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Complementary food for children cooking puree. Baby Puree Recipes

Your baby is already ready to try something new, when he is no longer full of his usual mother's milk or formula, if he shows interest in your food, he can grab a piece and put it in his mouth. This usually happens between 5 and 9 months of age. So, it's time to introduce your child to vegetables. And for this you need to learn how to prepare vegetable puree for the first complementary foods on your own or choose the right one ready-made, when to give it and what to expect from this innovation.

The first vegetable puree: when and what to give

On the issue of complementary foods - the timing of its start and the choice of ingredient - experts in baby nutrition do not have a consensus. Much depends on the state of health of each infant, the individual pace of development and the method of feeding.

If the baby is breastfed, he does not need anything else until six months of age. And after six months, one mother's milk is not enough to provide the developing body of the baby with all the important substances. Then comes the "finest hour" of vegetable puree. By this time, the not fully strengthened digestive system is already able to cope with a new product without the risk of gas formation or diarrhea. For kids on artificial feeding the most suitable time is the age of 4 or 4.5 months.

By the way, the actual timing of the introduction of vegetable complementary foods in different parts of the world is different: in Europe, for example, this happens at 3-4 months of infant life. In particular, German pediatricians do not hide the fact that the purpose of these events is the gradual persistent weaning of the child from the breast in more early term, mainly so that mom could get back to work as soon as possible.

Its time to begin

The baby can already try vegetable puree if:

his weight has doubled since birth;
he knows how to eat in an upright position;
he can chew food with large pieces.

Experts recommend starting complementary foods with vegetables rather than fruits. Otherwise, an early addiction to sweets will form, and it will be followed by a rejection of other healthy foods, caries may develop and metabolism worsens (plus an extra load on the pancreas, kidneys). Vegetables are less "interesting" than fruits, but contain all the vitamins and minerals necessary for growth.

With a poor weight gain in a baby, a pediatrician may recommend first introducing porridge into the diet. In other cases, vegetables are the best option.

It is better to start giving vegetable puree in the morning so that you have time to monitor the child's condition and track possible consequences feeding (allergies or digestive problems).

It's okay if the baby turns away from the spoon, cries or spits out healthy food - just give him some time and try these methods:

give a new food at the next feeding or after a couple of days;
add some breast milk/mix to make the taste more familiar;
after a few days, give a puree of another type of vegetable.

You can feed the baby little by little more than once or twice. Experience shows that children may agree to try mashed potatoes only after ten or even fifteen unsuccessful attempts. But refuse to introduce complementary foods if the child is unwell or has Bad mood: he is unlikely to positively perceive experiments with his menu.

First vegetables

So, what vegetables to start complementary foods with? Among the huge variety of products, it can be difficult to determine which ones are best for your baby, and which ones are better to wait. It is most convenient to use the universal advice of children's nutritionists, who have studied suitable vegetables for the first feeding, their composition and beneficial properties, and also determined the risk of an allergic reaction.

Type of vegetable	Characteristics	Allergy Risk
Zucchini / squash	Useful for children with a tendency to allergies. Removes excess water from the body. Suitable for overweight children. Not recommended for loose stools	Short
Cauliflower	Contains a high proportion of vitamin C, it contains a lot of iron, protein. Suitable for overweight children
Broccoli	Broccoli
Potato	It contains potassium, phosphorus, vitamins. High-calorie. A lot of starch (to remove excess starch, you need to soak for an hour in water before cooking). Better to use in small quantities. Not recommended for constipation	Average
Carrot	It has more vitamin A than other vegetables (which is why it is good for the eyes), a lot of natural antibiotics. Has a pleasant taste. It is better to start feeding with boiled carrots
Pumpkin	Enriched with pectin, vitamins. Low calorie. Suitable for overweight children

When deciding which vegetable puree to start with, give preference to zucchini, cauliflower or broccoli. After two weeks, when you are sure that the child is used to it, try giving him mashed pumpkin, carrots, white cabbage, green peas or spinach. Beets, tomatoes, onions are offered from 9-10 months, when the children's body can normally perceive them, and do this with caution, because they can cause allergies.

Especially carefully you need to choose products if the baby's father or mother had or has a food allergy.

Vegetable purees from 4 months, and in general at the beginning of complementary foods, should be monocomponent (from one specific vegetable). After getting acquainted with the listed products, if there is no negative reaction, you can offer the child multicomponent nutrition.

Complementary feeding scheme

From the very beginning, vegetable puree should be a meal on its own - breakfast or lunch. Vegetables will become a side dish only when meat and fish appear in your child's diet.

So, a new dish should be included in the children's menu gradually, almost imperceptibly. When you introduce vegetable puree complementary foods, the feeding pattern may be as follows.

Start early in the day with 1/2 teaspoon, then breastfeed/formulate. Every day, double the volume and bring it up to 50-100 ml, if the baby's well-being, the nature of the stool has not changed.
If the baby no longer wants to eat, do not insist - immediately offer him the usual food (breast milk, formula).
Adverse reaction occurs (redness/rash/skin itch, diarrhea/constipation, abdominal pain) - discontinue the product, wait until the symptoms disappear and try another.
Did you have a reaction to an increased amount of a product that was previously perceived as normal? Take a break for a couple of days, and then return to the previous volume of food.
After the first week (if the child feels normal), completely replace one feeding with vegetables. Over the next seven days, adaptation to the new food will occur.
How to introduce vegetables into complementary foods: each the new kind add to the diet one at a time, after 7 days (it’s easier to track a possible reaction and understand what exactly it happened to; it is recommended to keep records - date, type of food, dosage, reaction).

