Food and fun for 6 months old!!
Dear All,
As a mother celebrating every milestone of your child brings lot of joy. For me when my daughter turned 6 months old, I had that moment. We had a small celebration at a Swaminarayan temple and introduced her to her first solid food.
Her "Annaprasanna" was celebrated well with the gathering of friends and family. To be optimistic, her reception to all kinds of food is very positive. She enjoys seasonal fruits, vegetables and also grains and pulses.
In this post I would like to share some of the food recipes and simple procedures and some fun quirks to make the meal time easy and nutritious.
Apple Carrot Puree:
This dish is my daughters absolute favorite. I steam half and apple peeled and diced along with a peeled and diced carrot. Once it is tender, you can blend it by adding water to your desired consistency. I add a pinch of cinnamon and she loves that!! This has always been her in between snack or even lunch at times.
Oats porridge:
Introducing oats in your babies diet has a lot of health benefits. Since it is rich in fiber it boasts metabolism and is also rich in antioxidants.
Firstly dry roast your oats and then blend it into a fine powder. Mix one tablespoon of oats in half cup of water. Add this mixture in a pot of one cup of boiling water. Once the consistency of oats thickens you can turn off the gas and serve.
Infants usually prefer sweet tasting food, this is because the mothers milk has lactose in it and also the formula contains sugar.
Your baby may not like the bland taste of food, so to make it sweeter you can add seasonal sugar fruits. I make my oats porridge in chickoo puree.
You can also use jaggery or any other fruit with sugar content or add sugar.
I generally serve oats for breakfast to keep my baby full.
Note:
You can easily substitute oats with ragi. Follow the same procedure. You can either get Ragi powder or buy Ragi grain then soak it overnight, sun dry it , roast it and blend it dry into a fine powder. I don't usually trust the store bought powder so I make my own Ragi powder.
Mixed vegetable Puree
This dish is not only filled with nutrition but also helps in developing a taste for different vegetables either individually or blended together.
I would like to steam and blend Broccoli, sweet potato, carrots, peas and some mint leaves together.
The sweet potato and the carrots add sweetness to thee dish and reduces the sharpness of broccoli and peas. Mint aids in digestion of food.
One trick that always works for me is to mix vegetables that have contrasting tastes, so that you don't have to add salt or sugar for your baby to eat it.
Sweet potato is anyways considered as super food for the baby and is also easily available.
PRO TIP:
For the grains, I blend my oats and ragi every Saturday and store in an air tight container and use it throughout the week.
It gets easier and saves time.
Fruits:
Start with fruits like banana, apples, oranges and grapes. For citrus fruits try not to add sugar, it may take time, but your baby will develop a taste for it eventually. After the third attempt of trying to get her to have an orange, she started liking it.
I have still not tried Khichdi(moong dal and rice), or a multi grain porridge, where I add oats, ragi, jowar and bajra together.
Occasionally, along with her breakfast I feed her moong dal water or beet root water instead of regular water.
I am still continuing to breast feed my baby and intent to do so till she turns two!!
Meal timings:
Breakfast: 8 am .She is usually up by 7.30 and I breast feed her as soon as she is up. Then after some play time I give her a solid meal.
Snack: Around 11.30 am and 3.30 pm. Its mostly apple carrot puree.
Lunch- 12.30 or 1 pm, vegetable puree
Dinner- 7.30 pm, raagi porrdige
Her last meal is at 7 or 7.30 pm. I do not feed her solid after that. I have also restricted the dream feeds to two times during the night so that by the time she turns one she gets into the habit of sleeping for 7 hours straight.
This is her set feeding schedule and I intent to follow it, till she turns 1. The food will change as she grows older, but the timings may not.
Play Time:
She still loves her book reading time. I do give her rattles and balloons to play.
Actually at this age, it is not advisable to invest in a lot of toys, they would really love to chew everything up they lay their hands on. So for me anything I find lying around like boxes, coated spoons, or small plastic bottles will engage her for hours. The only toy she loves is her sensory board. Its a toy wit music and lights.
So that's all for her eventful 6th month. Will get back with more tips and updates!!
Do follow and share..
Love you all
P.S: For making fine chickoo fruit puree, cut the slices of chickoo, remove the seeds and add boiling hot water in the mixer and then blend it. the paste will turn out to be velvety soft, otherwise the texture will remain a little grainy.
