Starting at six months of age, babies usually start to eat solid foods. Being careful of the ingredients in baby food is an important thing to watch out for.
The truth is that baby food often contains things that parents should be wary of giving their baby – like too much sugar and additives. In order to make sure your baby is eating healthily while maintaining a budget, look below for some tips on how to partner these ideas together.
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Making Baby Food
Parents who make baby food are not only feeding the child healthier options, but it can also be extremely affordable. In fact, this is much cheaper than buying pre-made, jarred food. Some research has shown that it could save up to six hundred dollars a year.
One good way to go about making this change is to start on the weekend so that food will be ready for the week ahead. When cooking for dinner, separate out some of the organic food that is being prepared and then blend it in a food processor or blender. Once this is completed freeze the puree in stainless steel ice cube trays or silicone.
Just make sure that the mixture isn’t too spicy, but does have some seasoning in it, to give the child an appreciation for what normal food tastes like.
Once the puree is frozen, it’s important to pop the cubes out of the tray and put them into a freezer-safe container to prevent freezer burn. At this point all that needs to be done is to thaw then reheat one or two cubes for each meal time.
Buying Organic Pre-Made Baby Food
If time is of the essence and there isn’t any homemade food available, or making baby food isn’t an option, organic baby food is the way to go.
Some brands may be in the freezer section and are made from minimally processed, fresh produce that aims to maintain the original flavor. This also means that the nutrient content is better than the jarred food. Some of
the best options are in this list;
- Earth’s Best
- Plum Organics
- Ella’s Kitchen
- Happy Baby Organics
- Gerber Organic
A lot of these companies also use packaging that is eco-friendly and BPA free and are easy on the pocket book as well.
Baby-Led Weaning
This can be the cheapest and easiest way to feed a little one. This is a practice that is used throughout the world and is a way of introducing solids into a baby’s diet. This allows a child to feed itself without purees or spoon feeding.
For this practice, a baby needs to sit facing the family at mealtime and begin eating when the rest of the family does. The child should be offered food that is in shapes, textures, and sizes that can be handled. At this point the baby should be able to feed themselves with their fingers and have a choice of what to eat, how much to eat, and how quickly to eat.
Gradually the child will begin to eat more and more different, solid foods, and less formula or breastmilk; but the timeline for this is unique to each baby’s unique development. This is traditionally how babies were weaned in many cultures before the advent of jarred baby food.
Good choices here can be anything from sticks of steamed, skinned zucchini, apple, carrot, avocado, pear, banana and more. Be sure that there is no hard skin or rind on your baby’s food, always peel or cut it off to prevent choking. Hard boiled or scrambled eggs are also good choices. These highly nutritious selections are a good start when beginning baby-led weaning.
It is also an accepted practice to pre-chew tougher food before giving it to baby. The enzymes on the food from the mouth of the parent help the baby to digest the food better. This has been shown to work with great success.
Most healthy babies can eat nutritious, soft food, that won’t break the bank. Children can do this even before they break their teeth: all that is needed is for them to be given the opportunity to do so.
