baby led weaning food ideas Archives

The Healthiest Broccoli Soup For Babies And Toddlers

Ophira4 CommentsDecember 13, 2021December 13, 2019

Read time: 3 minutes

A Warming Broccoli Soup For Babies And Toddlers For The Winter Season

If you have been following me for a while now, you know I plan our family meals every week. One night each week we try and do a soup and salad meal that helps break away from the monotony of our dal and rice dinner meals.

We have a few of our favorite go-to soup recipes, but our family favorite is this broccoli soup.

Its creamy, delicious and super healthy for all ages. I love making this broccoli soup during the winter season. It contains a good amount of healthy fats and carbs. In order to add more protein content to the meal, I usually pair this soup with a one-pot quinoa recipe, like this one.

Read here for more soup recipes for babies and toddlers.

Healthy Broccoli Soup For Kids

A quick glance at the steps involved in making this recipe

Broccoli Soup For Babies And Toddlers

A creamy and healthy soup for babies and toddlers

5 from 2 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 25

Total Time 35

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Servings 4

Ingredients

1 large head of broccoli
1 onion
2 potatoes
2-3 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp almonds soaked overnight
1 tbsp organic vegetable stock powder
5 tbsp coconut milk
2 tbsp olive oil
3 cups water
salt and pepper taste

Instructions

In a large pot roast garlic in hot olive oil.
Now sauté the onions until translucent in color
Add the broccoli, potatoes, almonds and 3 cups water followed by the vegetable stock and seasonings. (Skip vegetable stock when cooking for the baby or find salt free version)
Let this boil for 20 mins.
Once boiled let the soup cool down completely.
Now add the soup to a blender with the coconut milk and blend until thick soup-like consistency.
Transfer back to the pot and cook the soup for another 5 mins
Serve with whole wheat toasted garlic bread and a quinoa side.

Keyword broccoli soup for babies, broccoli soup for toddlers, broccoli soup recipe, healthy soup recipes for kids, soup recipes for babies

Notes

Use a low salt vegetable stock powder, one that contains No-MSG when cooking for kids. You can skip on the vegetable stock powder when cooking for your baby.
I prefer using canned coconut milk instead of fresh coconut milk because it is creamier in texture.

Here are some products you can use when making the broccoli soup.

Kallo Organic Very Low Salt Vegetable Stock Cubes

Real Thai Coconut Milk

If there is one way to get your kids to enjoy broccoli you have to try this soup. Do give this soup a try and let me know how your children liked it.

Comment below your kids favorites soup recipes. I am sure our readers would love more ideas.

How To Quickly Relieve A Constipated Baby

OphiraLeave a commentMay 3, 2022April 10, 2019

Read time: 5 minutes

Are you wondering if you have a constipated baby on hand?

The one thing no one tells you about being a new parent is how much you will obsess over baby poop.

Most new parents are freaked out about the slightest irregularity in the babies bowel movement.

If you are looking for remedies for constipation in babies, you are at the right place. Read on, to find out how to relieve a constipated baby.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF CONSTIPATED BABY

Normal bowel movements are different for each child.

In the first month, infants tend to have one bowel movement a day. Constipation in breastfed babies is uncommon. After the first month, babies can go a few days or even a week between bowel movements. Formula fed babies can have 3-4 bowel movements a day or a bowel movement every few days.

Since their abdominal muscles are weak the baby may have difficulty passing stools at this stage. Babies tend to strain, cry, and get red in the face when they have a bowel movement. This does not mean they are constipated. It is important to note that as long as bowel movements are soft, the frequency should not matter.[Source]

In most cases, if the baby is passing infrequent stools that are hard and dry then the baby is constipated.

Some of the first signs of a constipated baby are,

Baby is visibly uncomfortable, and cranky when trying to pass stools
Hard and dry stools
Bloated or swollen belly
Blood in the stool (a sign that the child is straining too hard.)

REASONS FOR CONSTIPATION IN BABIES

Change in the type of formula or switched from breastmilk to formula
Started solid foods
Introduced to travel or new and potentially stressful situations for baby. In stressful situations, the baby may learn how to hold poop in.

