Why Make Your Child’s First Meals From Scratch?

Today, around 98% of Americans prefer homemade meals, which is great news when it comes to fighting obesity, protecting your heart health, and ensuring that your children embrace a healthy way of living. Parents often struggle to find enough time to cook, keep the home tidy, and attend to their children’s needs, yet although store-bought baby food is occasionally a lifesaver (for instance, if you are taking a long plane ride), cooking your baby’s meals as often as you can is a great way to get them on a healthy track. As soon as your children are old enough to help you out in the kitchen, you can utilize this time together to teach them important facts on nutrition, where food is sourced from, and how to make easy yet healthy meals.

The Power Of Organic Vegetables

One of the best things about making your own baby soups and purees is that you can choose ingredients that are very nutritious. Studies have shown that organic fruits and veggies have more antioxidant levels than their conventionally grown counterparts. Therefore, why not choose from the wide array of colorful produce in your local organic market and blend ingredients for baby treats and dishes such as a fresh apple smoothie, a creamy pumpkin puree, or a fiber-rich broccoli soup?

Developing A Taste For Simple Foods

Making your own baby food will enable children’s palates to become accustomed to the beauty of simple flavors, free of the sugar and salt that can be found in many processed foods. A study by scientists at the University of Glasgow

 found that many store-bought baby foods contain fewer nutrients and high levels of sugar that “would not serve the intended purpose” of weaning. Rather, it was preferable to make homemade foods such as chicken stew, beef and mashed potatoes, stewed apple, rice pudding with stewed fruits, etc.

Even Biscuits Should Ideally Be Homemade

Another survey of over100 foods for babies and toddlersfound that some brands contain an inordinately high level of sugar (one biscuit comprised 29% sugar!) Some also were made with trans fats, which are known artery cloggers. A great activity if you have older kids is to enlist their help making your own weaning biscuits for the little ones in the home. One of the easiest recipes contains little more than wholemeal flour, banana, egg, a dash of vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Kids love these soft, crumbly biscuits that takejust 10 minute to bake.

It can sometimes be hard to find the time to make homemade meals every day. Store bought foods can really come in handy on crisis days, and on occasions in which it may be difficult to bring your own food. However, as a norm, making food from scratch is a great way to ensure your children consume healthy, simple produce prepared with no sugar or unhealthy fats. Cooking is also a good activity for older kids to enjoy: a unique time in which they can bond with their parents while the little toddler in the home is enjoying a nap, simultaneously providing an important part of their education.

Credits : Article submitted by Karoline Gore

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