A complete guide to easily prepare complementary foods for babies before one year old

When the baby is four or five months old, mothers should start to consider adding complementary foods to the baby. So what complementary foods are good for babies? Let's take a look at how this mother managed to get complementary foods for her baby before he was one year old!

This article has been delayed for so long, not only because I am a full-time mom who is really busy and has no time, but also because it is really difficult to write about supplementary foods… There are too many aspects I want to write about, which has resulted in me not knowing where to start… In addition, if you type in the keyword "supplementary foods" on the Internet, you will find a lot of great methods and recipes. And the most important point is that ShaSha's supplementary foods, from the beginning to now, have actually always been made by ShaSha's father. So in order to write this article, I had to first conduct an in-depth interview with Shapa like a reporter before I could put together this article.

Therefore, the following scattered content is for reference only. Every baby has his or her own growth pace. What is suitable for Shasha may not be suitable for other babies. Mothers, please consider how much to read.

Background

Let's talk about the storage box and food processor (blender) first. Everyone has their own preferences, so I won't explain and discuss them separately here. I personally use the BEABA babycook double-sided model, which I brought back from the United States. Taiwan sells single-sided models. As for the double-sided model, I remember that there seems to be so-called parallel imports on the Internet. At first, I also considered the cuisinart blender that is very popular among mothers, but later the appearance consideration won out. For the storage box, I bought two brands, SAKTER and KOKUBO from Japan, at PChome 24h. The main considerations for choosing are: 1. Made in Japan 2. Material 3. Heat resistance... In addition, there are also various sizes to choose from, so that you can change the serving size in the future.

Let’s get down to business

Phase 1: Ten Times Porridge

ShaSha started eating 10-fold porridge when she was 4M old. The method of making 10-fold porridge is very simple. In short, it is just as the literal meaning is, cook the rice into porridge with a ratio of 1:10 water, and then use a blender or a food processor to blend it into a 10-fold porridge that is neither porridge nor soup.

After a few days of eating 10-fold porridge, when the baby can accept this new food and swallow smoothly, you can switch to 9-fold porridge! Then it’s the same, 8-fold porridge, 7-fold porridge... The next progress depends on the baby’s swallowing and chewing.

Stage 1 Cooking & Storage

Since Shapa has to work, he insists that complementary foods are too hard to make, so he should be in charge of everything. Therefore, when we don’t have time to make complementary foods every day, we use ice blocks to store them. We make about 3 to 5 days’ worth of food at a time. Before each meal, Shasha just puts the ice blocks in a wide-mouthed bottle and warms them with a milk warmer, and then she can eat easily! In addition, the amount of complementary foods that babies consume in the early stages is not large. At this time, the 10-fold porridge is more like a snack other than milk. We plan to slowly let her get used to it and replace it with the main meal in the future.

[Rice 1: So-called 10-fold porridge cooked with 10% water]

[Use a food processor to blend into rice paste]

[Put in a packing box to make ice bricks]

[Take out the ice bricks and store them by categories]

[Just put it in a wide-mouth bottle and warm it in a milk warmer before eating]

Phase 2: X times porridge + one type of vegetable

After eating porridge (rice paste) for about three to four weeks, it is almost time to try a vegetarian diet! ShaSha, from about 5M, we have progressed to seven times porridge + a single vegetable. Please remember the principle: because you don’t know what food your child will be allergic to, so please give one new food at a time! In order to find abnormalities and know who is causing the problem!

The first vegetable we chose was broccoli (rich in minerals, vitamin C and dietary fiber), because some people said that leafy vegetables (such as spinach, cabbage, bok choy...) should be given first, and then root vegetables (such as radish, potato, sweet potato...), but there is also another saying that root vegetables should be given first and then leafy vegetables. We were not sure which one was more correct, so we simply chose cauliflower, which was neither. Unexpectedly, ShaSha, who is known as a foodie girl, actually paid for it, and she ate happily!

What followed was to keep trying new single-flavor vegetable rice porridges, sometimes leafy vegetables, sometimes root vegetables, and the order was to start with milder flavors and then slowly switch to vegetables with stronger or sweeter flavors. The seven-fold porridge also slowly became six-fold porridge, and the portion size was of course increased from 10 to 20 ml at the beginning to 90 ml of complementary food at a time, and then 150 ml of milk.

Second stage cooking & storage

The storage and heating methods during this period are basically the same as before, because ShaSha eats a maximum of 90ml at this time, so it is still appropriate to heat it in a wide-mouth bottle with a milk warmer.

Second stage supplementary food combination reference:

Mashed potatoes

Potato Rice Cereal

Pumpkin puree

Pumpkin Rice Cereal

Cabbage Rice Cereal

Spinach Rice Cereal

Bok choy rice porridge

Cauliflower Rice Cereal

Carrot rice paste…

Broccoli washed and waiting to be blanched

After boiling, stir into puree

Packing and freezing into ice blocks and sorting

Stage 2.5: X times more porridge + a variety of vegetables

After you have tried most of the vegetables and they are all OK, you can start mixing. As for how to mix, please use your creativity. What adults like may not be what babies like. Sometimes they will love strange combinations inexplicably, but I can't give you an example here...hahaha!

