How to make complementary food for babies How to make complementary food for babies

After the baby is six months old, it is necessary to add complementary food. Today I will tell you how to make complementary food, as well as the principles and techniques of adding complementary food.

Suitable complementary food for babies

1. Porridge:

1. White porridge: white porridge + meat floss or fish floss. The whole family can eat the porridge. Put an extra bowl for the baby and add fish floss or meat floss when feeding.

2. Use white porridge as the base, add fish and shrimp paste, meat paste, vegetable paste, and liver paste and cook for about 10 minutes;

3. Cook red date porridge, eight-treasure porridge, etc. for the whole family. Pick some porridge, some red dates (buy seedless ones and peel them), and lotus seeds (crush them with a spoon) to feed the baby. Peanuts, walnuts, raisins and other hard things depend on the baby's chewing ability; it is best not to add salt or sugar.

2. Rice:

This is the rice for adults. Scoop a few spoonfuls from the lower middle part of the rice cooker (because the rice in this part is softer), take a small pot, add water, fish and shrimp paste, meat paste, vegetable paste, liver paste, etc. and cook for 10 minutes. Then let it sit for a while to let the water soak in, and the rice will be very soft.

3. Noodles:

You can get noodles made and sold on the spot in a small noodle shop. Tell the seller that the noodles are for your baby. He will sell you noodles that will easily become mushy. It is recommended to buy flat noodles instead of round ones. Add water to a small pot, pour in fish, shrimp, vegetables, meat and liver puree and cook together. Then add the noodles that have been torn into 1-2 cm small pieces by hand and continue cooking. After they are cooked, simmer for a while.

4. Cereals:

Eating whole grains can cause dry stools, so you should eat more laxative fruits such as bananas, apples and green vegetables.

1. The easy way: Supermarkets sell instant corn flour, black rice flour, grain flour, and pea flour. The common feature is that they can be eaten by mixing with boiling water without adding sugar;

2. A more troublesome way is to cook multi-grain porridge. One way is to boil it, such as millet porridge, which must be cooked very soft and the millet should be blooming. Another way is to "boil" it, which is to boil the water first, mix the multi-grain powder into a paste with cold water, pour it in and stir it constantly to avoid lumps. It can be eaten after it is boiled.

Must-know methods of making complementary foods

1. Baby rice cereal

Applicable to: Babies who start to add complementary food at 6 months old

practice:

1) Add baby rice cereal into a bowl.

2) Add breast milk or formula milk to the rice flour several times and mix well with a spoon.

Kind tips:

1) If you use rice flour with milk, just mix it with warm water.

2) Different brands of baby rice cereal have different preparation methods. Please refer to the instructions on the can, or prepare it according to the thickness that your baby can accept.

3) Add fruit puree, vegetable puree or other pureed foods to baby rice cereal.

2. White porridge

Applicable to: Babies aged 7-8 months

practice

1) Wash the rice and soak it in water for about 1 hour.

2) Bring to a boil an appropriate amount of water (see “Tips” below for details), add the soaked rice, and bring to a boil over high heat.

3) After the water boils, turn to medium-low heat and simmer until the rice is blooming, stirring occasionally with a spoon.

4) Turn off the heat when the mixture reaches a suitable consistency.

Tips: By adjusting the ratio of rice to water, you can cook porridge and rice of different consistencies! Babies aged 7-8 months should eat thick porridge, which means half a cup of rice with three and a half cups of water. The consistency of the porridge should be such that it sticks to the spoon and does not flow down.

3. Pureed/chopped vegetables

Applicable to: Babies aged 7 to 10 months

practice:

1) Wash the vegetables and soak them in water for 1 hour.

2) Blanch the vegetables in boiling water for 1 minute. Drain the vegetables and discard the blanching water.

3) Place the vegetable on a cooked food cutting board and cut off the neck.

4) Chop the leaves into appropriate sizes using a cross pattern, and use them to cook baby food, such as vegetable porridge.

5) Put the chopped leaves on a strainer and use a magic wand or spoon to filter them into a smooth puree. Give this to babies who cannot eat chopped vegetables. A simpler method is to chop the leaves into sections and put them directly into a blender to puree them!

Warm reminder: Soaking vegetables in water for 1 hour and blanching them in boiling water for 1 minute can effectively reduce the harmful chemicals remaining in the vegetables.

4. Potato

Applicable to: Babies over 6 months old

practice:

1) Wash potatoes, peel and cut into pieces.

2) Put the potatoes in boiling water and cook until a fork can be easily pierced through (about 10-15 minutes), then remove from the water.

3) Use a fork or spoon to mash the potatoes while they are still hot. Add a small amount of warm water to make the mashed potatoes moist and easier to mash.

