My baby (no. 2) led weaning

It's been a really long blogging hiatus, but I'd like to think I've collected some wisdom during that time!  First I'd like to introduce baby number two, my little lady, Sofia Rose. How delightful a daughter is! She's 13 months old at present, and it seems like she will always be a baby to me!

 

 

But she's an independent little thing, in every way. After being exclusively carried and worn on my chest, and sleeping by my side at night, she asked to be put on the floor the day she turned 5 months old. To the astonishment of all present, she began to commando crawl along the mat. And that was it, she was on the move! She was on all fours a few weeks later, by 6 months she was crossing rooms. At 9 months she took her first step, by 10 months she was walking.

Her food journey has had a similar element of precocious independence. I'd made up my mind to keep her exclusively breast fed through her first year, believing this was the healthiest start to life... But my baby had other ideas! At just barely 4 months she mastered grabbing food from my hand and stuffing her fist into her mouth before I could stop her! Far from 12 months on milk, it was all I could do to make it to 5 months!



Sprung!...Is that a beetroot Sofia? Delicious?

So I abandoned my grand plans of breastfeeding exclusively, and, with the encouragement of a friend and colleague who's opinion I respect, we went ahead with her first foods. As it was very much Sofia's choice to begin to eat solids, she seemed like a perfect candidate for baby led weaning (BLW). We had intended to use this style for Antonio, but wimped out when he gagged on a green bean! I fed him all of the same foods that I offered to Sofia, only as purees. Sofia had a combination of baby led weaning and Weston A Price baby feeding recommendations, which means I gave her certain very important, nutrient dense foods in a cup or spoon, which is not strictly in line with baby led weaning practices.  First I fed her chicken broth from a small cup. Broth is a wonderful first food as its warm, nourishing, and helps to seal the little gut, and promote gut flora balance, which is the most important thing a food can do! She loves her broth still, these days she drinks it through a straw. 

Following the broth was egg yolk. A perfect baby food, yolk is very similar in it's nutritional profile to breast milk, and I always think it's as though it was made for little ones! Both my babies loved it. Yolk provides fats and fat soluble vitamins, needed for immune system function and the rapid brain development of the little ones, plus iron, which can begin to deplete in mothers milk, but it's so much more easily absorbed from an egg yolk than those awful fortified cereals (which just constipate the poor little things anyway). I found the easiest way to give yolks was like the broth, in a small cup. I prepared them in a little pot, first melting about 5g of butter, then adding the yolk, stirring, over a very low heat for just a few seconds, to warm it through. Now she eats whole eggs, scrambled, and has raw yolks in smoothies. I continue to ensure she gets at least two yolks per day for optimal growth and development. 

 

The final food I offer to her on a spoon is butter. My babies both love organic, grass fed butter. It's a great source of fat soluble vitamins and saturated fats, important for gut health, brain and bone development.
 

In addition to these, I offered her vegetables, boiled until soft in salted water, and smothered in butter! She tasted fruit pieces, yoghurt and avocado. Her first meat experiences were with chicken drumsticks, with most of the meat removed. This was always an amusing sight, especially as she was such a little thing. 

 

According to the BLW recommendations, I allow Sofia to govern her food intake, to play with foods and experiment with them, and stop when she feels full. I never made her puréed food unless the family was having dhal or soup. However there are certain foods I've withheld from her. I've limited her intake of grain based food, since babies lack the digestive enzymes necessary to break them down. (This is one of the arguments put forward for breastfeeding exclusively for 12 months.) Giving floury foods like bread and pasta at a young age kills off beneficial bacteria in the gut, creates leaky gut syndrome by degrading gut integrity, and feeds opportunistic flora like candidia albicans. This is a situation worth avoiding, since its much easier to prevent than cure. Needless to say, she has never had refined sugar. When kids do consume these foods early the result is frequent infections like cold and flu, gastro, uti, ear infections and tonsillitis. Sofia certainly isn't deprived though! She enjoys treats like medjool dates, berries, cream and raisins, and her first birthday cake was a variation on a GAPS recipe, based on eggs, nuts and dates. (I'll post about her first birthday cake next week.)