HOW TO RELIEVE CONSTIPATION IN BABIES QUICKLY

1. Change the formula/or your diet if breastfeeding

Though it is rare that babies on an all liquid diet suffer from constipation, exclusively formula fed babies may suffer from constipation. In this case, talk with your pediatrician and look for an alternate formula for the baby.

In the case of breastfed babies suffering from constipation, the mom can consider changing her diet to check for any change in babies bowel movements.

Removing dairy from mothers diet can help since excessive dairy consumption is known to cause constipation. And if this is passing through milk to baby maybe it is causing baby some discomfort.

2. Baby exercise

Try the cycle legs exercise. For babies that are not yet walking, try keeping baby on back and moving his legs in the cycling position.

3. Baby massage

A gentle massage on babies tummy moving the palm of your hand in the clockwise direction can help ease some of the bloating the baby is feeling and get bowel movements started.

4. Warm bath

Sometimes a warm bath followed by tummy massage can help baby feel less bloated and restart bowel movements.

5. Increase fluid intake

Increase water and breast milk intake. Be careful when offering water that you don’t fill the baby on water and displace breastmilk. A few sips of water every few hours can help baby stay hydrated and ease bowel movements.

Remember water and solid foods are to be offered only after completing 6 months of age. The WHO recommends babies be exclusively breastfed or formula fed the first 6 months of life.

For babies above 6 months of age, you can give a little pear juice or prune juice. Once again be careful not to fill baby up on juices. Limit juices to 60 ml-120 ml a day. [source]

6. Foods that relieve constipation in babies

Certain high fiber foods can help relieve constipation in babies above 6 months of age.

Example:

Prunes: Can be offered as a puree.
Raisins: Can be offered as a puree too. If the baby is good with a pincer grasp and self-feeding then raisins can be offered as finger foods too. Take care to slice the raisins vertically in halves or to mash them and then offer.
Whole wheat pasta
Brown rice
Beans: Mash the beans and offer the baby.
Broccoli: Steamed broccoli florets as a finger food or broccoli puree can be offered to baby.
Pears: Steamed pear slices, pear puree or thick pear juice can be offered to baby.
Oats: Make a simple oats porridge for baby.
Green peas: Green peas can be offered as a soup, puree, green pea fritters or simply by mashing individual green peas and offering as finger food.

Avoid offering too much bread, white pasta, applesauce, rice cereal. All these foods are low in fiber and can cause constipation. For a more detailed look at foods that relieve constipation in babies and toddlers, read this post of mine.

When all these options do not work, and it’s been more than 8 -10 days that baby has passed a motion, you may want to talk with your pediatrician to see if further medical help is needed. Until then, do not stress continue giving baby lots of exercise, massage, and fiber-rich foods.

Do you know of home remedies for constipation in babies? Leave me a comment with what remedies worked for your baby.

Baby Led Weaning Food Ideas For Busy Moms

OphiraLeave a commentOctober 12, 2022June 16, 2018

Read time: 6 minutes

As busy moms, there may not be enough time to make meals from scratch every single day. At the same time, you don’t want to be serving up processed food from tins and jars just to keep the baby fed. These baby led weaning food ideas are meant for moms like you, who don’t want to compromise on nutrition even on those busy days.

Sometimes you are too tired or lazy to cook an entire meal. That’s okay, you deserve a break too. Or maybe you want to enjoy some takeout from your favorite restaurant. Whatever the reason, your baby can still have a good home cooked meal without you taking too much trouble.

All of these ideas are suited for babies 6 to 12 months of age. For similar inspiration, on toddler meal ideas you can check my post on weekly meals my toddler eats.

Before I get into the baby food ideas, I want to add here that your house needs to be stocked with basic groceries in order to quickly whip up some of these meals. A few basic items to always stock in your pantry are;

Lentils (Dals)
Rice
Pasta
Onions, tomatoes, potatoes
Quinoa
Foods to help boost nutrition on any plate and easy for baby to eat–bananas, avocados, nut butter, and eggs.

