Steaming in a little water is the best way to cook food for your baby as this method will retain the most nutrients of all cooking methods.
Steaming: Steaming baby foods preserve most nutrients, unlike boiled vegetables. During steaming, the heat of the steam cooks the veggies, and they are spared from the boiling water. Steaming cook vegetables until they are no longer raw, but still bright and crisp.
Boiling veggies leads to a lot of nutrient loss, and the longer the veggie boils, the more nutrients will escape into the water. Steaming veggies on the other hand is a brief process, and it is the method that leads to the least loss of nutrients in most veggies.
Washing fruits and vegetables with soap, detergent, chlorine bleach solution, or commercial produce wash is not recommended, because they could be absorbed into the produce or leave a residue that could make some babies sick. Ways to Cook: Steaming and boiling are the best cooking methods to conserve nutrients.
It's recommended that most fruits and veggies are steamed (or cooked) before serving until baby reaches around 8 months of age.
How to prepare apples for your baby. Apples need to either be steamed and puréed or roasted until they have a smoosh-able texture, or served raw in thin enough pieces that they won't pose a choking hazard — think grated or very thinly sliced.
Blueberries are an easy, no-cook option for baby food puree! No need to steam or boil the blueberries before you blend them. Of course, if you want to steam, boil or simmer the blueberries, you can!
Put vegetable or fruit of choice in steamer basket. Add water to depth of 2.5 cm to saucepan, place steamer basket in saucepan, cover pan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Steam, stirring once or twice, until very tender for 2 to 8 minutes (timing depends on vegetable or fruit).
Use low-fat cooking methods like boiling or steaming.
If you boil or steam food, you avoid the chemicals created by high temperatures and cut out extra fat, which helps you stay at a healthy weight.
Depending on a child's maturity and the parent's personality, kids can actually start to contribute and be involved as early as 18 months, and certainly by the time they are 3 years old and you're working on big-kid tasks like potty training and preschool!
“Steaming allows you to retain more of the nutrients compared with boiling,” Jenna Hope confirms, because leaching, whereby some nutrients draw out into the water, doesn't occur as much. “Naturally, it may not provide as much flavour as, for example, roasting, so serve with a pesto or tahini.”
As the vegetables are not boiled, they don't lose the essential nutrients. Steaming also keeps the vegetables crisp and bright. In short, if you want to preserve the color, taste, and nutrients of the vegetables, you need to steam them instead of boiling them.
Steam has more warmth and vitality than water. Due to its dormant warmth of vaporization, it will produce more burn than boiling water. Steam contains the heat energy of boiling water as well as the latent heat of vaporization.
Run hot water in the tub or a bucket for a few minutes as the steam fills the bathroom. Sit in the steamy room while holding your child for about 10-15 minutes. You could sit on a stool or a plastic chair so that you're both comfortable. Take a toy or a bath book along to keep your baby entertained.
If you give your baby water before she is 4 months old, make sure it has boiled thoroughly for 1 minute, no matter where it comes from, whether a municipal system, private well, bulk container, or bottle.
Steam is the key to making baby food
Whether you're making puréed baby food or doing baby-led weaning, the food needs to be soft enough to blend or for your baby to eat with their gums, with little to no oil. This means that steaming is the best option when it comes to cooking fruits and veggies for your baby.
Deep-frying is one of the worst ways to cook your food, as it bathes your food in oxidized fats, denatured proteins, and glycated sugars.
In many cases, favourite recipes can be modified so they have a lower fat content. Choose to steam, bake, grill, braise, boil or microwave your foods, rather than deep fry them. Use non-stick cookware. Microwave or steam your vegetables instead of boiling them to retain the nutrients.
Boiling and cooking vegetables in high temperatures or in water decreases their nutrient level. Water soluble vitamins like Vit C and B vitamins are often lost during these cooking methods. Minerals like potassium, phosphorus, calcium , magnesium, iron and zinc may be reduced by up to 60-70 percent.
Tip: Steaming or microwaving broccoli (as opposed to boiling) helps retain its nutrients. Roasting broccoli works, too, though this method may yield a tougher texture. For young babies, steamed broccoli has the benefit of softness for their tender gums.
Place water in a pot, add steamer basket, and bring to a boil. Add broccoli, cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook for 5-6 minutes. It should be easily pierce-able with a fork. Be careful not to overcook or you will end up with a not so appetizing greenish-yellow mush.
Add just enough water to cover the bottom of a large skillet (about 3/4 cup for a 12-inch skillet). Add the broccoli in an even layer, cover, and steam over medium-high heat until just tender and bright green, 6 to 8 minutes total.
While blueberries can be introduced as one of your baby's first foods, it is a choking hazard for babies due to its small size, roundness, and firmness. Therefore, it's extremely important to make sure they're prepared and served in an age-appropriate way to minimize the risk of choking.
6 to 9 months old: Offer full-fat (whole milk), pasteurized, plain yogurt. Greek yogurt is perfect for this age and will be easiest for babies to self-feed. Let baby scoop up the yogurt with their hands and/or eat from a pre-loaded spoon (passing the spoon in the air will make it easier for baby to grab).
Strawberries may be introduced as soon as a baby is ready for solids, which is generally around 6 months of age.