by: Meredith Edwards-Cornwall

Baby in a highchair, mom in front with a small spoon and a jar of baby food. It looks like something right out of a parenting magazine, and it’s a scene that is played out several times a day in the majority of homes with small babies. Unfortunately, it’s also a powerful marketing image that can cost a family a great deal of money in the long run.

The Convenience Factor
Most parents would say the main reason for using commercial jarred baby food is the convenience aspect. After all, with the busy lifestyle many of us have today, no one has time to specially prepare a meal for each member of the family. It doesn’t have to be a special event to create your own baby food, however. Baby can usually eat what the rest of the family is eating with very little special preparation.

Good Nutrition
Everyone worries about proper nutrition for growing babies. Iron, calcium, and vitamin D – all of these things are legitimate concerns in children’s nutrition. However, fortified and processed foods aren’t necessarily better than whole foods. Homemade baby food, created from fresh ingredients, offers your child superior nutrition as well as encourages a taste for simple, unprocessed foods – a taste that will possibly prevent obesity-related problems later in life. It’s not necessary to offer commercial baby foods in order to have a healthy child.

Economics
Why pay more for an inferior product? Beginning baby food often runs between forty and seventy cents for two ounces. It’s entirely possible to purchase half a pound of produce for the same amount, and baby will reap the benefits of eating fresh, nutritious food. Buying produce in bulk can result in even more savings, and even frozen produce is preferable to what you find in the jars.

Getting Started
It’s important to know when baby is actually ready for solids. Introducing solids too early can lead to an increased likelihood of food intolerances and food allergies. Most medical associations agree that starting solids around six months of age is ideal, and many people find delaying solids for allergy-prone babies is even better. Signs of readiness for solids include:

• Increased nursing for more than a few days, which is unrelated to illness or teething, or, if baby is fed artificial baby milk, consuming more than 32 ounces daily.
• Ability to sit up unsupported.
• Absence of the tongue-thrust reflex. This life-saving reflex causes babies to push foreign objects (in this case, solid foods) out of their mouths to avoid choking.
• Ability to pick foods up and place in mouth independently (or development of the pincer grasp).

What About Allergies?
Experts recommend introducing new foods between three days and a week apart. This helps parents and caregivers identify signs of a food allergy or intolerance. Common signs of food allergy/intolerance are:

• Increased bloating and gassiness, painful discomfort.
• Sandpaper-like raised rash on face, often where the offending food made contact with skin.
• Runny nose and watery eyes.
• Diarrhea or mucous in the stools. Blood in the stool can also be an indicator of a food allergy, usually dairy or soy.
• Red rash around anus, or an unusual diaper rash.
• Vomiting or increased spit up with discomfort.

Ideally, it is best to introduce foods that are less likely to produce an allergic reaction in baby. Avoiding foods such as egg whites, certain nuts such as peanuts, cow’s milk, corn, wheat, and some berries such as strawberries is recommended, as they are more likely to cause reactions. Instead, start with foods that are easier on baby’s system. Some good ideas include:

• Apples
• Bananas
• Peaches
• Pears
• Carrots
• Squash
• Sweet potatoes
• Asparagus
• Oats
• Barley
• Brown rice

Tools of the Trade
Fancy equipment isn’t necessary to make healthy food for your baby. Things that might be helpful include a blender, a food mill, a steamer basket and ice cube trays if you want to freeze small portions. Most people have blenders already in their kitchens, and a food mill (or baby grinder) isn’t necessary if you have a good blender or food processor. Steamer baskets can be found in most grocery stores for only a few dollars, and fit easily into saucepans. Many beginner foods require nothing more than a small pan and a fork.

Sequencing
Many doctors recommend starting your baby on rice cereal first. Many parents find, however, that fruits go over better for beginning eaters. It is a myth that babies will prefer sweet things if they are given fruits first – nature’s first food, breast milk, is naturally sweet, and that is what baby is accustomed to. Banana is a wonderful first food, as its creamy consistency is similar to mother’s milk. After introducing banana, try another fruit or vegetable. Continue adding fruits and vegetables until baby has a wide variety of tastes. Then consider adding whole grains in the form of cereal. Many whole grains have naturally occurring iron, so there is no need to supplement baby’s iron unless there is a medical indication for doing so. Brown rice, oats, and barley are all good choices. Next, introduce a meat or poultry such as beef or chicken. If you are a vegetarian, introduce another protein source such as tofu or lentils. As time goes on, introduce a combination of tastes, such as cereal mixed with applesauce or peas and carrots. This is also a great time to introduce finger foods, especially if baby has teeth. As baby learns to self-feed, you can move away from making purees and offer small baby-sized portions of the family meal.

