For a couple of weeks my son would look at us eating and you could tell he wanted to eat with us too. He would follow our forks with his eyes and even drool sometimes. With our doctors advice we have started introducing solids to my son. Being a new mum, I have received so much advice and information and it can get confusing and overwhelming on what to give him first.The only thing I knew for certain was that I did not want to feed my son pre-made food. I do not know how the pre-made food is made or the preservatives that are added, so to be safe I will try to make my son’s food from scratch.In Zimbabwe, people usually start with maize meal porridge but I do not have easy access to white maize meal (I do not like the smell of the yellow) so that was not going to work. Through research I found that apple sauce is a good food to start babies with and it is easy to make as well.You can buy store bought apple sauce in the shops but sometimes it has added sugar and preservatives in it.
Apple Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
4 apples – choose any sweet apples like macintosh or golden delicious, avoid tart varieties like granny smith
Method
Peel and core the apples and cut into even cubes.
Add the apples in a saucepan with boiling water so that the apples are just covered in water.
Simmer until the apples are fork tender.
Drain the water and put the apples in a blender.
Purée until smooth.
If you are introducing the sauce to the baby for the first time, serve a table spoon and you can put the rest in single serve containers and freeze. You can also use ice cube trays to store the excess apple sauce and reheat it each time you feed the baby.
I have also used the same method with pears which I have found relieve constipation.