"Microdose" at the very beginning - The best decision. And the slower the volume increases per feeding, the less likely it is that the child will develop diathesis.

Buying or preparing

Factory-made baby food is recommended for use by leading global and domestic healthcare organizations. European and Russian manufacturers provide products of the highest quality, so the choice of parents depends only on their preferences and financial capabilities.

When buying ready baby food in the store you should pay attention to:

package integrity (no dents, tightly closed lid);
the color of the contents (if it can be seen through the packaging);
markings on labels minimum age child, expiration date, manufacturer's contacts);
compound.

Ideally, vegetable puree has an optimal homogeneous structure, natural color, additionally enriched with useful substances, hypoallergenic, does not contain spices, preservatives, "strange" additives, including starch as a thickener. It is sterile, it has all the necessary nutrients, regardless of the season.

If you want to make your own first meal puree, choose your vegetables carefully. They should not have defects, but they should not look too “glossy” (most likely, fertilizers unknown to you were used during cultivation). Best of all - vegetables from the proven "grandmother's garden".

You can stock up on food for the future: for example, cabbage is well stored in the freezer, and carrots and potatoes are stored on the balcony in winter.

For cooking vegetables, it is good to use a double boiler: this is a quick way, which also allows you to save vitamins. Pour the vegetables through a sieve (for small amounts) or mash with an immersion blender. At about 10-11 months, you can knead foods with a regular fork: the inclusion of large pieces will help the baby learn to chew.

Here general principles cooking a healthy vegetable dish for your child.

Take one kind (let's say broccoli), rinse in running water.
Pour boiling water over the vegetable, cut, put in a saucepan.
Pour the product with clean bottled water, cover the pan with a lid and cook over low heat for 20-30 minutes, until soft.
Drain the water (not completely), mash the still hot vegetables along with the broth.
Add 2-3 drops of olive or sunflower oil to the resulting mass (in the future, you can bring it up to 1 teaspoon), you can not a large number of boiled milk.
Stir until smooth. Don't add salt.
Let the puree cool or slightly warm.

Important: Be sure to prepare fresh food before each feeding.

If you would like to try making different vegetable purees for kids, the recipes we offer will help you with this. We remind you that these products can appear first in the diet, they will not cause allergies, they will be well absorbed and will bring many benefits.

Zucchini puree

You will need a small zucchini (without cracks, dents or other damage) and bottled water.

Wash the vegetable thoroughly, remove the skin, remove the core and cut into small cubes (about 1x1 cm).
Pour the pieces with a small amount of clean water, bring to a boil, lower the heat and cook for 15-20 minutes until they are soft.
Drain almost all the broth, grind the boiled zucchini until smooth, without lumps (wipe with a sieve or use a blender). If the consistency is too thick, pour in a little broth and mix.

cabbage puree

You will need cauliflower (7-10 florets) and 50 ml of purified water, breast milk or adapted formula).

Rinse the small inflorescences thoroughly, place in boiling water, leave to boil for 10-15 minutes (the same amount of time will be required if you cook in a double boiler).
Throw the boiled vegetables in a colander, cool.
Mash with a blender or rub through a sieve, gradually adding water / cabbage broth (gr. milk or mixture). Bring to the consistency of liquid sour cream.

carrot puree

Take 100 g of root vegetables, 25 ml of boiled milk, three drops of vegetable oil.

If you observe an atypical reaction of the child to a new food, you need to consult a pediatrician or contact an allergist for an examination. And in order to avoid problems, it is best to try first of all hypoallergenic vegetable purees for the first feeding - they are perfectly absorbed, provide the baby's body with the necessary macro- and micronutrients, fiber, vitamins. And only after getting used to them is it worth treating the child to mashed potatoes from other vegetables.

And our series about different types of complementary foods ends with the topic self cooking. It would seem that there is nothing simpler than home-made dishes: cooked, chopped with a blender, issued. But the modern mother does not look for easy ways, she goes to the forum and asks a lot of questions: how best to cook than grind, what to add, how to save. She also reads about terrible winter vegetables that have nothing useful, and then she is scared of genetically modified foods ...

How to decide and choose the best for the child? Everything is very simple. If you have increased suspiciousness, and dangerous herbicides and genetically modified tops appear in every carrot, feed your child with canned food. It is no more harmful than the daily concern about the usefulness/harmfulness natural products. As for the eternal debate about GM foods, most of the vegetables and fruits we consume have already undergone genetic changes over hundreds of years of hybridization. Scientists are constantly deducing something new, adjusting to the desires of the manufacturer to grow vegetables that will be unpleasant to malicious pests. Now science has stepped far forward, and the process of genetic engineering has accelerated hundreds of times, hence the panic. Whether this is good or bad, the answer has not yet been found, even by scientists who understand this better. Feed with jars, and sleep peacefully - there is nothing wrong with industrial nutrition. In winter, do not buy imported vegetables for feeding (zucchini, cauliflower) - they are absolutely overfed with chemicals for long-term storage and transportation in a commercial form. There are no healthy imported vegetables and fruits in winter. With ours, too, alas, not everything is clear to a simple consumer.

But if you still want to make your own complementary foods - or have the opportunity to use your harvest, this collection of tips may be useful.

