Best baby food for a healthy baby

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Best baby food for a healthy baby
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• Keeping your baby safe and healthy may be at the
  top of your list of parenting to-dos. There are
  lots of healthy, baby-friendly foods out there,
  but some stand out from the pack. These culinary
  superheroes are loaded with essential nutrients,
  reasonably priced, easy to prepare, and
  delicious.
• Cereals For years, baby rice cereal was
  considered the best
• food to start with, but now the American
  Academy of Pediatrics
• just recommends any easily digestible foods.
  If you start with
• cereal, pick a single-grain variety (rice,
  barley, or oat).
• Squash Squash is an excellent source of
  vitamins A and C,
• is naturally sweet, and has a pleasing,
  creamy texture.
• Lentils Crammed with protein and fiber,
  lentils pack a
• powerful nutritional punch. They're also one
  of the cheapest
• healthy foods you can buy.

To keep your baby safe it is important to buy
baby monitor
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• Dark green leafy vegetables Leafy greens
  boast high
• amounts of iron. While spinach is perhaps the
  best known
• of this group, there are many other
  varieties, including kale,
• chard, and collard greens.
• Broccoli Brimming with folate, fiber, and
  calcium, broccoli
• is also known for its cancer-fighting.  And
  thanks to its sulfur
• compounds, it has a unique flavor that can
  help expand
• your baby's tastes.
• Blueberries The deep, brilliant blue of these
  berries comes
• from flavonoids called anthocyanins, which
  are good for
• your baby's eyes, brain, and even urinary
  tract

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• Avocados Avocados are a rich source of
  unsaturated fats.
• In fact, the fat composition is somewhat
  similar to that of
• breast milk. Unsaturated fat is the good kind
  of fat, and
• babies need it for brain development.
• Meat Many of us don't think of meat as a
  typical baby food,
• but Meat is a great source of zinc and iron.
  
• Prunes Prunes have lots of fiber and can help
  relieve 
• constipation  which your baby may
  experience after
• you introduce solids.

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• Mandarin oranges High in vitamin C and
  antioxidants,
• mandarin oranges are a supreme finger food.
  Babies
• really love the flavor.
• Vegetables Veggies are wholesome, nutritious,
  and not
• likely to trigger allergies. Start with
  milder yellow or
• orange options such as sweet potatoes and
  carrots before
• moving on to the green team, like peas and
  string beans,
• which have slightly stronger flavors. Some
  babies need to
• be introduced to a new food four or five (or
  more!) times
• before they'll accept it, so perseverance is
  key. 
• Fruits Delicious, digestible first fruits
  include finely
• mashed bananas or baby applesauce, peaches,
  or pears.

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• Few Important Pointers
• Expand the menu options
• Those early-bird specials (rice cereal,
  applesauce, bananas, yellow veggies) get pretty
  old after a few dozen meals. Spice things up (at
  around seven or eight months) by adding minced
  meat (chicken, lamb, turkey, or beef), mashed egg
  yolk (no whites), and avocado to her repertoire.
  By nine months, whole-milk yogurt, cheese, pasta,
  beans, and tofu can make their debuts, and then
  (drum roll) finger foods add a whole other
  dimension to eating. 
• Watch Out for Food Allergies
• The bad news Food allergies are pretty common in
  babies.
• The good news Kids usually outgrow them but you
  do need to take them seriously.
• If you think your baby may be allergic to
  something you've fed her/him, wait about a week
  before trying the food again. If you get a
  similar reaction two or three times in a row, you
  can probably assume she's sensitive to it.
  Eliminate that food from her diet for several
  months, then try it again if your pediatrician
  gives the green light. If your baby seems to
  react to almost every new food you offer, or
  there's a history of allergies in your family,
  wait a full week between trying any new item, and
  do check in with your doctor. 

In the case that you baby has an allergic
reaction it is important to go straight to the
hospital and use a baby movement monitor to
monitor your baby at night.
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• Few Important Pointers (Continued)
• Hold Off On Certain Food Altogether
• No matter how good an eater your baby is, and
  how sure you are that he/she'll love the treats
  her older pals adore, hold off (at least until
  the first birthday) on foods that are most likely
  to trigger reactions. These include nuts
  (especially peanuts which aren't recommended
  until age one, or even three if your family has a
  history of food allergies), chocolate, egg whites
  (the yolks are okay by eight months), honey
  (which can contain spores of Clostridium
  botulinum), and cow's milk. Some doctors also
  recommend waiting on wheat, citrus fruits and
  juices, tomatoes, and strawberries until baby has
  passed the one-year mark.
• Getting ready before your baby is mobile can help
  you keep your sanity and your baby safe !

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• Best Finger Foods to Try
• Anything that baby can gum to a consistency
  that's easy to swallow or that will dissolve in
  the mouth without chewing qualifies as good
  finger foods. Cut it into manageable cubes or
  chunks (pea size for firmer items, marble size
  for softer foods) and scatter a few pieces onto
  an unbreakable plate or directly onto baby's
  feeding tray, and replace as baby eats them.
  (Don't present your baby with too much food at
  once, or he might respond by trying to stuff all
  of it into his mouth or swiping it to the floor.)
  Here are some good choices 
• Whole-wheat bagel, whole-grain bread or toast,
  rice cakes, or other crackers that become mushy
  in the mouth.
• Oat circle cereals, wheat or rice puffs.
• Tiny cubes of natural (but pasteurized) cheese,
  such as Swiss, cheddar, Edam, Havarti.
• Chunks of ripe banana, very ripe pear, peach,
  apricot, cantaloupe, honeydew, or mango

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• Best Finger Foods to Try ( Continued )
• Small chunks of cooked-to-tender carrot, white
  or sweet potato, yam, broccoli or cauliflower
  (flowerets only), peas (cut in half or crushed).
• Flakes of broiled, baked, or poached fish (but
  screen carefully for bones)
• Soft meatballs (cooked in sauce or soup so they
  don't get crusty)
• Well-cooked pasta of various sizes and shapes
  (break up before or cut after cooking, as
  necessary), if they are free of ingredients that
  baby isn't allowed yet
• Scrambled or hard-cooked egg yolk (and, once baby
  can have the whites, whole eggs)
• Cubes of soft-cooked French toast or whole-wheat
  pancakes

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• Finger Foods to Avoid the First Year 
• Because of the danger of choking, don't give your
  baby foods that won't dissolve in the mouth or
  can't be mashed with the gums. As with other
  foods, finger foods should be fed only to a baby
  who is seated, and not to one who is crawling,
  cruising, or toddling around.
• Here are finger foods to avoid
• Uncooked raisins
• Popcorn
• Nuts
• Raw firm-fleshed vegetables (carrots, bell
  peppers) or fruits (apples, unripe pears, grapes)
• Chunks of meat or poultry, or hot dogs (most
  varieties are too high in sodium and additives,
  anyway)
• Once baby's molars come in around the end of the
  year (for early teethers), foods that require
  real chewing can be added, such as raw apples
  (cut into very small pieces) and other
  firm-fleshed raw fruits and vegetables.