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baby food

Baby Nutrition Month By Month With Mother Hen

baby, EAT By September 26, 2014 Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments

Baby Nutrition Month By Month With Mother Hen

Every mother wants to offer their child the very best possible, whether that’s education, extracurricular activities or the food that we put on their plates. Many of us struggle with how to “do it all”. Finding ways to make life easier is essential for every busy parent (and let’s be honest, isn’t every parent busy?)

Mother Hen Organic Baby Food is a great alternative for busy parents who don’t have the time to prepare and puree their own baby food. They come frozen so they don’t have the preservatives that traditional baby food in glass jars often has. All you have to do is thaw and serve.

Mother Hen had their nutritionist, Genevieve Nadeau, share with us some thoughts on different stages of baby nutrition month by month through the first year. She debunked some common baby nutrition myths and gave great tips on how to care for your baby’s nutritional needs.

Nutrition guide for babies 6 months

Takeaway- Avoiding high risk allergy foods until after 1 year of age does not prevent allergies from developing. Introducing iron-rich foods amongst baby’s first food selections is important for baby’s health and development of palate.

Nutrition guide for babies 7-8 months

Takeaway- Focus on foods that are high in iron, avoiding foods that are protein rich but low in iron. Introduce new flavours including dark leafy greens, small pasta and fruit.

Nutrition guide for babies 9-12 months

Takeaway- At 9 months offer the breast or bottle after your baby has eaten their meal. Purees can start to take a backseat as you introduce grated or chopped foods. Introducing baby to a variety of flavours help develop their palate (even food that you may not enjoy.)

Nutrition guide for babies 12 months

Takeaway- At one year baby can start eating all of the same foods as mom and dad eat.

Mother Hen recently shared their line of organic baby food with one of our writers, Kyla Beyer– mommy to baby Harvey and successful Vancouver entrepreneur. Kyla shared with us her thoughts and Harvey’s reaction to this organic line of frozen baby food.

[pullquote_left]Kyla[/pullquote_left]It’s no secret that it can be challenging to balance career and motherhood. As a new mom I envisioned making all of my baby’s meals from scratch. Boiling, steaming, chopping, pureeing…I did it all….for a while. And then, when I went back to work, I found myself with less time to prepare healthy meals for my son. I wanted to spend my precious time with him, not in the kitchen. There are plenty of canned baby food products in the market, but once I discovered Mother Hen’s frozen baby food I was delighted. Natural, allergen free, no additives and all their fruits and vegetables are organic. I noticed a big difference in the smell and taste (yes, I tasted them!) of the Mother Hen products when comparing them to canned foods because the flavour and nutrients of their foods is retained due to their freezing process.

The Beginner line of purees are blended to the perfect silky consistency(no matter how I tried, I could not get my homemade carrot purees to be anything but lumpy). The portion sizes are perfect for little ones discovering new tastes, and their containers are free of BPA so they can be safely microwaved.

The Junior line (8 months and up) has great flavours such as Chicken Cacciatore and Lamb with Fruits (inspired by Morrocan cuisine and my son’s absolute favourite). The portion sizes are larger for growing appetites and the variety of flavours help to expand his palate.

My discovery of Mother Hen’s line of baby food has freed up precious time and helped me to find balance in my busy life as mother and career woman.

Thank you to Kyla and baby Harvey for testing and sharing their thoughts on Mother Hen Organic Baby Food and to Mother Hen for sending them food to test.

Kyla Beyer is mother to Harvey and the owner of Limelight Floral Design, a busy boutique floral studio based in West Vancouver. With the help of her fabulous husband she manages to balance it all and still find time to stop and smell the roses.

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Homemade Brown Rice and Quinoa Baby Food

baby, EAT By January 1, 2014 Tags: , , , , , , , No Comments

Homemade Brown Rice and Quinoa Baby FoodHomemade Brown Rice and Quinoa Baby Food is fun and easy to make – and packs a huge punch for your little one as they begin solid food. You can also make this first food recipe in a rice cooker in bulk and freeze individual spoonfuls in ice cube trays. Once froze, pop the cubes out and keep them together in a big labelled ziplock bag.  Just make sure when you thaw in the microwave that there are no hot spots.

Ingredients:

½ cup brown rice
½ cup quinoa
2 cups purified water or organic free-range chicken stock
1 jar (4 ounces) organic meat baby food, any flavour

Method:

Put the rice, quinoa, and water or stock in a small pan
Bring to a boil over medium heat
Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 40 to 50 minutes, until the water is absorbed
Fluff with a fork and add the baby food

Cool before serving

Variation: Add peas, other soft cooked vegetables, or fruit

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Veggie Sloppy Joes

Veggie Sloppy Joes

EAT, family meals By October 5, 2013 Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments

Veggie sloppy Joes are like childhood on a plate. Growing up in the ’70s, you just couldn’t escape this meaty dish. Since it’s such a comfort food, Ceri and I decided to go retro and bring back the sloppy. We’ve updated it, of course, for a more health-conscious family, substituting all that ground beef with a flavor-rich black bean sauce.  This recipe was excerpted from the great new cookbook entitled How to Feed a Family: The Sweet Potatoes Chronicles Cookbook, by Ceri Marsh and Laura Keogh.  As two urban, working moms, Ceri and Laura learned quickly how challenging healthy meal-times can be. So they joined forces to create the Sweet Potato Chronicles a website written for, and by, non-judgmental moms, packed full of nutritious recipes for families.

