Homemade baby food
Busy day today. Got up, nursed, made coffee, did dishes and laundry, and whipped up breakfast for Kate: 1/4 tsp cod liver oil, a soft-boiled egg yolk with frozen organic grass-fed liver grated over it, and some defrosted applesauce (homemade from organic apples).
Then I made a batch of baby formula and packed lunch. Wasa whole wheat crackers, raw cheese, an apple, some raw milk with two egg yolks mixed in for me, and some applesauce, butternut squash (leftover from dinner last night) and formula for her. Then she napped, I showered, and we headed over to the park to meet my mother's group.
I think Kate is going to be a tomboy. She tried to pull grass and eat leaves the whole time we were at the park. I wouldn't really mind if she ate leaves -- I'm sure it wouldn't hurt her. But I don't want her to choke on them. So the whole time I had to keep moving her. She could care less about her toys and didn't want to stay on the blanket. Finally she found the wheels on the stroller and that kept her occupied for a while.
I keep flashing back on Seth's baby photos -- he was probably like a year and a half and he was carrying around a tire. A TIRE. Sheesh!
She is also still *almost* crawling. She creeps and slithers around the floor like the Grinch.
Oh, and did I mention that she is WAVING? She does that backward wave -- opening and closing her fingers. I wasn't sure if she understood that it was a wave, but then yesterday we were at Surfas buying kitchen and gourmet supplies for Thanskgiving and she waved at the people behind the counter! I think it's that "Sharing Signs" video we watch every day. She is learning!
When she gets up from her nap we are going to go downtown to the Organic Pastures store to get milk and cream. I am going to need a lot for Thanksgiving. Sarah's talking about going over to Rawesome too -- maybe we'll go with her. I need more eggs and butter for my pies, and milk and cream for homemade ice cream.
I picked up some chicken livers the other day at Whole Foods. I'm going to start feeding it to Kate. When I saw the pediatrician yesterday, she said I needed to feed Kate cereal for the iron. But I don't want to give her cereal yet because it is not easy to digest (and WAPF doesn't recommend giving it to a baby this early).
In the US, Dr. Nancy Krebs headed up a large infant growth study that found breastfed infants who received puréed or strained meat as a primary weaning food beginning at four to five months grew at a slightly faster rate. Kreb's study suggests that inadequate protein or zinc from common first foods may limit the growth of some breastfed infants during the weaning period. More importantly, both protein and zinc levels were consistently higher in the diets of the infants who received meat. Thus, the custom of providing large amounts of cereals and excluding meats before seven months of age may short-change the nutritional requirements of the infant.
Meat is also an excellent source of iron. Heme iron (the form of iron found in meat) is better absorbed than iron from plant sources (non-heme). Additionally, the protein in meat helps the baby more easily absorb iron from other foods. Two recent studies, have examined iron status in breastfed infants who received meat earlier in the weaning period. While researchers found no measurable change in breastfed babies' iron stores when they received an increased amount of meat, the levels of hemoglobin (iron-containing cells) circulating in the bloodstream did increase. Meat also contains a much greater amount of zinc than cereals, which means more is absorbed. These studies confirm the practices of traditional peoples, who gave meat -- usually liver -- as the first weaning food. Furthermore, the incidence of allergic reactions to meat is minimal and lower still when puréed varieties are used. (http://www.westonaprice.org/children/nourish-baby.html)
So I am feeding her beef liver and chicken liver instead of cereal. Apparently there is almost as much iron in liver as there is in fortified cereal (http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/nutrition/iron_requirements.html) AND it is actually a lot better in terms of absorption (15-30% for meat sources of iron compared to 5% for other sources)
I've been taking beef liver tablets to make sure I get my iron. Because I'm not crazy about liver.
And I just found this recipe for chicken liver pate:
http://www.jacquespepin.net/members/recipes/chickenliverpate.html
Yum! Sounds good! Maybe Seth will even eat it.
