Baby Food {6+ months}

Food Mill food started at 6 months: 

{click here for more info}

apricots

apples

avocados

bananas

blueberries
green beans

nectarines

peaches

pears

peas
plums
prunes

sweet potatoes

One thing I have to say about the food mill is that if Miss Mak can eat it at this age, I can puree it in the food mill. She's had bits of our dinner, meats, pastas, etc. right along with us at dinner time. I also prefer to give her raw fruits and veggies if I can. The more you cook or process a food the more nutrients you take out of it. I also leave the skins on for the same reason.

Puree is too thick? 

Miss Mak doesn't like thick foods. She is a super picky eater has a delicate palette and  I usually end up thinning out her pureed foods. If you find yourself in this predicament, try adding pumped breast milk, formula, fruit juice left over from steaming, or just plain ol' water. {I'm a big fan of the breast milk or fruit water from steaming but I often use water}

To buy or not to buy organic fruits and veggies. {First, my stance on organic... buying organic produce is a preference, not a must.Our family happens to prefer it but if you read on, you'll see that we aren't die-hard about it... we just implement little changes that can go a long way over time. With that being said...} I have heard from a couple of different places that you can buy non-organic fruits and veggies and just wash them because the pesticides don't seep into the skin. Then I found this article from the Canadian Living website and it got me thinking. Our family can't afford to buy all organic produce so we are careful to buy local or grow it ourselves. And yes, I do buy pre-made baby food on occasion for convenience's sake from time to time {specifically prunes which I don't care to make at home} but when I do, I buy organic baby food. 

Something to think about... a lot of the chemicals put on produce are for preservation for long trips, i.e. grown in California, shipped to Connecticut. By simply buying local you can drastically cut down on your pesticide exposure.

Grains: 

We have steered away from too many grains with Mak. For one thing, I recently read that little babes can't properly digest grains under one year of age. Miss Mak, specifically, has a easily disrupted digestive system and has a hard time pooing no matter what we feed her. CJ, who has a digestive system of steel, always bound up when we gave him rice cereal so we moved to oatmeal and that helped tremendously. So if Mak has any grain, it's almost always oatmeal.

Foods that can bind:
applesauce {who'da thought?}
bananas
potatoes {white and sweet}
rice cereal 

Foods that help baby"go":apple juice
avocado
breastmilk
grapes
peas
prunes
prune juice
lots of liquids
* Benefiber - we were given the okay to use this by our pediatrician. We started by adding 1/2 tsp to two meals per day and were told that if it didn't help, make it 1 tsp two meals per day and keep adding 1/2 tsp until she was going regularly. Mak is somewhere between 1 tsp and 1 1/2 tsp 2 meals per day.

** This is not a full repertoire of all things baby food. This is my experience. For more info and wonderful recipes, I highly recommend the site wholesomebabyfood.com.