New mothers sometimes worry that cooking baby food at home is a very complex activity when in fact you don’t have to be a masterchef to cook your baby food.
Even experienced mothers mostly opt for packaged food for their children than simple home cooked food.
The problem is that packaged commercial baby food loses important nutrients that a baby needs during their manufacturing process. Same goes for other food items that are processed in manufacturing units. Because of their storage, the preservatives added, the food loses their nutrition value.
Would you rather feed your kids processed food that has lost its nutritional value, or would you consider these following simple recipes that your kids will love and would not be rocket science for you to cook?
We are glad you are reading further, so here are some super simple kid foods that will be very nutritious for your children and tasty too.
Before we proceed further with the recipes, here are some things you should be careful about.
- Food allergies that your baby suffers, especially foods containing common allergens such as eggs, peanut, wheat, soy, fish, and shellfish.
- We have categorized food ideas based on the age group that your kid belongs to, so make sure you serve them as per their age group.
- Have fun grocery shopping and cooking the simplest yet most nutritious foods.
Recipes for 4 to 6 months old babies
New babies need only one to two teaspoons of puree foods so keep the portion size small.
Again, before choosing the ingredients, make sure that you are avoiding foods that can kick off your kid’s allergies.
Puree Foods
Because your baby is too small right now, the ideal foods for them are puree foods. Puree foods are nothing but making a puree of ingredients that are rich in vitamins and minerals, proteins, and fiber.
You can steam green peas until they are tender, mix it with breast milk and run it through the blender. Then you can strain it to remove any lumps and till it is smooth for baby consumption.
You can also make banana puree by mashing banana in breast milk and make it smooth for consumption.
Brown rice puree can also be made by blending cooked rice with breast milk and making a smooth mixture.
Carrots, Avocado, Sweet Potato, can also be made to create puree food options.
Recipes for 7 to 9 months old
As the baby grows up to 7 months, you can start giving them thicker puree foods.
Pumpkin puree, spinach mixed with yam puree, beets puree, mixed veggies puree, squash puree, papaya puree, broccoli puree in creme are some recipes you can try.
Indians feed their babies with rice and dal, smoothened in a blender. Add a little bit of ghee to it and the kid will find it yummy, plus the ghee will help in baby’s digestion. Lentils are a good source of protein and fiber. They are also a rich source of potassium, zinc, and folic acid.
You can also create a puree of Quinoa cereal. Make sure it is smooth before feeding the baby.
Apple puree and other fruit puree are good, yummy options rich in fiber and good in taste that the baby will love. Make sure the apple is peeled before making the puree.
Recipes for 9 to 12 months old
Now it’s time to introduce more chunkier and textured food to the baby. You can also experiment a little more with the ingredients.
It is also a good time now to introduce the little one with fish, chicken, lamb soups etc for the added protein. Along with that, rice, paste, and other thicker, mushier options would be something the kid would like to eat as their taste buds like.
Additionally, you can now introduce them to finger foods such as raspberries, mango, banana, tofu, carrot, strawberries, peas and peaches.
Recipes for 12 to 18 months old
As the baby grows older, it is more open to try new foods with actual flavors other than sweet flavor. It is an opportunity for you to experiment with some slightly more complex recipes than usual to feed your child with some highly nutritious and tasty foods.
Following are some recipes that you can look up and try out.
Muffin Tin Meals, Oven Baked Fish Fingers, Sweet Potato Waffles, Millet Cakes with Carrots & Spinach, Baby Pasta, Mac and Cheese Muffins, Spinach Nuggets, Chickpea Patties, Sticky Chicken Drumsticks, Pesto Chicken Veggie Meatballs, Cheesy Quinoa and Broccoli Patties, Mini Chicken Pot Pies, Sweet potato, lentil & rice balls, Mini Frittatas, Baked Sweet Potato Tots, 7 Dwarf Chicken Pasta Soup, Whole Grain Mini Meatballs with Kale, Grilled Cheese, One-Skillet Fried Cauliflower Rice, English Muffin Pizzas, Quesadillas, Rainbow Peppers and Feta Quiche, Healthy Oatmeal Mini Muffins, Cheesy Brown Rice Chicken Cups, Baked Tofu Nuggets, Apple and Potato Pancakes, Popcorn chicken, Spinach and Ricotta Rolls, Toddler Fiesta Bowl Turkey, Beets, Carrots and Cilantro Mini Burgers are more than enough options for you to try out and see what your baby prefers the most.
Conclusion
Save this web page because it has food ideas that you can use to cook the most delicious and nutritious meals for your baby right from 4 months to 18 months.
Add to this list, yoghurt, breast milk, and you would have taken an end to end approach to keeping your baby healthy, full, happy and satisfied.
When the baby is fed well, the baby is less cranky, less irritated, and therefore needs less attention.
You can be the one who can introduce your baby to tasty yet nutritious food from an early age so that later he doesn’t get satisfied with just pizza and burger.
All the best!
