A Nutritious Baby Food You Can Make

Backgrounder

You probably know that the best possible food for your baby during the first four to six months of life is your own breast milk.  Your milk has all the good things in it that your baby needs to grow and stay healthy.

As your baby grows, the time will come when she needs more than just breast milk.  She must have other good foods to eat which will give her strength to keep growing well.  The more good food she learns to eat and drink, the better.

When your baby is four to six months old, start giving her other foods as well as your breast milk.  For example, you might give her a porridge made from cereal grains.  You can use local grains such as rice, maize, wheat, millet or barley.  If you include some cereal in the diet, the baby will grow well.

Here is a nutritious porridge for your baby made from wheat and finger millet (Eleusine coracana).  It is easy to make and it’s cheaper than commercial baby food.  This recipe is from 87‑year‑old Indumati Manel, of Bangalore, India.  She, her brother and two sisters, and their children were all nourished on this food, called kani in her language.

Until about 40 years ago this cereal food was widely used in southern India.  Nowadays, mothers use packaged foods far more, especially in the cities.  But it is also good to remember how to make traditional baby foods.  They are often more nutritious.

Here are Ms. Manel’s instructions for making and using this baby cereal.

You will need:

‑  1 measure (by volume) of wheat

‑  1 equal measure (by volume) of finger millet

‑  Two large containers for mixing and straining the cereal

‑  A sieve – the kind you use to sift flour

‑  A large square of coarse cloth for straining

‑  Several pieces of cloth on which to dry the paste

Pick over and wash the wheat.  Soak it overnight in plenty of water.  The water should stand at least five centimetres above the wheat.  Five centimetres is about the length of your baby finger. In the morning, drain off the water.  Grind the wheat to a smooth paste.  Now add some water to thin it out.  Once the paste is more watery, strain it through the flour sieve into a large container. Add some more water to the paste in the large container and mix well.  Strain this mixture once again, but this time strain it through the coarse cloth, back into the large container.  Make sure there are no solid bits of grain or husk in the strained mixture.

Next, wash the finger millet.  There is no need to soak it.  Grind the millet, adding enough water to make a smooth paste.  Thin the paste the same way you did with the wheat, by adding some water.  Now strain it, first through the flour sieve and then through the coarse cloth.

It is now time to combine the two cereal mixtures.  Mix the wheat paste and millet paste together and stir well.  Make sure there are no little bits of grain or husk in this mixture.  If there are, strain the mixture again through cloth.

Let the mixture stand overnight.  The next morning carefully drain off the water from the top, leaving only the solid cereal at the bottom.  Spread the solid cereal on several thicknesses of cloth and put it out to dry.  Dry it thoroughly in the sun.  If there is any moisture left in the grains, bacteria could grow there and make your baby sick.  Once it is dry, crush the dry cereal into a powder and store it in an airtight bottle or tin.  It will keep for one or two months.

 How to Use:

When you are ready to feed the cereal to the baby, mix one quarter of a cup of water and one quarter of a cup of milk together.   Add one teaspoon of the dried cereal powder you have made to this liquid.  Mix it together until it is a smooth paste, with no lumps.  Boil this paste – stirring all the time – until it thickens.  It is very important that the mixture comes to a full boil so that all the harmful germs are killed.  Add a bit of sweetener.  Now let the mixture cool a bit.  Feed it to the baby with a spoon, a very little at a time.

As mentioned, you can start feeding this porridge to your baby when she is four to six months old.  Start with a small amount at first, about one or two teaspoons of cooked cereal, once a day. Gradually increase the amount as the baby needs it, until she is eating four or five small meals a day.

To make the food even healthier for your baby, you should add some other foods to it.  Start with a protein food.  Good protein foods are legumes such as soybeans, lentils, peas, nuts, ground nuts, or split peas.  For some extra energy add a bit of vegetable oil to the meal.

Now you have a basic mixture made up of cereals grains, legumes, and vegetable oil.  And this is a very good meal for your baby.  But there are some other foods that could make the meal even more nutritious.  Your baby will grow best if she gets a variety of foods.

For example, by adding vegetables to the meals you are adding vitamins and minerals to the baby’s diet.  Vitamins and minerals are important for good health.  You could serve boiled vegetables with the cereal you have made.

Think of some other types of foods you might add.  If you have some chickens in the yard, take one egg and break it and mix that with the cooked cereal.  That’s another good food for your baby.  Or add some powdered milk, meat or fish if you have it.

While your baby is learning to like these foods give only her a very small amount each day to begin with.  Remember that your baby has a small stomach and needs many small meals throughout the day.  You will probably have to feed her four or five small meals in a day.  Keep giving breast milk for at least a year or two years, if possible.  There will be a time when you will realize that you have less breast milk.  However, if you have been feeding your child enough of these good solid foods every day, together with the breast milk, then your child will be getting enough food.  She will be strong and won’t lose weight when you stop breast feeding.

Delicious! Your child will really like this meal made up of one or two cereal grains, legumes, some vegetables, a little vegetable oil, and maybe an egg or some fish. Feed your baby often, if possible 4 or 5 times a day.

 Remember these six steps for feeding your baby:

1. Breast milk is best for the first four months of your baby’s life.  Your breast milk provides your baby with all the nourishment she needs at this time.

2. When your baby is four to six months old, start giving her other foods as well as your breast milk.  You can make a nutritious porridge using cereal grains such as wheat, millet, barley or rice.  For extra energy add a spoonful of vegetable oil to the porridge.

3. Add protein foods to your baby’s porridge.  Legumes, fish or dried fish, milk, eggs or meat are good protein foods.

4. It is important for babies to eat some vegetables or fruits every day.

5. Feed your baby five times a day.  Remember she has a small stomach and needs many small meals in one day.

6. Continue to give your baby breast milk, if possible, until she is two years old.