What did your baby eat today?

[kayra]

I'm interested to hear what other babies are eating so thought it might be fun to swap ideas. We are doing purées and some finger food. Dd and ds are 8m old.

Breakfats is alway porridge made with a mix of milk and formula or just milk. Often I'll cook some apple or pear with it. These days I just mash it instead of putting it thru the hand blender. If there's no fruit in it I'll put some molasses with it.

Lunch is often a veggie meal, Annabel Karmel recipes often, or just a mix of veg-meat or rice. Sometimes I'll do scrambled egg yolks with grated cheese.

Dinner is often fruit like banana, or potato mashed with butter and grated cheese.

Finger food is bread, cheese, cucumber...not too much going on there

Is there anything in there that I shouldn't be giving?

Does anyone do things like toast with butter for bfast?
I think I need to do more with meat, is it ok to start pasta now?
Looking forward to hear other people's menu

[creations]

I no longer have an 8 month old but looking back at his food diary from the early days of solids I can see I sometimes gave toast and fruit for breakfast but we were also quite keen on a baby muesli I made into finger food by mixing with little milk and rolling into balls.

Pasta was a big hit here, pasta with pesto, pasta with veg and tom sauce.  I found the twists easier for him to pick up on his own as the shape gives a bit of grip. But he also loved the stuffed ravioli type pasta and would eat an adult portion!

Meat and fish tended to be very small tastes and usually more interested in fish rather than meat.

He always enjoyed veggies, cooked in big chunks in a stew or baked wedges, steamed fingers - fruit and veg have always been a hit here.

It's funny, the things I noted he didn't have any interest in (mashed potato, rice, cauliflower) he still doesn't like at 4yo.
We did BLW, so no purees, everything was big chunks or wedges unless it was a dip type food like humus. He'd scoop up hand fulls or use a preloaded spoon or have it spread on pitta.

I have a note that we had egg sandwiches for a picnic in the park. It's brought that day right back to me - he ate so much of my sandwich I was left hungry!

[newkidontheblock]

E had oats with bm and sapodilla for breakfast and fenugreek tossed with garlic and potato for lunch.

[kayra]

How funny creations sweet memories!
Did you put butter on the toast? I can't remember if butter has to be cooked or not, I supose if cheese doesn't have to be it should be ok.
I think I'll try pasta, thanks.
Fleur, sounds like a very gourmet lunch

I made a stew with onions, beef, potato, carrot and a bit of tomato paste, they seemed to have enjoyed that. I'm not doing iron drops so the meat should help the iron a bit, not that I think they'd deficient as such.

[newkidontheblock]

Yum! That stew sounds lovely!

[creations]

Butter is fine, all full fat foods at this age (so avoid low fat spreads for instance, if you can, although a little is not going to harm).
Actually there is very little you need to avoid at this age. Sugar, honey (wait until 12 months), salt (keep it low), whole nuts (ground is fine so long as no family allergies), oily fish (it's great but girls should limit to twice per week where as boys can have more - only watch for bones), no raw meat or fish. Hmm, I think that's all. So really it's almost anything, and just about everything can be served as finger food now too.

Home made pate is great for iron, I used chicken livers but you can use whatever sort you prefer. cook through with onion and seasoning (garlic or spices rather than salt) then cool and whizz with either butter or cream-cheese and set in small tubs or ramekins, freezable too. A great spread for toast or sandwiches. Mine actually liked eating slabs of it.  You can use any recipe really just ensure livers are cooked through and I would reduce or leave out the salt (and I'd skip the alcohol from any recipe too!).

[kayra]

That's really helpful thanks!! I'll be more adventurous from now on then never ever thought of pâté, what a good idea! Might even be able to get ds1 to try some.

When you say oily fish do you mean things like canned tuna? What's the difference between boys and girls?
I thought I read sthg about no sweetcorn but maybe we've passed that stage..

[creations]

Lucky you asked about the fish as I'd typed it incorrectly.
Girls should have no more than 2 portions per week
Boys may have 4 portions per week
It's because low level pollutants in oily fish might build up in the girl's body and effect a future pregnancy.

Should children and babies over six months eat fish?

Children under the age of 16 years should avoid eating any shark, swordfish or marlin. This is because the levels of mercury in these fish can affect a child's nervous system.

Avoid giving raw shellfish to babies and children to reduce their risk of getting food poisoning.

Learn more about healthy eating for the under-fives in Your baby's first solid foods.

You can give boys up to four portions of oily fish a week, but it is best to give girls no more than two portions a week. This is because the low levels of pollutants that oily fish contain can build up in the body and may harm an unborn baby during a future pregnancy.

from a UK NHS site http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/fish-shellfish.aspx#pregnancyandchildren

OILY FISH doesn't mean fish in oil, it's a type of fish (fresh from a fishmonger), examples are:

These fish are all oily fish, and so are good sources of long-chain omega-3:

    anchovies
    carp
    herring (bloater, kipper and hilsa are types of herring)
    jack (also known as scad, horse mackerel and trevally)
    mackerel
    pilchards
    salmon
    sardines
    sprats
    trout
    tuna (fresh)
    whitebait

Canned tuna does not count as oily fish. Fresh tuna is an oily fish, but when it is canned the amount of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids is reduced to levels similar to those in other fish.

Note the part about canned tuna at the end ^^^

Other types of fish would be called white fish (cod, haddock, plaice etc) or shell fish (prawns mussels scallops etc).
There's lots of info about various fish on that link if you're interested.  It's fine for example to have 1 or 2 portions of oily fish and another couple of portions of either white fish or shellfish in one week.

I never heard anything about avoiding sweetcorn but possibly as a choke hazard for LOs?  Any small round food is a potential choke hazard, or any food for that matter. Pureed sweetcorn shouldn't be a problem and baby corn has always been a hit here, it's like ready made finger food.  My DS had more difficulty with things like mangetout and sugar-snap peas because they have that little stringy bit which used to catch him out (although he only ever gagged, not choked).

[kayra]

Interesting about the fish, especially for girls, I'd never heard of that before! We don't eat that much fish so it wouldn't be a problem but good to know. The kind of fish we get here is quite diffeerent, I don't even know the English names so would need to check.
Will be trying some new things