VEGETABLES

To prepare vegetable puree, choose the most beautiful vegetables without spots and cracks. For the first complementary foods, vegetables are used that do not contain coarse fiber: zucchini, cauliflower, carrot. Mixtures of vegetables are introduced when the child has already tasted all their ingredients during the week. Vegetables should be washed well under running water - if you doubt the quality of water, use boiled or purified water. Try not to cook vegetables on the stove to retain as much of the nutrients as possible. It is better to cook for a couple - or use a double boiler. Microwave cooking is acceptable, but vegetables dry out in it - nowadays there are microwaves with a steamer function. They can also be baked, in which case the loss of nutrients is minimal. When cooking on the stove, vegetables are laid only in boiling water. Frozen at the same time, in no case are defrosted beforehand. In winter (and early spring), it is favorable to use a variety of frosts for feeding. There are many stereotypes about their usefulness, all of them are more or less debunked here:. In winter, frosts literally save, but check their quality at least by touch so that large pieces of ice are not felt inside.

Nothing is added to the very first vegetables, after a month they begin to add vegetable oil (sunflower or olive). Ready vegetables are rubbed through a sieve or used modern means: blender or other chopper. You should not soften the first vegetables (that is, for the first feeding at 6-7 months) with a fork or crush, they cannot cope with the fibers, and the complementary foods will come out undigested.

What can be added for taste: vegetable broth, a little expressed breast milk or the usual mixture. Vegetables do not need to be salted. The child does not have salt receptors, this taste is imposed forcibly. What taste you accustom to, this will be a priority in the future. If a child refuses vegetables, this does not mean that they need to be salted - this means that vegetables are introduced too early. Every child has their own feeding schedule. You can start introducing vegetables at 6, 10 or 12 months, it all depends on the desires of the child himself. In the process of introducing vegetables, the main thing is not volume, but variety. If a child eats a crumb of this and a crumb of that (a spoonful of zucchini, two tablespoons of carrots) - fine. And in terms of benefits, it is much better than those fed by force - with the release of the family choir of grandmothers or "for advertising" - one hundred grams laid down according to the instructions.

Possible mistakes: Do not wash vegetables with soapy water. This is an extra precaution. The soap is not washed off completely, and its remains are by no means useful for the child. Try to prepare the vegetable puree immediately before serving - and only at one time. Cooked mashed potatoes should not be reheated, this will increase the loss of nutrients. What vegetables are not introduced up to a year: white cabbage, beets, tomatoes, cucumbers - and greens. They are quite aggressive for the stomach, and for a child up to a year there will be enough of those vegetables that can be introduced: zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, green beans, carrots, pumpkin, potatoes, closer to a year - corn, peas. Some vegetables have a hard shell; corn and green beans sin with it. But in a double boiler, the shell softens easily and quickly. Mashed potatoes are a heavy dish, it is advisable to mix potatoes with any other vegetables.

PORRIDGE

For the first complementary foods, low-allergenic cereals are taken: rice, buckwheat or corn. Corn porridge is the heaviest, so in homemade conditions it is better to take rice or buckwheat. Rice is washed not with cold, but with warm or hot water, then the starch will separate. The groats are ground in a coffee grinder to the state of flour and boiled in water. In principle, you can grind ready-made porridge, but in this case, vitamins and trace elements are lost much faster. Groats (the resulting cereal flour) are placed only in boiling water, ideally they are not boiled until cooked, but left to swell. Otherwise, there is a chance that it will continue to swell in the child's stomach.

To properly prepare healthy porridge, you need to observe the ratio of water and cereals. Do not add water during the process. All cereals - except buckwheat and rice - are stirred in the process. For the first feeding, a liquid porridge is made: a teaspoon of cereals (cereal flour) per 100 ml of water. After 1-2 weeks, the amount of cereal is doubled. Cow's milk is not added to porridge for up to a year, only a little breast milk or a mixture immediately before serving, and a month after the addition - butter (3 g). Sugar or fructose are not needed. Permissible additives: fruit puree; closer to a year, ground dried fruits, pumpkin, carrots are put in cereals.

When a child has tasted all three types of low-allergenic cereals, mixtures are made from them. At 10 months, you can try oatmeal, the rest of the gluten-containing cereals in the conditions of home-made complementary foods are introduced no earlier than a year. At home, whole grains cannot be processed perfectly, they will still be heavier than instant cereals for children in boxes, so it is better to push back all the deadlines. Semolina porridge is not introduced until two or three years; recently, experts agree that this porridge is more intended for fattening, rather than feeding. Semolina contains 70% starch, proteins and very few vitamins and minerals. As well as phytin, which binds calcium salts, that is, it prevents calcium from entering the bloodstream. When there is little calcium in the human body, the parathyroid glands "withdraw" it from the bones and send it into the blood. All cereals, one way or another, bind calcium - that is also why they are recommended to be introduced after vegetables and meat. But semolina tries the most, having a pronounced “rachitogenic” effect, it contributes to the formation of rickets in children of the first two years of life.

Is it possible to grind for the first feeding not whole cereals, but flakes? Flakes are flattened grains that have been steamed. The grain is not only flattened, but also sliced on it, kept under infrared rays, and dried. From the ground flakes you get a poor porridge. Small flakes ("Nordic" or any others marked "small") are introduced after 10-11 months in the usual form, the child is quite capable of assimilating them if he has not had problems with digestion before.

FRUITS AND JUICES

Entering fruits start with green apples and pears. It is advisable to find your native fruits, such as Semerenko apples, Kuban Champion or Antonovka. They are sourer (and much more useful) than imported ones, and the acid is “knocked down” by baking. Most imported fruits ripen along the way, being picked unripe, this already impoverishes their composition, not to mention chemical additives to preserve their appearance. Fruits for import are grown separately and under special conditions - those plantations that float past the buses on vacation over the hill are purely for their own. Do not use apples with dark (black) spots for feeding, one such spot indicates a loss of vitamins by a third.

