Daily Baby Food Meal Planning

Some of you have asked what we do to get our food from the frozen "food cube" state to being ready for our daughter to eat. The answer is simple, and requires just a little planning ahead. Every evening after our daughter goes to bed, we wash the containers from the previous day. We found some great ones at Babies R Us that are small, have sections, and seal tight. They were perfect for sending her to our moms’ or to daycare for the day. But any containers will do. Here is a breakdown of what a sample day of meals may look like for our daughter

Baby Sign Language Tips for Ordinary Parents

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I read a lot about teaching sign language to your baby in order to help them communicate. Until I researched it, I thought that it could be a bad thing because it would prevent her from learning to say the words and she would be less vocal, but everything I found said the opposite. Research shows that children will have a higher vocabulary and will speak earlier when they learn sign language. So I decided I would teach it to my daughter.

Making Your Own Baby Food – Starting with Frozen Foods

Some foods are just so much easier to start from frozen, whether it’s because it is winter and hard to find fresh produce or because they are things like peas and you don’t want to shell five million of them! Turning frozen veggies into food for your baby is easy! Here are some of the best foods to make for your baby from frozen: peas (non-organic is okay), spinach (buy organic – one of the highest levels of pesticides!), corn (only after 1 year of age), lima beans, green beans. Of course you could do this with any food that you can find frozen, these are just some of the ones I’ve done and have found it very helpful.

Making Your Own Baby Food – Tomatoes

Tomatoes are a great food for your baby and can be done many ways. They are pretty acidic, so they definitely should not be one of the first foods fed to your child and you definitely need to watch for signs that they are upsetting your child’s stomach. Cooking them really helps to reduce that level of acidity, so I highly suggest starting that way. I love to make a very simple tomato sauce for my daughter and mix it with whole grain pasta. That makes the pasta much better to freeze (do it in ice cube trays!) and is a great addition to lunch or dinner).

Making Your Own Baby Food – Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are a fantastic first food. Babies love them and they are nutritious, with a good source of fiber and several vitamins. There are a few options for making sweet potatoes depending on the age of your child. I will walk through the steps of a few of those options. The age ranges below are approximations and not set guidelines. Some babies are ready for food earlier or need to wait longer before they're ready for finger foods. You do what your child needs.