you’ve got going with weaning and stocked your freezer with batches of purée, there are a few more rules to follow to keep your little one safe from an upset tummy or worse.
Make sure you don’t reheat any purées more than once after defrosting.
If you’ve made a purée and put it straight into the fridge, that’s fine, but make sure it’s in a pot with a lid or covered with cling film, and it absolutely has to be used within 24 hours from when you made it.
Frustrating though this might be, if you’ve only managed to dip the spoon into a bowl of purée a couple of times, and it’s been in your baby’s mouth – but she’s not interested – don’t keep it. Saliva transfer from your baby’s mouth to the spoon, then to the purée, will have contaminated the food so it’s just not safe to keep. Sorry!
As a precautionary measure during weaning, I don’t recommend keeping or freezing leftover cooked rice as it’s important to be incredibly careful when reheating it, due to the slight risk of food poisoning. Cooked rice should not be allowed to sit at room temperature for any length of time for the same reason.
GENERAL HYGIENE IN THE KITCHEN
You’ll be used to keeping everything clean since the arrival of your little one, especially if you feel like you’ve spent more time with your sterilizer in the last six months than with friends and family! But, just in case, here’s a quick checklist:
Wash hands and dry with a clean tea towel. If you use one you’ve had lying around the kitchen for ages, there’s literally no point in having washed your hands in the first place.
Wipe down your kitchen work space with disinfectant every time you use it.
Make sure all weaning equipment has been washed in hot soapy water/put through the dishwasher/sterilized, though you don’t have to sterilize anything other than bottles after six months.
COOKING EQUIPMENT
As with fresh ingredients, there is really no need to go mad when it comes to stocking up on cooking equipment. You’ll find you most likely can get by on what you have already. I had one of those purée cooker gadgets to which you add food and water, push a button, and it steams and purées in about 15 minutes. It was great, and they’ve probably come on a lot since I bought mine, but considering how quickly your baby will move on from super-smooth purées, I think it’s a lot of money to spend for the short amount of time you use it. Here are a few things that I wouldn’t be without, though.
Food processor/blender
You’ll need some sort of food processor or blender to make purées for your baby in the early months, though again, there’s no need to spend a huge amount of money as this stage is relatively short, and you’ll soon be on to mashing. That said, unless you’re going to be making quite big batches of purée with a view to stocking up the freezer, a mini food processor or blender is the best size for the small amounts of each ingredient you’re going to cook and whizz up. You can otherwise pick up a hand blender relatively cheaply and that will more than suffice for whizzing up small amounts. In the recipes, you’ll find that I try to give different options wherever possible.
Saucepan/steamer
A basic saucepan with a lid is great for boiling vegetables and poaching fruit for purées – and that is how they have been cooked in the recipes here, with some of the cooking water then being used to thin purées in the early stages – but I’d highly recommend you invest in a steamer. This doesn’t have to be an expensive stand-alone steaming gadget; just one of those little metal baskets that sit inside a lidded saucepan will suffice. Steaming is a good way to preserve certain nutrients, and the minimal cooking water will be easily absorbed into your meal, retaining more of the goodness of the ingredients.
Microwave
There’s no doubt about it – a microwave is a wonderful modern convenience when it comes to speedy reheating or defrosting. It’s a super-easy way to steam vegetables too. Just make sure that you are well versed in how your own microwave works, so that you know how to use it safely in terms of having it on the correct cook and defrost settings. If you’re reheating food, be careful about ‘hotspots’. Pause it and stir once or twice during cooking to make sure the heat is evenly dispersed. And, as with everything, make sure the temperature is just right before you offer it to your baby.
Potato masher
Once you’ve moved on from smooth purées, you’ll need something to mash the cooked food so it retains more texture. Depending on how much you’ve made, a potato masher is handy, or just use the back of a fork!
FEEDING EQUIPMENT
I think the bottom line when it comes to purchasing anything baby related is to try making do without it and if you feel you absolutely can’t, then pop out to buy or order it. The biggest budget-busting mistake all new parents make – and I’m no exception – is to rush out and buy everything on ‘the list’, thinking they’ll fail without it, when every baby’s needs are different and some just pass certain stages altogether and suddenly you’re left with a load of gadgets that haven’t even seen the light of day! But here are a few trusty basics that I couldn’t have managed without.
Baby chair
You don’t need to spend a fortune on a baby chair! In my experience, the more expensive they are and the more space age they look, the trickier they are to clean and the less supportive they are. There are plenty of chair options on the market, at a range of prices to suit your budget. Whatever you decide to go for, it must be supportive. If your baby is at the weaning stage, she should be strong enough to sit up straight and have good head control. The Bumbo-type seats are suitable for really early stages and some even come with detachable trays. If you are putting your baby straight into a high chair, make sure she’s comfortable, well supported and strapped in. Ones with detachable trays have the advantage of flexibility, in that your child can either eat on her own or the chair can be pulled up to the table. If you’re opting for a chair that either attaches to or pulls up to your own table, without a detachable tray, make sure it’s safe. Chairs that can be clipped onto the table or fold up are especially good if you’re short on space.
I used a Bumbo, followed by a Tripp Trapp high chair that pulled straight up to the table –with a baby harness for when my kids were really little. But that’s just what worked for me, allowing me to sit and eat with them. The chair, which can be adjusted as your child gets bigger, was particularly handy when the second and third children came along as they could then eat with the older ones. It’s no coincidence that Chester is my best eater. He’s learned by example from watching the other two with their ever-maturing taste buds, and, at two years old, I can honestly say there’s nothing that child won’t eat. (Except mashed potato, that is. He hates mashed potato!)
It’s quite a good idea to let your baby become acclimatized to her new high chair in the week running up to starting weaning. Giving her a weaning spoon to play with, along with a plastic bowl, plate or cup, while you eat your dinner, is a good way of introducing her to sitting down to a family meal and getting used to it before you add food to the party! Babies don’t miss a trick. They’ll be taking it all in, watching and learning, so by the time their turn comes, it won’t feel so foreign.
Bowls and spoons
There are all sorts of brilliant feeding products on the market. You can now buy silicone bowls and spoons in heat-sensitive materials that change colour if the food’s too hot, and I think that’s a terrific idea. If I was going to go out again now and buy a set
