Steaming veggies vs cooking in water

[Bella89]

Hi,
I wanted to ask for your opinion.
Do you steam cook veggies for your LOs or just boil in water.
I was wondering... I know steam vegetables are healthier for you, but since I am using water when blending... Does it make a difference if I use water from veggies to blend? All the vitamins from cooking would still be in the food.
What do you think?

[creations]

I don't know the technical side of this in terms of nutrition other than what you've already said. If you boil in water I can't imagine you'd use all of that in the blending so even if the nutrients are in the water I think you'd still be losing much of the water, yk?  Many veg blend to a puree without any water even if they are steamed or roasted so there is no added water ...unless you are making the puree very very thin?

Some things can be cooked on a low heat with a lid on the pan without any water or literally just a splash, and they cook in their own juice (eg carrots with nothing or barely a splash of water or a squeeze of orange).

From memory some things such as beans should have their cooking water discarded.

[Bella89]

Yes, you are right. Some of the water I would probably discard.
I didn't know that about beans. Good to know. I was going to steam some sweet pees for my DS finger food.
I will stay with steaming for now. It takes more time, but it's probably worth it.

Another question, but similar. Do you think freezing small portions for a few days will be ok? Nutrition-wise?

[creations]

There's some information here on freezing and storage
Tips for Making Baby Food
Many people use ice cube trays to initially freeze small portions, once frozen you can transfer the cubes to a freezer bag to free up the tray for the next batch.
I've never done this as I didn't offer purees and only froze foods such as mini pancakes, muffins and bean burgers.  Nutrition should be fine so long as you pay attention to the usual rules of how long you keep the food frozen.

Alternatively, if you are finding it a struggle to prepare small amounts of food for baby you could consider suitable parts of your own meals to offer.  I sometimes cooked additional veggies and kept a portion for LO the following day rather than cooking large batches.

[Martini~]

Hi Bella:)! Nice to have you on this forum!

I had a steam-cooker/blender from Avent which did the job brilliantly. Have you seen that kind of machines? They are available on Allegro to buy for reasonable amount of money - both new and used-ones. I am even selling it out right now, LOL - as LO is not eating much purée now.

I loved to steam cook with that and than blend as its done in one container, and then you can freeze as ice cubes. I did that with every vegetable and fruit I could and was able to avoid jar food in the early months of weaning. As you say I preferred steam cooking on boiling but probably I wouldn't do it if not this machine as it would be too much mess and stuff to be done...

[weaver]

I have read that if you are using conventional (not organic) veg then the cooking water can retain any pesticides etc, so you're best off discarding it. And as creations, definitely for beans! 

[Bella89]

Thank you! You are probably right about pesticides in the cooking water. But that got me thinking it could be a good way of getting rid of them.
You have to weight pros and cons i guess.
I have to look into those food steamers. Do they have an alarm when they are low on water. I burned like 2 pans already :p

[Martini~]

The one which I have (link below), is extremely easy to use Hon. There is a table with almost all veggies/fruits/meat listed with the amount of time you should cook them. The timer is set by the amount of water you put into the machine. So ie carrots are 15min so you have a certain amount of water put into the machine and this amount of water means 15min of cooking. After 15min there is sound which alarms you that the cooking process is over. You just then turn around the container and from steam cooker you have a blender.
http://allegro.pl/listing/listing.php?order=m&string=Philips+Avent+Parowar+++blender&bmatch=engagement-v6-promo-sm-sqm-dyn-v2-uni-1-1-0820

I am aware that you can do all of that with a normal pan and normal blender. But there is so much of things you have to remember about/do that I would probably go for normal cooking or jars as I had no time/will for that. I came back to work when DS was 6mo and DS was in the nursery. It was just the moment when we started solids. Below you have the photo how it looked like:).

[cath~]

I will stay with steaming for now. It takes more time, but it's probably worth it.

we just have one of these folding basket things to pop in the bottom of a saucepan for steaming:
http://www.lakeland.co.uk/1139/Foldaway-Steamer-Basket

Very simple and easy, and no extra effort.  Just one more small thing to wash up at the end.


Also, I don't know what saucepans you have, but often you can buy steamer sections to sit on top of a regular pan.  Slightly more expensive but not really much more effort to use (again, just one more thing to wash up at the end).
Eg:
http://www.lakeland.co.uk/15182/Lakeland-Stainless-Steel-Universal-Steamer

[Bella89]

Cath i have the same basket you do, but forgot to keep an eye on water level in the saucepan:)
I was never a good cook as you can probably tell.oh well, practise makes masters:)

[weaver]

I just use a metal colander

But honestly I never made purées for my babies and I think it saved a lot of bother!

[Bella89]

Oh mama, I understand a concept of BLW, but honestly I am simply scared of it. Choking, not eating enough, mess. I think it's wonderful, but I would not feel comfortable with it. Here in Poland purees are a notural thing to go, and so I would not even know where to start. On the other hand, with such small portions of solids my DS is eating now, maybe I should try giving him more of our food and more finger food. I will weigh him tomorrow. I have a feeling we did not gain enough. On August 4th he weight 7.60kg. When I held him on the scale today, my calculation was 7.70kg.

[Martini~]

Hmm, I also did purees. DS was not a kid who was interested in food-eating at all until 8-9mo so I really never considered finger food as first choice. However I know that you can. There are good BLW groups on Facebook Honey - so if you are interested, just PM me and I can send you an invitation (there are closed group).

Please bare in mind that too frequent weight measurement at this age may be confusing - so even if you LO will not take much, this still can be fine.

[creations]

too frequent weight measurement at this age may be confusing

I agree. In the UK guides are to weigh every 2 months at this age.  More frequent weighing can cause unnecessary worry.

I should try giving him more of our food and more finger food

Again, guides may vary country to country but in the UK finger foods are generally advised from 6 months.  If you are not comfortable with finger foods yet how about just taking a little portion of your own food, as you said, mash it with a fork and add a drop of water or milk if it needs to be thinner?

[Bella89]

Hi Ladies,
So I resisted the temptation of weighing my DS when I went through his clothes and stored away huge portion of it He is growing fast!
Feeding him is going much better, thanks to you!
He loves sweet things jams, carrots, fruit (but I rather give it to him in the morning, except rice with raspberry juice at dinner, he loves it!)

He is a VERY messy eater, but I always take his socks off (I know he puts his feet in his mouth when he is happy), give him corn baby crisp or extra spoon to his hand. It's getting better with that too.

I have to ask- what else I can give him to eat at this age - 7,5 months (he was EBF till 6 months). So far he had- jams, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, zuchini, rabbit, little bit of butter, pumpkin and fruit of course.
Can I give him natural yougurt, eggs? I know it's not cow's milk time yet, neither bread. I mean that basic products which the rest of the family eats.

I am planning on giving him a little of egg yolk this morning. I read that you can start giving that to a child at this age hard boiled. But how do you do it?
My DS is on purees and I don't want it to be too dry. Do you guys mix it with water/veggies?

Thanks!