I have friends asking what my babies’ first food is and how I prepare their daily meal. So I decided to write this post.
The twins and their elder siblings eat almost the same kind of first food, just that I include more brown rice into their diet as compared to the elder ones.
The babies’ first food
Once the babies turned six months old, I started giving them the least allergenic food such as avocado, banana, apple, carrot, pumpkin and spinach. Somehow I couldn’t get good quality avocados in the supermarket this year and therefore I didn’t let the babies eat as many avocados as I would like to.
I added zucchini, potato, cauliflower and baby kale into their diets after a month. Being an Asian mum, I will prepare a mixture of brown and white rice porridge as the base.
I recently found some colourful Australian vegetables in the wet market, and I have decided to add these into their diet. I understand from the greengrocer that the purpleness in the cauliflower was from the plant’s neighbouring kale, cultivated from the same plot of land.
When to start the babies on solids
For my first born, I earnestly started him on solids after he turned four months. He was a fat baby. His neck was sturdy, and he could sit up early on. But I was overly zealous. I remembered he was not ready and pushed his food out of his mouth instead of swallowing it. That is the extrusion reflex.
When it comes to feeding the twins, I introduced them solids only when they were almost six months. By then, they were able to sit upright. They also signalled their readiness to eat by showing their desire to share our food. Often, we caught them staring at us snacking.
How much to eat for a start
The babies’ little tummies needed time to get accustomed to solid food. I gave them one type of food for a couple of days to identify food allergy if any. I fed them with mashed bananas as their very first food. No.4 reacted so favourably that I gave her just a little more, and that was 2 cm worth of banana. She got a tummy ache that very night. So, the very first meal should be just one tablespoonful of puree. It can be avocado, banana or apple. It’s best to start with something not so sweet, but yes, I started with a yummy banana…
How I prepare the babies’ food
Babies’ first food is easy to make, just steam, mix and blend. For starters, I blended their meals into purees. Now that have they have turned eight months old, they have advanced to eating semi-solid soft food.
A blender frequently recommended by mummies is the Avent Blender that steams and blends baby food. I have an older version which I have retired into my cabinets as I am using the multipurpose blender from Blendtec and there is just not enough counter space for so many kitchen appliances.
With eight people to feed at home, we eat what the babies eat. If they have carrot puree for the day, I may just add carrot into my vegetable stir-fry, and add on other dishes with types of food they still can’t eat. I will occasionally throw in a few tablespoons of chicken stock that I make for the day’s pot of soup for extra goodness. Just in case anyone is asking, it is not the pre-packed kind of chicken stock or soup base made from chicken stock cubes. Both are salted and highly unsuited for babies. Babies’ kidney can’t handle more than 1g of salt per day. I am referring to an unsalted soup stock made from one fresh whole chicken, boiled for 1 to 2 hours.
Preparing babies’ food in advance
When I was still working full-time years ago, I made my babies’ food in advance. Inspired by a baby guide, I would steam the vegetables and blend them individually, scoop them into some silicon ice-cube trays for freezing. During the weekdays, my mum would take out whatever combination she fancied and heated up for the babies’ consumption.
Hope I have provided some useful information for those in need of it.
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Items in the photos
Blendtec (an older model which I bought about 5 years old)
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