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 #41: Alphabetical feeding

Once you've introduced solid food, and done so for long enough you have more than a few foods to give your little one, it can be hard to remember what they've had recently. I saw a tip to feed your baby alphabetically, so you roughly give them a diversity of food, e.g., applesauce, avocado, bananas, peas, plums, sweet potatoes, etc.

Source: From Parent Hacks which a friend of mine told me about recently. A very cool site with an array of tips.

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
  

Tip #27: Keeping formula/milk cold on an airplane

We just returned from our first big journey with baby..so you'll be seeing a few traveling tips we have picked up along the way....

They say to keep a baby's ears from hurting during elevation changes on an airplane, have them suck something during takeoff and landing. We specifically bought a seat for him for the most dangerous parts of the flight, takeoff and landing, and the little dude will NOT due a pacifier. So on the way up I would give him a bottle of expressed breast milk and on the way down a bottle of water. However, we had two legs on the way back and four ascents/descents, so I had to keep the milk cold. This should work with either expressed milk or formula (although with formula, you just need to get water on the other side of security before boarding..but just in case you have something ready but don't need right away...).

1. Make sure to declare the liquids, have them in a separate bag and put them through x-ray on their own.
2. Ice is allowed by FAA regulations, however, some security agents didn't know this. So to be prepared to avoid the hassle if you have one of these agents, pack ice around your milk, but keep an extra ziplock so you can dump the ice and get more ice on the other side of security. In the end I kept the ice but got more at Starbucks anyway.
3. On the plane, those little bags for motion sickness are a great way to pack a bottle in some ice (the flight attendant told me this one).

Tip #13: Share baby food making with friends

I've heard lots of parents who want to make their own baby food (especially because then they can make it organic), but then the time to make it outweighs the cost factor. A great tip I heard is to create a food making group. The structure is up to you, but here's one example: 10 sets of parents get together once a month to exchange cubes of frozen food. This month, set #1 made apples, #2 made peas, #3 made butternut squash, etc. etc. So you make a large lot of food once a month and you get 10 different foods! The mom I heard this from said they would have a little party on a Sunday when they got together to exchange food, they also changed whose house they got together at every time.

Source: Friend

Tip #4 - Keep your baby used to the bottle

If you breastfeed and decide to introduce the bottle at the recommended time (4-6 weeks, after breastfeeding is well established), make sure to keep your baby used to it by giving them the bottle every other day or so.

Source: Unknown, but I've met many moms now who introduced the bottle early and then dropped it, just to find at the end of their maternity leave they wouldn't take it anymore.