Apples and pears are given fresh, making a “scrape”, or baked, in a baked fruit, the acidity decreases and the amount of pectin, a useful substance that removes toxins, increases. How to bake: peel, cut into pieces and remove the part with bones. Or bake whole: add a little water to the container, loosely cover with foil and bake at a temperature of 200 degrees for 20 minutes, the time depends on the type of oven and the number of apples. You can also "bake" in the microwave for 2-3 minutes, while the fruit is covered with cling film.

Puree is made from fruits, it is offered for an afternoon snack, then added to porridge or cottage cheese - or left as an independent dish. Fruit is also given in pieces, in this case, make sure that the child does not choke. Fruit should be peeled and pitted. The peel is cleaned not only because it may contain paraffin residues, the peel is too hard, it is simply not digested. The banana is next after the green fruit, it is fibrous and starchy, so it should be crushed with diligence. Peaches, apricots and berries are tried last. Berries have a lot of fiber, tiny bones, they can cause serious intestinal upset, hence the moral: the norm of berries for a child is exactly as much as he can keep in his handful, and this is a lot.

Freshly squeezed juices are administered no earlier than one and a half years and only in diluted form (50:50).

MEAT

Meat is a heavy product, it is digested for a long time, so there is no need to hurry with its introduction, especially if the child is on breastfeeding. Begin to introduce meat puree with half a teaspoon. You can give this norm for three days and monitor the reaction. It is advisable to immediately mix the meat with vegetable puree (for better absorption). Just add the meat to the puree little by little, gradually increasing the dose.

Rabbit, lamb, turkey meat is ideal for the first feeding. Veal, pork, chicken and red varieties of fish are introduced after a year. At 10 months, the child can be offered meatballs, and after a year - steam cutlets. Meat broths are not used in children's nutrition, they contain harmful substances boiled from meat. The broth has the ability to quickly be absorbed into the intestines, the children's liver is not able to filter out all carcinogens. The kidneys also suffer: due to huge amount salts may develop urolithiasis disease. Therefore, before cooking, the meat must be separated from the bones, the finished dish is not poured with the remaining meat broth, and when cooking the soup, the meat broth is half diluted with water - or the finished mashed meat is added to the vegetable soup.

Home cooking method: the meat passed through a meat grinder twice is steamed until cooked (depending on the meat itself, the process may take a different time). Or, already cooked meat is passed through a meat grinder (blender, mini-combine). Minced meat is rubbed through a strainer (or blender). Steam cooking method: water is added to raw minced meat (the more water, the more tender), spread in a deep bowl and put it in another bowl with boiling water. Cover with a lid, cook for 10-15 minutes. Non-steam method: the meat is boiled for 20 minutes, then the broth is drained, poured with hot water again - and cooked until tender. In no case do not salt the meat puree - there are plenty of salts in the meat.

Meat contains a lot of coarse fibers, at home it is impossible to turn it into an easily digestible dish. And in stores it is difficult to find meat for the first feeding, which can be considered healthy in composition. Therefore, homemade is homemade, but canned is still better, especially up to a year.

FISH

Boil the fillet in a small amount of water for 15-20 minutes, cool, pass through a meat grinder, and then chop with a blender. For baby food, you need to buy only fillets of low-fat fish (hake, cod, pollock). It is better to thaw in salt water to reduce the loss of minerals during defrosting. The fillet is not recommended to be completely defrosted. Slightly thawed fish is washed in cold water and subjected to heat treatment, which, unlike meat, should not be too long. Put the fish only in boiling water, after which the fire is immediately reduced.

SOUR MILK

homemade kefir

Method 1. Ferment can be pharmaceutical bifidumbacterin, lactobacterin, "Narine", "Evita" or ready-made store biokefir, acidobifilin and any "live" yogurt. We add the starter to a liter of warm milk, close the jar with a tight lid, wrap it in a terry towel and send it to a warm place (for example, to the bathroom - it is always warm there) for 6-10 hours. When a kefir clot forms, we send the jar to the refrigerator for a few more hours.

Method 2. Boil half a liter of milk, cool to 35 - 36 degrees (so that you can safely hold your finger in the milk) and add 5 - 6 tablespoons of old kefir to it. Stir, wrap the bottle in a blanket and leave for 5 - 6 hours in a warm place, and then keep a few hours in the refrigerator. If instead of old kefir you add yogurt to milk, the taste of the drink will be slightly different. If there was no old curdled milk or kefir at home, you can use a piece of black bread as a starter.

Homemade cottage cheese

Method 1. Kefir cottage cheese (fermented milk) is easier to digest and assimilate. To prepare it, pour kefir into an enameled saucepan (mug) and put on the smallest fire. When a clot forms on top, fold it onto a sterile gauze to drain the serum.

Method 2. Calcined cottage cheese is prepared by adding a solution of calcium chloride to cold pasteurized or boiled milk; it is sold in pharmacies. The amount of calcium chloride in all recipes is different, there is this: to get 100 g of cottage cheese for 600 ml of milk, put 1.5 teaspoons of calcium chloride. Another recipe: bring milk to a boil and remove from heat. When it cools down a little, add with continuous stirring dissolved in a small amount boiled water cool calcium chloride, curdled milk, strain through gauze, let the whey drain. Per liter of milk - 1 tablespoon of calcium chloride. The well-known pediatrician Natalya Rashidovna Vasilyeva (rusmedserver, and other forums) recommends the following recipe: for 1 liter of cold raw milk, 1 ampoule (10 ml.) of 10% calcium chloride - pour in - boil - cool - strain through a sieve or gauze - calcined cottage cheese is ready.