Getting Started
Bananas make an ideal food for a baby starting solids. To serve, let bananas ripen well (the more ripe, the better – brown spots are desirable), cut into small chunks and mash with a fork. Pears are an excellent source of fiber and can be cooked like apples: peel and cut into chunks. Place in small saucepan and just cover with water. Cook until tender. These can then be mashed with a fork, run through a food mill, processed in a blender or food processor. They can also be offered as finger food if they are cut into small enough chunks. Carrots, another popular first food, should be scraped with a vegetable peeler, sliced and steamed or boiled until soft. Process in blender or food mill. Carrots can be a choking hazard for children, so do use caution if offering as a finger food.

Sweet potatoes are extremely easy to make, and one potato can last a long time if frozen after cooking. Place sweet potato in a microwave for about eight minutes, remove and let cool. Open up and serve right out of the peel – the potato is very soft and needs no further processing. Sweet potatoes are an excellent source of B6.

Winter squash such as acorn or butternut makes an excellent first food. Cut squash in half and clean. Place in one half inch of water in a baking pan and bake at three hundred and fifty degrees for half an hour. Use a spoon to scoop out squash and feed directly to baby.

Avocadoes are an extremely nutrient dense food and offers important vitamins and minerals such as iron and potassium. Cut avocado in half around the pit, grab each half and give it a twist. Scoop out meat and mash or dice.

Making cereal for baby is very easy. Take a cup of the whole grain if your choice such as brown rice, oats, or barley and process in the blender until the desired consistency is reached, usually about two minutes for very young babies. Store in an airtight container. To cook, mix with liquid of your choice and heat over medium heat on stove until thick.

Enjoyment
Enjoy this fun stage in baby’s development, and rest assured that baby is getting superior nutrition and developing good eating habits which will last a lifetime!

About The Author
Meredith Edwards-Cornwall owns and operates Attached Mamas at www.attachedmamas.com, which caters to families looking to achieve health naturally. Remedies for colic, morning sickness, infertility and more. She is also a designer for the web and print and owns Beach Designs Studio at www.beachdesigns.net.
meredith@attachedmamas.com

by Jason Rickard

A common problem many times facing parents is Colic. Estimates say that between 15-25% of infants are born with Colic. Although it is not believed to effect a baby’s development it is still a struggle for parents to cope with. Babies with colic most often cry for several hours at a time with diaper changes and feedings having no effect.

Some of the symptoms that your little one may have colic are (but not limited to) as follows:

1. A high pitched cry that does not let up in intensity, sometimes for hours at a time
2. Pulls their legs towards their chest or holds them straight out
3. Face becoming flush and warm while legs feel cooler
4. Held breathes
5. Painful facial expressions

Unlike many other childhood ailments, there is no one specific reason a baby may have colic. There are several factors however that may exasperate colic.

They include:

1. Lack of Burping
2. Food Allergies
3. Swallowing Air
4. Overfeeding or Eating too fast
5. A tense home environment

The good news is that the symptoms usually disappear at about the 4 month mark. In the meantime here are some tips on minimizing those symptoms.

1. After each ounce or few minutes of formula, burp them.
2. Do not feed them while they are lying down
3. Go for a ride in the car or try a gentle rocking while walking.
4. Play white noise for them. There are many options in white noise now including lullabies playing in the forefront. Constant noise like Vacuum Cleaners and Fans are also very helpful in some cases and can be purchased on CD to avoid drafts or other issues. These can be purchased from the author of this article at www.yourfavouriteshop.com
5. A warm bath with a few drops of chamomile essential oil to the water to help them to relax further.
6. Change to a low-allergy formula or switch to a soy based one.
7. If you are breast feeding, avoid tea and coffee

Above all you should always consult your physician to discuss the different symptoms. You should always be aware that the symptoms listed above may also be indications of ear infections, allergies, etc. so it is important to discuss everything candidly with your pediatrician.

