Papaya Puree

Papaya is very good for infants and can be start at 8-10 months. It is not only sweet and tasty but very nutritious also. It is good source of vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin E. Papaya is good source of fiber and folic acid. Papaya also helps in digestion process of infants.

Papaya can also be useful in relieving constipation. Papaya has great texture and sweet taste and can be great baby food. When your baby is more comfortable with other fruits like banana, apple ,rice, then slowly you can introduce papaya more around 8 months.

These nutritional elements are very good for developing infants. Apart from Breast feeding , infants should get more nutrition from 6 months. So introducing more fruits like Banana, Apple, Papaya, Strawberry, Chikoo, Mangoes and many more is very essential.

Papaya Puree For Baby
Papaya is very nutritious fruit for your baby and can be start at 8 months. It helps in digestion process of baby.

Prep Time:10 minutes

Ingredients

1 small papaya

Method

1. Cut a small papaya in half, remove the black seeds.
2. Puree or mash the flesh of one half until smooth.

Jowar Banana Sheera

Jowar is very good for 6+ baby and can be used in porridge or with any fruit. I have made Jowar Banana sheera. Banana helps to make it sweet. Traditionally, we use Jaggery for making sheera. But I tried with Banana. We can use dates, apple or mango to make this sheera sweet and tastier.

This is good menu for baby's lunch or dinner. It is very filling and satisfying to baby's hunger and keep baby full for long time. It has good amount of carbohydrates, protein, iron and calcium.

 

Ingredients

1/4 cup Jowar (white millet) flour
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. chopped Jaggery
1/4 cup mashed banana
1 tsp. ghee/butter

 

 Method 

1.Heat the ghee in a pan, add the Jowar flour to it and sauté on a medium flame for 1 to 2 minutes or till it turns light brown in color.

2.Add the milk, mix well and cook on a medium flame for 30 seconds, stirring continuously so that no lumps remain.

3.Add ½ cup of water, Jaggery, mix well and cook on a medium flame for 1 minute, while stirring continuously.

4.Switch off the flame, add the banana and mix well.

5.Serve lukewarm, if needed add some warm milk to make it more suitable for your baby to swallow.

 

Bajra Porridge

Bajra, Pearl Millet or Black Millet, is widely grown in India. It is very nice kind of grain suitable for baby food and it has many names like

 Kambu in Tamil
 Pearl millet in English.
 Sajje/kambu in Kannada.
 Sajjalu in Telugu.
 Kambam in Malayalam
 Bajra in Marathi

 

After 8 months this grain can be started in baby food because it is easy to digest and high in protein and many minerals. Eating whole grains for babies is good thing to prevent many future diseases and improving immunity of the body. This wholesome and satisfactory porridge will keep baby satisfied for a couple of hours.

 

Ingredients

 

3 tbsp Bajra powder / whole Bajra (black millet)
1 tbsp Jaggery
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. ghee/butter

 

 Method

1.Heat ghee in pan and roast Bajra powder till it slightly changes its color and gives nice aroma.

 

2.Add Jaggery and milk and keep stirring, so there should not be any lumps. Serve lukewarm.

 

3.For whole Bajra, pressure cook the Bajra with ½ cup of water for 3 whistles. Cool. Liquidize the cooked Bajra with ½ cup of milk and Jaggery in a blender till it is smooth in texture. Transfer this into a pan and bring to boil, stirring continuously so that no lumps remain. Serve lukewarm.

 

Chikoo Puree

Chikoo means Sapodilla, is very good fruit for vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, possesses antimicrobial properties. It is considered as baby friendly fruit. It has natural sweetness which baby will love. It can be easily mashed and mixed with any other fruits to make fruit salad.

 

Chikoo/Sapodilla is a sweet fruit that can be introduced into your baby’s diet, between the ages of 6-8 months. It is also a safe to introduce sapodilla to infants because unlike some exotic fruits, it does not cause allergic reactions.
 

