Baby Food Recipes, News and Information

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS:
Blink Del.icio.us Digg
Furl Google Simpy Spurl Technorati Y! MyWeb

When was the last time you went out for a meal in a restaurant and took baby along, too?

If this is something you're still plucking up the courage to do, then come and check out our tips for Eating Out With Baby.

Taking your little one out for a meal in a restaurant is a great learning experience for him - and by following our tips, you may even find you get to eat a little dinner yourself!

To reference this entry please copy the url in this link: (Permalink)

December 6, 2007 15:19 - Calling All New Baby Food Bloggers

We've had a few submissions to our Baby Food Blogs page this week that didn't include an email address. We don't need your email address to set up a one-off page about your baby - but if you'd like to send us information more regularly, we need your e-mail address in order to let you know about how to use your baby's blog.

If you attempted to start a blog for your baby this week but did NOT supply your email address, please visit the Baby Food Blogs page now and enter your email address AND your baby's name on a blank submission form - that way we can put it together with your original submission.

Thank you - and sorry for the bother!

To reference this entry please copy the url in this link: (Permalink)

December 8, 2007 13:26 - Eat Your Veggies and Baby Will Too!

Did you read this week's news about how to inspire a love of fruits and veggies in your baby?

According to a report from the Monell Center, a scientific institute that conducts research into taste and smell, eating lots of veggies and fruits while pregnant and breastfeeding passes on a preference for these healthy foods to your baby. And repeatedly offering fruits and vegetables to your baby as he moves on to solid foods is also believed to encourage a liking for them.

The report's senior author, Julia A. Mennella, PhD, said

"The best predictor of how much fruits and vegetables children eat is whether they like the tastes of these foods. If we can get babies to learn to like these tastes, we can get them off to an early start of healthy eating."

During tests, 45 infants between 4 to 8 months of age were studied. 20 of these were breastfed. All the babies were unaccustomed to eating any other solid foods than cereal. They were then divided into two random groups.

The first group was given green beans for 8 days in a row. The second group was given green beans and then peaches over the 8 days.

Results showed that the breastfed babies were more likely to readily accept these foods - but ONLY if their mothers regularly ate the foods, too. For example, the breastfed babies ate more of the peaches when first exposed to them - and for a longer period of time - than the formula-fed babies.

When questioned, the mothers of the breastfed babies revealed that they ate more fruits and vegetables than the formula-feeding mothers, which seems to confirm that exposure to fruit flavours through breastmilk made their babies more likely to accept the peaches.

But both the formula-feeding and breastfeeding Mums said that they ate green beans and green vegetables infrequently - and there was actually no difference in the amount of green beans eaten by either breastfed or formula-fed babies.

Dr Mennella noted

"Flavors from the mother's diet are transmitted through amniotic fluid and mother's milk. So, a baby learns to like a food's taste when the mother eats that food on a regular basis."

In both sets of babies, repeatedly offering the green beans over the 8 day period led to the infants accepting them more readily - in fact, by the end of the study, the babies would eat 3 times as many beans as they did at the start.

Dr Mennella also noted that the facial expressions of babies don't necessarily correspond with their willingness to eat the food offered - and that babies naturally display certain expressions when particular foods are offered.

Source: Monell Chemical Senses Center (2007, December 4). Eat Fruits And Veggies While Breastfeeding And Baby Will Probably Like Them. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 20, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2007/12/071203090135.htm

So what can we learn from this research?

• Eat a wide variety of healthy fruits and vegetables during pregnancy and when breastfeeding.

• If your baby rejects a certain fruit or vegetable at first, be persistent and try again. Repeated exposure can be the key to getting your baby to accept these healthy foods.

• If your baby looks disgusted when you give him a certain type of food, DON'T assume that he doesn't like it. As long as he continues to eat the food, you should continue to offer it.

Useful links

Pureed baby food recipes - basic instructions for pureeing fruits and vegetables

Tasty fruit baby food recipes

Vegetable recipes - 6 to 9 months

Vegetable recipes - 10 to 12 months

Think it's too late to inspire a love of vegetables in your baby? Then visit...
My baby won't eat vegetables

To reference this entry please copy the url in this link: (Permalink)