When to Stop – Breastfeeding to Solid Food (Preparation)
So you’ve decided – you and your baby – that he is ready to wean – breastfeeding is slowly becoming extinct in the limited vocabulary of your little one. In place of breastfeeding, solid food is slowly taking root and your baby is enjoying every minute of it.
While for us moms, it is a sad (and sometimes depressing) thought that your baby is now trying to grow his wings by being a little more independent from you, it is at the same time exhilarating to see that he is enjoying himself and satisfying his curiosity of the world around him – newly-introduced solid food included.
However, we sometimes tend to forget that we need to follow simple protocols when it comes to preparing, handling and storing homemade baby food. I agree that we can’t sterilize everything that the baby puts in his mouth. In fact, most medical practitioners nod their assent – being too clean can lead to a lowered immunity, and makes us more of a target for germs and viruses. Most especially if your baby is of the age where he can put anything he picks up in his mouth, it’s pretty obvious that you can’t shield your baby from the inevitable (unless you are the type who has a wipe on one hand and alcohol in the other while you are caring for baby).
These common-sense rules are as follows:
- Always wash your hands. Sometimes, the chores we do tend to make us forget that it’s almost baby’s feeding time. Also, the flailing and wailing of a hungry baby may sometimes make us panic, and in our haste to give him what he needs, we forget to do the most basic food preparation rule of all. So don’t forget – a wipe won’t do; wash your hands.
- Clean vegetables and fruit with cold, running tap water. This would help in washing away some of the dirt on the skin (especially that of root crops and tubers such as potatoes). No need to blanche (or put the fruit or vegetable in hot water); you’ll either be boiling, steaming, baking or microwaving it anyway.
- Use separate plastic or glass cutting boards in preparing the food. Have one for fruits, vegetables and/or bread, and another board for meats, fish and poultry. Wooden cutting boards are more likely to cultivate bacteria so avoid as much as possible when it comes to preparing your baby’s food with it.
- Wash pots and pans in hot-soapy water. Air dry, never towel dry to avoid leaving towel fibers on the surface of the utensils.
- Speaking of hot water, don’t forget to sterilize the spoon, bowl and bottle/sippy cup/glass your baby will eat from. Again, best to air dry than wiping a towel over it.
- Once baby food is cooked, refrigerate it within 2 hours to eliminate the possibility of spreading bacteria.
Simple rules, yet effective in at least shielding baby from some of the germs we so want to eliminate.
Now, if we could only do something about the rattle on the floor that he just put in his mouth …
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