 

Usually, the unripe fruit is very hard. Avoid unripe fruit as it would be very difficult to digest. So, wait for the fruit to ripen. Ripened sapodilla fruit would be soft and it can be crushed if pressed hard. This is the right stage to eat the fruit.

Ingredients

2 medium Chikoo peeled and deseeded
 

Method
Blend chunks of Chikoo through blender to make it smooth. Serve immediately.
 

 

Note

1.Peel off the outer layers first and then take out the seeds. The seeds are right at the center of the fruit and they need to be removed. These seeds are big enough for your baby to cause choking. So, remember this always to peel and deseed it.

 

2.Also make sure to crush the fruit pulp before giving it to your baby. Though the fruit is soft, yet there can be issues when a baby eats the fruit. So, do crush it and make a puree out of it.

Rice Mash For Babies

Rice is a fundamental food in many cultural cuisines around the world, and it is an important cereal crop that feeds more than half of the world’s population. Rice is widely used grain for baby food also. It is considered as best food for weaning , as it becomes very soft after cooking. Also, it is easy to digest and no chances of gases in babies.

 

 

 

In India, we also prefer giving rice water, which is left after cooking. This water is very rich in nutrients and vitamins, so we do prefer to give this water for babies or infants at home. Rice Mash is best food to start as first foods, we just need to mash cooked rice till the smoother consistency. You can add boiled water or milk to make it more soft or watery consistency.

 

Ingredients

2 tbsp rice
1/2 tsp. ghee

 

Method

 

1.Wash the rice and add 3/4 cup of water. Pressure cook it for 3 whistles.
2.Remove from the pressure cooker and add the ghee. Mix well.
3.Mash it completely to make a smooth consistency. Serve lukewarm.

 

 

Moong dal Water and Barley Water are another very Healthy Recipes as First Foods.

Carrot Puree For Baby

Carrot are very healthy vegetable and very good for babies. This is considered as best veggie to start as first foods. Carrots are very high in Vitamin A. Vitamin A is very important in a developing infant's diet.

Carrots are one of baby's first food. They are easy to digest and are packed full of nutrients such as Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Calcium. Carrots can be mixed with other vegetables  and fruits. It can be used in baking or soups, vegetables, pasta, noodles or any other type of meal for babies or infants.
 

 

 

How to Make Carrot Puree For Baby

Ingredients

 

1 medium carrot
2 cups water

 

Method

 

1.Rinse and peel all of the carrot. Cut into chunks.

2.Boil carrot chunks in enough water in a saucepan for 7-10 minutes.

3.Once they are tender and soft, make it cool. Puree them in a blender.

 

You can steam the carrots instead of boiling with steaming method. 

 Apple Puree and Rice Mash are another healthy recipes for weaning food.

Barley Apple Porridge For Babies

Barley is very good grain for babies to start as a first food. After cooking barley, you can add any fruit to make nice porridge consistency. I generally used carrot and apple to mix with barley. The consistency should depend on babies liking, if baby is too small and just started on first foods, so more watery is good. If baby is of 8+ months, then it should be little think , so he will likes its bites.

 

As discussed previously, Barley is harmless and no more allergic to babies. It is very healthy option for babies food.

 As per Barleyfoods, barley provides good amount of fiber than rice. It contains good amount of protein, calcium, iron and fiber. It is also considered good in pregnancy period. Nutritional values of Barley can be seen here  

 

 

How To Make Barley Apple Porridge? 

Ingredients

 

1/2 cup whole barley

1 apple ,peeled and cut

2 cups water

 

Method

 

1.Cook barley in pressure cooker with 1 cup water till 3-4 whistle.

2.Add cut apple and 1 cup water and put it on stove again till apple cooked very well. It takes 5-8 minutes. Switch off the flame.

3.Mash with masher or through food blender. Make thin or thick consistency as per baby's age.

Barley Water for 4+ Months of Baby