Friday 29 June 2012

Cooked Food For Raw Baby

I have posted on how to incorporate raw foods to your baby's diet.

Today, I offer a word of caution. It is not safe for your baby's sensitive body to have only raw foods. Some foods like onions and berries per instance can be more allogenic than when cooked and raw vegetables can be harsh on a newly developing digestive system.
I also feel the need to mention that our family isn't all raw, we aren't even vegetarian but we think it important to have something raw at each meal, we have many meatless dishes throughout the week, limit our dairy and carbs intake and recently have decided to eat more fresh fish. Health changes don't need to be made all at the same time. Be gentle with yourself! To know more about our approach to eating healthy, please read this article on our website.

Eventhough documentation or raw food for babies is scarce, I believe we should follow the medical system and researched "normal" dietery guidelines in food introduction calendars for babies but also add raw goodness to their diets daily by juicing greens, mixing milled chia and flax seed gels with cereal, making fresh organic fruit purees (banana, avocado, orange, very ripe pear, mango, etc) .



For optimal nutrition when cooking veggies, whether boiling or steaming, save the vitamin packed water for your next puree batch (raw or cooked), mixing it in cereal or serving it cooled instead of juice. Babies need water, why not give them their own Vitamin Water?

I used the water from cooking the carrots and turnip seen in this video for blending raw spinach puree prepared later that same day. Which brings me to mention that raw foods oxidize rapidly especially once chopped or juiced.

Idealy, thaw baby food the same day you will use it, not at room temperature though, to avoid the spread of bacteria. Don't use the microwave either (to prevent hot spots that can burn baby's mouth and keep your raw food, raw!) I usually take one day's rations out of the freezer the night before and let the cubes thaw in the fridge. You can also use hot water for quicker thawing.

Here's another informative video from YouTube with tips:


This video did spark a question for me; I don't know when it is a good idea to stop offering store bought instant baby cereal preparation but I will research this. Lisa demonstrates her constipation relieving recipe, mine was posted last week. She stresses that breastmilk or formula must consist of baby's main source of nutrition during the first year.

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