 Our families have been very supportive of BLW. I've heard that sometimes mums have to battle with family members who are pro puréed food til a certain age, which can make it trickier for a new mum to stick to BLW. If you're seeking advice on how to respond to histrionics from family I would suggest you find your own certainty of your conviction. When you are sure, you convey this in your manner and tone of voice, and you'll find the argument simply doesn't come up. Have confidence in your child, and remember you must do what you believe in. If you cave in to others criticism and do it their way you'll feel guilty about it. (That applies to everything!)
 

A question I've often seen asked by mums new to BLW is how to introduce 'meals' to the baby. I have to say I didn't and don't. My focus is to ensure I provide Sofia with enough nutrients, so I mostly offer single foods at a time, except at dinner time, when she has a plate of what the family are eating. I feel it's preferable to give one thing at a time, so the child can really immerse themselves in the sensory experience of the broccoli or the asparagus or the chicken. Each day I work out when Sofia will have her eggs, whether she'll have some meat, which veggies I'll prepare and which snacks to take when we go out. This method is also far easier for me, because lets face it, I have enough to do! But if you want to offer meals to you baby led weaning bub, I'd recommend doing it 'tasting plate' style. For example a little cheese, a few boiled carrot sticks, some avocado, some peas and a lamb chop. I'd also say that soups are the easiest and one of the most nourishing ways to feed baby and yourself alike! 

 

Every household will do it differently, but I hope my story will inspire you in some way. 

Leave a comment if you have a funny BLW story, pic, or any questions etc. 

Crunchy Nuts! How to make your own yummy nut milk and activated nut meal

I've been experimenting of late with nut milk. You may have seen nut milk in the supermarket, it comes in a tetra pack (ikch) and hangs out with the other milk substitues. But did you know you can make your own? Making your own comes with all the usual advantages of home made over prepackaged. The tetra pack is the obvious difference, this is something to avoid at all costs. Environmental plastics are bad enough without unwittingly imbibing them too. Home made nut milk is really high in vitamins, and also contains no hydrogenated (or any other) oils which might be added to a packaged version to give shelf life. In short, it's a whole food.

I was surprised by how quick it was to make too. The only special equipment required is a piece of muslin, so I cut up one I'd used to swaddle Antonio when he was a newborn. (I promise it was washed in the interim.) All I do is put about a cup of almonds or hazelnuts into a stainless steel milkshake cup and cover them with water. I do this in the evening, leave them overnight, then drain them, add more water, blitz with a stick blender and strain through the muslin. Done! I have used this milk in Antonio's smoothies, which he loves, but the mornings are chilly as winter approaches, so smoothies containing frozen blueberries aren't quite so appropriate for him. I will use the nut milk to make porridge for him, but the last couple of mornings I've added 2 egg yolks and half a banana to a cup of nut milk, whizzed it with the stick blender and cooked this over low heat, stirring with a whisk. Then I added a teaspoon of raw honey and about a tablespoon of flaked quinoa. This makes a delicious kind of custard porridge, which Bubby gobbles!

My personal favourite use for nut milk is hazelnut hot chocolate! When added to a cup of cocoa, hazelnut milk makes you wonder why you'd bother with disgustingly sweet, artificially flavoured syrup. Chocolate and hazelnuts really are a match made in heaven!

The secret of great nut milk is not to use too much water. The less water you use, the creamier the milk will be. You only need enough to be able to easily blend it. I find this is about 1:1.5, but I don't really measure. The wog in me likes to measure by eye!

The leftover nut meal is wonderfully nutritious too, high in bioavailable protein, vitamins, minerals...mmmm. What you do with this gorgeous stuff is spread it out on a biscuit tray and pop it into the oven at 50 degrees, leaving the door slightly open. When the meal is dry, let it cool and store it in an airtight container. I stick mine in the fridge, to err on the side of caution, but I've read there's no need to refrigerate. I use it in baking, just like pre-milled almond or hazelnut meal, only it's much more nutritious, and the protien is more easily absorbed. I'm currently working on a recipe for home made crunchy 'activated' nut cereal! And also activated nut protein bars, both of which I'll post as soon as I'm happy with them.

If you have any more great nut milk or nut meal recipes or ideas, please share them!

Wholefoods for Baby - recipes

Here are some of the wholefoods recipes Antonio loves best.

Baby Dahl recipe

This is a recipe I've addapted from my Harre Krshna cookbook, which I love. It's fantastic because I can make a large quantity if we're having Indian food for dinner and we all eat the same. Always preferable to cooking two different meals! These quantities make about 2 meals for baby.