I'm also going to whip up some more varieties of baby food for Kate, purees that I can freeze: beets, carrots, ans sweet potatoes.
I also have to render my leaf lard today.
Then I made a batch of baby formula and packed lunch. Wasa whole wheat crackers, raw cheese, an apple, some raw milk with two egg yolks mixed in for me, and some applesauce, butternut squash (leftover from dinner last night) and formula for her. Then she napped, I showered, and we headed over to the park to meet my mother's group.
I think Kate is going to be a tomboy. She tried to pull grass and eat leaves the whole time we were at the park. I wouldn't really mind if she ate leaves -- I'm sure it wouldn't hurt her. But I don't want her to choke on them. So the whole time I had to keep moving her. She could care less about her toys and didn't want to stay on the blanket. Finally she found the wheels on the stroller and that kept her occupied for a while.
I keep flashing back on Seth's baby photos -- he was probably like a year and a half and he was carrying around a tire. A TIRE. Sheesh!
She is also still *almost* crawling. She creeps and slithers around the floor like the Grinch.
Oh, and did I mention that she is WAVING? She does that backward wave -- opening and closing her fingers. I wasn't sure if she understood that it was a wave, but then yesterday we were at Surfas buying kitchen and gourmet supplies for Thanskgiving and she waved at the people behind the counter! I think it's that "Sharing Signs" video we watch every day. She is learning!
When she gets up from her nap we are going to go downtown to the Organic Pastures store to get milk and cream. I am going to need a lot for Thanksgiving. Sarah's talking about going over to Rawesome too -- maybe we'll go with her. I need more eggs and butter for my pies, and milk and cream for homemade ice cream.
I picked up some chicken livers the other day at Whole Foods. I'm going to start feeding it to Kate. When I saw the pediatrician yesterday, she said I needed to feed Kate cereal for the iron. But I don't want to give her cereal yet because it is not easy to digest (and WAPF doesn't recommend giving it to a baby this early).
In the US, Dr. Nancy Krebs headed up a large infant growth study that found breastfed infants who received puréed or strained meat as a primary weaning food beginning at four to five months grew at a slightly faster rate. Kreb's study suggests that inadequate protein or zinc from common first foods may limit the growth of some breastfed infants during the weaning period. More importantly, both protein and zinc levels were consistently higher in the diets of the infants who received meat. Thus, the custom of providing large amounts of cereals and excluding meats before seven months of age may short-change the nutritional requirements of the infant.
Meat is also an excellent source of iron. Heme iron (the form of iron found in meat) is better absorbed than iron from plant sources (non-heme). Additionally, the protein in meat helps the baby more easily absorb iron from other foods. Two recent studies, have examined iron status in breastfed infants who received meat earlier in the weaning period. While researchers found no measurable change in breastfed babies' iron stores when they received an increased amount of meat, the levels of hemoglobin (iron-containing cells) circulating in the bloodstream did increase. Meat also contains a much greater amount of zinc than cereals, which means more is absorbed. These studies confirm the practices of traditional peoples, who gave meat -- usually liver -- as the first weaning food. Furthermore, the incidence of allergic reactions to meat is minimal and lower still when puréed varieties are used. (http://www.westonaprice.org/children/nourish-baby.html)
So I am feeding her beef liver and chicken liver instead of cereal. Apparently there is almost as much iron in liver as there is in fortified cereal (http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/nutrition/iron_requirements.html) AND it is actually a lot better in terms of absorption (15-30% for meat sources of iron compared to 5% for other sources)
I've been taking beef liver tablets to make sure I get my iron. Because I'm not crazy about liver.
And I just found this recipe for chicken liver pate:
http://www.jacquespepin.net/members/recipes/chickenliverpate.html
Yum! Sounds good! Maybe Seth will even eat it.
I'm also going to whip up some more varieties of baby food for Kate, purees that I can freeze: beets, carrots, ans sweet potatoes.
I also have to render my leaf lard today.