There is an opinion that it is better not to give such cottage cheese to a child, in fact, this recipe came to us from veterinary medicine, calcium chloride cottage cheese is given to baby animals. At the very least, calcined cottage cheese should not be given every day. It can be noticeably bitter in taste, and its consistency is not suitable for the first complementary foods. Try it - form your own opinion.

Method 3. Boil milk, cool to body temperature. Add the starter, previously loosened in a small amount of the same milk. This is for its even distribution. Put in a warm place for a day or two. At the same time, it is better to interfere with it, disturb it several times during fermentation. Then - heat in a water bath, and not just putting the pan on the fire. The more heat, the more the casein coagulates. If you heat it on fire, then it can curl up into such nasty-hard lumps, that is, it will be very dry and hard cottage cheese. And for tender cottage cheese, you need to warm it up very carefully, in a water bath. Then - cool and discard: put gauze on a colander, pour the previous semi-finished product there, wait until the whey drains, and then collect the ends of the gauze from above and start twisting to squeeze out the whey. For greater density, you can then put this bag in a colander, pressing down on top with a plank with a load.

Method 4. Take the most low-fat milk that is on sale. Pour it into a large bowl or saucepan. Squeeze lemon juice into milk (for each liter of milk - from half to a whole lemon). You can also use ready-made purchased lemon juice or diluted citric acid. Pour into a bowl of milk and lemon juice boiling water from a kettle. Boiling water should be about the same or even a little more than milk. Stir calmly and watch with interest how the milk curdles before your eyes, the whey begins to become transparent. Do not wait until the milk clots become dense. This will give your curd an unwanted graininess. Catch tender clots with a spoon with holes and put them in another bowl. A little more serum may stand out, you drain it. All.

Method 5. 4 cups sour milk, 2 cups fresh milk. Boil fresh milk and pour into a vessel with sour milk. Mix thoroughly and leave to cool. After the mixture has cooled, pour it into a sieve and strain through a fine sieve.

How to store homemade puree

Knowledgeable people say in a voice: ready-made vegetable (meat and vegetable) purees do not need to be stored. These are dishes with a broken structure, ideally they are cooked strictly at one time. At home, it is impossible to provide shock freezing - useful substances are inevitably lost. It is necessary to freeze whole (cut) vegetables and fruits, and then mash them. Vegetables are stored at a temperature of - 6 ° C - a week, at - 12 ° C - 1 month, at - 18 ° C - 3 months.

But still, sometimes there is a need to freeze meat or vegetable puree. One of simple ways: Fill the ice box and put it in the freezer. Do not freeze hot or warm food, it needs to be chilled first. Once food is frozen, immediately place it in an individual plastic bag. Don't forget to mark and date when you did it. In this form, mashed potatoes can be stored for 3-4 weeks at a temperature not higher than -18. Never refreeze food.

Freezing cottage cheese at home is not recommended, since such freezing is slow, which significantly disrupts the structure of the protein, and worsens the taste and other qualities of the product. As an exception, this can only be done in freezers with two and three stars on the lid or in freezers with a temperature of - 18 °; store cottage cheese in such conditions should be no more than two weeks.

How to reheat frozen food: Transfer to a suitable container and place in a pot of boiling water, stirring occasionally. You can also use microwave heating. Food should be well heated, in no case warm. Do not reheat food more than once: leftover food should be discarded.

Household appliances to help homemade complementary foods

The most important assistant in the preparation of baby food is, of course, a blender. We read tips on choosing it here:. Modern manufacturers offer many interesting devices to facilitate labor. Most of them are pure pampering, but it will be nice to have them. For example, a blender-steamer-heater for baby food Tefal BH 7400, multifunctional processor Petit Terraillon (sterilizer, steamer and heater in one), Philips / AVENT steam center (steamer + sterilizer + heating), Maman mini-combine for baby food. And there are also special containers, in which you can store food in the refrigerator or freezer, if necessary, heat it up in them (in the microwave). These are AVENT/Philips, Tupperware, BabySteps, Brother Max containers.

On the photos: 1. George (mother pudjik ), 2. Danis (mother NatashamamaDanisa ), 3. Masha (mother Ryaba ), 4. Andrey (mother Altair ), 5. Dima (mother Meow… ).

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Vegetable puree for babies as complementary foods is recommended in the first place. Not juices or cereals, as some parents think, but vegetables. They are rich in vitamins and minerals, they have enough dietary fiber, which will provide the child with soft and delicate digestion and will be a good prevention of constipation.

In this article, we will talk about how to introduce vegetable complementary foods, how to prepare tasty and healthy puree for babies, what vegetables to give and in what quantity.

With what vegetables does the first feeding begin?

Breast milk and milk adapted formulas meet the requirements of the child for about the first six months of life. Then the baby's diet should expand. Vegetable puree pediatricians recommend introducing into the diet in the first place. But not all vegetables are acceptable for the beginning of the baby's acquaintance with new food.

If the child is breastfed, he is recommended to introduce vegetable complementary foods from 5-6 months. For a baby who, by coincidence, is deprived of breast milk and eats mixtures, it is better to introduce vegetables into the diet at 4 months of age.

It is recommended to introduce vegetables in a certain sequence. For the very first acquaintance with a new food recommended vegetables that do not usually cause allergies, the so-called low-allergenic. These are zucchini, broccoli and cauliflower. At the same time, the first baby vegetable puree must necessarily be one-component, that is, contain only one type of vegetable crop - only squash or only cauliflower puree.

pumpkin;
carrot;
potato;
squash.

