An easy way to make a puree, any puree, is to peel and chop the vegetable or fruit and place it in a steamer until tender. Then, puree with a hand blender or mash with a fork depending on the age of your baby. You could thin this out with a little water or breast formula if needed.

Please remember that all babies are different, and what your friends baby likes might not necessarily be what your baby likes. If your baby doesn’t like something, wait four days and then try again.

All recipe quantities have been left blank for you to use as much or as little as you need.
Weekly menu:
Day one:

• Banana baby porridge
• 2 ice cubes spinach, carrot, pea puree
• Caribbean pork casserole
• Carrot/cucumber sticks as finger food if still hungry
• Feeds/formula as necessary.

Recipes:

Banana baby porridge: Mush up a banana with the back of a fork. Add this into your normal baby porridge mixture. You could also use baby rice and make it into banana rice pudding.

Spinach, carrot, pea puree: Steam the carrots and spinach until tender. It is easiest to use frozen peas, so blanch these in hot water for 5 or so minutes. Blitz everything together. You could also add something like a sprig of mint.

Caribbean pork casserole:

Cooking time: 20 minutes, Preparation time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

Pork, onion, sweet potato, courgette, carrot, apple juice, tin of chopped tomatoes.

Method of Preparation:

Use about 200g of each vegetable and 500g pork. Use 150ml apple juice.

Lightly fry the onion in sunflower oil. Add the pork until browned. Finely chop the rest of the vegetables and add back into the pan.Add the tomatoes. Cover with the apple juice and simmer until the other vegetables are soft. Serve with baby rice.

Blend to a puree or a lumpy mixture.

Author is an expert article writer contributes for Free Indian Recipes and other recipes.

You could also try this with veal if you are feeling more adventurous, and if you don’t eat red meat, turkey mince works brilliantly. Try a pinch of hot chilli in with your mixture to spice things up a bit, or alternatively try patting down half a burgers worth mixture in your hands, add a square of cheese, and then add the other half. When your burger is cooked, the cheese will be melted and delicious in the middle.

Ingredients:

• 2lb of beef steak mince (You can use stewing steak, this is cheaper but just as tasty)
• 1 large onion
• 3 thick slices of stale bread
• 1 tsp. dried caraway seeds
• ½ bottle of a good quality ale at room temperature. If this is straight from the fridge, it will not work properly.
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of pepper
• One large egg
• Handful of chopped parsley

Method of Preparation:

Tip the beef into a bowl and loosen it up with your hands.

Peel the onion and wash it to get rid of the skin. Chop it very finely so there are no big chunks of onion as these are not nice to bite down on in your burger.

Add in the caraway seeds.

Add in the salt and pepper and give another good mix with your hands.

Pour in the ale and give everything another mix.

Give everything a good mix and allow the ale and the flavours to combine with the meat and for everything to soak up. Break the bread up into pieces and add these too. Give everything a final mix, and before you cook make sure you squeeze out the excess liquid as the burgers will not hold their shape.

Using your hands, create burgers from the mixture. Don’t make them too big.

Before cooking, brush each one with the egg white.

Grill cook or use a saucepan on a medium heat. Try to avoid turning them too many times.

When they are cooked, serve with thick onion rings on a nice crusty white bread roll.

0-4 months

At this age, your baby will be fed on either formula or breast milk. We all know the virtues of breast milk, but if you are simply unable to then don’t worry.

Your child will be fine on a good quality formula. Look for the nutrients on the label – if you child has a specific birth defect or something specific wrong with them, look for formula specific to this. Again, your health care worker can assist you on this choice.

You’ll be feeding your baby 6 – 8 bottles a day.

4-6 months

Start your baby off with baby rice. Only a tiny amount a day for a while, and give them 5 – 8 bottles a day rather than 6 – 8. Again, this depends on your baby’s appetite. Pop your baby on your lap, and cover them up. This will be messy so keep at it! Your baby needs to learn to push the solid food to the back of their mouth to digest it, where milk just goes down on its own. Remember that, and you’ll be fine. Start the feed with the milk, try the rice, and then finish with the milk.

5-8 months

Start giving your baby more variety of foods. Try pureed fruit and vegetables. Let your baby guide you on what to give them – if they like something like pineapple, try them on mango. Try and broaden their tastes. Again, don’t give them too much. One to two teaspoons with the formula is fine.

