Apricots - SO2 + Fat = Pure Goodness

At first glance, you’d never know they were apricots, void of the bright orange colour we’ve come to associate with the soft little fruit. So when I stood scanning the shelves of my local health food store for organic, dried unsulphured apricots – Isla’s next culinary offering – I could be forgiven for missing them entirely.

Sulphured apricots

In my bid to give Isla the healthiest food possible, I opted to forgo colour for purity. Sulphur dioxide (SO2) is used in dried apricots and other fruit to preserve their colour and increase their shelf life. According to Healthy Child Healthy World’s Chemical Encyclopedia, sulphur dioxide and five of its sulfite relatives are approved for use as preservatives in foods such as canned fruit and vegetables, dried fruits (except prunes and black raisins) and applesauce.

The amount of sulphur dioxide found in any food isn’t enough to affect most of us, however in sensitive individuals (particularly asthmatics), ingestion can cause asthma attacks, skin rashes and upset stomach. So why on Earth would I give it to my perfectly pure baby?

Unsulphured apricots

As it turns out, Isla cares little what colour she eats. In fact, she gobbled up her brown apricots. And in a (slightly delayed) stroke of genius, it occurred to me that I could add (odourless, flavourless) organic coconut oil to Isla’s fruit dishes, as well as her veggie ones, ensuring she gets much-needed fat in all her solids. As my naturopath wrote in one of her emails:

“The MOST important nutrient for babies is fat!! Fat!! Fat!! Your breast milk is over 50% saturated fat, so as we introduce solids keep this in mind, especially if you are planning to raise her without meat. In fact, most beta carotene found in squash, etc. requires fat to convert to Vitamin A.”

So it is, for the next six days, Isla will eat fat-laced, suphur-free, brown-coloured apricot-y pure goodness – and apparently enjoy every bite.

Solid Gold

I had my doubts. How, pray tell, would I steer Isla away from the addictive sweetness of fruit and back onto the veggie path? My only hope was butternut squash. So I peeled, cubed and steamed half an organic butternut squash and pureed it with organic coconut oil into a silky smooth consistency. Isla devoured it. Welcome to the new golden food.

I couldn’t be happier. In fact, very few things please me more than my daughter opening her mouth wide and eating to her heart’s content nutritious food. Butternut squash fits the bill perfectly. It helps to boost a baby’s immune system and lowers the risk of cancer and heart disease. Plus, the amount of Vitamin A it contains is almost off the charts – one cup of cooked butternut squash has 457% of the recommended daily allowance. Isla’s eyes will be the picture of health.

As important as flavour, I believe, is a food’s texture. Unlike peas, or other less puree-able foods, well pureed butternut squash just feels good to eat. Add to that the pleasing mouthfeel of fat (in the form of coconut oil) and you have a tasty, brightly coloured, healthy food that makes the mouth sing. Hallelujah!

Spoon Me

Just like Green Toys says on its website, I care about what goes into Isla’s mouth – and not just in the form of food.

As such, I searched for a perfect-sized spoon that not only felt right, but that was also environmentally friendly and safe for Isla to eat off of. I found the Green Eats Feeding Spoons, in an 8-pack nevertheless.

Made from 100% recycled plastic milk containers, the cute little spoons (they’re 4¼ inches long) contain no melamine, BPA, phthalates, PVC or external coatings. Even the packaging is made from recycled and recyclable materials and printed with soy inks. Love it.

Don’t Knock It ‘Til You Try It

The phrase “stewed prunes” doesn’t exactly evoke a mouth-watering response. Black-brown in colour, paste-like in texture and a smoky, almost cloying sweetness isn’t what might be considered a palatable offering. But as far as babies go, prunes are the perfect food, especially if their bowel could use a little extra help.

Full of Vitamin A (in the form of beta carotene), dietary fibre, potassium and antioxidants, prunes (a.k.a. dried plums) are considered a low-allergen food that is sweet enough to appeal to Isla’s banana-loving palette. So, in a desperate attempt to find another fruit that Isla would willingly eat (her desire for apples never did match bananas), I bought sulphur-free organic prunes, covered them with purified water and simmered them down until they were a soft, bubbling mass. Then I pureed them, only to discover the end result was a thick, glue-like substance that even I found unappealing. Adding a little water to the mix helped, at the very least, to reduce their choking/gagging hazard, and into the food cubes the prunes went.

In a surprise twist, Isla likes prunes! However, whether it’s bananas or prunes, I’ve discovered that timing is everything when it comes to if – or how much – Isla will eat. Some mealtimes she’ll refuse solid food, while later that day or at the same time the next day, she’ll eagerly eat. I’m not convinced it’s entirely a result of how hungry she is, as she’ll happily breastfeed after refusing solid food. Whatever the case may be, Isla obviously has her reasons, and as we continue to explore the different flavours and textures of various foods, Isla will continue to decide whether she wants to take part. Even in prunes...

