![\"blog2010babyDSC_5731food\"](\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/blog2010babyDSC_5731food1.jpg\" "\\"blog2010babyDSC_5731food\\"")
<\/p>\nHannah has started on some solid foods for about a month now. So far, she has accepted all the foods without putting up a fuss or fight.<\/p>\n
For the record, Hannah has tried Japanese short grain white rice porridge, carrot, potato, sweet potato, silken tofu, garden peas and pumpkin. All of them were given in their pureed form. I used a metal sieve and a spoon to puree each steamed food and then stir in a little hot water to achieve a thinner consistency (almost runny) to help Hannah accept her first taste of each food. I tried to avoid adding milk so that she could get to the original taste. But if she rejected any of them, I was prepared to add some of her formula milk to help her ease in. :)<\/p>\n
Throughout the process, I\u2019ve learnt more about steaming foods and pureeing them. I used Russell potatoes as they cooked faster and were easy to mash. However, these potatoes are huge; I required a small portion due to Hannah\u2019s tiny intake then. I switched to buying baby potatoes so that I could use a whole potato each time without having to eat so much leftovers. For carrots, I had to chop them up into really small pieces as they took a longer time to soften when steamed. When it comes to silken tofu, it only took 2-3 minutes to steam smaller pieces as it was already cooked. Over-steaming it will change its mildly sweet soy taste\u2026not nice already. The skins of garden peas were too hard for Hannah to consume. They were the stuff that didn\u2019t pass through the sieve.<\/p>\n
Apart from rice which was cooked in water, all other foods were steamed for about 20 minutes unless otherwise mentioned. Steaming, as compared to boiling, retains most of the nutrients in the foods. Now about peeling and cutting up the vegetables, I did it just before they went into steaming so as to minimise oxidation (process which can break down certain nutrients present in foods). This is especially important when I need to cut up the vegetables into many small pieces. The larger the surface area to volume ratio, the faster the rate of oxidation.<\/p>\n
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I tried to use organic vegetables but this is not always possible due to availability in the supermarkets I patronise.<\/p>\n
Since I fed each type of food for 3 days before introducing another new one, I tried to vary the presentation. I can\u2019t imagine myself eating garden peas puree twice every day for 3 consecutive days! Say day 1: pea puree (am) + pea porridge (pm), day 2: pea puree (am) + pea & mashed potato mixture (pm), day 3: pea puree (am) + pea and carrot puree mixture (pm).<\/p>\n
Initially, the experience of eating from a spoon took Hannah some time to get used to. I had to demo the movement of my tongue and lips to mimic the pushing of food to the back of my tongue and then swallowing it whenever she took in a little morsel. She would watch and try to do it her own way. But most of the food came back out of her mouth! Hee hee. At least she seemed to enjoy the experience. By around week 2, her swallowing ability improved. Now she has upped her intake from 1 to 5 tablespoons.<\/p>\n
Her favourite food has to be the Australian butternut pumpkin puree. Even I fell in love with it after stealing a spoonful from her bowl. It was so sweet and delicious. I couldn\u2019t scoop the puree fast enough to satisfy her demands (she kept opening her mouth for more \u2013 reminded me of baby chicks wanting food from their mommy bird). When the bowl was emptied, she still opened her mouth for more! :)<\/p>\n
Well, it\u2019ll be spinach tomorrow. She might throw me the yucky expression for the first time! Ha ha. :D<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hannah has started on some solid foods for about a month now. So far, she has accepted all the foods without putting up a fuss or fight. For the record, Hannah has tried Japanese short grain white rice porridge, carrot,<\/p>\n