What are some nutritious and easy vegetarian recipes for a 4 and 1/2 month old baby?

Pumpkin and Rice Cereal Mash

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp cooked mashed pumpkin

1 Tbsp HEINZ Rice Cereal

Cool boiled water

Method:

1. Add pumpkin to baby’s serving bowl.

2. Blend in HEINZ Rice Cereal.

Add water to make a porridge-like consistency

Variation:

Substitute carrot, sweetcorn or sweet potatoes for pumpkin.

Baby’s own custard

Serves: 2 serves

Ingredients:

100mls baby’s regular milk – breast milk or prepared formula

2 teaspoons custard powder or arrowroot.

Method:

Pour breast milk or prepared formula into a small saucepan and heat gently. In a small bowl mix custard powder with a little water to a thin paste. Add to milk and stir until mixture thickens.

Spoon out required amount into baby’s bowl. Allow to cool. Refrigerate remaining portion.

Hint:

Serve with pureed or mashed fruit.

Pureed Carrots

Ingredients:

2 fresh carrots.

Method:

Peel and wash carrots, dice. Microwave or place in a small saucepan with 1 tablespoon of boiling water and simmer gently with lid on until tender.

Allow to cool. Blend in a food processor until pureed or fork mash.

Place 1-2 tablespoons in baby’s serving bowl, place the remainder in an airtight container and refrigerate or freeze.

Hint:

Substitute potato, pumpkin, squash, sweet potato (kumara), fresh or frozen beans and peas for the carrots.

Use the food processor for fibrous vegetables such as carrot, parsnip, peas or beans as they are sometimes difficult to mash.

well keep in mind that the American academy of pediatrics doesn't recommend solids until 6 months and infants don't need solids until 1yr. up until that point they are really just getting used to the texture and the idea of eating. Breast milk is a complete food and the only thing they really need for that first yr. Breastfeeding is the most amazing thing you can do for your child and I commend you for doing it!

I started my daughter on avocado. Very easy to make and extremely nutritious. A great way to do it is to mix up alot and use a ice cube try to freeze it (each cube is one oz) pop them out when you need them. Don't use microwave, you can heat them up on the stove using a double boiler. You will need a food processor to make it, just add a little water or breast milk when you are processing it to get the right consistency. My daughter loved it. I also did squash, zucchini and sweet potatoes that way. I don't recommend peas because you have to remove the shell (they never seem to get mixed in and baby could choke.)

A great way to start weaning is just to try one vegetable at a time, for example purreed carrots one week, brocolli another. It will get your child used to the various tastes and a baby needs to taste something for at least a week to get used to the new flavour. As he's still very little I would recommend a new vegetable a week at first so as not to upset his delicate tum too much !! but go for good flavoured veg such as sweet potato etc. I used to make up an ice cube tray of each flavour and keep them in the freezer. At feeding times I'd defrost a couple of cubes and it was plenty for her so I wasn't preparing veggies every day !! Hope this has been of some help

Sorry, my midwife said no solids until six months when I breast fed my son. You might want to double check with her.

When you do start smooshed carrots were popular with my son. Try some combinations like mashed taters and carrots or peas and carrots mashed together. Try to make it fun for him too! Most infants/toddlers love fruits of any nature you just have to careful that they aren't too stringy because that makes them hard to mash up. Try some oven roasted butternut squash, summer squash or zuchini. At this age you don't really need to add the butter, salt or pepper that adults would normally add to food. My grandmother always wanted to slather the baby food in some kind of fat -eek.

They do make little grinder thingys (sorry i can't remember the name-maybe it was called a ricer?) to make your own baby food but I found it to be cumbersome to use and horrible to clean. It was just as easy to mash the food with a fork!

*PS* Enjoy him at that age - mine's turning 9 this month - they grow up way too fast!! :)

*edit* double check to see if nuts of any kind are recommended for baby's under the age of 1. I think the current recommendation is to not introduce them until later due to allergy factor.

Here is a great website that tells you which foods to introduce and when:

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/solids.htm

It includes many recipes.

Most kids don't eat meat until they are over 1 anyway. At that time, you may want to talk to your doctor about ways to make sure your child gets the right nutrients to grow healthy and strong. Depending on what your vegetarian diet consists of (I am assuming you aren't vegan) - you can get plenty of protein from eggs, cheese, nuts, and beans.

Hope that helps!

You need to be very careful with how much veggies you feed him at first. Veggies like broccoli seem great, but can create a lot of wind in the baby at early ages which gives them a tummy ache.

I would recommend speaking to your pediatrician, perhaps they can guide you to making great vegetarian foods for your child.

It is determined by the fruit or veggie linked to a comparison. In the event that you compare a n to a carrot, the carrot is the better of the two nutritional. But once you compare an avocado to the carrot, then this avocado is better. Both equally the apple and avocado, are fruits.

dont listen to the first answer. feed a baby a vegi diet would not effect tehm at a ll since you're breastfeeding. all babies really need for the first year of life is breastmilk. waht you're doing sounds great. introducing solids the first eyar is more for showing baby how to eat another way

You shouldn't be feeding your child a strictly vegetarian diet. There are certain proteins that your growing child needs that he/she can only get from meat. My 9 year old niece has never eaten meat and she is sickly skinny, has bad teeth and and unhealthy pallor to her skin.

Try this site http://www.myrecipe.org/

You might get some help there.