4) Add appropriate amount of warm water/breast milk/formula milk/milk, mix well and adjust to the appropriate consistency.

5) Strain the mashed potatoes through a strainer and make a smooth potato paste.

Kind tips:

1) This method is also applicable to sweet potatoes, pumpkins, carrots, winter melons, wax gourds, etc.

2) Start with a small amount, observe whether the baby has any adverse reactions, and then slowly increase the amount

5. Fruit puree/fruit slices

Fruit Puree

Applicable to: Babies aged 7 to 11 months

Method 1: Use grinding plate

1) Wash the fruit and clean the skin. Peel, cut into pieces and remove the core.

2) Use a grinding plate to grind the fruit into puree.

Method 2: Use a teaspoon

1) Wash the fruit, cut it in half and remove the core.

2) Use a teaspoon to gently scrape the flesh in the same direction to make puree.

Kind tips:

1) Choose ripe and soft fruits, such as peaches, pears, bananas, certain types of fruits and vegetables, avocados, papayas, etc.

2) Put the ground or scraped fruit puree into a strainer to filter out the coarser fruit particles. This is more suitable for babies who have just started eating solid food.

Fruit slices

Applicable to: Babies around 1 year old

Method: Parents can cut the fruit into thin slices 2-3 mm thick and encourage the baby to eat it by himself.

Warm reminder: In addition to the fruits mentioned above, you can choose other fruits such as watermelon, dragon fruit, mango, honeydew melon, strawberry, etc.

6. Minced/minced meat (chicken/beef/lamb/pork)

Applicable to: Babies aged 8 to 12 months

Method 1: Chop with a knife

1) Wash the meat and pat dry.

2) On a raw food cutting board, cut the meat into 1 mm thick slices, keeping the knife at right angles to the meat's grain, trying to cut through the meat's fibers as much as possible.

3) Carefully cut the meat into thin strips.

4) Cut the shredded meat into small pieces, then chop in different directions.

5) When cooking, add a small amount of boiling water and mix well to break it up. Then put it back into the pot and cook while stirring until it is cooked through.

TIPS: If the baby can chew it, the meat pieces can be cut into larger pieces.

Method 2: Use a blender

1) Steam or boil the meat slices first.

2) On a cutting board used for cooked food, cut the meat into 0.5-1 cm pieces.

3) Put the meat cubes into a blender and add boiling water until the water level covers the meat.

4) Start the blender and stop blending to check the texture of the meat.

5) This method produces a larger amount of minced meat and can be used in several meals. The cooked minced meat should be stored in an ice mold with a lid and placed in an ice tray for up to 7 days.

8 principles for adding complementary foods

1. From one to many

Do not add several complementary foods to your baby at once, as this can easily cause adverse reactions. Start by adding only one. If your baby has no adverse reactions and bowel movements are normal within 3 to 5 days, you can let your baby try another one.

2. From fluid to solid

Add complementary foods in the order of liquid food - semi-liquid food - solid food. If you add solid or semi-solid food to your baby from the beginning, the baby's stomach and intestines will not be able to bear it and it will be difficult to digest, which will cause diarrhea.

3. From small to large quantities

You can start by feeding your baby one or two spoonfuls, then four or five spoonfuls, and then half a bowl. When you first start adding complementary foods, feed once a day. If your baby does not resist, you can slowly increase the number of times.

4. It is not advisable to eat liquid food for a long time

If you feed your baby liquid or pureed food for a long time, he will miss the critical period of chewing ability development. The chewing sensitive period usually appears around 6 months, and you should provide opportunities for your baby to learn to chew from this time.

5. Complementary food cannot replace milk

Some mothers think that since the baby can already eat complementary food, they should reduce the baby's intake of breast milk or other milk from 6 months old. This is wrong. At this time, the baby should still take breast milk or milk as the staple food, and complementary food can only be used as a supplementary food, otherwise it will affect his healthy growth.

6. Stop when you feel uncomfortable

When adding complementary foods to your baby, if the baby has allergies, diarrhea, or a lot of mucus in the stool, stop feeding the baby complementary foods immediately and restart after the baby returns to normal (do not add allergic foods).

7. No additives

Try to add less or no salt and sugar to complementary foods to avoid developing bad habits of salt or sugar addiction in babies. It is even more unsuitable to add MSG and artificial colors to avoid increasing the burden on the baby's kidneys and damaging kidney function.

8. Maintain a pleasant eating atmosphere

Choose to feed your baby complementary food when he is in a good mood and awake. Do not force him to eat when he is unwilling to eat. Adding complementary food to your baby is not only to supplement nutrition, but also to cultivate your baby's healthy eating habits and etiquette, and promote the normal development of your baby's taste. If your baby is psychologically frustrated when accepting complementary food, it will bring him many negative effects.