Baby Food/feeding baby on a budget!

SailorSam

If you're 4yr old is fussy with some foods blending them is the best way to hide them. I think you'll get a whizzer in Argos for about £9

Boodle

My youngest is about the same age. This is what she has if it is any help:

Porridge (in which case I spoon feed!)
Quarter slice lightly toasted bread (good to keep shape for holding, still soft enough to chew) with peanut butter

My mother gives her a quarter of a lightly toasted bagel as a treat - she loves it! Usually with a spread of hummus at lunch time. Otherwise, half a rice cake or a quarter of a sandwich with hummus/peasepud/bean pate (mashed/blitzed cooked/tinned beans) etc. A few sultanas (most end up on the floor - but they are there!) She likes hm sugar-free bakes and cakes (obviously!)

Handheld teas are:

• fritters with sweetcorn/peas in (I add frozen soya mince too, but obviously you could use a different protein) or hm veggie burgers with bits of microwaved potato and whatever veg we are having.
• Or rinsed off baked beans with toast fingers/bits of microwaved jacket potato with skin given to the other kids with their tea!
• or her very favourite, hm pie! The filling like a hm veggie sausage mix (similar consistency to actual sausagemeat) or a egg-free quiche as it is firm enough to be held and soft enough to chew.

Or I feed her well chopped soft-cooked spaghetti in a sauce, or bean couscous, or lasagne, or casserole, or soup etc. I tend to add a wee drop or two of oil to the kids' meals for good calories.

I feed her the custardy/ice creamy puds until she can get into it herself.

Hope that helps!

RAS

Sarah2490 wrote: »

I'm not sure really it's not that he can't eat it but his bowel is very sluggish due to damage done by the milk allergy. If he eat too much wheat based food he becomes constipated and I have to up his meds that he already takes to keep him regular.

The consultant thinks that over time as his bowel heals and becomes stronger the problem should go away and he should be ok to eat wheat without a problem. Until then I have to keep his intake limited but not cut out altogether as his body needs to learn to process it...bit like exercise for his bowel muscles lol

Does littley have orange juice? I would normally dilute with water but undiluted it is a good laxative, as are slices of orange fruit.

RAS

Try ready cooked polenta? This can be used as a mush with or without a topping or sliced and either fried or baked (with a little HM tomato sauce and cheese for the 4 year old and yourself).

Mash beans and use a dip for veggies? ot let them both snack on drained chick peas?

RAS

Boodle wrote: »

The filling like a hm veggie sausage mix (similar consistency to actual sausagemeat) or a egg-free quiche as it is firm enough to be held and soft enough to chew.
Or I feed her well chopped soft-cooked spaghetti in a sauce, or bean couscous, or lasagne, or casserole, or soup etc. I tend to add a wee drop or two of oil to the kids' meals for good calories.

I feed her the custardy/ice creamy puds until she can get into it herself.

Hope that helps!

The child in question would have problems with veggie sausage mix, the pastry in quiche, possible the quiche filling, spaghetti, lasagne, custardy/ice creamy puds made with milk or soya milk etc.

They would not have a problem with eggs; tortilla would be a better option.

maman

I think you should widen the fruit and veg intake and that would also make it easier to feed baby. Mashed potato is one of the easiest to feed a baby. You can put grated cheese in this or peas or some baked beans or mash carrots or parsnips in with it. You could make up a big saucepan full and freeze in portions.

I used to add gravy as well but that was HM gravy, sadly ready made tends to have loads of salt.