From 7 months

Start giving your baby a much larger range of food. Start pureeing fish, chicken, whole milk custard, pulses etc. Again, be guided by your child. Increase the meals to two a day, then three. Your baby will turn their head away when they’ve had too much and are full. Never force your child to have more than they want to. Start trying your baby on foods that are less soft, like toast fingers, soft fruit like raspberries, or cooked vegetables. You may still be giving 5 bottles a day, and your baby might not want any or much milk after a meal.

From 8-9 months

Your baby should be on 3 proper meals a day now, of around about 1 to 1 ½ small bowls at each meal. Try them on sweet and savoury meals. You want them to get a range of flavours and taste experiences. Start adding in meat, spinach, and fortified cereals. These are all rich in iron and help increase your baby’s immune system. All the stores your baby was born with are now used up and so you need to replenish them. Start offering juice or water with meals too, instead of milk all the time, so you can start the transition of nutrients from milk completely to nutrients from food.

From 9-12 months

Start encouraging your baby to self-feed with fingers or with a spoon. Once they get to around ten months, stop mashing and pureeing food completely, and start cutting into small pieces or a rough puree. Just don’t make it completely smooth. You’ll still be giving around 3-4 bottles a day.

From 12-15 months

You can start feeding your baby food the same as the rest of the family, just chopped up into small pieces. If they need them, give them a couple of snacks, such as toast, plain biscuits, yoghurt etc. You can also start to give your baby cow’s milk instead of formula, which is again, rich in calcium and good for little growing bones. Try to do all drinks from a cup now and not a bottle, as your baby will start to feel like a big boy or girl! Give them three or four cups of water a day, because more than this may make them be reluctant to eat their food.

Tips and Tricks

Try not to over feed your baby. Let their tastes and thoughts guide you instead of making choices for them. Don’t decide straight away that they’re going to be a vegetarian because you are, because they need the iron and the nutrients. If you are really set against it, then try them on fish or poultry.

Try combinations you don’t think would work. Carrots and fruit go together, avocado and pears go well together, and also strawberries and peaches. Mash them together with a fork and a little tiny bit of natural fromage frais to make it creamy.

Above all, don’t get discouraged. If your baby doesn’t like something, try something else. Don’t force anything on them, and remember, after 4 attempts, it will become a habit!

Ingredients:

• 60g chicken (use breast as it’s less sinewy)
• 30g grated cheese (use cheddar)
• 2 or 3 broccoli florets
• 2 or 3 cauliflower florets
• 1 carrot
• 15g butter
• 1 tbsp. plain flour
• 125ml milk

Method of Preparation:

For this weaning recipe, put the vegetables in a saucepan full of boiling water. If you would like flavour, try a tiny bit of chicken stock, but use proper chicken stock and not a cube as these are salty.

Cook this until tender and not hard. It needs to be soft to puree properly.

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the flour in and mix together to form a paste. Pour in the milk slowly, stirring all the time, until everything is fully combined and not lumpy.

Take this off of the heat and mix in the cheese. It will melt on its own.

Mix the chicken and the vegetables in the sauce. Make sure they are cut into small pieces, if you are pureeing this for a very young baby, 4 months to 7 months. It makes it much easier to puree if they are in small pieces already.

If you are serving this to a baby over 7 months, you can keep the chicken and vegetables whole, but chopped up small.

You could also try substituting the chicken for turkey. It is similar texture and taste to chicken, but a slightly different flavour. It is as lean as chicken. Again, use breast meat as it is less sinewy.

You can serve this cool, or you can serve this warm. Try it with warm rice for those slightly older babies, and if you want to incorporate a carbohydrate for the smaller babies, you could puree some cooked rice in with the chicken mixture, or you could puree a small new potato or two to thicken out the mixture.

Another variation is to try a couple of different ingredients. You could add a few chestnut mushrooms, or maybe try some small amounts of spinach.

This uses Indian spice and herbs. You could experiment with different flavours and different spices to get more Asian themed dishes. With this dish you will not be using jams, but you could use a fruit like pear, or passion fruit, or pineapple. This is called kheer. You could add chopped nuts to the top, or mixed through the dish for some more flavour.

Ingredients:

• 250g pudding rice or short grain rice
• 1litre whole milk
• 3tbsp sugar (this doesn’t seem like much, but the flavours make up for it)
• Pinch of saffron
• 1 tsp. cardamom powder
• A good handful of nuts, whatever you fancy
• Good handful of raisins if you like them
• 1 tsp. ghee

Method of Preparation:

Heat up the ghee in a saucepan. Add the nuts and raisins and cook them through till the raisins are plump.

Add the rice to the saucepan and cook for a few minutes. This will absorb the nutty flavour.

Pop the milk in and give it a mix around.

