Bibs!!!

Let me just say that bibs are useful.  Very very useful.  Some more than others.  I was a terrible mother and didn't/doesn't really use the drool bibs.  I really should, but it's been just kind of easier to put him in a new shirt/sleeper.  Mind you my Munchkin has so many clothes it's insane.  One day the hand me downs will dry up and I'll be in trouble.

Anyway, today's bit is about the food bibs.  They are super important.  Especially if your little one is as messy as mine.  I think my favorite bibs so far are the almost fully body bibs with sleeves.  I have some super cool other bibs, but they don't provide the coverage needed.  My Munchkin likes the ones made out of terry cloth, but there isn't much protection as he stuffs it in his mouth.  All the plastic bibs seem to end up as capes which is no good because I'll just have to teach him later that super heros don't wear capes.

I currently have the Kladd Prickar bibs from Ikea and they are working pretty well.  I'm also going to see about grabbing some other ones too.  I think I need a couple more bibs.  2 isn't enough.    I think Kushies makes them too even thought they aren't on the websites.  I've seen them at baby stores.  I'm sure there are other ones out there too.

But the protection is essential.  They can get super awesome coverage with the food.

Food!!

So I'm not quite motivated enough to make my own baby cereal.  Call me crazy but....  Since I would tend to prefer giving my wee man whole grains, I figured I should feed him brown rice cereal.  It's a bit hard to find, but I did find some.  There is a company that makes organic baby cereals, teething biscuits etc...  

Healthy Times

So far I'm quite impressed with them.  I've tried the Brown Rice Cereal, the Barley, and the Oatmeal and the teething biscuits.  We're sticking to the rice cereal for now.  He finds the barley a bit too bitter and the oatmeal gives him a bit of gas.  We'll try them again later.

One of the things I really like about this company's food is that there is no crap in it.  If you read the label on most baby cereals, there are a bunch of chemicals and crap like potato Malodextrin, Palm olein, powdered milk etc....  In the Healthy times, there is brown rice, an iron supplement, and a calcium supplement thing.  

So yeah, I think this is the way to go.  I'm not a rabid organic only, but I do think we should do as much as possible.  The less crap the better.  

It's a bit hard to find in stores, but lots of health food stores carry it, the Great Canadian Superstore tends to have it and the SickKids food store also carries it.

Baby Food Storage

Just thought I would share a couple of things about baby food storage.

Freezing is awesome for storing baby food.  I basically make a batch of something (say sweet potato) and then put it into an ice cube tray an freeze it.  Then I put the cubes into a ziploc bag.  This way I don't have to make a million special things a day and I can take a couple of cubes out at a time and defrost them depending on how much I need.  Now it doesn't work with everything, but it does work for a lot of veggies and fruit.

They do sell special "baby food" trays and I was loaned a couple.  They're good, but you can use an ice cube tray too.  You probably already have a couple and they are cheaper than buying the special ones.

That being said, I did get one of these.  They been kind of useful when making a batch of something and I want to use the next day.  I don't find the tray part terribly useful, but the little containers yes.

Red Food Dye

Well this is probably a Captain Obivous thing, but stay the heck away from anything with Red Food dye in it for your little one.  A good percentage of children/babies react to it in some form or another.  And yet for some unknown reason, we still get a large percentage of things like medicine with red food dye in it.  I mean really.....an infant doesn't care what colour their Tylenol is.  Trust me.....get the dye free stuff.

I used to get migraines from red food dye, so I've been avoiding it for my little Munchkin.  But I've been having a hard time with the grape flavoured tylenol and was told that all infants love the cherry.  So I bought some cherry and took the chance with the red dye (I later found out that apparently the dye free cherry does exist, I just can't find it as of yet).  He loved it but........   I gave it to him about 1/2 an hour before bedtime.  By the time we put him in bed he was a little choo choo train.  His arms and legs were going a mile or two a minute and he showed no signs of slowing down.  I brought him back down to his Dad to entertain for 1/2 an hour so I could get a little nap in.  He put Munchkin in the Jolly Jumper where he went to town for a 1/2 hour and still wanted to keep going.

So yeah......your child can either be hyper or get a nasty headache.....so stay away from the red food dye.

Food Making Equipment

Since I'm giving this making my own food a try I had to get a couple of things.  A steamer and a food pureeing device.  I ended up buying the Hamilton Beach one specifically for babies.  But pretty much any one of the small ones will do I'm sure.  I find the one I got a bit noisy, but I don't know if it's any louder than the others or not.   For the steamer I just got a low end Black and Decker.  It works just fine.

Now if you want to make large batches of something, I would suggest using your larger food processor if you have one.  For instance, the other day I pureed 4 mangos at once.  It would have been a pain in the small Hamilton Beach one.

I also bought a metal steamer basket that you can put over a pot.  The reason I got that one is because I get the feeling that when I steam beets and blueberries I will end up with a stained steamer machine.  Not that the steamer will work any less well, but.......

Sprout Right

Sprout Right is a Canadian book which is always good to have.  It covers the basics of nutrition from your pregnancy through toddler land.

I've found the book pretty helpful.  Mostly for introducing foods to the Munchkin and the basic recipes to get you started.  It's helpful to know that Rice Cereal constipates babies and how to avoid that (mind you according to me it's simple.....don't give it to them).

It's not the only book I'm using, but it's one of them and I find it helpful.

You can check their website our at Sprout Right.  In addition to the book, there are workshops, menu plans etc.... and so on that you can buy.

Food Storage Cubes

So food.  Munchkin is just starting to eat food.  Well, more tasting it.  It's kind of fun and very messy.  I'm one of those Mom's that decided to go with making Munchkin's food.  There will be more posts about that in the near future.....about recipies, books equipment and the like.  But for now.......cubes!

Rather than make food every day at the moment.  It seems silly for the amount he's eating I've been making up one thing and freezing it in "cubes".

I have a few "Baby Food" storage keepers.  I'm going to say you don't need to bother.  Ice cube trays work just as well.  I have the one from Kidco as well and it works well, but it's just a fancy ice cube tray.  So if you have ice cube trays I would just go with that, then empty them into ziploc freezer bags and go from there.  I have another bunch that have individual lids, but I don't think given the opportunity i would buy them again as the ice cube trays  and small tupperware containers are just fine.

You don't need anything special.

So there you go.  The post for the day.