Baby Recipes 6 months – 1 year
I thought that solid foods would be amazing, but I had no idea. Liv isn’t even eating a ton yet (babies’ main source of nutrition is breast milk or formula until they’re one- everything else is just for funsies), but I get so excited about making her food and teaching her new flavors. This week was her first week trying banana, and she went crazy for it. I put it in the mesh feeder while I made my breakfast, and she held each end and gnawed out pieces. When I was done making my oats, I took the rest of the banana, smashed it onto a plate and fed it to her with a spoon. This week was also her first week trying hummus (she’s had lentils before and seemed pretty happy with them) and she chowed down on it. It made me so happy.
She also recently discovered the joy that is frijoles:
I’ve been a little apprehensive about adding spices or flavors to her food (honey is a definite no and so is salt), but am starting to figure out how much she likes a little flavor. I’ve heard of babies getting curry and spices at a very young age, and since my family is Hispanic, bold flavors (and spicy!) have always been a part of my life.
Some things we’ve been experimenting with:
-oregano
-garlic
-cumin
-cinnamon
I downloaded the Baby Led Weaning cookbook, but since we’re just doing the mesh feeder and purees until she gets a couple of teeth, we’re waiting on a lot of those until later.
We’ve done apples and cinnamon, tahini-less hummus, then chunks of veggies, fruit, and organic chicken, but I’d like to try a soup or chicken and veggie puree to see how she likes it. I made some chicken broth and put it in the freezer to add to the savory purees.
I’d love to hear your ideas for baby snacks and recipes to share! Any awesome puree combos?
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For my own future reference, is tahini bad for babies? Just curious. 🙂
Not at all, I’m just avoiding allergenic foods til Liv is a little older
I didn’t realize it was considered an allergenic food – glad I asked! I’m already taking notes for my 2 month old. I know 6 months will come fast!
Sesame is in the top ten for allergic reactions. Definitely one to stay away from til they are a bit older!
We found out my son had food allergies by feeding him hummus, he was 2.
Ok, first of all, let me say that I love reading your baby posts! I am just a few days shy of 6 months pregnant and I get such great ideas here. I was wondering whether or not we would really use a mesh feeder, but after seeing this, I’ve decided to add a few to our registry.
On a completely unrelated note, do you have any infant development books you would recommend? I really like the pregnancy book I have, but a friend with a two-month old recently said that she really wished she had read more about after the baby comes and what to expect as far the baby’s growth/development goes. I know you said you read a lot while you were pregnant, so I thought I’d ask your advice. I would also appreciate advice from any other readers who have a great book to recommend! 🙂
I love being part of a blogging community!
I have a 7.5 month old and my book recommendations are mostly sleep books, but I really wish I’d read them while I was pregnant rather than after my daughter was born. I loved The Baby Whisperer. I would definitely recommend reading that one while pregnant. The Dr. Ferber book has also been a life saver for me as my daughter would not sleep through the night until we used his methods when she was 6.5 months old.
One book I have is called “The Baby Book” by Dr. Sears- it has chapters on development and behavior from birth to 2 years. The chapters include gross motor, fine motor, communication and cognitive skills that develop around those ages along with activities to do with your child to foster further development.
A free resource is the Zero to Three monthly newsletter, along with the website. You sign up for the newsletter and it comes each month with what to look for as far as development, frequently asked parenting questions at that age, and activities to do with your child (http://www.zerotothree.org/child-development/from-baby-to-big-kid/).
Gina, how do you like your Baby Bullet? I’ve been using my Vita mix, but it’s kind of a pain for this. And those containers couldn’t get cuter. Not that that’s a reason to buy something… 🙂
So far, Eli is 8 months and he’s only mildly interested in food. He’ll eat purees of fruit and veggies, but prefers milk to anything. He’ll lick a lemon for a while, but I think he just loves the sour rush 🙂
Like you said, nutritionally they don’t need it, so I’m not pushing him. I’ll offer, but if he turns away, no biggie.
