Reaching the sixth month mark can be considered a huge milestone for the baby and a great achievement for the mother. There are plenty of vast changes you can see in your baby as compared to six months ago. The sixth month old baby is beginning to learn to sit on her own and might even be cutting her first tooth. These are all signs that the baby is ready to eat a little semi-solids ( by puree-ing with a fork or a baby food processor ) day by day. Sitting upright allows her chin to be up and her neck to be straight which makes chewing and eating semi-solids more possible and much safer. Teething also means she can have the means of chewing the semi-solids well so this will aid digestion and not become a tummy ache issue later on. A baby food processor, baby food grinder or even a baby food blender will come in handy at this stage of a baby's life.
The World Health Organisation ( WHO ) recommends babies to be breastfed exclusively for the first six months of their lives. If for whatsoever reason breastfeeding is not possible, infant formula can be used to complement breastfeeding. After six months, besides drinking milk, semi-solids can be gradually introduced to complement the baby's diet.
There are a variety of natural food suitable for becoming the baby's first food. Let me tell you the top three food on my list, namely Avocado, Banana and Papaya ( For easier remembrance sake, "ABP" ). Why "ABP"? This is because they are packed with a lot of good vitamins and minerals and preparing these three food is as easy as "ABC" ( No baby food processor is required ). They can be easily prepared and served to the baby without cooking or without using any food processor. All you need is your knife and fork. For Avocado and Papaya, first cut open the fruit, remove the seed or seeds, scoop out the flesh of the fruit and finally mash the flesh up with a fork until they become a mushy lump ( without any visible solid fruity parts ). As for the banana, peel off the skin and mash it with a fork until it become a mushy lump. Hence, for these three food, you can save the time and hassle of washing and cleaning the baby food processor later on.
However, we need to let the baby try as many types of food as possible when she is an infant so she will be able to love and enjoy all types of food ( be it vegetables or fruit or meat or carbohydrates ) when she grows up. Therefore, a user friendly and easy to clean up baby food processor will be a very handy tool in your kitchen. You will be able to whip up a meal of fresh natural delicious food for your baby in a whiff if you purchased the right type of baby food processor.
What is an ideal baby food processor? There are many brands of baby food processor and different models of food processors available in the market. How do you come to a decision on which baby food processor to purchase? Don't end up buying a baby food processor with multiple parts which will take you an hour to clean up, most likely this equipment will end up in the store room as you would rather spend the time bonding with your baby. Go to the people you trust and rely on, ask experienced mothers ( your sisters, good friends or your own mom etc ) for valuable recommendations. I believe only those tried and tested ( by experienced mothers ) baby food processors are worth buying. For me, I managed to get a reasonably priced, easy to use and easy to clean baby food processor after searching online and reading numerous rave reviews about that baby food processor used by many mother from forums and blogs.
The advantages of a baby food processor are many provided you get the right one. Instead of wasting time, the ideal baby food processor helps you to save precious time by puree-ing your baby's food into a smooth consistency in a flash ( a few seconds is all it takes ). You don't have to be mashing the food with a fork until your hands are sore and yet the food is not smooth enough for your baby. Sometimes, serving your baby this food( with some hard lumps ) can be dangerous when your baby just begin to learn how to chew. These not properly puree-ed food can become a choking hazard for our baby. As a matter of fact, some good healthy food are just too hard and cannot be easily puree-ed by simply using a fork. Therefore, a good powerful baby food blender will be able to turn those not so soft food into a nice soft texture with just a touch of a button. Easy!
You do not have to shelve off the idea of preparing the harder to chew food for your baby if you own a good baby food processor. For example, you will be able to prepare nutritious brown rice for your baby by using the baby food processor. ( For brown rice, the kernels of the rice grain stay intact; whereas white rice is derived when the kernels of the rice grain have been removed ). I prefer not to give white rice to my baby as the kernels of the rice grain have been removed. As most of the goodness is found on the kernels of the rice grain, brown rice will more nutritious than white rice. I gave my baby organic brown rice as it is a even healthier option.
Preparation wise, there are two methods you can choose from. Firstly, you can rinse the grains of the brown rice with some water, drain away the water and put the rice grains on a tray to dry. After the rice grains are thoroughly dried, just pour them into the baby food processor and conveniently grind them into very fine powder which you can store in air tight containers for future use. You can keep the finely grinded brown rice powder in the refrigerator to make sure it is as fresh as possible for your baby's consumption. Personally, I will only make a small portion of the brown rice powder each time as using the baby food processor is rather convenient and this will ensure my baby will be getting as much fresh food as possible.
Alternatively, you can use the baby food processor to prepare an individual serving. You can wash the required amount of brown rice grains and then place them into the baby food processor container. Simply add a little water into the baby food processor to cover the rice grains and grind them into a mixture of tiny bits of rice grains. Then you can pour the whole rice mixture into your cooking pot. For cooking of brown rice, whether it is the finely blended rice powder or the whole rice mixture, simply throw in your imagination (add in small pieces of carrot, pumpkin or steamed broccoli etc) and your baby will be able to enjoy a nutritiously, naturally tasting meal.
In addition, choosing a baby food processor with a easy to clean function is important too. It means that the baby food processor will be cleaned quickly simply by putting the dirtied part under the tap to rinse and then it is clean again. Please consider all the above pointers before making the purchase of your baby's food processor. Best of luck!
Tags: baby food, baby care, baby health, baby food nutrition, motherhood, baby first food, parenting, baby food processor, whole foods
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