A month later, at the age of 7-8 months, they add cabbage, beets and cucumbers, a year - tomatoes, and at 1.5 years - beans, peas and other legumes. Eggplants are recommended to be introduced after one and a half years, closer to 2 years.

Manufacturer rating

Ready-made baby puree in a jar is convenient and safe. Manufacturers make sure that the composition of the product is hypoallergenic, balanced. To start complementary foods, mashed potatoes in a jar are the best option., because preparing homemade puree for the sake of half a teaspoon, which the baby will eat, is impractical. In addition, mashed potatoes in a jar are convenient to take with you for a walk, on a trip.

The choice of a certain brand of baby food is a matter of income and family preferences. A pediatrician can only recommend certain manufacturers, but the parents themselves will still choose, taking into account, among other things, the preferences of their own baby, because it happens that a child refuses to eat mashed potatoes of one brand, but he is delighted with the same mashed potatoes, but from a different manufacturer.

safety and risk of allergy to the product;
taste qualities;
feedback from parents and pediatricians.

According to these three criteria, the current brands can be arranged in the following order:

humana;
Gerber;
"Grandma's basket";
Nutricia;
"FrutoNyanya";
"Subject";
"Diaper";
"Agusha";
hipp.

When choosing a ready-made puree, be sure to pay attention to the age marking, the expiration date. If the jar does not make cotton when opened, it is impossible to feed the baby with such puree. If you wish, you can cook vegetable puree yourself, but a number of important conditions must be observed.

Selection and preparation of ingredients

To prepare a homemade vegetable puree that can be given to an infant, you need to choose only fresh vegetables, appearance which is not objectionable. If a zucchini or pumpkin has darkening, bumps, rotten areas, cracks, “spoiled” sides, they are not suitable for baby food.

Vegetables can be bought in the market, in the store, but most the best option are fruits and root crops collected on their site. If there is no dacha and garden, choose only those purchased that are grown in your lane. Imported and imported vegetables and fruits are usually stuffed with big amount chemicals to preserve their presentation. You need to be especially careful when choosing vegetables if they are not in season in your lane. Instead of a purchased zucchini in the dead of winter, it is better to buy ready-made mashed potatoes in a jar from a trusted manufacturer of baby food.

You should not select vegetables for baby puree, the sides of which are glossy - it is possible to use wax, with which vegetables are rubbed to retain moisture when transported from afar.

Recipes for cooking at home

Making puree is easy. The task will be facilitated by the presence in the kitchen of a blender, double boiler. A good puree is obtained in a slow cooker. In order to make a one-component puree for the first feeding, take a zucchini, wash it well and peel it. Cut the vegetable into large pieces, after removing the seeds and core.

If you cook vegetables in small pieces, almost no useful substances will be preserved in them during heat treatment.

Put the pieces of zucchini in a multicooker bowl, double boiler or a small saucepan with a little water. Bring under the lid to readiness. Use a blender to turn the boiled zucchini into a puree. If it turns out thick, add a little vegetable broth that remained after heat treatment, or boiled water. It is not recommended for infants to salt and pepper vegetable puree. but you can add a couple of drops olive oil cold pressed. Ready puree is not stored. Before the next feeding, which provides for supplementary feeding with vegetables, it is prepared again.

After 8 months, the child will be able to eat multi-component purees. In this case, you can immediately cook several types of vegetables in the same way, and then make a single puree out of them. Zucchini and carrots, zucchini and broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, beets and carrots go well together. Almost all types of vegetables go great with mashed potatoes., which is prepared in the same way, but with the addition of milk or water (with the permission of the pediatrician), without butter. As the baby grows, you can create puree soups on the basis of ordinary vegetable purees, as well as vegetable mousses, for example, from boiled pumpkin and cottage cheese, from zucchini and boiled carrots.

Calculate your feeding schedule

Norms and rules of use

Complementary foods always start with a minimum amount of a new product. For a baby, acquaintance with vegetables should begin with half a teaspoon.. During the day, the mother should carefully monitor the baby. If allergies, intestinal disorders do not appear, the next day you can increase the volume of vegetable puree to a teaspoon.

The infant feeding scheme does not involve adding more than one new food in two days. This is important in order to keep track of possible negative reactions of the child's body to food. It will be useful for the baby and his parents if the amount of complementary foods meets the standards.

A table will help determine them, indicating the minimum and maximum value of the amount of vegetable puree that is allowed at a particular age.

The table shows the daily value. Parents can split this amount into two or three meals if the child likes vegetables. Thus, a child at 5 months can be given vegetables twice a day, 15 grams per feeding, and at 6 months, two times 25 grams can be given.

Before the age of one, it is important to teach the child to eat vegetables., otherwise later, at an older age, the baby may refuse to eat these foods and dishes that are useful and necessary for his growth and development. But only in theory, children should eat this or that amount of food. In practice, everything may turn out wrong - the child will require vegetables more often and more, or refuse them altogether. With the latter problem, most often parents turn to pediatricians.

What to do if the child does not want to eat mashed potatoes?

A child who does not want to eat mashed vegetables at his tender age has a lot of reasons for this behavior.

Here are just some of the reasons why children refuse this dish.