As a mother celebrating every milestone of your child brings lot of joy. For me when my daughter turned 6 months old, I had that moment. We had a small celebration at a Swaminarayan temple and introduced her to her first solid food.
Her "Annaprasanna" was celebrated well with the gathering of friends and family. To be optimistic, her reception to all kinds of food is very positive. She enjoys seasonal fruits, vegetables and also grains and pulses.
In this post I would like to share some of the food recipes and simple procedures and some fun quirks to make the meal time easy and nutritious.
Apple Carrot Puree:
This dish is my daughters absolute favorite. I steam half and apple peeled and diced along with a peeled and diced carrot. Once it is tender, you can blend it by adding water to your desired consistency. I add a pinch of cinnamon and she loves that!! This has always been her in between snack or even lunch at times.
Oats porridge:
Introducing oats in your babies diet has a lot of health benefits. Since it is rich in fiber it boasts metabolism and is also rich in antioxidants.
Firstly dry roast your oats and then blend it into a fine powder. Mix one tablespoon of oats in half cup of water. Add this mixture in a pot of one cup of boiling water. Once the consistency of oats thickens you can turn off the gas and serve.
Infants usually prefer sweet tasting food, this is because the mothers milk has lactose in it and also the formula contains sugar.
Your baby may not like the bland taste of food, so to make it sweeter you can add seasonal sugar fruits. I make my oats porridge in chickoo puree.
You can also use jaggery or any other fruit with sugar content or add sugar.
I generally serve oats for breakfast to keep my baby full.
Note:
You can easily substitute oats with ragi. Follow the same procedure. You can either get Ragi powder or buy Ragi grain then soak it overnight, sun dry it , roast it and blend it dry into a fine powder. I don't usually trust the store bought powder so I make my own Ragi powder.
Mixed vegetable Puree
This dish is not only filled with nutrition but also helps in developing a taste for different vegetables either individually or blended together.
I would like to steam and blend Broccoli, sweet potato, carrots, peas and some mint leaves together.
The sweet potato and the carrots add sweetness to thee dish and reduces the sharpness of broccoli and peas. Mint aids in digestion of food.
One trick that always works for me is to mix vegetables that have contrasting tastes, so that you don't have to add salt or sugar for your baby to eat it.
Sweet potato is anyways considered as super food for the baby and is also easily available.
PRO TIP:
For the grains, I blend my oats and ragi every Saturday and store in an air tight container and use it throughout the week.
It gets easier and saves time.
Fruits:
Start with fruits like banana, apples, oranges and grapes. For citrus fruits try not to add sugar, it may take time, but your baby will develop a taste for it eventually. After the third attempt of trying to get her to have an orange, she started liking it.
I have still not tried Khichdi(moong dal and rice), or a multi grain porridge, where I add oats, ragi, jowar and bajra together.
Occasionally, along with her breakfast I feed her moong dal water or beet root water instead of regular water.
I am still continuing to breast feed my baby and intent to do so till she turns two!!
Meal timings:
Breakfast: 8 am .She is usually up by 7.30 and I breast feed her as soon as she is up. Then after some play time I give her a solid meal.
Snack: Around 11.30 am and 3.30 pm. Its mostly apple carrot puree.
Lunch- 12.30 or 1 pm, vegetable puree
Dinner- 7.30 pm, raagi porrdige
Her last meal is at 7 or 7.30 pm. I do not feed her solid after that. I have also restricted the dream feeds to two times during the night so that by the time she turns one she gets into the habit of sleeping for 7 hours straight.
This is her set feeding schedule and I intent to follow it, till she turns 1. The food will change as she grows older, but the timings may not.
Play Time:
She still loves her book reading time. I do give her rattles and balloons to play.
Actually at this age, it is not advisable to invest in a lot of toys, they would really love to chew everything up they lay their hands on. So for me anything I find lying around like boxes, coated spoons, or small plastic bottles will engage her for hours. The only toy she loves is her sensory board. Its a toy wit music and lights.
So that's all for her eventful 6th month. Will get back with more tips and updates!!
Do follow and share..
Love you all
P.S: For making fine chickoo fruit puree, cut the slices of chickoo, remove the seeds and add boiling hot water in the mixer and then blend it. the paste will turn out to be velvety soft, otherwise the texture will remain a little grainy.
Nice information
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