1/8 cup masoor dal
1/8 cup quinoa or rice
2 cups water
1 tomato
70g sweet potato
2tsp butter or ghee
2tsp grated fresh ginger
2tsp cumin seeds
1tbsp organic shredded coconut
pinch aesefetida (if you have it)
sea salt to taste

Boil dal and quinoa/rice in a small pot with the water. Add sweet potato and chopped tomato, boil again, cover and turn down heat. When the dal has dissolved turn off the heat and cover.

In a small frypan heat ghee or butter, add ginger and cumin seeds and fry. Add coconut and brown a little, don't burn the spices. Add aesefetida and remove from heat. Add spice base and some salt to the dahl. Blend with a stick blender and serve.

Cauliflower soup

Another one for the whole family. These flavours compliment fish well, so I sometimes poach a slice of a mild, white fish in the soup, then break it up with a fork.

one whole cauliflower
2 large potatoes
1 cup quinoa
1 leek
1L homemade chicken stock
sea salt

Fry off leek in a heavy casserole pot, add potatoes, cauliflower, stock, quinoa and salt. Boil then blitz!


Baby Breakfast Smoothie

This fun, fabulous recipe is made possible because Antonio learned to drink from a straw! It was so easy to teach him, and makes it easy to keep his fluids up. The following can be blizted in a processor or in a milkshake cup using a stick blender.

half a banana
1/3 cup of fresh or frozen berries
2 tbsp whole natural yoghurt
1 tbsp coconut cream
one raw egg yolk



Baby Bucco recipe

1 small slice osso bucco
half carrot
half celery stick
small onion
small garlic clove
1/2 cup homemade chicken stock (or water)
splash of olive oil
2 fresh tomatoes or half tin chopped tomatoes
sea salt
optional dried herbs

Chop veggies and saute (all but tomatoes) with the oil or butter til soft. Add dried herbs. Brown osso bucco in another pan, then add to vegies. Add stock, chopped garlic and tomatoes, then season and pop the lid on over low heat and cook 1/2 to 1 hour, til the meat is soft and the bone is empty. Chop or blizt, depending on the age of your baby.


Baby Lamb Korma recipe

This is a recipe I pulled from an online Indian recipe database years ago, and I've made it so many times since then that I no longer require the recipe, my hands do it on autopilot! You don't have to use lamb, I've done it with beef, chicken and vegetarian. This makes a few meals worth.

1 clove garlic
same amount fresh ginger
100g lamb cubed
half a cup cubed veg, anything works
half a tin chopped tomatoes
3 tbsp whole natural yoghut
1 small onion
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 cardamom pods
2 whole cloves
tsp garam masala
tsp turmeric
sea salt


Mince ginger and garlic and put into 1/4 cup water and set aside.
Heat ghee and add cumin seeds and onion. Fry til the onion softens, then add other spices. Add tomatoes and allow to reduce. Add yoghurt and veg.

In a separate pan, heat more ghee and brown meat, then add to the curry. Cook until the meat is soft, gradually adding the garlic/ginger water. Remove whole cardamoms and cloves, and cut up or puree.

Wholefoods for Antonio

Having finally emerged from the sleep deprived daze of my child's first 10 months, I feel ready to take up my blogging anew. I'll begin with a topic dear to my heart; little Antonio's journey into solid foods. I feel it's an interesting one since there are such strong controversies surrounding the subject of a baby's diet, as with diet in general, however in addition to the controversy, parents become emotional about the food they choose for their kids. There is much conflicting information about this, and as Mums we read or ask our female kinfolk in search of the best advice.

The wisdom I found satisfactory was provided by nutritionists such as Sally Fallon and Jude Blereau, who espouse a return to the traditional cooking methods of our ancestors which our bodies are evolved to, rather than following the often misguided and unhealthy advice of the current "pollitically correct" (cereal box) nutritional models. In practical terms this means offering whole foods to provide the 3 macronutrients; fats, protein and carbs, and the many micronutrients (vitamins, minerals etc)required for good health.

Antonio's solid food journey began when he was around 5 months old. Until that time he was exclusively breastfed, and although the WHO recommend that continue to 6 months, my big boy was clearly displaying signs of starvation! I judged him to be ready for foods, and began by handing him spoonfuls of mashed avocado to put into his mouth (the first destination of all grasped objects), which were sucked down and how.

