take a look - whilst many of the tips involve good old common sense, it's always good to remind yourself of basic food safety rules.

Safely Storing Baby Food looks at the guidelines for refrigerating and freezing your baby's meals - and gives you some useful advice about dealing with power outages (a subject on the minds of many of us at this time of year!).

Safely Heating Baby Food answers your questions about cooking and reheating frozen and fresh foods for your baby - and also provides lots of information about using the microwave to safely heat your baby's foods.

For more general information about cooking and storing your baby's food, visit our main Preparation and Storage page, which also includes suggested storage times for different types of foods.

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June 23, 2007 17:05 - Great Idea For Occupying Baby!

We've written a few articles on this site about travelling with babies - and from comments we've received about them it's clear that the number one concern for most parents is how to keep their little ones occupied for hours at a time!

So we were very happy to receive this great tip today from Cheryl who lives in Devon in the UK...

"My son Connor is 11 months old and last month we flew with him to Spain. I was dreading it because he is a lively little man and I have heard so many stories about babies crying on planes!

But Connor does like his food and has started enjoying finger foods. So we took a long piece of string and a box of Cheerios... and we made him a Cheerio necklace! At first he was happy just playing with the necklace and trying to put it on. Then he started to eat it and it kept him busy for absolutely ages - I wanted you to let your visitors know so they could give it a try. It worked for me!"

Thanks Cheryl - what a great idea and so simple! Please do keep your ideas coming in - we really appreciate them and we know our other visitors do, too! You can contact us here.

For some great toys made specifically for travelling, visit our Baby Travel Toys page...

Read more...

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June 24, 2007 14:10 - Nice And Easy Chicken Dinner

Here's a simple, one-pot chicken dinner for your baby that cooks in under half an hour. It's sweet and delicious - and you can either chop it for older babies happy with lumps, or puree it for younger babies who like their food smooth.

You will need

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into small pieces
1 medium sized sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 apple, peeled, cored and diced
16 fl oz homemade chicken stock
little pinch of cinnamon

Bring the chicken stock to a simmer over a medium heat and add the chopped chicken. Cook for 10 mins.
Add the sweet potato and apple and continue to simmer for around 10-15 mins, until the sweet potato is tender.
Stir in the cinnamon and blend or serve chopped.

For more great ideas using sweet potato, or for more information about this super-healthy vegetable, visit our sweet potato baby food recipes page. Alternatively, click here for more tempting chicken baby food recipes.

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