Healthy Food For A Healthy Baby
Monique le Roux Forslund
Penguin Random House
From about eight months, a baby is on a mission to find out all about the world. Testing, feeling, touching and tasting whatever he encounters in his environment – whether it’s food or not.
Hands and mouth are active at this stage of development, so allow your baby the freedom to investigate, as long as there is no risk of injury.
Meal times may be quite a mess, but the sooner you leave him to test and taste on his own, the faster he will learn and mess will decrease.
Give your baby time to taste and investigate, at his or her own pace. This may take a while, so be patient.
l Eye-hand co-ordination is developing and she will find the smallest of crumbs to pick up and taste. Pincer grip is very active at this stage, do whatever you can to encourage it.
l Provide a large variety of colour, texture and flavours at mealtime.
l Make sure there is a lot of fat in your baby’s diet as this helps him to feel satisfied for longer.
l There should be a greater focus on snacks and snacking.
l Snack time may include leftovers or be other “ordinary” foods that are used at lunch or dinner.
l Snack time should still not include sweet items, particularly not cakes or biscuits, fruit juices or cool drinks.
l Water is the best drink for your baby.
l Experiment with smoothie variations and flavours.
l At nine or 10 months you can also start to introduce a larger variety of dairy products, such as cheese and natural (unflavoured) yoghurts, which often contain a higher amount of good fats.
l Do not introduce cow’s milk until the age of one year.
l Blended or mashed foods should be decreasing. Use a cheese grater and knife or fork to cut, divide and “mash” food. Be guided by your child’s capabilities and developments.
l If you choose to give your baby bread, use white bread as wholewheat bread can be difficult for a small tummy to digest. (Vegetables provide plenty of fibre.) Spread butter on bread and limit bread to two or three times a week.
l I don’t recommend pasta and only suggest unpolished rice occasionally because it’s preferable to avoid food that affects blood sugar levels and which does not have nourishment value.
l Quinoa is a good alternative to rice and pasta as it contains protein, vitamins and minerals, but is gluten free.
l Buckwheat porridge is still suitable for this age group, for breakfast.
l From the age of one, introduce liver pâté, which is full of healthy iron. Add mashed vegetables for extra iron and flavour.
l Healthy snacks are boiled broccoli florets, cheese sticks and avocado.
l For something cold on a hot summer’s day, frozen mashed berries or fruit make a good alternative to ice cream and are good for a feverish baby.
l If you want to make sandwiches, bake your own bread with coconut flour; it’s filling and free from gluten.
l Options for finger food are cheese sticks, fresh fruit, stewed apple cut into small chunks, cold meatballs, omelettes with a variety of toppings (herbs and cheese) and hard-boiled eggs. The latter are full of nourishment and crumbled hard-boiled eggyolks are great for your little one to pick up and taste.
Suggestions
Watermelon cake
This is the healthiest cake ever, and children love it.
Makes 2 portions
1 medium round watermelon
300-500ml cream, whipped berries and/or fruit of your choice
Slice off the bottom and top of the watermelon skin, then cut away the rest of the skin – shaping it into a cake round.
Cover the cake with cream and decorate it with berries and/or fruit.
Makes 1 cake.
Coconut yum balls
Makes 18 balls
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup stoned and chopped dates
1 tbsp coconut oil
½ tsp vanilla extract or essence
a pinch of sea salt
½ cup desiccated coconut
Blend the nuts in a hand held blender to crumb stage.
Add the dates, oil, vanilla and salt and blend until combined.
Roll a spoonful of the mixture into a ball then dip ball in the desiccated coconut until coated. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Arrange the balls on a plate, in mini muffin pans, or in mini cupcake paper cups.
They should be stored in an air tight container in the fridge, and can also be frozen.
Apple with almond butter
1 unpeeled apple
8 tsp almond butter
Slice the apple into 8 round slices. Place a teaspoon of the almond butter on each slice.
Makes 2 portions.
Cape Argus