Stage 2.5 Cooking & Storage

At this time, the amount of food she eats is increasing. I remember when ShaSha was about 7 months old, she could finish about 150ml of five-fold porridge and supplementary food for two meals during the day, and then drink 100~120ml of milk. Yes..she is exaggerating, she is definitely a foodie. At this time, the method of heating with a wide-mouthed bottle and a milk warmer is no longer applicable (because the ice brick cannot be put in before it melts), but putting the ice brick in a ceramic bowl and steaming it in an electric cooker is just as easy.

The second and a half stage supplementary food combination reference:

Cauliflower and carrot porridge

Cauliflower Pumpkin Porridge

Rapeseed and Carrot Porridge

Rapeseed Sweet Potato Rice Porridge

Cabbage and Carrot Porridge

Cabbage and Pumpkin Porridge

Chinese Cabbage and Pumpkin Porridge

Chinese Cabbage and Sweet Potato Porridge

Chinese Cabbage and Pumpkin Porridge

Chinese Cabbage and Cucumber Porridge

Spinach and potato porridge

Spinach and Onion Porridge

... I think there's no need to give more examples... It's basically just a game of permutations and combinations.

Can make all kinds of vegetable ice cubes at one time

Different vegetable ice cubes can be combined together

The third stage: start eating meat! X times porridge + various vegetables + meat (protein) On the first day of 8M, we tried to let ShaSha start eating meat! We started to try a series of different fish, meat, eggs (egg whites are easy to be allergic to, so don't eat them for now), tofu, etc. Each meal basically consists of four times porridge + 2~3 different colored vegetables, plus 1 serving of protein. Sometimes, we can use unsalted white udon noodles or white vermicelli instead of porridge.

Stage 3 Cooking & Storage

During this period, ShaSha had grown 7 teeth and could chew food a little, so Shapa deliberately stopped blending the porridge through a food processor, because triple porridge and quadruple porridge are basically soft enough to be swallowed even if they are only ground by the upper and lower jaws. Vegetables are no longer completely pureed, but still retain some visible fibers. Meat must of course be minced. Fish is soft and easy to chew, so after cooking, just pick out the fish bones and freeze it in portions, and then use it as the main dish for each meal depending on the situation. Eggs are boiled in water during the meal, starting with the egg yolk and then slowly adding the egg white.

One day in 8M, because Shasha could finish at least 200ml of complementary food for the two meals during the day, but was reluctant to drink milk after meals, and it seemed that it didn’t matter if I didn’t give her milk, I suddenly had the idea of ​​not giving her milk to try... Just like that, she really quit drinking milk for two meals for unknown reasons.

As for the storage method, due to the increase in the amount of food to be fed, in addition to the ice brick method, you can also use glass storage boxes to directly store the matched dishes. Take them out and steam them with the porridge half an hour before the meal to make a rich dish!

The third stage supplementary food combination reference:

Vegetable tomato chicken porridge (green vegetables, tomatoes, onions, chicken).

Vegetable pumpkin beef porridge (green vegetables, pumpkin, fungus, beef).

Vegetable, cucumber and salmon porridge (green vegetables, cucumbers, onions, salmon).

Cauliflower, pork and tofu congee (double-colored cauliflower, carrot, tofu, pork).

Colorful pepper, beef and egg yolk porridge (green vegetables, red and yellow peppers, beef, egg yolk).

Melon, corn and sea bream porridge (green vegetables, cucumber, corn, sea bream).

Tomato Corn Beef Porridge (green vegetables, tomatoes, corn, beef).

Luffa, egg yolk, codfish porridge (luffa, egg yolk, codfish)

The above are also permutations and combinations. In fact, any meat can be interchanged. Porridge can be replaced with white udon noodles or white vermicelli (without salt). Vegetables can also be matched with any of your choice. As long as you are willing, everyone can be the chef in your baby's mind.

[Since the pumpkin is very soft, you don’t need to puree it. After freezing it in blocks, you can steam it with other ice blocks.]

Chicken minced meat

Put it in a fresh-keeping bag and freeze it, and it’s the same ingredient again!

You can also use glass fresh-keeping boxes to directly store the matched dishes.

postscript

As the appetite increases, supplementary food needs to be stocked every two or three days. Children are getting more independent and have a sense of independence. Their tastes don’t change much. Sometimes Shasha won’t give in and won’t eat. So Shapa will try to prepare various tried and tested vegetable ice cubes for different combinations at each meal (after all, there are only two meals a day, so it’s not easy to get tired of them after two days).