We only want the best for our child. This is easy just after birth. Then you breast or bottle feed your child, and that’s the end of it. You do that for a number of months, and then the consultation office gets involved. Fruit snacks, no fruit snacks, a vegetable snack or a yogurt dessert. It’s maddening. And I haven’t even mentioned the price yet. I no longer dare to convert to kilo prices, afraid that I will have a heart attack, while baby food is something you can make yourself without much effort. If you want to do that, keep the following things in mind:
Wash your hands and work with clean materials
Open door perhaps, but it still happens too little. It is important that you wash your hands thoroughly. This is to prevent contamination of your food with unwanted bacteria. What also plays a role is that women have lower acidity on their hands than men. This means you may have up to 150 different types of bacteria on your hands. Most of it is not harmful, but you don’t want that few harmful bacteria in your child’s diet.
For this reason it is also important to work with clean materials. Use different cutting boards for vegetables and meat, and prevent cross-contamination.
Defrost food in the microwave or refrigerator
Rapid defrosting or refrigerated defrosting prevents bacterial growth.
Cooking tips
Cook all meat before processing it into baby food. It should not be pink or red. Raw meat, poultry or eggs should not come into contact with cooked food. Cook eggs until they are firm and the yolk is solid, not runny.
And now the real cooking
That’s very simple. If you prepare potatoes, vegetables and meat for yourself, do this without salt. You can always add salt to the plate. Place one potato and a scoop of vegetables in a bowl for your child and blend with a hand blender. If it is too dry, you can add some cooking liquid from the vegetables.
Double quantity
You can also prepare double the amount and then put one portion in the freezer in a plastic cup (close it with a plastic wrap). There comes a time when you eat something sharp, and then you can easily grab something. Having an apple at home is also useful: If the food needs to be spiced up because your child is still getting used to the different flavors, you can cook an apple. This way you have a healthy sweetener at hand.
Fruit snacks
This works the same for fruit snacks. Clean the fruit you want to give your child and mash it or grind it with a hand blender. All types of fruit can be used in a hand blender or blender, except kiwi. The seeds are then smashed and can cause an unpleasant rash diaper experience (broken seeds also have to be removed, and that can be sensitive because they are sharp, and cleaning the buttocks is also not pleasant).
NB!
- Homemade baby food is always rougher and more fibrous than ready-made baby food. That how it’s supposed to be. Do not try to make homemade baby food taste the same and give the same mouthfeel as purchased. You’re not going to make it through this either. And that doesn’t matter. Everyone cooks differently, and it is important that your child tastes as many flavors as possible and experiences mouth feelings. This simplifies the step to the next phase on the way to eating yourself. Children who only know “soft and smooth” foods have more difficulty getting used to foods with more fiber.
- Use your common sense. So no salt or sharp spices, no super fatty ingredients, no alcohol.
- If you’re in doubt, don’t do it. Stick to things you trust and know are safe.