BABY LED WEANING FOOD IDEAS FOR BUSY MOMS

Healthy baby food Idea 1

Dal rice khichdi: Served as fist-sized balls for 6-12-month-olds. To add more color to the plate you can quickly steam whatever vegetables are available in your fridge. Pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower. This won’t take more than 30 minutes to whip up, even lesser if you already batch cooked dal and stored in the fridge.

Healthy baby food Idea 2

Breakfast for lunch: No time to cook, no worry just make a yummy breakfast porridge for lunch. A mommy trick to make plain old boring porridge yummy and nutritious is by adding your child’s favorite fruits, like berries, mango, figs. And to make it healthy add nut butter, roasted flaxseed powder, and hemp seeds.

Some of the porridge flavors that are favorites in our home;

Oats Porridge cooked with berries and topped with almond butter, and flaxseed powder.
Oats Porridge cooked with bananas and topped with hemp seeds, peanut butter, and flaxseed powder.
Oats porridge with apple, cinnamon, and flaxseed powder.

Get more oats porridge recipes for babies here.

Healthy baby food Idea 3

Baby led weaning-friendly pasta: Sautee onions and tomatoes in butter or oil. Then add cooked pasta to this and mix well. Season with salt-free oregano flakes.

Pasta is best suited for babies 8 – 9 months and up, and one of the easiest finger foods you can offer.

Healthy baby food Idea 4

Pancakes for baby: Pancakes are easy to offer the baby when in a rush. I keep a wheat and ragi flour mix ready in an airtight container and add a banana to the pancake batter as a natural sweetener. For more pancake recipes you can check my post on baby led weaning breakfast ideas. Serve with nut butter or regular salt-free butter.

Ragi pancakes for baby led weaning.

Healthy baby food Idea 5

Quinoa egg omelet: If you have leftover cooked quinoa give these quinoa fingers a try. These are an amazing finger food for babies. Best suited for babies 9 months and up.

Start by whisking 1-2 egg yolks in a bowl. Pour this egg yolk mixture in a pan and let it cook for a half a minute. Quickly follow this step by adding cooked quinoa and mixing it evenly in the egg mixture. Once the quinoa is coated, cover the pan and let this cook for 5 minutes. The end result should look like a quinoa and egg omelet. Cut into finger sized pieces and serve. It’s a complete meal that doesn’t compromise much on the nutrients and tastes yummy.

Healthy baby food Idea 6

Build a plate with Leftovers: There have been days when we are running out of groceries and I literally use whatever I find in my fridge and pantry to make a meal.

Examples of how to prepare these individual elements to help build a plate.

Eggs – make scrambled eggs, boiled egg, egg omelette add veggies like spinach to the omelette.

Avocado – slice into pieces, make a guacamole, or baked avocado fingers.

Pasta – plain boiled pasta, drizzle a little olive oil or coconut oil.

Fruit – to be served on the side

Sweet potato – bake or boil

Taro root– bake or boil

Cooked beans – smush and serve as a side

Leftover boiled dal – Dal can be cooked in batches and stored in the fridge for 2-3 days. Use this boiled dal to make dal balls.

Veggies – any leftover veggies can be steamed or roasted in the oven and offered as a side.

Leftover boiled chicken or fish pieces – can be shredded and served as a side on the baby plate.

Boiled potato – can be stored in the fridge and can be used as a side or to make a quick potato chicken patty or potato salad for lunch.

Homemade yogurt – as a side

Here are a few examples of “build a plate” lunches made out of random ingredients from the pantry or leftovers.

Brocolli florets, rice, sweet potato
Sweet potato and avocado
Dalia (sprouted/broken wheat porridge and sweet potato)
Beans (cooked until soft and mushy) and rice
Scrambled egg yolk, the fruit of the day,
Slices of avocado, boiled egg (egg yolks for babies under 1), cooked quinoa.

So the next time you are wondering what food to offer your baby on a lazy/busy day head to this post for ideas. Even better, jot down these ideas on a piece of paper and stick it up on the fridge. No matter how simple these baby-led weaning food ideas sound, I know from experience there are days you are staring at the fridge which does contain options to use and yet you think you have nothing to feed the baby.