DON’T LET IT BURN! If the milk burns, it is really not nice and you will have to start again.

Mix the sugar back through.

Reduce the heat and cook slowly until the milk has halved in volume, it will be thick and creamy by this stage.

This will take around thirty minutes.

Add the spices and about half of the nut mixture, and stir this round.

Pour this into your serving dishes and add more sprinkled nuts on top. You could add a couple of raisins on top too.

Have this hot or cold, up to you! You could also give it a quick sprinkle of cardamom on top.

A lovely way to serve is to also add some edible gold leaf, or silver leaf. You could also brush the nuts with the gold leaf and serve these on top of the rice pudding – you can also keep these in an airtight container and use in future on top of other desserts. Instead of cardamom powder, you could infuse the milk with a couple of open cardamom pods for a fresher flavour. Add vanilla, and infuse for about half an hour, careful not to let the milk burn.

Author is an expert article writer contributes daily for Free Indian Recipes and other recipes like Homemade Recipes.

Try adding chocolate chips, which will melt for a delicious flavour. You could also put a spoon of jam in the bottom before baking for a lovely fruity surprise at the bottom. For a very decadent take on the dish, you could add a couple of sweets like Rolo’s, or a mini Mars in the bottom of the dish, and this will melt and give you a delicious creamy texture and chocolaty finish!

Ingredients:

• 110g of pudding rice or short grain rice
• 500ml evaporated milk
• 500ml whole milk
• 40g brown sugar, or muscavado sugar
• 1 nutmeg
• 25g sugar
• 2 egg yolks

Method of Preparation:

Easy. Mix the milks together.

Mix in the sugar, and rice, and pour into your ovenproof dish or dishes.

A nice touch is to beat the two egg yolks together and stir this through the mixture, it makes it extra creamy and rich

Grate the whole nutmeg over the top – this seems a lot, but the dish does need it.

Dot the butter up into little flecks and sprinkle on the top.

Cook for thirty minutes in the top of an oven at 150C. Mix everything through, and then put back in for another half an hour. Stir again. Leave in the oven for another hour, with no stirring.

This will be lovely, creamy, with a yummy skin on top! If you don’t like the skin, just stir it through and it will get rid of it.
Variations:

This is lovely served with compote fruit. Chop rhubarb roughly into segments, add a good shake of sugar to cover – this isn’t exact measurements, use however much you want. Cover with a little bit of water – a nice thing to do is cover it with strawberry juice. Cook slowly for about an hour. You could add some cinnamon, or a vanilla pod to this. Cook until stewed and thick. Spoon this on top of the rice pudding to serve, or spoon the rice pudding out of the bowls to serve runny.

You could also serve this with cake. Seems like a strange combination, but it makes a lovely alternative to using cream or custard.

Luckily all of us enjoy cheese sauce, and sometimes I’ll just make a white sauce if we don’t want the taste of the roasted vegetables overpowered, but on any given day, this is a real life saver!

Notes

• Great for vegetarians
• Preparation and cooking  15mins

Ingredients

• 25g/1oz Butter
• 25g/1oz Flour
• 250ml/10 fl.oz milk
• 75g/3 oz strong (or medium, depending on taste) Cheddar, grated
• A pinch of dry mustard
• A pinch of Cayenne
• Salt & pepper

Instructions

1. Melt the butter in a pan but do not allow it to brown then add the flour and stir until smooth. Cook over a gentle heat for 2-3 minutes stirring all the time.

2. Remove from heat and add the liquid, little by little, stirring after each addition to prevent any lumps forming. Bring the sauce to the boil, stirring continuously until thickened.

3. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese and seasonings. DO NOT RE-BOIL, just stir until the cheese has melted.

Serve with vegetables, pasta, and poultry.

Hint

Substitute Cayenne with Paprika for a different taste.  For children with more developed taste, a small amount (half a flat teaspoon) of chopped chillies folded in, gives a great kick.  Obviously not recommended for the smaller child, we allow the chilli version for ages 9 and over.

About Author

Wendy is a single Mum who works from home, looks after her two kids and is in awe of the awesome and aw(e)ful things parents and kids can get up to!

Basically She is a MUM IN AWE. She loves being a Mum, She loves writing articles, and she loves cooking!

