Purées are the best way to introduce your baby to a mixed diet. These smooth mixtures of fruit, vegetables or baby rice (a vitamin and iron-enriched, sugar-free milky tasting form of powdered rice) are easily prepared using your Braun MultiQuick hand blender. To begin with, keep purées quite runny and very smooth using your Braun MultiQuick hand blender on a high speed - bananas are a particular favourite. Use water, breast milk or formula to achieve the right consistency.
You should always peel fruit and remove stalks, pips and seeds. It is important to know that most fruits and vegetables need to be cooked before serving in order to soften optimally. You can introduce lentils at this initial stage. However, with other pulses such as peas, chickpeas and beans, it is important to achieve a soft consistency and puree them thoroughly. It is therefore advisable to reserve these nutritious foods for the later stages of weaning to ensure a desirable consistency.
How much, how often?
Start with 1-2 teaspoons of puréed fruit or vegetable once a day. When your baby is happy to take more, offer solids twice a day.
Making purées
Making purées is easy with the right equipment. First, peel or scrub your fruit or vegetables and cut into pieces. Simmer or bake if required but avoid adding salt or sugar. Blend thoroughly using your MultiQuick hand blender. If there are any pips or fires, push the purée through a sieve using the back of a spoon. If your purée is to thick and needs more liquid, you can add your baby's usual milk or a little bit of the vitamin-rich cooking water from the vegetables.
Storing what you make
It is most cost and time effective to make batches of food for your baby and then freeze them to have it always ready. At the early stages of weaning, ice cube trays with fitting lids make perfect containers for portion-sized fruit and vegetable purées. As your baby's appetite grows you will need to store food in larger, freezable containers with lids.
Tips for storing food:
What is the optimum temperature for freezing?
For optimal food preservation use a freezer that freezes food to -18°C within 24 hours.
Reheating the food
Always reheat foods until they are piping hot. Allow to cool and test temperature yourself before serving to your baby.
What is not suitable for freeing?
You should not refreeze food that has been defrosted, except for raw frozen food that has been cooked.
How long does frozen food last?
You should use frozen baby food within two months of freezing it.
Baby’s regular milk plus simple, soft pureés made from one or two fruits or vegetables, baby rice and lentils.
Baby Nutrition | Stages of feeding
9-12 months
Less milk, thicker purées, more chopped foods, cheese and eggs, more finger foods like chopped soft fruits and vegetables, toasted bread, with dips, soft sandwiches.