What Baby’s Eating: 7 to 8 months old
This is how my son feels about bibs
See Also: Â 5 to 6 month and 6 to 7 month feeding ideas. This has been an interesting month in the world of baby mealtime. The most interesting (and messy) development is my son’s sudden aversion to wearing bibs. It’s almost as if he thinks the bib is attacking him and it’s his goal to conquer the bib as quickly as possible by tearing the bib off his neck and throwing it onto the floor. He grabs each side of the bib with one chubby fist and grunts and growls as he pulls it as hard as he can, sometimes even turning red in the face with the effort. I’m not sure if it’s a difference between boys and girls or just an innate difference in personality between my two children, but this battle of the bib took me completely by surprise as my daughter never even noticed that she was wearing one, let alone cared!
In the food department, I started the baby eating yogurt this month and added a little more spice to his food to liven up the flavor a bit. I also introduced broccoli to his diet. I mix it with some cauliflower to make a creamier, milder puree than plain broccoli. Unlike plain cow’s milk, which is not recommended for babies under 12 months of age, yogurt can be added to baby’s diet as early as 6 months because the active bacteria helps break down the lactose in milk. I held off until 7 or 8 months before introducing dairy of any kind just to be on the safe side, but by 8 months both of my kids loved yogurt and ate it with no problems at all. My favorite yogurt is Stoneyfield Farm Yobaby yogurt, mostly because it is readily available in most supermarkets where I live and is all organic with no artificial ingredients. It is also made with full-fat milk, which is recommended for babies under a year old, and has a very low amount of sugar compared to other kids yogurts. I add yogurt to fruit and vegetable purees all the time, but my favorite baby food recipe using yogurt is the baby smoothie recipe below.
Ingredients for Baby Smoothie: Frozen blueberries, baby banana yogurt, banana and baby cereal
I used blueberries in the smoothie pictured, but you could use any kind of berry that your baby likes. If your baby is very sensitive to textures, you may want to strain the smoothie through a fine mesh sieve to remove pieces of skin and seeds. However, neither of my kids seemed to mind the chunkier texture at all by this age. The thickness of this smoothie can easily be adjusted by adding more baby cereal to make it thicker or some formula or breastmilk to thin it out.
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons banana flavored baby yogurt (such as YoBaby) or any other full-fat organic yogurt
- 2 Tablespoons fresh or frozen blueberries
- 2 teaspoons baby cereal
- 2-inch chunk of banana, chopped
- Place all the ingredients into a small food processor or baby food maker and blend until smooth. Strain through a sieve if desired and add extra baby cereal to thicken or breasmilk/formula to make thinner.
Ingredients for Cinnamon-Spiced Acorn Squash Puree
Cinnamon-Spiced Acorn Squash Puree
Ingredients
- 1 acorn squash
- 1/2 Tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wash the outside of the squash well and cut it in half lengthwise. Scoop out all the seeds from the center of squash and place on a sheet pan or cookie sheet.
- Brush the inner part of each squash halve with the melted butter and sprinkle with ground cinnamon. Cover the squash lightly with foil and place in the preheated oven. Bake for about 1 hour or until the squash flesh is very tender when pierced with a fork. Remove from oven and let cool to room temp.
- Scoop out the cooled squash flesh out of one halve with a metal spoon and transfer to a small food processor or baby food maker. Blend until smooth, adding a little water if needed to thin the puree to the desired consistency. Repeat with remaining halve of the squash. Can be refrigerated for a few days or frozen for up to 2 months.
Cauliflower and Broccoli florets finely chopped
Basic Broccoli Cauliflower puree
Ingredients
- 1 cup broccoli florets, finely chopped
- 1 cup cauliflower florets, finely chopped
- Place the broccoli and cauliflower in a steamer together and steam for 30 minutes, or until very tender.
- Puree the broccoli and cauliflower together in a food processor or baby food maker until smooth, adding some of the steaming water as needed to create a smooth puree.