Money Saving and Weaning Baby?

andycarmi

Our DD is 3 months. I m breast feeding and not planning on weaning her till she is 6 months. But I want to get organised now and start reading up and get some Money Saving recipes together. I don't want to buy jars of food.

1) Do you know off any good books with info and or recipes?
2) What do I need? (blender? baby containers? spoons?)
3) Any MSE style tips?

Thank-you.

Philip624

annabel karmel has a very good book on weaning and recipies for first foods. A blender would come in handy, just boil up some veg and blend it to a paste. A good tip is to get those rubber ice cube trays, you can then make up a batch, freeze it and use as and when with no wastage.

immoral_angeluk

Instead of buying jars.. puree fresh fruit and veg (plus meals when baby's is older and able to digest more complex foods) and then spoon the puree into ice cube trays so you have little cubes of food. When they're frozen put all the cubes into freezer bags with a label of what they are and defrost and heat as and when required. It's also easier to get a jist of your baby's appetite this way as well as you can see that one week he'll have 2 cubes per meal and leave some, but the next week wolf them down so you can move up to 3 cubes..
All you need is some cheap ice cubes trays, a food blender and some freezer bags. Easy.

looneyleo

I agree with the first two posts...it really is easy if uou make your own baby food. All I did was every time I cooked veg/meat for OH and I I made a little extra or used what was left, blitzed it up, put it in ice cube trays and then froze it. It was really easy and no hassle really. Then you just take out what's required in the morning defrost in fridge and heat up in micro. For first few months of weaning you will only be trying one type of food at a time anyway so it is simple. I found baby rice brilliant to mix in with veg/fruit to bulk up a bit. You'll also need to start about finger foods for baby...healthy choices are brown toast, rice cakes, bread sticks, banana, etc...Good luck

BernadetteN

I'm still using the recipes from Annabel Karmel's books after 10 years and 4 lots of baby weaning. She has great family recipes as well as weaning receipes and many can be adapted for the whole family eg purees which are watered down to become delicious soups.

I've used perhaps 20 jars in total through 4 babies and cannot see the point of buying jars/tins unless on holiday somewhere without access to a fridge. I've simply carried purees around in a cool bag when out.

A packet of baby rice could be useful for thickening purees. The only other food packaged specifically for babies that I have used is cereals as "normal" cereals oftern contain too much sugar or salt or wheat or bran, but I've never used these for more than a few weeks.

The biggest change in weaning for me over the last 10 years is that for our elder 2 children, they were weaned at 4 months and I spent many hours making purees in batches. The younger 2 children were weaned at 6 months and required very little pureed type food and they have both moved onto finger food and eating the same as the rest of the family pretty quickly.

SammyD_2

Also note there is a distinction between weaning and introducing solids - you will still be feeding you baby milk whether from breast or bottle for a good while yet. For many months to come the bulk of your baby's nutrition will come from milk rather than from the tastes of food she has. As well as the other suggestions, I found porridge excellent - first the baby ones in a packet, then some of ours.

Also, mashed sweet potato was something both mine enjoyed quite early on, and also well cooked brocalli - makes a great finger food as they can hold the stalk when they are onto that stage.

I did all my baby food with a stick blender - just cooked, whizzed it up, then froze it.

kmeast

I too recommend Annabel Karmel. I bought the 'Top 100 Purees' book which is good.(I looked for it on Ebay, but realised that I could actually buy it cheaper on Play.com & can then sell it on Ebay when I no longer need it and make my money back!!)

I would however say don't buy Annabel Karmel ice cube trays - they are too big for the top of the freezer & the lids just sit on top & don't seal the trays. Buy cheap supermarket ones instead - much better!!:rotfl:

andycarmi

Philip624 wrote:

A good tip is to get those rubber ice cube trays, you can then make up a batch, freeze it and use as and when with no wastage.

Oh thats a good idea. Thanks

fsdss

apart from the other posts root vegetables are the key parsnip are a favourite.

remember not to add gravy as this loaded with salt. if you need to moisten add water with or without baby milk and at 6 months you can use normal milk to ADD to food or make food such as custard

callansdad

A steamer is quite handy as well if you have one, the goodness will be contained in the water so you can always add the cooking water if you need it runnier. There is good old boil in a pan method. Expressed breast milk or formula milk for adding to things like baby rice (i made baby rice with pudding rice). I used a Kenwoods stick blender for blending mine, it became my best friend. Agree with the rubber ice cube trays. The plastic ones end up breaking when you try to remove the ice cubes. Remember to label the date on the freezer bags as well. There is a lot of information on the web regarding puree fruit and vegetables. I bought a book from Asdas (about £4), this had loads of recipes for baby purees. There are certain fruits that cannot be frozen and need to be eaten pretty much immediately. A few being banana, avocado (great finger food as well), mango, melon.

astonsmummy

I just used a hand blender which cots about £5, does the trick!
Once they get older you can make meals as you usually would then blend them up, obviously no convinience food and dont use salt in cooking, if you have to, add the salt after taking babys portion out.
It did me good really as now i dont use salt when cooking.