What are some of your lazy day go-to baby-led weaning food ideas to offer your baby? Do comment below.

Baby Led Weaning Breakfast Ideas

Ophira51 CommentsJuly 17, 2021September 19, 2017

Read time: 9 minutes

When we first started baby led weaning, I have to confess I spent hours on the Internet researching baby led weaning breakfast ideas, easy recipes for baby led weaning etc.

Baby led weaning is a method of weaning a baby where the baby is allowed to eat family foods from the beginning. No purees and soups! That said, being a first-time mom I had a lot of doubts about what exactly to offer baby and how to prepare it for him. It takes a while to get used to cooking appropriate meals that the entire family and baby can enjoy together. Nutrition has to be your biggest focus when planning meals for your family.

If you are just starting out with baby led weaning, read my post, baby led weaning guide for Indian mothers. This post will help you get a background on baby led weaning before you start.

Let’s address some concerns

Breakfast can easily become the most sugar-laden meal of the day. With ready-made packet mixes of idli, upma, instant ready masala oats, cornflakes etc. in the market, it is important to remember anything that comes in a packet has added sugars that act as a preservative not to mention artificial flavoring and coloring agents.

I feel it is important to address this issue of ready meals when we speak about baby led weaning babies being able to eat what family eats. Try and steer clear of offering your little one ready meals or packeted foods on a regular basis (do understand I mean daily basis, not once in a while) under the guise of eating family meals or adult like foods.

This is where I feel baby led weaning proponents need to focus on a clear discussion of what a healthy looking meal for baby looks like. It is best to start the day with a well thought out meal so that baby gets a healthy start.

Dosa and Idli batters can be prepared the night before and when in a hurry simple porridge recipes can be made at home from scratch. If you want to know how I manage to give my child healthy food everyday read my post on this topic.

We stick to easy recipes for breakfast on busy weekday mornings like oats, dalia, pancakes, along with fruits and eggs. On weekends we plan Dosa and Idli as breakfast options since these require prior fermentation.

Depending on your baby’s age you can modify these options; meaning when they are just starting out you can stick to finger sized portions that they can grab in their palms and as they become more skilled at eating you can move to porridge-like consistency foods that can be eaten with a spoon.

We offered our son same food as ours at breakfast sans salt and sugar and with less spice until he was 12 months of age. This can be done by taking out a small portion of baby’s food before adding spices and salt or simultaneously cooking his version along with the family’s breakfast.

At 18 months most of his meals have the same level of spice and salt as the family. You can start increasing spices slowly post 12-months of age, taking cues from your child on how they like it. For salt, our preference has reduced to low salt as a family post-baby.

Baby Led Weaning Breakfast Ideas

Fruits

The easiest option to offer especially when they are just starting out and still getting nutrition from breastmilk. Fruits can easily be cut into finger-shaped strips making it easier for them to hold and practice eating. Add a dollop of plain yogurt on the side to offer variation from time to time.

Most appropriate options [6-9 month]: Banana, Mango, Muskmelon, Watermelon, Papaya, Oranges, and Sweet lime.

Once the pincer grasp comes in [around 9 months] Blueberries, grapes, raspberries.

Note: Always check that fruit is ripe. Remove any pits and seeds before offering a baby. It is advisable to squish/ vertically cut fruits into half that are tiny ball shaped like blueberries, raspberries, and grapes until the baby develops teeth to chew on them.

In the image below I have shown examples of how round fruits should be cut and offered. And how I offered fruits like the banana to my son when we first started baby led weaning.

Porridge

An oats porridge or sprouted wheat/ jowar (dalia) porridge is easy to make.

Oats porridge: Add some fruit blueberries/ mangoes/ plums/ chikoo either when boiling or chopped up over the porridge. To make the oats porridge extra healthy and delicious. I also add a dollop of almond butter or peanut butter and some roasted flaxseed powder. This way you can ensure every bite the baby takes is nutrient dense. Get more ideas of oats porridge for babies here.
Sprouted wheat porridge (Dalia): I usually roast the sprouted wheat in a pan, then transfer to pot of water and let it cook for about 15-20 mins. It’s cooked when it is a thick consistency and all the water has been absorbed. While serving I add a tsp of ghee (clarified butter) and cardamom powder.