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Sweet Potato Puree

baby, EAT By April 17, 2013 Tags: , , No Comments

sweet potato baby pureeSweet Potato (also known as the yam) can be orange fleshed or ivory-white, though color is no particular indication of sweetness. Sweet potato puree provides a tummy satisfying starch as well as chill-beating vitamin C. Orange fleshed varieties are rich in beta carotene, the stuff which turns Flamingo feathers pink and, if eaten all the time, gives babies a ruddy glow. If your baby seems to have acquired a golden tan, lay off the orange colored food!

We like to freeze the puree in ice cube trays and pop the frozen cubes into labeled baggies or containers in the freezer.  This allows you to always have an assortment of ‘cubes’ on hand.  The recipe can also be prepared with a variety of other veggies (even canned pumpkin).. wink

Suitable for 6 months onwards.  Makes 2 cups


Sweet Potato Puree

You will need:
1 pound Sweet Potatoes

Peel the potatoes and chunk into bite sized pieces and put into a pot with enough boiling water to cover. Return water to boil, reduce heat, loosely cover, and cook 20-30 minutes or until perfectly soft and tender. Drain – not too thoroughly – reserving a little of the cooking water. Mash (or use a food processor) to a puree with a little of the cooking water.

Alternately, you can use a steamer…

Serve and enjoy!

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Summer-Fresh Blueberry Dessert for Babies

baby, EAT By August 9, 2012 Tags: , , , , , , , , No Comments

With summer here and berries in abundance, your little one can enjoy the sweet berries of the summer season with this simple recipe. Blueberries are one of the most suitable berries for babies as they don’t need sweetening. They are high in vitamin C and contain a natural enzyme that allows them to keep for a long time in the fridge.

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https://www.urbanmommies.com/how-to-defuse-sibling-rivalry/

When Do I Start My Baby On Solid Foods?

baby, FAM By April 20, 2011 Tags: , , , , , No Comments

When do I start my baby on solid foods?  This is the million-dollar question, and it doesn’t have a really hard-and-fast answer.

When I was a brand-new-and-clueless mum, I had read all the books and was trying to do things “right.” I breast-fed and angsted over when to start my daughter on solids. According to the doctors who get paid the big bucks to tell us the right ways to do things, solids should be started when your baby has doubled her birth weight, can hold her head upright, and begins showing interest in other foods and can regulate her feeding by turning away from the breast or bottle when she’s no longer hungry. They also bandy around the number of four months as the minimum age. Breast-feeding purists argue that a baby needs to only have breast milk (as in NO juice, foods, or even water) for the first six months at least. Then you have the organic, fly-by-the-seat-of-their-slings mommies who say, whatever seems best, do it. Want your baby to sleep better through the night? Give ’em some rice cereal in their bottle. The war is on between these three factions, but it’s all in the interests of what’s best for a baby–the problem is, what’s best for Baby Peter might not necessarily be best for Baby Paul. Or Baby Rajesh or Baby Maria or Baby Xiao…you know what I mean.

So, when do I start my baby on solid foods? Basically, go with your gut and on your doctor’s recommendations. If you are a hardline breast-feeding advocate, it will not harm your baby to only have breast milk for the first six months of his life. Goodness knows, babies could do worse than breast milk! But also, don’t flog yourself if you decide to start giving Baby something solid before that six month limit, as long as it’s something in line with medical recommendations and age-appropriate.

The first solids to start babies out on are cereals, such as rice, which is the best non-allergenic cereal. Mix it with breast milk, formula, or distilled water. Then slowly move into fruits and veggies, pastas and meats and dairies. Offer new things in small doses and keep trying if they happen to reject something the first time, because babies need some time to really try things out. Make sure you always offer plenty of breast milk or the kind of formula your baby is accustomed to. Until they are completely weaned they will get most of their nutrition from liquids.

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Quinoa and Butternut Squash Baby Food Recipe

Quinoa and Butternut Squash Baby Food Recipe

baby, EAT By March 1, 2011 Tags: , , No Comments

The nutty flavor and grainy texture of quinoa is delicious with the sweet juicy flesh of the squash, a combination popular in Peru, home territory to both of these ingredients. Quinoa was the staple grain food of the Incas of Peru – they call it the mother seed. Modern chemists identify it as being remarkably high in protein – particularly lysine, which is difficult to obtain in other vegetable source. It also supplies fiber, vitamins B and E, calcium, iron, magnesium and phosphorus.  This makes a delicious Quinoa and Butternut Squash Baby Food Recipe.

Quinoa and Butternut Squash Baby Food Recipe

1/2cup quinoa
Spring water
1- pound piece butternut squash or other yellow-fleshed squash

  • Put the quinoa grains in a small pan with enough spring water to cover by about 2 cm.
  • Bring to a boil, reduce and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the dark skins pop open, showing the pale insides.
  • Meanwhile peel the squash with a sharp knife, remove the fibers and seeds in the middle and cut up the flesh.
  • Stir the cut-up squash into the quinoa, let it bubble up, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, tightly cover, and cook for 20- 25 minutes, until the grains are tender and translucent and the squash is completely soft.

Makes about 3 cups
Suitable for 9 months and on

Food Adventures – Elisabeth Luard & Frances Boswell
For 9 mos and up

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Cut it up

EAT, snacks By June 6, 2009 Tags: , , , 1 Comment

We’re a bit lazy.  But clever.  The next time you need to cut up some of the baby’s food, don’t get out the cutting board and knife, then chop off your manicured nails while getting the pieces small enough for your little princess.  Put the food in a bowl and cut it up with scissors held vertically.  Throw them in the dishwasher and voila!  Manicure saved.  You can also do this with our easy first foods ideas, and freeze small pieces instead of puree.

Scissors are also a great way to get kids involved in the kitchen. Even child-safe scissors are a great option, held vertically, to chop cooked carrots or  beans into tiny pieces.

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