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Ingredients

• 500g lean stewing steak
• 2 red onions
• 3 carrots
• 2 celery sticks
• Glass of red wine
• Equivalent to a glass beef stock
• 3 or4 garlic cloves
• 250g mushrooms
• 4 potatoes
• 35g butter
• Salt and peppers
• Mint

Method of Preparation:

• First, chop the onion, celery, garlic, and carrots very finely. Cook them in some olive oil, salt and pepper, for about ten minutes until completely soft.
• Add the stewing steak in, and cook until it is browned on the outside. Add the wine, and the stock. If needed, add some water to top it up.
• Simmer with the mint, and add the chopped mushrooms. Simmer for around 2 hours.
• Cut the potatoes into squares, add to cold salted water. Simmer for half an hour, or until fluffy. Pass through a potato ricer. Add milk, salt, and pepper- and lots of butter! Mix together until smooth.
• Spoon your stewed steak mix into four individual casserole bowls. Spoon the mash on top, cover with cheese, and bake for 30 minutes at 180C.

Serve: Serve with cabbage – chop an onion finely, and two rashes or bacon, and add to a pan. Cook gently. Chop the cabbage finely, and add to the bacon and onion. Wilt for about 3-4 minutes, and serve with a knob of butter on top.

You could always substitute the beef steak for beef mince for a more traditional taste – this also works beautifully with spring lamb. If you do this, marinade the meat in red wine and mint first. Preferably overnight, in the fridge, covered in cling film. This makes it lovely and juicy, and really brings out the flavour. You could also add thyme, and if you want to experiment further, add a finely chopped chilli, for a little bit of heat! This is a great twist, and so very simple.

A nice way to serve this is in a big dish at the table – get your guests to help themselves!

If the disease has caused high temperature, you should assure a lot of hot drink. It can be tea, juices, water – never mind. The more your child drinks, the better. When someone is ill the appetite is usually reduced. But you should suggest however fruits and chicken soup some times a day. But if your child refuses to eat for sometimes – do not insist – it is normal, as the organism mobilizes all its resources for overcome the illness, and do not want to spend it for food digestion.

Assure fresh air flow in the room, where your child is. Ventilate the room at least twice a day. It is also desirable to make moist mopping every day.

Do not allow to watch TV all day long. This advice can sound especially strange – what should the ill child do then? Well, it would be better, if he or she would have rest a little more – sleep, or just lie calmly a little bit. If your child does not know read yet, read him or her aloud some story tale. The drawing or reading can be also an alternative for TV. Or you can play in some board game like monopoly, loto and others. The best choice about the games would be something that you have already played at. The rules should be quite familiar to the child, and the game itself shouldn’t be very difficult for him. You can even hold back, if this won’t be noticed. In other words, you should try to bring some positive emotions without much exhaustion.

Do not make him or her learn new things. It is not the moment. When children are ill, there is often a little regress in the development. They can behave themselves like if they are 2 or 3 years younger. Be patient, this will go away, when your child will feel better.

If the state of health of your child allows it, you can organize some fun. For example invite some friends that your child, would be pleased to see.

One more advice about how to distract you child is – “to do a rabbit”. Even if handicraft never was your strong side, try to do with you child a toy. It can be a rabbit, or a doll, or whatever your imagination will suggest. It can be made of fibers, paper, textile, some natural material like straw, strobiles. The main point is – that the process of its creation should be pleasant both for you and your child. While creating it, try to think of health, joy and love, that you wish to your son or daughter. You can play with this toy a little story – let your child treat it, like he or she is treated itself.

But, however do not try to amuse your child too much. The best recipe for recovering is hunger, calmness and rest.

For more advices on taking care of sick child visit Feeding your sick child guide.

There will not be anything bad, if your child will refuse to eat during a short period of time, or refuses to eat only some products. However, you should consult your health care specialist to exclude any medical problem that causes lack of appetite. If there is no any such problem, try the following.

Do the food that you prepare for your child attractive – draw a funny face with jam on the porridge, make a picture of a boat from the pieces of cheese and tomatoes. You can also use some literature and cartoons associations that promote some food. Remember Popeye the sailor with his spinach? Collect such examples and use them when needed.

You should eat the food that you offer to your child by yourself. You can also try such trick as to eat with pleasure the food that your baby has refused. Show, that you eat it with appetite, and that you are ready to eat all, if he will allow this to you. Sometimes it helps, but if your baby still does not want to eat, eat all and do not use this method anymore.

Another variation of this method is to feed your baby in the company of children, who do not have problems with appetite. Children usually like do things that other children do.

Do not ask or make your child eat. Every next time you’ll have to double your efforts to reach your aim. Instead of this, try the following: define a strict schedule of meals. Explain your child, that if he (she) doesn’t want to eat, it is her (his) right, but the next time, when the food will be available is the next meal. If your child is big enough (know what time is it) you can ask him or her help in making the day’s routine.

