Beginning the weaning journey is such an exciting yet nerve-racking time! Once you’ve finally decided which highchair, bowls and cutlery to use and the approach you are going to follow, then comes the fun part…preparing first foods for baby!
In this blog, I want to help answer all of your questions about exactly HOW to prepare your baby’s first purees and how to store and reheat them, as well as what to do about using formula or breast milk in those first tastes.
It’s important to remember that babies and young children don’t have the same immune system as us adults (or even older children) and so special care and attention needs to be made to ensure what babies eat is safe. Hopefully this blog will help to give you the confidence to make sure those crucial ‘first taste’ purees for your baby are prepared with food safety in mind!
Food Hygiene When Weaning:
When you’re weaning your baby you need to follow good food hygiene practices, such as:
- Wash your hands before prepping foods or handling any foods for babies
- Use clean surfaces before you start and make sure kitchen utensils and equipment are clean too.
- Separate raw and cooked foods to avoid cross contamination and store raw meats in containers, covered and at the bottom of the fridge
- Wash fruits and vegetables well before chopping and peeling
- Cook food thoroughly and all the way through, especially if reheating and then cool to room temperature or luke warm temperatures before serving it to baby
- Wash your baby’s hands too before they sit down to eat!
Following these practices can help ensure that the food you prepare for your baby is safe and hygienic
In my book How to Wean Your Baby I talk a lot about offering veggies for babies first foods. You can offer these as veggie sticks and finger foods and also as purees. As your baby gets more confident with weaning, you can move the textures of these purees up so that your baby is having lots of opportunities to learn to eat a variety of textures. See my blog on trying new food textures to learn more about this during early weaning.
Thinning First Taste Purees
When you offer your baby their first purees, some parents like to go in with quite a thin puree to help it be easier for babies to manage. Whilst you don’t have to do this for baby’s first tastes, you may find that you need some extra liquid to help loosen the consistency. This is a great opportunity to add a splash of baby’s usual milk; formula or breast milk. This not only thins the puree but will also help to add a familiar taste and some nutrients too!
Tap water, cow’s milk or plant-based milks are also absolutely fine to add to foods for babies from around 6 months of age! For more on milk recommendations for babies and young children, check out this blog.
You can add any of these liquids straight into your baby’s food to serve to them – they don’t need to be heated first.
If you’ve made extra purees that you want to keep for another day, there are a few things to think about in terms of storing these foods.
Using Formula Milk in baby purees
It is perfectly safe to use formula milk as an ingredient within a meal or puree that you wish to keep and reheat another day.
However, if doing so, follow some simple food safety principles to make sure the leftovers are safe to use:
- Use freshly prepared formula
- After cooking and adding the formula, ensure your puree is cooled quickly and put into the fridge or freezer within an hour and half
- Ensure you follow the reheating and shelf life guidance in the table below
Using Breastmilk in baby purees
When you start weaning you may want to add breast milk to baby’s first foods for a familiar taste and to boost the nutrient content!
The most important thing to remember when using breast milk in cooking is that breastmilk must never be refrozen. So, if you’re batch cooking purees and wanting to freeze or save the leftovers, do not use previously frozen breastmilk!
You can add fresh breastmilk and freeze the purees OR use frozen breastmilk, defrosted and serve the puree straight away for baby! Just make sure if you use defrosted breastmilk that you dispose of the leftovers.
TOP TIP: Ice cube trays are great for freezing small portions of breast milk that you could later defrost and add to any puree before serving; a great way to cool it down quickly!
Reheating Purees
Baby purees are often best served at room temperature, but don’t be tempted to partially reheat food for your baby to avoid having to wait for it to cool. Baby purees should always be reheated until piping hot; which means steaming throughout.
When reheating homemade baby purees, it’s best to reheat using a microwave or on the hob. If, like me, you often forget to take baby’s food out of the freezer in time to defrost, did you know you can also cook baby purees straight from frozen! Just make sure you increase the cooking time and stir regularly (every 20-30 seconds) to ensure there are no hot spots and that the puree is evenly heated so it is piping hot throughout.
Remember though that foods can only be reheated once so make sure you divide your puree into baby friendly portions before freezing!
How long can I store my baby’s purees in the fridge?
The great news is that most purees you make for your baby can be kept in the fridge or frozen to use another day! If you’ve used frozen veg, such as peas, to make a puree for your baby then the leftovers can be frozen provided you have cooked them in between!
For further guidance, check out the shelf life guidance below….
How long can purees be kept in the freezer?
Ideally, you should aim to use any portions of baby puree in the freezer within 3 months.
BUT…. It’s important to know that there are no safety concerns if you feed your baby food which has been in the freezer for longer than this! The freezer acts as a ‘pause button’ on bacteria, but the quality of food in the freezer will deteriorate over time.
Hopefully you find this blog useful in helping you prepare for the weaning journey with your little one!
For more advice on freezing, defrosting and reheating foods for your family, check out my factsheet.
This blog is written by Jenna Brown BSc MCIEH. You can follow Jenna on Instagram @Foodsafetymum.