Have you done mashed up avacado yet?
Yes it was one of her first foods! She looooves it
Mashed avocado and banana is great as well
I’m not a mommy yet, but wondering about tahini…I am super allergic to sesame seeds (I think this is tahini, right?)…so is this something babies aren’t supposed to have b/c of the risk of allergy?
We just started doing a little solids at dinnertime with Squishy. Last night was our first attempt at avocado, I pureed it in the food processer with some water to help get rid of the chunks. So far, so good!
Since I barely have time to prep my food let alone the baby’s, we also incorporated some organic carrots and sweet potatoes from the little jars. The carrots resulted in several “WTF is this?” looks, but he looooved the taters!
I was gungho on doing all BLW. But, the more I think about it, the more I think I want to do a bit of a combo approach like you! Google “Once a Month Mom.” She has AWESOME baby food recipes that you can make and freeze. Another good site is wholesomebabyfood.com. Landon hasn’t started solids yet (he is 4.5 months and we are waiting until 6 months to start) but I plan to use the ideas on these sites when it is time!!
My daughter loves roasted sweet potatoes with coconut milk! I add some cinnamon & nutmeg too. And I’ve even added chicken stock to it for a little extra nutrition, you can’t even taste it.
i LIVED on this website when Peanut started pures
http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/
Here is a post from mine too that I put together when I once spent almost 4 hours making enough baby food to last something like 6 months http://livinglikethekings.com/2011/07/baby-food-to-last-a-lifetime/
Why no tahini in Livi’s hummus?
Because of allergy concerns? Just curious. I’ve been giving my 10-month old regular homemade hummus (garlic, tahini, lemon and all) and he loves it. I guess Livi is still very young and probably it’s more important for her to experience new tastes, but I thought legumes and seeds combined make a complete protein.
My son eats EVERYTHING, but his favourites are definitely blueberries (they are not related to raspberries and strawberries and therefore not highly allergenic and can be given to young babies as well), mango, squash, plain yogurt and cheese, including cave-aged Gruyere cheese from my sandwich… 🙂
I’m waiting on nuts, seeds and acidic foods until at least 8 months
I noticed that you’re using the Baby Bullet…how do you like it? I’m expecting my first baby and I really want one, but baby daddy says it’s a waste. Do you get a lot of use out of it?
I don’t have one- just bought the containers because they’re the perfect size
I make all her food in the regular food processor
Some of our fave soft foods:
– mashed avocado
– sweet potato pureed with white beans & cinnamon
– oatmeal with coconut oil
– organic whole milk yogurt with berries
We aren’t shy about adding herbs and spices either – we just always follow the “introduce one at a time” rule. I think it’s always a bonus to expand their palates! Some of our faves are cilantro with avocado or hummus, fresh mint with peas & green beans, and parsley with carrots.
My son loved all those too–avocado, carrots, sweet potato, peas, etc.. but he’d go downright nuts over some pureed pears and cinnamon. I absolutely loved making his baby food, it was like art class or something, haha!
At 6 months we did purred apples & banana, avocado with banana, sweet potatoes w/ cinnamon, pureed peas and carrots, and whatever combo I could experiment with. Wish I would’ve thought of hummus?!? Genius. Maybe you could puree some spinach into the hummus to give her a taste of greens? My son now 3, loves some spinach/artichoke hummus. She’s such a cutie!
I make my 6 month old son “smoothies” in the baby bullet. I make shakes for myself in the morning and thought why not him!
I do banana, blueberry, spinach
blueberry peach
Blueberry & yogurt. (Boy loves blueberries!)
I use a little “milk” (formula, breast, whatever) to make it smoother.
Looooooooooves it!
I love how you make your own baby food! Must be a lot cheaper and tastier than store bought.
I would recommend trying to stick with more veggies than fruits…I heard a tip that if you start your baby on a very fruit-heavy diet they won’t like the veggies when you begin introducing them (I used to work at a daycare, where we took a veggie-heavy approach)
Since she’s over six months, you could start her on pureed meats as well, if you haven’t tried that yet!