Try to avoid give your child such snacks as sweets or fast food or sodas – they reduce the appetite and are not useful for health. The best way to avoid temptation of giving them is to not buy them at all.

If your child is fussy only for some products – do not worry about them. It is normal for children to not like some foods. With growing it will go away. Now try to find other products, that will substitute the products your child doesn’t like, and that will assure in his or her menu the needed nutritional elements. If you still think that this very one product is absolutely unsubstitutable, try to prepare it in a different way – do not boil it, but bake it or use it with some other products, than usual.

For fussy eaters recipe ideas try Annabel Karmel’s The Fussy Eaters’ Recipe Book which has some great recipes.

The first should be – give a good example. If you want, that your child does (does not) something – then you should do the same. You want him to be polite with you and other people? Then you should be polite and attentive with him (her) and also with your own parents. Remember, that you are the first authority for your child, and the first example to follow, even if he or she doesn’t confess it.

If there is in the behavior of your child something, that you do not like, you should work out an effective and correct reaction on it. You should understand that there is always a reason, if someone behaves badly. To solve the problem of bringing up your teen, you should understand the reasons of this behavior. The best way to build an effective communication between you and your child would be the usage of active listening and “me reports”.

Active listening should be used in cases, when you see, that you child is up tight, when he or she is bursting with negative emotions. How it works? Well, you should put away all other work that you were busy with, you should listen very attentively. Just repeat in your own words the information that you get. Try to define and name the feelings of your child. If you do not manage to do it at once, try again. You could also use sometimes such words as: “Oh, really?” “And then?” “Please, follow on”, “I am listening”. You should sound interested but also it should sound natural. In fact, this way of communication require some practice, but you won’t get it if you do not try. Do not ask direct questions like: “why you did this?”, “when this has happened” “how was that” – it can be felt by the teen like a kind of investigation from your side, but not your interest in his or her feelings.

When you feel, that your child has finished, then it is your time to say something. But do not yield to the temptation of getting advices, orders or negative appraisals. Try to use “me reports”. Speak of your own feelings and thoughts. Do not say: “I am angry of YOUR behavior!” Say: “I feel angry, when people behave in such way”. This won’t affect the feelings of your child, but will give you the possibility of emphasizing your position.

If you have some disagreement in some question – try to discuss it with your child. Firstly, you should listen to him or her and understand, what exactly he or she wants. Then, using “me reports” declare your wishes. After this done, you should together suggest as much decisions, as you can think off. On this stage of brainstorming do not reject anything. After you have got enough decisions, you should consider them all and choose the best that will satisfy by maximum the needs of all participants.

If you will manage to follow these advices – you will perhaps improve significantly your relationship with your teenager. But you should not consider them like a magic stick that will help you to manipulate of your children.

Ingredients:

• 6 flour tortilla’s
• 250g cheese
• Vegetable oil
• 2 tins tomatoes
• 2 red peppers
• One onion
• 250g mushrooms
• 1 carrot
• 1 stick of celery
• Basil
• Paprika
• 3/4 cloves of garlic

Method of Preparation:

• Firstly, you need to brown the tortillas slightly. Heat a bit of vegetable oil in the pan, and cook the tortillas for a couple of minutes each side, or until golden brown. Once you’ve done this, set aside.
• Next, make the sauce. Cut the onions and garlic finely, or use a food processor, and cook gently for ten minutes or so with olive oil and butter. If you have the time, roast them in an oven first – slice into the onions, whole, and drizzle with olive oil and salt. Take the cloves out of the bulb and do the same, and cook for about 30 minutes. You can also do this with your peppers. Once cooked, peel the peppers, and stick the onions, peppers, and garlic into a food processor, and whiz. Roasting these brings out all the natural sugars and flavours, and is just delicious.
• Chop up the celery and carrot finely, and cook out. You could always blitz these at the same time as everything else. Once everything is cooked and chopped, add back into a saucepan with your tomatoes. Add the basil and paprika, and simmer for a little while. If the sauce is a little vinegary, add sugar. It brings out the sweetness of the tomatoes and dials down the sharpness.
• You’re nearly there! Spread a little of the sauce over the bottom of a big oven dish.
• Next, roll your tortillas. Fill them two thirds with cheese, roll up, and pop in the oven dish, the join facing downwards. Continue until all of your tortillas are filled, rolled, and in the dish. Pop the rest of the sauce over the top.
• Finish with a sprinkle of cheese, and cook in the oven on 220C for 35-40minutes.

Enjoy!