Tip #48: Make your own fruit concentrates from dehydrated fruits

In the search for how to make prune puree for adding to yogurt to aid in my son's digestive system, I found the best way to do this is to rehydrate prunes and puree, adding extra water as needed.  This turns out to be an awesome way to make concentrated fruit purees for adding to cereal and yogurt, without having to buy baby food.  To make apricots for example, rehydrate by steaming them, I found about 30minutes to be sufficient.  Next, puree them with water as needed, now freeze in ice cube trays! Now you have yummy fruit with all the fun fiber.  Because of the skins, this is definitely for a baby at the age that can handle a bit of chunkiness in their food, about 9months I believe in most cases.  When you buy the dehydrated fruit, watch for what agents may have been added (sulfates for example are often used), but in most cases you can find fruit with no additives at places like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods.

Tip #35: One spoon to eat with, one spoon to play with

It's important for your baby to learn to the action of eating with a spoon when you start to feed them. I keep two spoons in the rotation, one to eat with and one to play with. For that reason, my favorite spoons are actually the Take N' Toss spoons. All parts of them are fine for baby's gums and they are a good size for a small mouth.

Source: Leader of Mom and Baby group.

Tip #34: List of foods to buy organic for your baby (and you!)

We are at the stage of introducing solid food and I have heard a whirlwind of information regarding carrots and nitrates (part of the information says No carrots! Some say carrots after six months! Others say all the info on nitrate poisoning is really a concern regarding well water and very high exposure to children less than three months of age). Anyway, I decided it was time to look up the Environmental Working Group's list of the 'Dirty Dozen'..fruits and vegetables you are better off buying organic due to their high absorption of chemical fertilizers (one of those is carrots).

• Peach
• Apple
• Bell Pepper
• Celery
• Nectarine
• Strawberries
• Cherries
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Grapes (imported)
• Carrot
  
• Pear
  

Resource: Track your baby's patterns

I've been using Trixie Tracker to monitor our baby's sleep patterns. You can also keep track of nursing, bottles, pumping, and diapers. It's fantastic if you have a daycare provider (like a Grandparent or a nanny) who will use it too. It gives me my fix of knowing what's going on in my little guy's day and how much milk he's drinking (and if I'm balancing that by pumping).

Here's an example of a sleep report, the hope is we would be able to pick up on patterns of napping. You can see our little one wakes up pretty consistently at the same time and then takes a morning nap an hour-and-a-half after he wakes up (this is oriented with midnight on the far left and right and 6am is that very solid line). Of course then it's hard to say if there's any pattern for the rest of the day.
They have a 14 day free trial that will help you decide if you want to keep using it.

Source: Friend