You and your eldest could eat this with sausages or burgers or chicken or ham or whatever meats you normally have. I thought this would be a start before you move on to roasting joints!;)

Ripe fruit mashes well too especially bananas and pears. I used to buy tinned pears, in juice if possible, as they tend to be cheaper per kg than fresh and easy to mash.

mandco

firstly don't feel bad that you use jars/pouches of ready made baby food while they are more expensive sometimes its worth the extra for the extra variety just try to reduce the amount of them you buy stick to just varietys that are more expensive/you don't make at home. for example its usually cheaper to make your own apple/pear puree but i found it cheaper to buy ones like blueberry/strawberry/mango ect esp in the winter and ones with ingredients like lamb which I rarely buy due to the cost.

for breakfast I would give porridge (maybe try plum baby porridge gluten/wheat free)with fruit puree

what do you usually spend you milk tokens on?
what sort of meals do the rest of you eat? lots of meals are easily adjustable for a baby but only if you make them in the first place

batch cooking makes cooking from scratch seem so much more worth while and you can freeze portions for later your own homemade ready meals
homemade veg soup mash/puree for lo serve with crusty bread for eveyone else
mince in sauce can be used as the base for lots of meals spagbol sheperds pie ect
mash pototo can be served with veg/meat of choice

E2006

What about fruit puree for breakfast (with the meds in) followed by toast. Tinned fruit in Juice (not syrup) is fine and will work out cheaper than fresh (unless you get some YS'd). Literally drain the tin and blend with a hand blender in the tin (fits in nicely), then as has already been mentioned earlier, pour the puree into an ice cube tray, freeze and then pop out into a freezer bag. Just lift a cube out when you need it.

For lunches, what about various finger foods, sliced cucumber, rectangle of cheese, some fresh fruit sliced etc. Dinner could be a hot meal, and again, if you make a batch of home made, it can be frozen in ice cube trays. You will find that you soon build up a little hoard of various types of meals that you can just lift out each day.

Ideas for meals:
Roast one chicken thigh (aldi do 2 for £1.29 and they are quite big) strip the meat off then mix with various other veggies like sweet potato, carrots, mash etc.

Salmon fillet, potato and grated cheese - mashed/pureed

Cod loin (£1 for quite a large piece at Mr A's fresh fish counter) with mash and peas

Shepherds pie, Bolognese etc are fine so long as there's not too much salt.

Potato wedges that LO can grasp and chew on with some steamed veggies is another cheap easy meal.

HTH

meritaten

I too think you should give him 'normal' food. babies have survived for thousands of years before 'Hienz' convinced everyone they need a special diet! use a little less salt for cooking and you can sieve a portion for the baby as soon as it cooks and add more salt for everyone else. the price of small portions of 'Baby food' is very highly marked up when compared to the price of normal foods. if you read labels, then a babies version of say, breakfast porridge isn't much different to the normal adult version - and one packet of instant porridge can used for at least three breakfasts for a baby, just fold and seal it and it certainly wont go 'off' in a few days! its even cheaper to buy the large box and use it for everyone - just make the babies up with his special formula.
mush up what you can for him and stop buying those expensive jars and packets - babies should eat what the family eat!

I had a baby when my OH was on strike and we struggled - both OH and I went without meals - just eating once or twice a day so the kids got fed.
some of the cheap meals for our baby were -
a potato and a carrot boiled and mashed and sieved.
sieved peas with a little gravy (never throw out leftover gravy - put it in ice cube trays and freeze! almost any veg can be made into a meal with a cube of gravy!)
mashed veg such as potato, parsnip, carrot, cauli - all with a cube of gravy as above)
cheese and potato pie - perfect!
shepherds or cottage pie - really mush it up and baby will usually eat it at around 5 - 6 months.
you can sieve rice dishes too - my GS loved rice with a little, very mild passanda sauce. try tomato based sauces too.

When you are cooking a family meal THINK! think how this could be adapted for the baby. most meals can and if you have leftovers then mushing them and freezing them for babymeals is better than throwing scraps away.

culpepper

My son used to like baked potato .You can microwave it or bake in the oven then mash it with a fork.
Banana was another favourite just mashed raw and apple cooked till it is soft and mashable .
It doesnt really matter if it is bland because babies arent used to all the flavourings anyway.
When the kids were a little bit bigger we just didn't season anything when cooking and they had the same as us blended or cut smaller.
If I was going to use gravy powder or spices,I would add them after taking out the baby portions.
I don't suppose your littley can eat cheese as he cant have milk.
(I'm milk allergic and I cant).

Raisins are nice to use as a sweet treat .