Sunday, April 7, 2013

4 important feeding tips for your baby

I'm please to announce that Avairy is now an expert eater! These days you cannot get the food in her mouth fast enough. Not to mention how much she's starting to eat in one sitting!

It's so exciting giving those first spoonfuls of food to your little one, but it's also important to be aware what you're giving them as well. Thankfully, Jordan and I have the same views on this and are so strict when it comes to what we feed Avairy.

The way I look at it, babies are as pure as they come. They aren't tainted with cravings for sugary or salty foods. Let alone have any desire for them. Remember, you aren't hurting baby's feeling by not giving them those cute snack puffs because they wouldn't know they exist in the first place if you don't introduce them to it. Which brings me to tip #1.


Tip #1
By starting your baby off on healthy eating habits and continuing for the years to come, you can help encourage a proper diet. If there's anything I would highly stress on any mother, it's that no matter how much work it may seem or how small of an idea it may be, just do it. You'll help your children live longer and healthier in the long run.

Tip #2
Skip the juices and baby snacks. Most of these are filled with sugar, dyes and preservative chemicals. I almost got excited when I saw this box of organic baby crackers and thought it couldn't be that bad. Until I saw it had sugar in it. Maybe I'm too strict on this, but I think of it as this: there's only so much a baby can eat in one day so why waste it on things that don't benefit them in any way? You could give them a handful of rice cookies with no real benefits or give them a bowl of banana with plenty of nutrients.

Tip #3
Use organic or natural foods (if you can). Some people don't see the point and others may not want to spend more on what they can buy cheaper, either way it's up to you. But if you're interested in buying organic, but don't want to spend the dough, then check out this link to the Dirty Dozen and The Clean Fifteen. It shows you the fruits/vegetables with the most and least pesticides. So, save a few dollars by buying regular sweet potatoes since they're low in pesticides, but shuck a few bucks on things like strawberries that have a high pesticide content. The website also tells you how much chemicals are in a single fruit. For example, peaches were found to have more than 60 different pesticides! Yuck, not in ma baby! haha

Tip #4
Make your own baby food. Sound daunting? Not at all. One morning I made mashed cauliflower for Avairy and it took less than 30 minutes (including prep work!). You get the satisfaction of seeing them eat what you've made for them and knowing that some company didn't add a little of this and a little of that in there. Look out for a post on how to make your own organic baby food soon!

Lastly, have fun and get messy! This is all an exciting learning experience for both of you so if things get a little crazy, it's alright. Bibs and sponges were invented because babies exist. haha

Happy eatings!

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