Poha

This Maharashtrian dish is a staple in my house. Squeeze lemon and sprinkle some coriander over it to add more flavor. Pohe requires more advanced feeding skills; I started offering him a spoon with his pohe since 10 months. It was amazing how quickly he learned to feed himself with the spoon, albeit the mess!

Upma

If you make the upma extra sticky it’s quite easy for baby to pick it up. My son used his pincer grasp to pick up small lumps of upma since 9 months. You can even make oats upma when you want to add something different to baby’s routine. This is one of his favorite breakfasts.

Thalipeeth

Another Maharashtrian savory pan cake dish made of multiple grains.The dough is prepared from a mixture of flours like roasted Rajgira (Amaranth), wheat, rice, jowar, bajra, ragi, coriander seeds and cumin seeds. Onion, fresh coriander and other ground spices like turmeric, garam masala are added when kneading the dough.

My Cheat Version: You can make the thalipeeth flour (rajgira, rice, jowar, bajra etc.) mixture and store in air tight container. On busy mornings all you have to do is make a pancake batter adding the thalipeeth mix, onions, tomatoes, coriander and water to a bowl. Mix and use this to make mini thalipeeth pancakes. Super quick, easy and healthy!

Parathas

Paratha is a thick Indian bread made with a stuffing of potatoes, vegetables like spinach, carrots or cottage cheese. It’s easy to make a paratha into finger sized strips and offer as finger food to the baby. If your baby is just starting out on baby led weaning or has no teeth, you can increase the content of potato stuffing in the dough. This will ensure soft parathas that are suited to those soft gums.

Eggs

These are easiest to prepare and kids love them. You can offer scrambled egg yolk or hardboiled egg yolk from 9 months. Once they are 1 year old you can introduce whole egg omelet with veggies and cheese. I usually pair scrambled egg with some fruit like watermelon or grapes on the side.

Chapati

Whole wheat chapati can be offered in strips at 6-7 month stage and later in small bite size pieces once pincer grasp comes in. At 18 months my toddler now eats chapati rolled up like a wrap. I put some ghee or almond butter on his chapati. Can be served just as with the nut butter or ghee or with stir fried vegetables as finger foods.

Pancakes

You can make a pancake out of many flours like oats flour, wheat flour, and ragi flour. I sometimes mix a few of them or just make a plain oats pancake.

I have given a simple recipe I use below with oats, but you can use other flours of your choice.

You can even add fruits like blueberries, banana or raw cacao nibs to the pancake mix to make it interesting. Serve with a dollop of almond butter. Yum Yum!

Related reading : Ragi pancakes for babies

Idli

Idli is a steamed rice cake made from a combination of rice and lentils that have been soaked, ground, and fermented into a smooth dough. This fermented rice cake is easy to digest for the baby.

Add a few vegetables to the batter like peas, carrots, spinach and make it even more nutritious. Serve with coconut chutney or sambar. Though it takes some time to prepare this dish, the kids love Idli. Worth the effort in my books.

Dosa

Dosa is an Indian pancake made of fermented batter containing, rice and urad dal (lentils). It is accompanied with sambar and coconut chutney. Very easy to offer as a baby led weaning breakfast idea. Add flours like ragi or semolina to increase nutrition for baby and offer variety in taste. Get recipe for ragi dosa for babies here.

MORE BABY LED WEANING IDEAS

Baby led weaning first foods: What to offer?

7 Baby Led Weaning Benefits No One Tells You About

Baby Led Weaning Finger Foods On The Go

5 Baby Led Weaning Tips For Success

6 Healthy Baby Led Weaning Lunch Ideas

Baby Led Weaning Food Ideas For Busy Moms

Baby-led Weaning On Vacation (Part 1)

Baby-led Weaning On Vacation (Part 2)

I hope these baby led weaning breakfast ideas get you excited and inspired. In fact, the amazing part about baby led weaning is that you can serve baby anything you prepare only modifying for salt and sugar. What is your favorite breakfast as a family? Do leave me a comment below.