Baby food recipes and snacks

Simba_25

that is a lot of milk to get through, my daughter is almost 7 months and she still only uses 1 tin a week. Have you upped her to the 2nd milk?? If not it might be more filling for her. I'm assuming you have already checked to see if your eligable for milk tokens?

With you saying you eat a lot of curries etc...do you make these yourself?? My daughter absolutely loves curry. I take a bit out of ours before i add all the spices and stuff to it and just cook hers in a seperate pan.....then freeze whats left. That way im still only cooking 1 meal, its just in 2 seperate pans. If that makes sence lol

You should also be ok to give her petit fleur (sp?) yoghurts now too....makes it a little cheaper then the jars for a pudding and also gives her the dairy she needs too )

HopeElizzy

I used Annabel Karmels's book too - I tried things, with my children, that perhaps I wouldn't have thought of before. It follows through to toddler stage and I've given dh the same as the littlies (not pureed) from these recipes and he hasn't noticed! :rolleyes:

Here's a link to Annabel's website where she has some of her recipes listed.
HTH

lil_me

I would check with her HV about milk, there may be a better alternative for her. It does seem a huge amount for a little one of 5 months but if she's tall and not overweight they may not be concerned.

I made my boys food, aswell as being cheaper I know what went into it, even the organic varieties I remember it was reported that the use the cheapest, battered about food etc in them.

If you search for 'baby food recipes' you should find loads online and may not even need to buy books http://www.peainapod.co.uk/baby_food_weaning_recipes.html for example. I would buy icecube trays rather than pea in a pod ones.

The easiest way I found was to just make extra when cooking for us, if say I was doing carrots for tea I would do an extra few to make into puree, same with other foods. That way I wasn't slaving over making baby food all day and barely noticed I was making it most of the time.

I used to make batches of single foods like carrot, potatoes, different meat etc, then mix a few together as a meal. Stick blender (can pick them up for under £5) is what I used until introducing lumps when I used a potato masher mainly.

With wheat yes it was stated in many research papers that babies given grains food like pasta were more likely to develop allergy to wheat (gluten) if given them before 6 months of age, however there are gluten free pastas available which may help fill her a little.

Organic choice is completely up to you, when my DSs were little there was very little organic produce to be had and what there was just wasn't affordable, they didn't suffer because they weren't given organic food all the time.

Gingham_Ribbon

Farmaround north may deliver to you.

However, if you need to go to the supermarket for it, you can buy in bulk, steam and mash it then freeze it in cubes. When they're frozen, transfer to freezer bags and just take one or two cubes out at a time. You don't need loads of freezer room for this. They're only tiny portions. So that's fruit and veg sorted. Then you can introduce red lentils, millet cooked with formula and other grains which you can make as needed. These can be stocked up on and last for a while.

Hipp are not the most ethical company when it comes to marketting these products. Don't feel like the jars are best for your baby. You will save money and will provide excellent nutrition for your baby even if you don't use organic food.

morganb

Cow and Gate and Heinz as well as Hipp have some really good recipes on their websites ...

JillD_2

a cheap filling and nutriotious "pudding" for her is greek yoghurt and pureed fruit. You can puree down apple or pear or mash banana and mix with a big dollop of greek yoghurt. Much cheaper than individual yoghurt. My daughter was underweight and weaned at 4 months and from memory we were onto the greek yoghurt pretty early, on HV recommendation.

Lillibet_2

Oh, the memories, pretty soon your little one will be nearly 2 & throwing tanturms becuase he can't get the top off the play dough pot....:rolleyes:, trust me!:p

Anyway, I weaned Spud on organic food & he still has mostly organic but there are a few exceptions worth considering :

Breakfast : Ready brek : excellent mushy weaning food and although not organic they only use oats from crops which have less pestecides etc than standard crops, plus the cereal is fortefied with iron & vitamins which is really useful during weaning. Can also be useful when moving from mush to lumps as can add partially mashed banana, mango etc to it. The milk you make it with can be subtracted from the total daily minimum requirement.

Jars : almost always somewhere, be it Tesco, Sainsburys or Boots, has them on 4 for the price of 3 or 5 for £2 or something, worth keeping an eye out & stocking up.

Things like pureed apple can be home made & kept in the fridge for about 3 days, say a portion on day one & a portion on day 3 to keep the diet varied. You could do the same when you are eating something you think she will like, puree extra portions & keep in the fridge for 2 days time etc, they will keep fine. I found when switching from jars to HM food that it was best to keep to one or 2 flavours at a time only, until Spud got used to them, they must have been different from the jar versions of the same things!:rolleyes:

Milk : I can't remember exactly what the recommended quota for a 5 month old is, but at 6 months some of it can come from other dairy sources : i.e yogurt, rice pudding made with ordinary (organic) full fat cows milk, cheese etc. I personally would try cutting back on the amount of formula you are giving her, offer water more often (it will probably be refused at first, it takes them quite a while to get used to it!) and up the dairy produce in her food a bit, as it seems she is already eating like a 7 month old:D.
At 6 months old you can switch to 2nd stage formula which is a bit cheaper & you can get special offers on it etc as it isn't goverend by the same legeslation as 1st stage formula. Keep an eye out for 3 for 2's etc.

HTH & good luck;)

Smashing

Definitely consider switching to second milk, as some babies go through a growth spurt at around 12 weeks and may need a more satisfying formula to keep them fuller for longer.

astep70uk

Thanks guys for all the helpful advice you've given me on here. I was really unsure about making food etc for her at such an early age.

I've made some space in the freezer, so on Friday I went to the supermarket and bought some organic chicken, beef and pork and loads of organic fruit and veg. Cost me about £15 in total.
I have since made LOADS of portions for the freezer. For example, from a bag of pears I got 9 portions of puree which I have frozen. This cost me £1.53 so much cheaper than jars!
I have been giving her Petit Filous for her morning snack so that has helped.
She is already on the 'hungry baby' milk and has been since she was about 6 weeks old. She was 9lb 13 when she was born (my son was 11lb 8 :eek: ) and now weighs nearly 23lbs :eek: . The health visitor says this is fine as my son was large, but is now normal for his age.
Greek yoghurt is another good tip, and I've got some gluten free pasta in the cupboard, so I'll make some of that up.
Thanks again for all your advice! It really has been easy once I've got started, and hopefully it'll work out cheaper :T

lil_me

Blimey, really feel for you having to carry her around, another fave of my childrens was veg soup with GF pasta mixed in, lumpiness depending on age of course.

Careful with too many sweet things like loads of fruit and sweet veg like carrots, my DS ended up with a real sweet tooth and trying to refuse other foods because of that. The jars and packet mixes tend to be very sweet aswell.