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Sponsor Spotlight: Making Every Bite Count

This post is sponsored by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA).

I remember how exciting it was when Immy started on solids.  There was lots of talking about what we would serve her and when we would start, both at home and amongst my friends at mothers group, as the six month mark approached.

When we began, it was with bright orange mashed carrot.  And despite the look of horror on her face, she ate it.  And we are fortunate to have never looked back.  To begin with I alternated between a pureed vegetable and fruit for each meal (sometimes combined with a little rice cereal) and before long started to introduce combinations of the two.  After she turned seven months, red meat, fish and chicken were slowly added to the daily menu.  She even ate liver! (which Dad 101 prepared and cooked as I just went urgh!!).

“The first two years of life is a time of rapid growth and development.

Essential nutrients required for growth and development include:
•    Iron and zinc for healthy growth, brain development and the ability to fight infections
•    Omega-3 for brain and visual development
•    Calcium for strong bones and teeth
•    Protein for healthy growth and development”

– Taken from themainmeal.com.au, website of the MLA

Whilst I enjoyed the novelty of those early days of cooking up batches of mush and freezing little portions, and experimenting with the introduction of different colours and flavours and textures, I also looked forward to the time when Immy would be able to eat what we were eating, thereby reducing the amount of time I needed to spend on food preparation (as it is no secret that cooking is not my favourite thing to do!)

Which is exactly what the MLA’s Make Every Bite Count brochure helps parents to do – to make one nutrient-rich family meal and then modify the components to suit babies and toddlers in each of the following four stages on the journey from puree to family meals – smooth and silky, lumpy and mushy, finger food and the toddler stage.

The brochure includes four recipes as examples of how family meals can be modified and we decided to test drive the Beef & Sweet Potato Burgers.  The burgers were easy to make and tasty and we will definitely make them again.  Plus we got to eat them with the first ever cobs of corn from our vegie garden, which were yummy 🙂

Introducing babies and toddlers to a range of nutrient-rich foods is important for their growth and development and Making Every Bite Count helps parents to achieve this with concise, easy to read information, food preparation ideas and recipe suggestions.

Childhood 101’s disclosure statement regarding sponsored posts can be found here.

Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.

Filed Under: Sponsors Tagged With: baby, eat, family, health, starting solids, toddler

Previous post: We Play: The Home of Great Play Ideas
Next post: Starting School: A Child’s Eye View

Read the comments or scroll down to add your own:

  1. Juliet says

    January 18, 2011 at 12:38 PM

    We followed the Baby Led Solids/Weaning approach to the introduction of solids with our little boy (check out http://www.rapleyweaning.com/), and I'm really happy with how it all turned out :) Lucas was eating olives and cheese wedges at around 8 months, and ate a whole lamb cutlet at around 10 months (and still loves all 3!). At 16 months, he eats whatever we do 99% of the time - from lamb to hamburgers to pizza to salad wraps to pancakes to bruscetta salad to bolognaise to roasts to my sister-in-laws fancy Christmas lunch finger foods! He is happy to taste and eat a big variety of foods and rarely rejects anything we give him :)
    • Christie Burnett says

      January 18, 2011 at 4:15 PM

      He sounds so much like, Immy, Juliet. I feel so blessed to have a child who enjoys eating a range of foods as I have worked with many families where this is not the case.
  2. Danielle @ www.danimezza.com says

    January 18, 2011 at 3:31 PM

    I used Baby Led Weaning as well Juliet, brilliant book and was perfect for our family. Aidan eats like a champion. I did a post about the Beef & Sweet Potato Burgers too if you'd like to have a look-see :) http://danielleandsteve.blogspot.com/2011/01/meat-eater.html
  3. Posie Patchwork says

    January 18, 2011 at 8:33 PM

    Wow, this is interesting. I had my first baby in 1999 & didn't read a thing on the matter apart from the fact she was breast fed for 18 months & super healthy. I started solids with cereal at 6 months, just made all my own mashed vegetables, then fruit after 12 months. I wasn't trying to wean her, just introduce her to new foods. She ate everything & still does, now she's a healthy high schooler & state level athlete. Nex time around we had twins, they ate what we were eating (again breast fed to 18 months, started the same path as their big sister) we just mashed it up more. 4th child, he got we we were eating just forked a bit, nothing specially prepared, he was breast fed to age 2. It's not so much about time, it's about if you eat super healthy with lots of vegetables, children just slot right in. It's so easy when they don't have any allergies & we never gave them the choice to not try anything. They were eating zuccinis, eggplant, mushrooms, everything!! They still do today!! Love Posie
    • Christie Burnett says

      January 18, 2011 at 9:07 PM

      I love the simplicity of your approach, Posie. You are so right about it being about eating healthy foods. I think the difference for us was that before Immy was on solids we ate a lot more rich and spicy foods so our menu had to change (or I felt it did anyway) in order to share our meal with her.
  4. JDaniel4's Mom says

    January 19, 2011 at 2:00 AM

    I loved making JDaniel's baby food. It was such fun.
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