Pumpkin juice is a favorite treat of Soviet children.
Even in those bygone days, parents strictly ordered not to drink it in cans, no matter what happens. And at home, mothers prepared delicious pumpkin dishes - baked, stewed.
And how was it not to love them if pumpkin feeding was recommended without fail for all the kids?
The only condition was to make sure that the child was not allergic.
Pumpkin puree for babies - general principles of preparation
• Pumpkin puree for babies is prepared from softened (boiled) pulp of a vegetable. The uniformity of the dish is the main feature of such complementary foods, so the pulp is killed with a blender or rubbed through a sieve.
• The first complementary foods are prepared with the addition of breast milk, if it is the main component of nutrition, or the milk mixture, which is the basis of the usual diet of the baby. They are added to the already prepared mashed potatoes.
• Given the characteristics of the child and his age, pumpkin feeding can be prepared with the addition of vegetables or fruits. Often, yolk is added to it or prepared with semolina. It is best to add yolk of quail eggs to the dish, as they are a dietary product. Starting from the age of eight months, the baby can cook pumpkin dishes in milk, if the baby tolerates it, and add a little butter to the dish.
• Self-cooked pumpkin puree has a great advantage over purchased baby canned food. It is always fresh, products are selected independently and of the highest quality. Homemade vegetable dish does not contain harmful preservatives and dyes, which negligent manufacturers often add to baby food.
• Of course, canned goods have a big plus - they do not need to be cooked, and this saves time. Preserve homemade pumpkin puree on your own, and at any time you can easily feed the crumbs with the right, and most importantly, healthy food.
Baby Pumpkin Puree - First Lure
The easiest pumpkin dish recipe to start with. For cooking, you need pumpkin and water, no additional products that contribute to cause allergies in the baby. Such complementary foods can be given to infants from 4.5 months, if he is on artificial feeding. When breastfeeding, it is advisable to start with 6.5 months or even a little older.
Ingredients:
• 100 gr. pumpkin pulp;
• filtered drinking water.
Cooking method:
1. Cut the peel from the pumpkin, and cut the pulp into pieces.
2. Pour the slices with water so that it completely covers them and put to a boil. You can add salt, but very little, not more than a few grains.
3. After boiling, lower the flame to a minimum and continue to simmer the pumpkin until it is completely softened. This usually takes no more than 25 minutes.
4. Strain the broth, and chop the pumpkin slices with a blender.
5. Add some breast milk if it is used for normal feeding or the infant formula with which you are feeding your baby, and mix thoroughly.
6. Like any complementary foods, pumpkin puree should be started with a quarter of a standard teaspoon. Then watch the baby during the day. With normal bowel function and the absence of allergic reactions, the volume is gradually increased, bringing to a single serving.
Baby Pumpkin Puree with Yolk
If you previously gave crumbs a boiled chicken yolk and are sure that there is no allergy to eggs, you can cook pumpkin complementary foods with its addition.
Ingredients:
• 200 grams of fresh pumpkin;
• 40 ml of milk formula or breast milk;
• half or whole chicken yolk;
• half a teaspoon of well-refined sunflower oil.
Cooking method:
1. Cut the pumpkin pulp into small sticks and simmer over low heat in drinking water. Do not pour a lot of liquid, it is enough that it only slightly covers the pulp.
2. As soon as the slices of the vegetable soften, drain the liquid and grind them on a sieve along with the boiled yolk.
3. Add vegetable oil and adjust the density by pouring in a small portion of the mixture or fresh, breast-milk.
Puree pumpkin puree with zucchini and butter
When the baby is 8 months old, try adding the usual pumpkin puree to the baby zucchini and butter. Do not use the spread, take natural, with the lowest percentage of fat content.
Ingredients:
• 100 gr. Pumpkins
• young zucchini - 100 gr.;
• 100-150 ml of milk or mixture;
• creamy, only natural, butter, or thick pasteurized cream - 1/2 tsp.
Cooking method:
1. Peel pumpkin pulp and zucchini from seeds. Pay special attention to zucchini. Make sure that there are no small seeds left in it, they do not soften, and if you interrupt the vegetable mass with a blender, the pieces of seeds will remain, and the baby may choke.
2. Separating the seeds and peel, boil the resulting flesh in a small amount of water until completely softened. Then drain the liquid, and add oil to the pulp, pour in a little mixture and grind thoroughly with a blender to a paste-like state.