My almost 8 month old loves the pear, apple, and cinnamon combo. We tried a spinach and sweet potato mixture tonight and she loved that too. I pair any starchier veggie with a green one and it’s always a hit, such as butternut squash with zucchini or kale with acorn squash. There has not been a fruit or vegetable that she has yet to turn down, I hope it stays that way.
They get all the spices you eat via amniotic fluid while pregnant and in breastmilk while nursing (or course ‘watered down’) – but they get flavors and tastes. Guess all that broccoli I ate while pregnant & nursing worked because my daughter loves the flavor of it. I’ll take it 🙂
My son was a really picky eater when we started with everything bland. Once I introduced him to various ethnic seasoning (Italian, Indian, Thai, Middle Eastern, etc) he went bananas.
I’ve heard that the things you eat a lot of during pregnancy, the baby will love! So little Livi will be loving all the flavour-ful yummy food you ate while preggers. It has something to do with the taste getting into the amniotic fluid or something if I remember correctly? My youngest is 11 so I haven’t read up on any of that lately.
I completely agree on the spices. Make it fun!! Most people love a good flavor profile, plus I know I’d hate to eat strained bland mush all day long.
My little girl is 10 months (almost) and loves Cheerios, cubed fruit & veggies and all sorts of adult food and she is still toothless. You’d be surprised how well babies can chew w/their gums. That child can eat a slice of watermelon faster than I can!
My daughter liked pureed chicken with mango, pumpkin with cinnamon and vanilla (I even added soft tofu to it when she was a bit older), and peas make the perfect finger food.
Unfortunately, now my daughter is 18 months old and is incredibly picky and not willing to try new foods. Makes me so sad!
Love your blog! Your so inspiring….My little girl is 14 months and the I also have a lovely five year old girl-sisters are the best! I love to make soup and the younger one just gobbles it up. The latest one was roasted butternut squash, garlic, onion, celery, potatoes, carrots, and some veggie bouillon. I cook it up then puree it with the immersion blender. The whole family can dig it! Check out my blog for some other good recipes if you are interested. Oh ya I also use Astragalus root and Kombu in the soup-you can’t taste them but they are so good for yoU! The green soup one is a total hit too!
awesome, thank you!
Solids after 6 months are also important for iron. Breast milk doesn’t have a lot of it, and a full term baby is born with stores that last about 6 months. After that, they need to start getting it from food. 😀 You shouldn’t need to worry about it too much if you are supplementing with formula though.
You definitely don’t need teeth for a lot of those foods! My niece is 16 months without one tooth and eats everything and anything: chicken, ribs, olives, peppers, pancakes, chicken nuggets/Morningstar nuggets, etc.
She just gums everything. If she only ate purees until she had teeth to chew, she’d be a very unhappy girl haha. My sister actually never ended up making or buying any purees. She went straight to solids!
that is so awesome! we were trying to do that, but she almost choked on a chunk of cantaloupe that she bit off, so we’re kind of freaked out. she’s been practicing chewing on the mesh thing and we’re hoping she gets the hang of it soon!
A really delicious purée combo we did was apples, carrots and mango.
http://themoserfive.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/adventures-in-homemade-babyfood/
that sounds lovely!
Mango and avocado; mango with (full fat, not So Delicious) coconut milk; turnips with a little bit of beef and carrots (my LO loves turnips! Random!); zucchini with pear and nutmeg or cinnamon.
What do you plan to wean Olivia to at one year? I ask because my LO is allergic to dairy and I’m torn. I’ve read they really need cow milk, breast milk or formula until two years (ie stuff like soy milk isn’t adequate). I’m pretty sure she is on hypo formula so I think you’re in our boat. It is confusing. Are you going to continue on with the hypo formula if she can’t handle cows milk?
Once she gets to 9-12 months she can really start eating with you (minus allergenic and choking foods). I used to love giving my girls peas and watching them develop that pincer grip. Great for their fine motor skills.
