[Descentia]

Hi guys

I haven't posted here in AGES - pregnancy, a new baby and running a business will do that to ya! I have now got a gorgeous almost 8 month old daugther named Zahlia.

I am really struggling to find many easy to understand (for cooking morons like myself) nutritious recipes for small vegetarian babies.

She is a great eater and I can introduce anything to her without issue thankfully. At the moment she eats fruits, small serve of natural biodynamic yogurt, baby rice, baby oats, heaps of different kinds of mashed/pureed veggies (pumpkin, potato, sweet potato, broccoli, squash, zucchini, carrots etc). I am just starting to introduce pulses etc by cooking stuff like a soft red lentil dahl with potato.

I need some more recipes! I want to ensure she is gettign the iron etc she needs to stay healthy.

I am vegan but she will be raised vegetarian.

 

[ElliottsMom]

heh I just went through this struggle. what I did was steam veggies (spinach, carrots, peas, sweet potatoes ect) and lentils and puree them together, it was one of the few things he'd eat. it's still one of the few things he'll eat.

 

[Dirty Martini]

Hey lady! I was JUST thinking about you a day or two ago. We were watching Tron and this woman in it had leg fuzzies - you know, fuzzy leg warmer things. Those remind me of you because of your shop

Aren't you proud?!

Congrats on your daughter, btw.

 

[colorful]

Congratulations on your baby!

At 8 months, both my boys really liked feeding themselves finger foods. So I would bake/steam veggies like squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas etc and let them feed themselves chunks of it. They both also liked hunks of banana or avocado. Beyond that, I never really did "cook" for my babies. Once they were about 9/10 months old I would let them eat what the family was eating, within reason. Sometimes I would take out a portion for them before adding things like chopped nuts or hot pepper or whatever I didn't want them to have.

Now, at ages 1 and 3, they both have great appetites and will eat about anything. Well, the 3 year old has gotten a bit more picky but the 1-year-old will eat anything!

 

[zoebird]

this book might be helpful: The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook: Whole Foods To Nourish Pregnant And Breastfeeding Women - And Their Families

 

[adara]

Personally, I'd stay away from recipes and stick with very basic foods. Any unprocessed foods that your baby can put in her mouth by herself are probably better than making any kinds of special baby foods. Breastmilk is still where your daughter should get the majority of her calories. Food at this stage is just experimental. One of my children didn't eat any solid foods until almost ten months of age.

 

[echowarrior]

Hi and congratulations! My daughter is now 18 months (how time flies)...

It sounds like you're doing great if Zahlia is eating all those foods you mentioned!

Keep it simple... she'll gain a taste for more complex foods soon, then you can worry about 'recipes' although I prefer to encourage my daughter to eat whatever we eat.

I gave my daughter, Xochi, avacado slices sprinkled with nutritional yeast at that age (the N.Yeast made it less slippery and easier for her to pick up)...

I'll post anymore ideas that I happen to remember...

 

[jessaroo]

I found the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron to be pretty helpful.

 

[bekajoi]

At that age, my daughter was eating homemade baby food. (I did single flavors and froze them individually, then mixed and matched as needed... corn and peas, carrot and avacado...)

And at the same age, my son was not eating solids. He didn't touch any "food" until he was 9 months old. He had enough applesauce (1-2 days of that) just to learn how to swallow grown-up food. And then he went straight to soft table foods.

At this age, it is not about nutrition. The nutrition should be coming from the breastmilk or formula. Food for a child under 12-18m is about introducing tastes and textures and letting them experiment. Only as they drop the formula or breastmilk (as a regular meal~ my 2 year old still nurses once a day and I don't count it as breakfast, lol) do you need to start worrying about the nutritional aspects of things.

So, for now, get her used to the tastes and textures (and it sounds like you are doing a great job!), and introduce hummus or beans if you are worried about the iron. She should be getting that from breastmilk or formula for now, though. (Sorry, not sure which you do!)

 

[holly_b]

You could try pureeing silken tofu and different kinds of fruit.

 

[rjensen]

wow--sounds like you are doing great to me! I have a 7 month old little boy who will not eat anything. He shuts his little mough shut and turns his head and will almost do a complete backbend to avoid any spoons coming near his face. Leo only wants breastmilk. It sounds like you are giving her a great variety! Congrats on the baby!

 

[Descentia]

Thanks guys

Heaps of ideas and info. I am checking otu the books recommended too.

I guess raising a veggie child means I need to have all relevant info in my mind when I get hassled by people with the old 'She won't get enough iron etc' crap.

 

[Coney]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bekajoi

At that age, my daughter was eating homemade baby food. (I did single flavors and froze them individually, then mixed and matched as needed... corn and peas, carrot and avacado...)

I've got a friend who would buy organic carrots and other veggies for her baby, steam them, then blend and freeze them in ice cube trays. Each cube was a serving size. Seems brilliant to me, I'm planning on doing that in the fall with squashes. If the baby seemed more hungry, she'd just thaw another serving on the stove real quick.

 

[JJS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coney

I've got a friend who would buy organic carrots and other veggies for her baby, steam them, then blend and freeze them in ice cube trays. Each cube was a serving size. Seems brilliant to me, I'm planning on doing that in the fall with squashes. If the baby seemed more hungry, she'd just thaw another serving on the stove real quick.

I used to do the same thing...freeze pureed veggies in ice cube trays. I did this quite a bit for my first child but less with my next three children. The more I learn about nutrition, the more I see how important it is to start children off with a healthy lifestyle of eating plant-based foods (especially green vegetables).

I think that one of the finest books on feeding children is "Disease-Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. I wish that this book would have been available when I was rearing my children.

 

[bekajoi]

Yes, the steam/blend (with steamer water usually) ice cube tray thing is just what I did.

It worked wonderfully! I'd pop out of the trays when solid and store in freezer bags marked with type of food and date.