‘A good Irish baby’ is what a woman in the supermarket called Grayson, as she clamped her hands around his chunky thighs last week. ‘Nice and chunky’ she said looking at him with a huge smile washed over her face. She’s right, Grayson is not just a big baby, he’s huge. I’m evening wondering if there might have been a mix up at the hospital six months ago and the giants went home with a tiny little bean under their arm?!
I’ve had a few of you ask me on my social media sites about what varieties of food baby G is eating now, and how I am going about weaning him. So, for those of you who have your own little munchkins, I thought I’d do a little baby food inspired post.
I’ve always been a big believer that diet and nutrition play an important part of our daily lives, after all, they say you should never but chip oil in a Rolls-Royce right? If you’re putting the best you can into your body, then you’re already at an advantage in so many ways. This is a value that has clearly transcended into my parenting style.
I find like to know exactly what’s in Grayson’s food and where it’s coming from, and some day (when he can do more than bash a cucumber on his high chair) I’ll try to teach him that too. Although I do have baby food pouches lurking in the backs of the cupboards for ‘emergencies’, I’ll always whip up of G’s meals from scratch, using only fresh, organic and healthy ingredients. Admittedly this will usually happen in a mad, frantic dash, usually just before he wakes up from his nap. I’m doing a combination of pureeing his food, and baby-led-weaning, the purpose is to get him comfortable with how the food should look and feel along with how it tastes.
I like to call this recipe ‘Breakfast at Gracie’s‘, sort of like a much less glamorous version of ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s…
Half a banana – I usually puree this, as he prefers the texture to mashed at the moment
3 tablespoons of natural yogurt
A small handful of cornflakes, soaked in a little full fat cows milk to make them mushy and mashable for G’s gummy mouth!
Mix together, and serve to your little friend.
I also let him have the other half a banana and a few Cornflakes alongside his mashed up creation, just as tactile finger-food!
Mixing fruit and cereal makes for a really nutritious start to the day for Grayson, and natural wholegrain cereals like Cornflakes are a good source of iron, healthy fats, Vitamins B and E, and fibre.
Gracie loves to pick up little pieces of food in his chubby little fists, so Cornflakes are perfect for him. I always choose cereals that have natural grains, and are fortified with iron and vitamins and which do not have added sugar or salt (babies under a certain age cannot digest extra salts).
Once your little one has passed the 6 month stage, you can give him adult cereals, they’re just as nutritious as baby cereal, and a little kinder to Mum’s purse strings! I’ve chosen bananas, as they are full of slow release sugars that provide sustained energy, they’re also a great first food for beginning to wean your baby. I use full fat cows milk too, which I only use for Grayson when cooking for him.
I suppose being a Devon girl at heart plays a large part in wanting to know where both my own and my son Grayson’s food is coming from. When I was little, I grew up in the countryside, and was lucky enough to embark on many a school trip to farms like Pennywell (if any of you reading are from Devon also, then you will know how adorable this farm is, and if you don’t, you should visit!).
From a young age I was taught about sustainable farming and the importance of where my food originated from, and that really has stayed with me all my life. In cereals like Kellogs cornflakes, you can see they have a relationship with the farmers and making sure everything is as natural and sustainable as possible. Farming and healthy food of the future will depend on sustainable agriculture, where farmers replenishing the soil, while minimising the use or need of non-renewable resources.
As Grayson gets older, I always want to make sure that like myself, he is aware of the nutritional values of his food, and how it is grown and where it is coming from, so he can make his own healthy choices.
Now many years on from my own first farm experience, even thinking about my baby son’s ever school trip to a farm to learn all about where his food is from, makes me feel so rather emotional and nostalgic.
Boys being boys, love mud, dirt and tractors, so I can only begin to imagine how much fun he’ll have on his first ever farm trip. If the kids in this video are anything to go by, he’ll have a great time!
Without getting all mushy and philosophical on you guys, don’t you think it’s amazing the little journey that Grayson’s little mashed up breakfast has been on? It all starts with sunshine and grains, from the seeds being lovingly sprinkled by farmers down and nurtured in those farms I used to live by when I was a just little girl, being nurtured and harvested, to me smooshing it all up with milk, onto little G’s spoon flying in the air towards his little open mouth on our balcony in London.
Are you weaning your baby at the moment? Have you got any recommended recipes for Gracies tummy? Do you think it’s important we teach our children where there food is from?
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*This post has kindly been sponsored by Kellogs, but as always, all opinions are my own.
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