We all want our children to grow up with healthy eating habits and it’s hard to imagine healthier foods than vegetables. Rich in complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, vegetables are a staple of wellness nutrition even for very young children. That is why vegetables are at the top of the list when we talk about “Baby’s First Solid Food”
Best Veggies For Your Babies
Spinach
Spinach is one of the most popular vegetables across the globe, mainly because of its health benefits, not only for grown-ups but also for kids and babies. Spinach serves as a high source of essential minerals and vitamins that make the body strong internally by improving organ functionalities.
Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are highly nutritious, not to mention delicious. They make for the perfect first food for your baby. The mildly sweet taste that it has also made it a favorite food among babies.
Carrots
Carrots are an integral part of a six-month baby food chart as they contain a variety of nutrients to help safeguard the little one against illnesses. Carrots are rich in vitamin A which is important for eye health. They also contain vitamin B6 which is good for the hair, skin, and liver. The presence of vitamin K helps in proper blood clotting. Carrots are also a good source of fiber which is essential to prevent constipation.
Broccoli
Broccoli is quite literally bursting with goodness from vitamin C, vitamin K to calcium, and most importantly iron, which is necessary for the healthy growth and development of your baby. Broccoli also contains protein, about 2.5g per 100g, so you can really see why it’s called a true superfood because it really is super!
Butter Crunch
Butter Crunch is a powerhouse food for little ones. It has lots of fiber, protein, and an omega-3 fatty acid called alpha-linolenic acid. It also has tons of vitamins and minerals, with exceptionally high levels of vitamins A, C, and K, as well as iron and zinc. Butter Crunch is also a fantastic source of B-vitamins, especially B6 and folate, which are commonly insufficient in babies’ diets. Lastly, buttercrunch contains a wonderful assortment of phytonutrients that offer antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits.
Red Chard
Chard is known to be a nutritional powerhouse vegetable packed with vitamins, nutrients, and health benefits. Red chard contains high levels of vitamins C, K, E, beta-carotene, calcium, and the minerals manganese and zinc. As noted, it also contains betalain. Betalain pigments have repeatedly been shown to support activity within the body’s detoxification process, activating and processing unwanted toxic substances.
Best Way To Prepare Veggies For Babies
During the old days, parents introduced vegetables to their babies by boiling and mashing them into a puree. Puree is a texture-modified diet in which all foods have a soft, pudding-like consistency. This diet is often recommended for people who can’t eat solid foods like babies. Puree feeding provides a variety of foods that meet your nutritional needs to help and prevent any degree of malnutrition especially to babies whose nutritional needs grow as they hit 6th month.
However, preparing vegetable puree is very time-consuming. Of course, we all know that not all parents have time to prepare for it due to their lifestyle and perhaps their daily schedule. This is when commercially bottled puree comes in handy.
Bottled Pureed Baby Foods vs. Homemade Pureed Baby Foods
There is a plethora of information available today on the internet discussing homemade vs store-bought baby food when you start your infant on solid foods around 6 months of age. When choosing whether to make or buy baby food for your infant, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of both options for your family.
The Pro and Cons of Homemade Baby Food
Choosing to make baby food at home is less expensive than purchasing readymade baby food. Further, it allows you to have control over all the ingredients and flavors without added preservatives, salt, or sugar, and you can avoid any foods that may cause allergic reactions.
This also incorporates your infant into your family’s eating habits, which is important in establishing healthy eating habits and weight maintenance. By making homemade baby food purees, you are able to introduce your infant to the unique foods and flavors frequently eaten by your family.
On the other hand, it does take time and care to prepare and safely store homemade baby food. Homemade baby foods may spoil more quickly and require refrigeration, which may take up room in your fridge or freezer if you make a lot of servings ahead of time. Prepackaged baby foods don’t need refrigerator storage until they’re opened.
Botulism Risks
“Clostridium botulinum lives in the soil… so (as with nitrates) high risk foods include potatoes, carrots, beets, squash, spinach and green beans. The bacteria exists in two forms: active bacteria (which make the botulinum toxin) and spores (an inactive form surrounded by a tough shell). Boiling food for 10 minutes will usually kill active bacteria and destroy the toxin, but it will not eliminate the spores.
The spores present a couple problems.
If high-risk foods are improperly canned, active bacteria may emerge from the spores and start making toxin. The toxin accumulates within the food and poses a serious danger to anyone who eats it, regardless of their age.
The other problem with spores occur when they are eaten. While spores usually pass safely through the intestinal tract and exit the body in stool, there is the rare possibility that active bacteria will emerge from the spore and start making toxin while still inside the intestine. Infants under 12 months of age… and children and adults with compromised immune systems… are most prone. When this happens, toxin slowly accumulates and is eventually distributed throughout the body.”*
*https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/family-resources-education/700childrens/2014/07/homemade-baby-food-the-danger-of-botulism
The Pro and Cons of Store-Bought Baby Food
The biggest benefit is convenience! I cannot say it enough. It requires less careful preparation and cleaning, less pureeing, less freezing, and less waste. Baby food manufacturers are constantly creating new products, which allows for easier and lighter carrying. Companies have started packaging their foods in pouches, which are easier to carry than glass jars. Also, many companies package their baby foods in ways that are designed to help parents advance their baby’s diet at the right age.
However, a recent report from the US House Committee on Oversight and Reform says that some well-known commercial baby foods are tainted with dangerous levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury.
The low levels of heavy metals found in baby foods likely are a relatively small part of a child’s overall toxic metal exposure risk. However, exposure from all sources should be minimized. Toxic metal exposure can be harmful to the developing brain. It’s been linked with problems with learning, cognition, and behavior.
So which option is better?
This alarming finding might have you wondering if you need to toss the jars of baby food in your pantry, or whether it’s time to buy that trendy machine so you can make your kiddo’s food from scratch.
If you’re thinking it’s probably safest to either choose organic baby foods or buy organic ingredients to make your own, think again. You’re going to have to contend with heavy metals even if you make food from scratch or buy organic. The standards used to label foods as organic don’t take into account the number of heavy metals in soil. Just because a product is organic, or homemade doesn’t mean it’s free of heavy metals. Many heavy metals still make their way to plants even in organic soil. That’s because contaminated water run-off, not pesticides, are the common cause of metal in soil.
Healthier And Safer Option
In 2017, David Cullumber, founder of Brilliant Baby Food ™, set out to transform agriculture and solve the problem of heavy metal poisoning (arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium) around the world. Using ingenuity and scientific methods, he discovered how to grow plants from seed to harvest without touching human hands. The ingenious baby food is nutritious, clean and pure.
Brilliant Baby Food manufactures its own products, without pesticides, herbicides, genetically modified organisms, without animals, without humans pollutants The most important thing is that the water and the elements we use to grow our products are tested by independent laboratories, before entering our product seeds and sprouts and after making baby food. Double tests guarantee only the best!
“Your baby deserves only the best, by giving them nutritious, delicious and safe baby food.
In planning: 6 New Brilliant Baby Foods
1 Pureed Carrot
2. Pureed Broccoli
3. Pureed Red Chard
4. Pureed Spinach
5. Pureed Sweet Potato
6. Pureed Bibb
See the difference, click the button below to pre-order
Source : https://health.ucsd.edu/, www.parents .com , www.verywellfamily.comCom