Complementary foods introduced too early, the child is psychologically and physiologically not ready for it - you need to postpone the idea and return to it in a week.
The child does not like the taste of vegetables- Try another vegetable. If you don’t eat zucchini, give broccoli, if you refuse store-bought mashed potatoes in a jar, cook it at home.
The type of vegetables is incomprehensible or unpleasant- put the child more often in a high chair at an adult table during dinner or breakfast, he should see how adults eat their food. This will form an idea of why the mother bothers him with a spoon and a strange substance in a plate or jar. Serve mashed potatoes in a beautiful children's plate, use an interesting spoon with animal figures, interest the baby in the process of eating.
The child is not up to vegetables- He is teething or his stomach hurts, he gets sick. In this situation, it is impossible to offer new products so as not to increase the load on the baby's body.
Baby is not hungry- in this situation, wait until the child is hungry and offer vegetable puree at the very beginning of the meal.
Has already negative experience - if the baby was forced to eat vegetables, they pushed a spoon into him by force, the taste of mashed potatoes will be unpleasant for understandable psychological reasons. In this situation, give the child the opportunity to choose for himself whether to eat or not. And the vegetables that are so needed can be mixed into other types of food, for example, into vegetable puree soup, into porridge.

In order to prevent situations in which the child will hate vegetable dishes, it is important to do everything in a timely manner. Do not follow the advice of relatives and pediatricians too blindly about the timing of complementary foods. If a child once in his six months refused a vegetable marrow, no need to insist. Try offering him food a little later.. All children develop at different rates and according to their own schedule. This applies not only to height and weight, but also to metabolic processes, the processes of producing the necessary enzymes in the body, because without them the assimilation of new food is impossible.

The same recommendation applies to the amount of vegetables eaten. The child does not owe anything to anyone. He may well have his own tastes and needs in the amount of complementary foods. And not always his real needs exactly correspond to pediatric norms and tables.

For information on how to cook vegetable puree at home for a child of 7-8 months, see the following video.

And our selection of the best vegetable puree recipes for the first feeding, which you can easily prepare at home.

Most often, the first complementary foods for babies begin with zucchini, cauliflower or broccoli. These are the most hypoallergenic vegetables, that is, those to which children usually do not have an allergic reaction. You should start with a monocomponent puree (puree made from one vegetable), and then, when you have already introduced several different vegetables one at a time, and there was no allergic reaction to them, you can prepare vegetable purees from two or more tested vegetables.

In our selection, you will find 12 of the best mono- and multi-ingredient vegetable purees for baby's first foods, many of which can be prepared in as little as 15 minutes.

12 best vegetable puree recipes for the first feeding

Vegetable puree from potatoes for the first feeding

Potatoes have mass useful properties: it has a positive effect on the state of the digestive system, stabilizes the metabolism and strengthens the cardiovascular system. In addition, it is simply delicious, nutritious and easy to prepare according to our recipe, which you will find at the link:.

3 recipes for vegetable puree from cauliflower for feeding

The best way to prepare cauliflower for baby food is not to boil it, but to steam it. Follow the link to our selection of instructions on how to prepare cauliflower for the first feeding, mashed cauliflower and broccoli, and mashed cauliflower, potatoes and zucchini.

3 recipes for vegetable puree from fresh green peas for complementary foods

By the amount of protein, green peas are comparable to beef, while it is well absorbed. It also contains a large amount of vitamin C and selenium, and it is recommended to enter in children's diet for the prevention of anemia. Here you will find information on when to introduce green peas to your baby, as well as how to make puree of fresh green peas, a recipe for puree of green peas, spinach and apple, and a recipe for puree of green peas, fennel and peach.

Vegetable puree from carrots and broccoli and cheese for feeding

Combining broccoli with mashed potatoes and cheese is a great vegetable-based recipe because it will help your baby eat more healthy greens. A strong enough aroma of broccoli will well set off the mild taste of mashed potatoes. Moreover, you remember that broccoli is a super vegetable: it is an excellent source of vitamin C, beta-carotene, folic acid, iron and potassium. You can find the full recipe here:.

Pumpkin vegetable puree with prunes and yoghurt for feeding

The main advantage of this pumpkin puree for babies is that it is saturated with vitamin A, beta-carotene, potassium, protein and iron. And by mixing pumpkin with yogurt and prunes, your child will not only get a large dose of beneficial bacteria that will improve his digestion, but also a lot of fibers that will help to easily cleanse the intestines, which is especially important for children who suffer from constipation. Recipe link:.

Vegetable puree from carrots, sweet potatoes, peppers with chicken for feeding

If the child has already managed to try monocomponent vegetable and meat purees as the first complementary foods, you can offer him this bright, tasty, and most importantly healthy, the recipe of which you will find at the link.

Whether the baby eats mother's milk or mixtures, there comes a moment when he needs to receive other food. Even experienced mothers are wondering where, how and when to start feeding a baby. Pediatricians advise starting to get acquainted with gastronomic diversity by trying vegetable puree or porridge. What do parents need to know about vegetable puree as the first feeding?
Supplementation can solve problems with the baby's weight and digestion. So, vegetable puree is suitable for overweight children, constipation. The calorie content of children's cereals will help the baby get stronger, normalize his metabolism. However, vegetable puree is considered the best option. It contains fiber, a large amount of vitamins and minerals.

Modern pharmacies and supermarkets offer a huge selection of purees for the first feeding and various vegetables from different manufacturers. So is it worth it for moms already loaded with household chores to cook the baby themselves? Isn't it easier to buy ready-made meals? And at homemade puree, and the store has its advantages and disadvantages.

homemade puree		Purchased canned food
pros	Minuses	pros	Minuses
Known composition	Time costs	Menu variety	Possibility to buy an expired product
Production date known	Lack of process sterility	Time saving	Frequent discrepancy between the declared composition on the label and the contents of canned food
Possibility to choose high-quality products for cooking		The product meets the age needs of babies	Most manufacturers produce their products according to TU (technical specifications), that is, not made according to the requirements of GOST.
Compliance with storage conditions under personal control		Ease of use
Possibility to prepare the required amount of food		Easy to store (can be taken on the go)

Another great benefit of homemade vegetable puree is that food cooked mother's hands with love for the baby and thoughts about him, it will be tastier and doubly useful for the crumbs. What can not be said about the automated process for the production of canned purees.