It was mostly avocado during this first month. Avo, how do I love thee, let me count the ways!

1. It's RAW and packed with life force, live vitamins like A, E, C, and K, and minerals like iron, magnesium, zinc and selenium


2. it's green, therefore packed with antioxidants


3. it's high in fats, therefore perfect for little growing brains, very like breastmilk


4. It's an uber convenient, portable baby food


5. it's anti-inflammatory, therefore perfect for emerging teeth


6. it helps with blood sugar balancing

Other than avocado, Antonio had some mashed sweet potato, some flaked quinoa mixed with expressed breastmilk, and some fruits like pear, apple, rockmellon and late season blood plums (he loved those!).

After an early experience with baby rice cereal which constipated the poor little thing, I did some reading and concluded that I should have followed my instinct not to feed it to him. No one does well on refined grains. I threw out a full box.

At that early stage of fooding, I was more interested that it was a fun experience and generally allowed Antonio as much autonomy as safety permitted. We laughed throughout, and he usually wore at least as much as he ingested. He always licked the bowl.

After the early stages of single tastes, when he began to take 2 and then 3 meals a day, I began to mix his veggies into stews, added some such as carrots, peas, pumpkin, green beans, zucchini, brocoli (loved that...still does!), and grains such as whole oats and whole rice. At this point I tried egg yolks, which were a raging success and I wish I'd started them sooner! I often give them as an appetiser because they increase his interest in dinner.

The value of egg yolk is in the fats, vitamins and minerals. The phospholipids found in runny egg yolk are invaluable brain nutrition. High levels of zinc, calcium, selenium and iron as well as vitamins A, E, and K make it an important food for all of us, but most interesting is the levels of vitamin D, about 110 IU per 100g, means we should consume these all winter long. In fact 2 egg yolks contain 60% of the daily requirement of vitamin D.

Many people are scared to give eggs to their infants because they're on the no-no list of the handy hand-out we get from the child health clinics. This is because infants can't yet digest egg whites, but it's such a shame to ignore the enormous benefits of the yolk. Here is the preparation method that best worked for Antonio and me:

Take one or two free range organic eggs. Boil a small pot of water. Separate white from yolk with your hands. Store the whites in the freezer to make friands, pavlovas etc. Have a small cup (like a little espresso cup) and a soup spoon at the ready. Drop the yolk into the boiling water and wait a minute. Fish it out with the soup spoon and gently peirce the yolk, squeeze the runny stuff into the cup, eat the 'skin' yourself (this way you wont unwittingly serve an off egg to bubby. Trust me it happened last night, thank god I realised!) and serve.

For some current information about egg consumption:

www.whfoods.com

After another while, around 8 months, Antonio tasted meat for the first time, which probably should have been fish, but was organic chicken instead. As it turns out, he loves fish, which I poach for him in coconut cream and water, with a few complimentary veg such as zucchini, peas or broccoli. He enjoys his chicken, beef and lamb too, and his favourite meals from this range of foods include my Grandma's chicken stew, lamb stew, "Baby Bucco" which is his own version of Osso Bucco, and poached fish. I am careful to space out his intake of meat to go easy on his little liver, and I tend to give yolks on the non meat days. I try to give him home made chicken stock as often as possible, as this mineral rich brew is arguably the most beneficial thing he could ingest.

His favourite vegetarian meals include dahl / lentil and veg soup, pumpkin risotto, potato and broccoli, minestrone with quinoa, banana and avocado with coconut cream, and the very recently added plain, full fat, natural yoghurt. He also enjoys nawing on some of my avocado rye bread toast.

The foods Antonio has not yet tasted are those I consider to be on the unhealthy side; sugar and refined wheat products like bread and pasta. The later his body has to deal with these insults the better he'll be set up for health in later life. You may find yourself thinking "I was given pasta as a baby", and many people do this, but consider that the cultures whose chronic and increasing ill-health are those that consume refined carbohydrates, while the healthiest people on the planet do not. Rather than emulate your own parents, move forward with what science has shown our ancestors knew; food comes from nature, not factories.

I encourage anyone in charge of a childs's diet to pick up a copy of Jude Bereau's Wholefoods For Children, and also Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions. Both are exceptional and very complete nutrition advisers.

As I refine the recipes Antonio prefers, I may post them in subsequent blogs.

X X X