The Apple Of My Eye

It was a sad day for Isla when we said goodbye to her much-loved fruit. After six days of banana, it was time to introduce a new food, but how does one top something that is the baby equivalent of chocolate? There are very few foods on the 6-9-month introduction list that are as appealing as bananas (cauliflower, broccoli, mung bean sprouts), but Isla can't eat bananas forever. So, goodbye banana, hello apple.

Out came the baby food maker in which I lovingly steamed and pureed the peeled, cored and chopped organic Gala apple, only to have Isla turn her nose up at it. However, I persevered. Come on! It’s a nice sweet apple! It’s not going to get any better than this!

Isla would open her mouth for more, but then appeared a little surprised and dis-appointed with each bite. Breakfast and lunch were an exercise in patience, occurring in fits and starts, complete with grimaces and a few complaints, open mouth and closed until she got used to the different texture and taste of the apple. In the end, Isla ate a cube’s worth, or half a large apple, pureed. Now, along with her apple (sauce) a day, she’s getting her fill of vitamins A, C and K, fibre, potassium, calcium, folate and lots of good carbohydrates.


Wean Cubes
To add a little bit of interest to Isla’s food – at least in appearance and storage – I bought Wean Cubes, great little glass jars that are made by Wean Green, a Canadian company founded by a mother of two. Each cube comes with a brightly coloured silicone lid that is free of BPA, PVC and phthalates, and can be heated or frozen. And we all know that 
everything tastes better when it’s beautifully packaged...

Little Monkey

My child is bananas for bananas. She simply can’t get enough. ­­She will happily eat an entire (relatively) large banana and then some. There is a very real possibility that she will float away on a banana boat.

But, in an exquisite interplay between practice and her newly-discovered favourite food, Isla has learned to eat. She opens her mouth wide to receive the spoon, closes it, swallows and then repeats. No more awkward tongue thrusts or trying to suck the food off the spoon or closing her mouth too early. She has mastered the mechanics of eating. Thank you, banana.

If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again...

A friend of mine told me that her daughter just could not get enough of peas when she was Isla’s age, so I was hopeful my fancily-pureed peas would be a hit. My optimism was short-lived. The peas were a spectacular failure. First Isla grimaced, then shuddered, then spit them out and gagged in an impressive show of distaste. And who can blame her? I don’t find pureed peas appealing in the least. But I persisted. After several tries, at different times of day and at varying temperatures (cold, tepid, room temperature...), we moved onto something more palatable: organic carrots. Alas, another failed experiment. Isla rejected the carrots almost as fully as the peas.

There’s a (minor) debate about whether fruit or veggies should be introduced as a baby’s first food. Some say babies should experience veggies before creating a taste for sweeter food (fruit), while others counter that breastmilk itself is sweet, so why not start with something along the same lines?

I was interested in trying veggies first to see how they would go down, and out of the four we’ve tried, she’s enjoyed two: sweet potato and avocado (coincidentally, two of my favourite, although avocado is technically a fruit). But it's time to mix it up a bit. Because the peas and carrots were barely ingested, I thought it was safe to forgo the one-food/six-day food sensitivity rule and explore a new culinary experience for Isla.

So banana it is! As it turns out, Isla was as keen on banana as she was with sweet potato, eating an entire banana (about 70 ml pureed) in one sitting. And thank God for that. I was beginning to think she had given up on solids entirely....

The Baby Food Maker

Behold my latest toy – the Beaba Babycook baby food maker. It steams, blends, purees, defrosts and reheats baby food. Of course, I can easily do all these tasks with a stovetop veggie steamer, blender and microwave, but I love having everything in one easy-to-clean, compact package purpose-built for baby-sized portions.

Today was my first test run with the Babycook as I prepared Isla’s next food – organic green peas. Because it’s March and there are no fresh peas at my disposal, I used frozen ones, which meant I had to employ two of the Babycook’s functions: defrost and puree. I’m happy to report the Babycook does what it claims, and beautifully smooth, bright green goop will be Isla’s breakfast/lunch for the next several days. To ensure a good consistency, I pureed the peas using the left-over steaming water, adding valuable nutrients back into her food. And, just as I did with her sweet potato, I also added a bit of organic coconut oil to the mix.

I do, however, have one complaint: the puree function is only set to “pulse”. This means you have to hold the knob to puree; you can’t simply just walk away and let it do its thing. This is a significant oversight for a product marketed to moms (and dads), for whom multitasking is a means of survival. A locked position in the puree function would be welcomed.

As for the peas, in addition to being on the list of good foods to introduce early on, they’re chalk-full of vitamins A, C and K, as well as niacin, folate, potassium, iron, magnesium, calcium and zinc. Tomorrow we'll know if perfectly pureed peas go down as well as the sweet potato did.