Hi Gina! I have some baby recipes on my blog for when Liv gets ready for more finger foods 🙂 http://ahealthyhappyhome.wordpress.com/cook/
Just a question…how do you like your baby bullet? And also how do you like the food storage/feeding containers? I was given two sets of the containers and decided to keep both – I figured i coudl keep one for at home and then send one to day care with pre made food…do you think havign 2 will come in handy? Thanks for your advice!!!
hey girl!
i don’t have the baby bullet, just bought the containers. i steam all of her veggies (or bake them) and then put them in the food processor with a little water or veggie/chicken broth. two sets will definitely come in handy! i ran out last night and was wishing i would have bought another set
My 9.5 month old basically eats what we eat despite not having teeth. We did not do baby-led-weaning because my 2 year old had a choking incident that freaked me out at 7 months. But starting at 9 months, we started mostly giving her parts of our meals – everything in pea-sized chunks and she feeds herself. This weekend (from our menu) she had little chunks of vegis, turkey, and beans from turkey chili; tiny shreds of chicken from our tacos; smoothies of spinach, berries, yogurt, banana; pretty dry oatmeal she could feed herself; pieces of green beans and watermelon.
Rice and quinoa were good finger foods earlier than that – just get ready to clean up a mess…
good thing bell is a scavenger… she’ll help me clean 🙂
I post a lot of my daughters meals on my blog. But she is 20 months now (and still mostly breasted!). But anyway, she loves curry and cumin flavors! It’s so funny! She also loves nori, chlorella, spirulina! Lol!! It’s crazy! We did a lot of bananas, avocado, apples, soaked raisins and stuff at first. We did t start solids till 8 months so she had a few teeth to handle things.
Avery really liked avocado and banana mashed together, also spinach and banana. She also really likes Yobaby yogurt (organic whole milk yogurt) and sometimes I’ll mix in a small amount of a fruit purée into the vanilla one. As for chicken, I started out just baking it whole, chopping it into little pieces and then throwing it in a blender or food processor until it was like little bread crumbs. I divided it all into individual portions and froze it like that. Very easy to reheat and then I’d just mix it into different vegetable purées like zucchini or sweet potato.
A really great website I followed a lot was wholesomebabyfood.com. Books I really liked were Start Fresh by Tyler Florence and Cooking for Baby. The banana/avocado, banana/spinach, and carrot/apple/mango purée that someone else mentioned all came from Start Fresh. Avery loved everything I made from there.
I am also having so much fun making baby food for my 7 month old little girl!!!
Today I made her organic blueberry/peach/apple and organic pea/zucchini/basil/lemon/tiny bit of olive oil (sometimes I puree this mixture with quinoa)…she LOVES them both! She also loves the homemade hummus, avocado.
For breakfast, I mix the fruit puree in with ground up gluten free oats…she LOVES it!
Have fun eating with your precious angel 🙂
Ella’s favorite combos at Liv’s age were:
Banana & Avocado puree [1/4 avocado and 1/2 banana in food processor, serve immediately]
Sweet Potato & Broccoli [steamed and pureed w/ filtered water-I added turmeric and cumin]
Peas & Spinach [same as above]
Apple & Raisin & Cinnamon
Beets & Pear [roasted beets same as single puree then added skinned pear that was steamed until slightly soft]
Parsnips & Pears
Apples & Butternut squash [with cinnamon and nutmeg]
I also started doing Quinoa breakfast, cooked with water, add mashed banana, cinnamon and hemp milk or breast milk then puree a little. Also works with berries.
I’ll have to give you some of my baby slider recipes…they are a huge hit, delicious, portable, and loaded with a few servings of veggies and protein! My best invention ever haha
Definitely keep doing spices…Ella LOVES Indian spices like cumin and turmeric. Liv was tasting all the spices and flavors you ate via breastmilk so she should enjoy flavors in her food!
Mashed avocado and banana is great as well