food for a 9 month old

[shinybrite]

this is my first post on mothering after lots of lurking

recently, a friend asked me to make baby food for her 9 month old baby, A. A was exclusively breastfed for about 3 months, but since then she's been formula fed 95% of the time. she was also born via c-section after a "failed" induction. A is a bright, happy baby who is growing at a good pace, but she still has cradle cap issues.

i'm ordering 2oz containers to freeze the mixtures in, and then i'll replenish their supplies every month or so. this is my christmas gift to them until she reaches the age when she doesn't want to eat that stuff anymore!

i follow a more traditional foods diet than they will ever understand, so i don't want to go nuts with my philosophy or else they won't be receptive. they know how i eat, and they know i'll be adding "the good stuff" to the baby food. i'll also be including ingredients lists.

here's what i have so far:

-turnips with butter
-potatoes with butter
-beets with either coconut oil or butter
-apples that have been cooked down
-carrots with butter
-brown rice pudding with coconut oil or coconut milk
-butternut squash with ?
-sweet potatoes

these are what's in season for our area right now. i purchased all of these items at a local farmers market, making sure everything was organic. even so, the items will be thoroughly washed before cooking!

i'm pretty sure her formula is soy based (ugh). A's been fed lots of gluten already and had no adverse reaction, but they're backing off on it after i told them about developing allergies.

i have some fermented CLO and raw colostrum - should i add these in very very tiny amounts? i know babies are supposed to get soft boiled egg yolks, but i can't figure out how to do that by adding it to frozen foods.

and one last thing - she's been teething for a while, and they give her these freaky soy/corn based teething cookies. any suggestions for soaked/sprouted recipes i could replace these with??

any other ideas for things to add/change? thank you!

[mbravebird]

What a good friend you are! That's a lot of work! Yeah, if you can add CLO and colostrum and coconut oil, that would be great, wouldn't it? Can you get good raw butter?

Will you be soaking the rice? If not, I say skip it. Maybe skip it anyway.

Can you get some homemade yogurt into her? Or kefir? Or, if you don't want to do dairy things, or want to do only frozen things, can you make water kefir and add that to the frozen foods? Looking for some way to get beneficial bacteria in there.

I say just add the soft-boiled egg yolk in there -- it will mix right in something like sweet potatoes without being noticeable.

[ihugtrees]

Subbing, since I have a 7 month old who loves to eat

[blueridgewoman]

What a great thing you're doing!

I would be inclined to skip the rice, definitely. I think most likely, the focus should be on really nutrient dense foods and alas, while rice can be good for you, it might not be AS good as the stuff she'd eat otherwise, you know?

Given that she was born via c-section and that she's now formula fed, I wonder if you could stir some probiotics into the baby food? I don't know if you're buying the stuff or if your friend is, and probiotics can be an investment (not too much, but it's more expensive than say, a butternut squash. ) but I think she'd definitely benefit. I generally try to get one serving into my dd per day and we use a tasteless powder that works well. Make sure that it contains b. infantis.

Some grassfed meat might be in order too if you can swing it. Meat was really the bulk of my daughter's first food experience and I was really happy about that because it seemed to satisfy her a lot and it gave her a taste for non-sweet things. She still, to this day, would rather have a slice of duck than a cookie.

[barefootmommy]

I would also skip the rice.

My 9 month old daughter also loves cooked pears.

I would also add the egg yolk to the potatoes, good idea.

If you have a hard time getting probiotics into the food, they may be more open to a supplement? I know of one called BioGaia drops that contains the same probiotic strain as in breast milk. Might be worth looking into. I've read good stuff on it.

[kjbrown92]

If she's on a soy based formula, she may have trouble with dairy, so I don't know about all that butter in that case (maybe you could check with them?).

How about adding some bone broth with something (chicken broth would go well with the squash) or some gravy mixed in with the potato. What a lucky little baby!