Baby foods.

[R]

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Index:

Introduction & Ideas to baby foods and new mothers
Sathu maavu first version
sathu maavu second version
sathu maavu third version
Mixed veggie jam
Simple fruit & veggie milk shake
Vegetable chappathi by lavsensuba
colorful parata
Badham milk
Apple milk shake or kheer and its variations
yummy sweety & nutty bread by lavsensuba
Quick & easy egg chappathi by lavsensuba
Paneer parata
Cheese chappathi
Dal parata (tarla dalal)
Different methods of idlies
Beetroot kheer (Mrs.Revathy's collection posted by sujathakannan)
sprouted moong parata
floating balls(Mrs.Revathy's collection by sujathakannan)
Green chappathi (ditto)
Nutritious adai/dosa
Simple sweet/snack
Banana dosa with variations
Corn flakes Milkshake(Mrs.Revathy's collection by sujathakannan)
Sooji pongal
Greens cutlet(Mrs.Revathy's collection by sujathakannan)
Cheese sticks(ditto)
Royal idly
Dry fruit balls(Mrs.Revathy's collection.......)
Dates curd raita(ditto)
Combination of fruits
radish parata
simple parata
navadhaniya sundal
mullangi sambar
piece of tip reg., the sambar (by indu)
corn parata
kesar syrup
kesar almond syrup(Mrs.Mallika's version)
some useful tips(by dsankaran)
orange squash
lemon crush(Mrs.Mallika's version-both)
suggestion on fruits & veggies
Including peanuts in our baby/kid's foods.
nutritious urundai
snack with sweet potato


Hi foodlover, Shanta and kals,

First of all, I am not very experienced mother, ok. My daughter is 23 months now, and have one elder son too. From both of them, I am sharing my views.

Till 1 yr. I was told by my doc that the babies shd take 30 oz of formula, so shd concentrate more on liquid than the solid. And, I saw my friends giving rice or spicy food. At one stage, they will start hating the baby food. So, until 1 year, I did not show rice at all.

For the first 4 to 5 months:

Would start with formula, then, gerber cereals like oatmeal and rice cereal with flavors since fed her sathu maavu, there was no need to give the mixed cereal. Other than the usual fruits like banana, apple, used to buy unusual fruits from the shop which is pears,peach, apricots. They have extra c vitamin and will get to know the taste. You cant prepare them at home. Similarly, with veg., sweet potato, green peas are unusual veg., Can even try mixed fruits and gerber juice which comes in a smaller bottle(4 oz.).

From 6th month upto 1 year:

Other than the above, the standard veg., used to make in the morning was carrot, beans, potato, onion, tomato-all small pieces) with little moong dal. Mash them nicely and feed them as their brunch. Since both dal and veg., are there, it is a filling food for them and for lunch, can go with cereal and formula. In the evening time, can give fruits like mashed banana or apple. While mashing, can even add raisins which is rich in vit. and minerals and no constipation will be there. In between, if they are hungry, can give our regular curd. Or, can feed toasted bread or any snack.

Only some kids will take both veg., and fruits in a day. In my daughter's case, she takes either of them in a day. That does not matter anyway.

For dinner, can give tiffins like idly or chappathi with milk. Chappathi shd be soaked in milk and to be cooked for a mt or so, so that it is very easy for them to chew or swallow. For idly, take some water in a cup, soak the pieces one by one before they eat and dip in sugar or some pottukadalai podi, then feed so that it is very easy for them to take. Until one year, can feed 2 to 3 idlis very well. For one or two idlis, try with sugar or podi then for the last idly, try with curd.

.................................

1 yr and above:

After 1 yr., can give our regular milk with cheerios cereal. If they dont like it, can stick with the baby cereal. Also, continued with some bottled fruits(no bottle veg., from there onwards).

For a change, in the evening time, can give bread with millk or parle g or marie bisucits mixed in milk, then can feed them.

Slowly, introduce all common fruits like apple, banana, dates, raisins. Take two or three nuts from cashew, pista and badham each. Boil and peel the skin out. With the above fruits, mix the nuts and grind them nicely. that is a wonderful pudding or brunch for them.

Once they have got a few teeth that is if they are ready to eat, can try veg., chunks. Since my daughter is little elder than yrs' she is taking apple now applied with creamy peanut butter which is tastier and filling one.

You can try mixed veg., like grated beet with shallot, tomato. Like this, choose different combinations which will give more taste-potato or okra with onion, tomato or carrot(baby carrot will be preferable since vit. is more than our regular carrot) or keerai with onion and tomato. Alternative days, add garlic. If you want to add ginger, can add a tiny piece, after cooking, throw the ginger away since it is very hot for the babies. And with veg., you have to give dals like moong or thoor. Moong dal is preferable since thoor dal has more gas. Even with moong dal, you can dry fry and cook so that the gas will not form.

You can prepare simple rasam which has boiled or raw tomato with water, haldi, salt and for kaaram, add jeera and pepper podi until they are little older. Slowly, introduce other grains like payar, channa(black channa is little difficult and blunt taste, so kids dont like it). Once in a while, I used to give hummus which is a boiled and groundwhite channa paste with salt. Make sure that their stomach is ot getting upset.

Can even sprout the grains and add 1 tbsp of the same with the veg., Once in a week, can add only veg., without dal so that the stomach will get some rest. Once they have started liking it, can give curd rice too with 30 mts gap or so. Becoz, after 1 yr, we have to follow the food pattern more or less like us.

Also, if you prepare plain veg., with little qty of dal like cabbage with dal, make one more extra veg., like radish. It is just like how we are eating. Radish is a side dish and the main food is cabbage rice.

Try kitchidis (not the adults' one) by soaking rice and dal together and cook veg., like carrot, potato, onion, tomato and spices like haldi, podis. It is always better to add dal more and rice in a lesser qty.

Even with butternut and pumpkin, can cook them with channa dal and feed them with the std., basic spices like pepper, jeera, poondu, can feed the kid. This was told by a punjabi friend of mine. Some people also add little amt of masoor dal. That is only if the kids dont like our moong or thoor dal.

Dinner is really boring for them since there is not much of variety. Anyways, for dinner, used to give kootu sadham . You can prepare this kootu with veg., like cabbage, chow chow, zuchhini, cucumber(tender veg.,) with 1/2 tbsp of moong dal. Veg., shd be in the higher qty since it is night time. Cook veg., dal alongwith salt, pepper jeera podi. Drain water and mash veg., nicely, mix them with rice. My daughter loved it very much.

I also heard that dhalia is also very good for the kids. So, can make dhalia upma(godhumai rava). But, my daughter is an expert in testing the food. If you take a spoon of some food, she would smell, taste with the tongue tip, then only, she would take rest of the food. Depending on yr kids' taste, can feed her.

My mother always says that though they are kids, they too have the taste bud in their tongues; so, pls feed the food with tasty and addtl. variety.

I have angaya podi with me which has all kinds of medicinal ingredients like sundaikkai, manathakkali etc. So, it is very good for digestion and other minor stomach problems. While cooking the veg., I always add a bit.

I have told you all whatever I remember. If there is more, will definitely let you know.

And, foodlover, since you have visited the "sathu maavu" thread already, a tip for you. For the payar, badham etc. kanji, instead of frying and grinding the payaru, can sprout and grind with the other ingredients. That was how, my mother made in India and brought a few packets with me from each variety for my kids.

Good luck!!