How to choose ready-made vegetable puree?

When choosing canned food with vegetable puree in the store, pay attention to:

appropriate product for the age of the baby.
date of manufacture, expiration date.
compliance of these storage conditions with the conditions indicated on the label (if the temperature regime was violated, the product may be spoiled).
packaging. It must not be deformed. If this is a jar, the lid should not be swollen.
compound. Study it carefully. It happens, for example, that a manufacturer misleads consumers by placing a large inscription “Sugar Free” on the label, in fact, including glucose-fructose syrup in the composition.
production conditions. Give preference to canned food marked GOST.

Choice of vegetables for puree

According to its composition, puree can be mono- and multi-component, that is, consisting of one or more products. The vegetables included in the puree recipe affect its usefulness, nutritional value, and impact on the baby's body. Properly compose a menu for your baby, the table will help.

	Vitamins, nutrients	Effect on the body	Possibility of an allergic reaction	Recommended age to start weaning
vegetable marrow	Vitamins A, C, fiber, potassium, copper, low calorie.	Strengthening effect on the cardiovascular system, improving digestion.	Hypoallergenic	From 4 months
Broccoli	Calcium, minerals, vitamin E (powerful antioxidant)	Improvement of digestion and appetite, development and protection of vision, strengthening of the immune system, bone growth.	Hypoallergenic	From 4 months
Cauliflower	Vitamins of group B, PP, C, E, K, potassium, phosphorus	Strengthens blood vessels, bone tissue, enhances immunity.	Low degree of allergenicity	From 4 months
White cabbage	Compounds of chlorine and sulfur	antiseptic action, cleansing the stomach and intestines in disorders	Rare cases of allergies	From 7 months
Pumpkin	Fiber, iron, carotene, mineral salts of phosphorus, potassium, B vitamins, vitamin K, pectin.	Normalization of the stool, reducing the risk of developing anemia, strengthening the walls of blood vessels, stimulating physical and neuropsychic development, stimulating normal blood clotting, improving appetite, and digestion.	Low allergenic product	From 5 months
Carrot	Carotene (vitamin A), B vitamins, potassium salts, phytoncides.	Stimulation of growth, strengthening of bones, health of gums, teeth, hair, skin.	Possible allergy	From 4 months
Beet	Vitamins C, B, PP, iron, folic acid,	Stimulation of the formation of red blood cells, improving the process of oxygenation of muscle tissues.	Frequent occurrences of allergies	From 8-9 months.
Potato	Phosphorus, potassium, starch, vitamins of groups B, C, E, A.	Eliminate toxins from the body, strengthen the cardiovascular system	Low degree of allergenicity	From 4-4 ½ months.

After introducing all vegetables into the baby's diet, it will be good to alternate different types mashed potatoes so that the baby receives a variety of nutrients, vitamins and minerals.

Vegetable puree recipes for babies

How to cook vegetable puree for a child? Puree made at home is recommended to be consumed immediately, without leaving it for storage in the refrigerator, without subjecting it to heating. Vegetables are steamed or in an enamel saucepan. The first method is preferable, since it retains most of the vitamins and minerals. During normal cooking, foods may lose their nutritional value. Root crops (potatoes, carrots, beets) are advised to soak for several hours, in order to avoid the nitrates contained in them from entering the baby's food.
So, how to prepare mashed potatoes for the first feeding (algorithm of actions):

Take fresh vegetables (you can also use frozen ones), wash them thoroughly.
Remove skins, seeds.
Rinse again, pour over with boiling water.
Cut into small pieces.
Dip in boiling water (or put in a double boiler).
Cook until tender (about 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces).
Cool, rub through a strainer, or chop in a blender. Usually a strainer is used for a small amount of puree, a blender for a larger amount.
To achieve a thinner consistency, add breast milk, formula, or water in which vegetables were boiled.
Salt, sugar or other spices are not recommended by nutritionists and pediatricians. A few weeks after the introduction of vegetable puree, you can add vegetable oil to it at the rate of 0.5 tsp. per 50 g of the finished product.

Proper complementary foods

How do you introduce your baby to new foods? How to give a child vegetable puree?

The beginning of complementary feeding of a child depends on the type of feeding and the individual characteristics of the baby. So, babies receiving breast milk are advised to introduce new foods from 6-7 months. Babies who eat mixtures are recommended earlier complementary foods - from 4-5 months.
The first puree should be monocomponent (from one vegetable) green or white.
It should be given, starting with small portions (1/2 tsp), gradually increasing the amount of food to 150 g / 200 g by 1 year.
After trying a new food, offer the child a breast (or a mixture, if artificial feeding) until full saturation.
Vegetable puree can be used from 4 months. to make up for the lack of breast milk during the period.
Do not rush to immediately diversify the crumbs menu. There may be an allergic reaction to some products (rash, redness, peeling of the skin, etc.). Observe for 4-7 days. In the absence of any signs of allergy, proceed to the introduction of the next vegetable.
Give multi-component purees to the baby only if he has tried each vegetable separately. Eliminate in advance from the composition of products that cause allergies in the child.

Following all the rules of the first feeding, listen to your intuition. If the child is breastfed at 4-5 months. perfectly manages without supplementary feeding, gains weight, you should not rush. Pay attention to his interest in adult food the appearance of the first teeth. These signs will tell you that it's time to get to know a new food.