3. If you give the child cow milk, it is possible to boil in it. In this case, do not drain the milk.
Pumpkin puree for babies with apples
If you want to diversify your food, cook a pumpkin with an apple. They perfectly complement the composition of trace elements of each other, and harmoniously combine with taste. Apple pulp is more tender than pumpkin and it must be added almost at the end of cooking or cook separately. Apples can be replaced with pears if they do not cause intestinal upset.
Ingredients:
• 80 gr. pumpkin pulp;
• a quarter of a small apple;
• water or goat milk diluted in a ratio of 1: 3 - 100 ml.
Cooking method:
1. As in previous recipes, first peel the pumpkin and apple from the peeled seeds and cut the juicy slices into small slices.
2. Put pumpkin slices in a saucepan, boil them in water for about a quarter of an hour and add the chopped apple to them.
3. Stir visually until softened sufficiently, remove from heat and grind immediately. The apple can be prepared separately, baked in the oven or microwave, and then combined with a boiled pumpkin.
Pumpkin puree for babies with semolina
Such a puree can be safely prepared for a 10-month-old baby if he is not allergic to dairy products. Cow's milk, if desired or according to the doctor’s testimony, can be replaced with goat. But it is worth noting that the goat is fatter and it is not recommended to give it to whole infants. Be sure to dilute it in a 1: 3 ratio with filtered boiled water, or at least in half.
Ingredients:
• 150 gr. pulp of ripe pumpkin;
• 60 ml of milk;
• a tablespoon of dry semolina.
Cooking method:
1. Cut the flesh into medium-sized slices in a saucepan, pour flush with drinking water and set to boil.
2. Once the pieces are soft and the liquid evaporates, add hot milk and pour semolina on it. To prevent the groats from breaking up in lumps, when adding them, try to intensively mix the pulp with milk.
3. After boiling mashed potatoes with semolina for six minutes, remove it from the heat and beat with a blender until a smoothie is obtained.
Delicate mashed pumpkin for babies with carrots and cream
For an eight-month-old child, you can prepare a gentle pumpkin dish with cream and carrots. If carrots cause allergic reactions, remove it, and increase the number of pumpkins. Cream is best taken with the lowest percentage of fat content.
Ingredients:
• two small segments of pumpkin;
• half of medium-sized carrots;
• a third of a spoon of high-quality butter;
• 80-100 ml of low-fat cream.
Cooking method:
1. Cut the carrots and pumpkins into small cubes and place them in a boil, pouring them with drinking water.
2. Cook should be on low heat, so that the vegetables languish, not boil. This will save a significant part of the substances useful to the baby.
3. When the vegetables are soft, drain the broth from them and grind the pulp through a rare sieve. Add butter, pour in hot cream, add salt. Stir thoroughly and slowly bring to a boil, but do not boil so that the cream does not curdle.
Preservation of apple and pumpkin puree for babies
Do not trust modern manufacturers? You doubt the usefulness of factory canned vegetables for infants - canned mashed potatoes yourself. It will help you out at any time and diversify the winter diet of your crumbs.
Ingredients:
• 250 grams of ripe sweet apples;
• pumpkin pulp - 250 gr.;
• a teaspoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice;
• a large spoonful of sugar.
Cooking method:
1. Pour the pulp of pumpkin and apples, cut into small pieces, with water so that it only slightly covers them.
2. Put the container on a small fire, wait for an intense boil. Then reduce heat to a minimum and simmer until completely softened.
3. After this, grind the softened pulp on a sieve, add sugar into it, pour in the filtered lemon juice and boil again.
4. Pack hot mashed potatoes in sterile containers and tightly seal them with sterile lids.
5. Turn the jars upside down, wrap them tightly with a blanket and hold in this position until completely cooled.
Baby Pumpkin Puree - Cooking Tips and Useful Tips
• Despite the fact that the vegetable is useful, its frequent use can harm the baby's health. It contributes to an increase in bilirubin, which can cause jaundice. Therefore, it is recommended to give lures from pumpkin puree no more than twice every 10 days, or per week.
• If you make mashed potatoes in milk, do not pour the vegetable broth. It can be used in the preparation of soups for children.
• It is best to turn the softened pulp of vegetables and pumpkins into mashed potatoes by the old "grandmother's" method, grinding through a sieve. All unnecessary inclusions: fibers and seeds of vegetables accidentally caught will remain on it.
• Pediatricians recommend adding a little quality vegetable oil to pumpkin puree, carotene is optimally absorbed in its presence.
