TIPS COOKING & FEEDING FOR YOUR BABY

First time being a Mommy, made me always look for information about nursery and taking care of a baby; I search through books, internet, my mother and mother-in-law, and from my friends’ experiences.
So, when my baby is about ready to eat other food than breast milk (around 6 months old), I also look for information on how to choose the right menu for my baby, the variation menu, and how to prepare and serve it.

I bought a book, entitled “Variasi Makanan Sehat Bayi” (Healthy Baby’s Meal Variations), written by Wied Harry Apriadji. Since it is written in Indonesian, I tried to translate it into English.

 

 

the cover & the pages are no longer smooth, too often read by mommy  & played by my son :)

my son tore the cover, because he wanted to read it too :)

In that book, instead of writing some baby’s food menus, Apriadji also wrote about some tips to prepare and serve baby’s food, and also the best way to choose baby’s food based on baby’s age and eating skills. But here, I only want to give general tips on how to prepare, serve and feed baby’s food.

1. Get used to wash your hand first, using hand soap, before you preparing the ingredients and the cooking utensils.
2. Prepare the ingredients which suitable for baby’s age and eating skill. For example: for 6 – 7 months old baby, it is better to be feed with liquid fruit juice; for 8 – 9 months old, it is better to be feed with smooth vegetable puree or smooth porridge, etc.
3. It is better for you to have separate baby’s cooking utensils with your regular cooking utensils. For example: small pan, small frying pan, small and bigger sieve, grater, knife, blender, etc. It is because when you cooked spicy food, the rest of the spicy taste in your cooking utensils would not affect the baby’s food.
4. Because the quantity of baby’s food only in small portion, it is better to have mini blender (special for baby) or hand blender. Usually it is sold at baby shops. But, if it is hard to get it, you can use the grinder of new-regular blender set only for blending your baby’s food.
5. Wash the ingredients before it is cooked. Wash it with flowing water, so the germs will wash away.
6. For meat, wash & cut it into the portion needed, then pack it in sealed container, after that put it in the freezer. Do not melt and chop it again. Because by melting it, it makes the bacteria grows.
7. For fruits juice or puree, it is better not adding any sugar. Let the baby learn the original flavor of fruits. It also helps to develop sensitivity the sense of taste. Besides, sugar will burden the work or baby’s pancreas and liver also will make your baby addicted to sweet.
8. Do not blow baby’s food when it is hot. Just let it cool down first before feed it to your baby. Because by blowing the food will transfer the germs from your mouth to the food then to the baby. Remind this also to your baby sitter, so she will be aware.
9. The last, although not the least, serve the baby food using cutleries special for baby, such as bowl, spoon, and glass. Sterilized those in boiled water before using them.

Well, those are some tips which I am able to summarize so far from the book.
Happy cooking and feeding for your baby, because cooking for your baby is challenging and fun :)

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Tips Choosing Fresh Fish

At first, I was bad in choosing good-fresh fish with the bad one. They are look the same to me, as fish :). But then, one day I went to the market with my mother-in-law, we were going to buy fish. (Just for information, at that time I was pregnant, people said it is good for pregnant woman to eat fish, because fish contain Omega 3 and Omega 6, which are good for baby’s brain.)

At the market, I saw one small tuna. I like tuna. So I picked it up, and said to my in-law, “Ma, aku mau ini, sepertinya enak.” (“Ma, I want this fish, it looks yummy.”). Then my mother in law said, “Iihh, ini sudah tidak bagus. Yang ini saja, lebih segar.” (“No, not that one. It’s no longer good. This one is better & fresh.” She picked another fish, looked like tuna, but we called it kembung fish (sort of mackerel). (Well, I like kembung fish as well, so no problem for me if she changed the fish :) ). Then I asked her, how to figure out the good & fresh condition of a fish?

Then she told me this tips on how to choose fresh fish:
1.    Just see the gills. If the gills brightly red, it means that the fish is good. (While the tuna I’d chosen, the gills already a bit dark-pale-red and slimy too.)
2.    The eyes should be plumed and clear.
3.    The flesh should be springy and densely.
4.    The scales are bright and tight.
5.    The skin is not slimy.
6.    The smells not too fishy

Well at least those are the basic ways to choose fresh fish. I am still using those tips, when I bought fish for my family and my baby son. If it is too difficult to remember or to check all of those tips, usually I only checked the gills, eyes, and the body.

Well for all of you, enjoying in choosing nice fresh fish. Especially for mommy will-be :).

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