About The Author
Jason Rickard is the owner of www.yourfavouriteshop.com – European Reseller of White Noise and Relaxation CDs *Article may be reprinted provided it is not altered and links are live.* sales@yourfavouriteshop.com

As always, check with your doctor before starting any kind of diet. The following information is for reference only:

For breastfeeding mothers the joy and closeness they feel to their baby while nursing is undescribeable. Occasionally however the baby will have unexplainable crying periods that doctors refer to as colic. While breastfeeding for the first year is best, formula feeding moms have choices in the formulas they can use to help easy the baby’s crying. However, for breastfeeding moms there is only one choice, the breast milk the mother produces.

There are things however that a mother can do to help change the consistency and nutritional aspects found in her breast milk. These include cutting out a few known gassy foods like broccoli and onions, to cutting just about everything out. Cutting everything out is often referred to as an Elimination Diet and is often recommended by doctors and pediatricians for mothers of gassy or colicy babies that are breastfed.

The Elimination Diet focuses on eliminating all hard to digest foods in a mother’s diet. It also includes eliminating all spices and seasonings except for salt and pepper. This is likely to make the food bland and at times tasteless, but if it helps your baby it would be worth it. On the Elimination Diet was created by William G. Crook, M.D. to help determine what different food allergies a person suffers from. It focuses on eating the least allergenic food in each of the food groups.

For the first two weeks it is suggested that the only meats you eat are turkey and lamb, partnered with baked or boiled potatoes or sweet potatoes. For a vegetable you can have cooked yellow and green squash. It allows you to have pears for your fruit, or pear juice, and rice as a side dish as rice is easy to digest. It suggests using a rice-based drink in place of milk to drink or cook with.

After the first two weeks you are allowed to slowly add foods back into your diet starting with items such as sunflower seeds, carrots, beets, salmon, oats, grapes, avocado, and peaches. Add one new food every four days and keep a journal documenting what you add, when you add it and what reaction, if any, that your baby has to it. After you have successfully added the above foods to your diet with no visible problems in your baby you can begin adding other foods like wheat, beef, eggs, nuts, and corn.

Once you determine that these food items are not bothering your baby it is safe to slowly begin adding back in the dairy products to your diet. Other items you should wait on include peanuts, shellfish, coffee, tea, colas and other beverages containing caffeine, chocolate, gas-producing vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, green peppers), tomatoes, and citrus fruits.

Like any “diet” you may begin to feel deprived of your favorite foods or hungry when you first start on the Elimination Diet. It is important not to let yourself starve but rather to make and eating plenty of the foods you are allowed to eat at each stage. Once you determine the foods your baby’s belly can tolerate you will successfully be able to add back in some of your favorites.

Because breast milk is the only form of nutrition to most gassy and colicky babies, they normally respond to the diet change quickly, and begin to act happier and healthier relatively soon. For older babies who are still nursing as well as eating baby food and other solids, it may take longer to see a response and change in the fussiness. It is important to remember NOT to give up and to give both your body and your baby a chance to adjust to your change of diet.

Most pregnant women are told to not smoke and to try to stay away from second hand smoke as it can affect the development of their baby. However, most women who quit smoking just because they are pregnant start back up after the baby is born. Many of those women do it because they are hoping to lose weight faster. However, they don’t realize that the smoke can still affect their baby. Second hand smoke will actually hurt your baby more now that he is born than it would have while you were pregnant.

If you do smoke you should step outside and not smoke in your house, where the smoke can linger for your baby to breathe in. You should make anyone in your household who smokes go outside. You should not smoke in the car, even with the windows cracked or down, as the smoke can still fill the small area. If you can’t stop smoking for your baby, you should at least do everything you can to keep your baby away from the majority of the smoke.

Smoking can be dangerous for your baby in many ways. Living in a house with a cigarette smoker has been linked to the occurrence of SIDS, which is the sudden, unexplainable death of an infant. Besides SIDS, it has also been linked to causing allergies and asthma in a baby. The asthma can then stick with your baby, causing attacks as a child and in severe cases lead to death.

It can also lead to a problem not as widely known in kids, gum problems. Parental smoking can lead to periodontitis (inflammation of the gums) and dental caries (cavities) in children. It can also cause darkening of your child’s gums, in some cases making them look black. This can be irreversible for your child.

Other health problems your smoking could cause your baby and toddler as he gets older include pneumonia, bronchitis, and other lung problems. Being exposed to second hand smoke while young, can lead to cancer later on in life.

If you smoke and you can not quit, then try to not smoke in front of your baby. It is one thing for you to make the choice to breathe in the nicotine, your baby doesn’t have the option for making that choice for himself. Try to take all steps necessary to keep your baby safe and healthy.