Wednesday, September 11, 2013
How to Make Homemade Pear Sauce Purée for Babies
We decided to take a baby-led weaning approach when Addie started to eat solid foods. If you're not familiar with baby-led weaning (or BLW), it's basically skipping cereals and purées and letting baby try his or her first foods in their true form. We've tried a huge variety. We started with avocado and bananas and have moved on to pears, peaches, broccoli, chicken....honestly, too many for me to even remember. Lincoln eats a wide variety of toddler-approved foods, too, so it's easy to find something for her to munch on at each meal. With that approach, I wasn't sure I would need to remember how to make homemade pear purée for babies, but - never say never!
Unfortunately, we had a bout a few weeks ago where the little miss had some tummy trouble that seemed to be caused by the enthusiasm she showed when she consumed an entire peach (including the stem - whoops) in one sitting. She was having a lot of trouble processing all that, so I laid off the solids and tried only nursing her for a couple of days. That didn't work, and she was getting pretty uncomfortable - so I thought, I'll purée some prunes for her to eat! Great plan - except we couldn't find any prunes. So, I settled for the next best thing: pears.
Lincoln ate lots of purées as a baby and his favorites were pears and peaches. I made most of his food at home since I just feel better knowing where my baby's nutrition is coming from. It was fun to revisit baby-food-making, even if it's not something I'll be doing indefinitely.
Homemade Pear Sauce Purée for Babies
This project doesn't require a lot of supplies, so I won't make a list! Just pick up some pears at your local Farmer's Market or grocery store, and set right to work!
1. Wash pears.
2. Peel, core, and dice pears.
3. Add diced pears to pot of water, boil until very soft (there is no "perfect" consistency - you just want it to be soft enough to blend).
4. Strain water from the cooked pears, let cool.
5. Add cooked pears to blender or food processor and purée.
6. Store in the fridge in an airtight container - or freeze in ice cube trays for individually sized baby portions!
Adelaide adores eating pears. And, bonus - they cleared up her digestive system problems right away. Even Lincoln asks for "sauce" when he sees baby eating this yummy stuff!
What's your baby's favorite food?
Disclosure: All opinions and experiences contained in this post are my own. Please consult your pediatrician before making substantial dietary changes for your child.
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Huh. I didn't know pears would help with that. Good to know!
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why you have to cook them, though. Shouldn't pears be soft enough to blend if they are ripe? Doesn't that kill the nutrients?
ReplyDeleteHm you are probably right! I think blending adds some moisture to them so they are more liquid-like for baby....however, you could always just mix some breast milk in and liquefy it. Good point, Kayte!!
DeleteI was just wondering cause we used to make smoothies here at work, and we would just throw cut up fruit and vegetables (like cucumbers and whatever else we had) in and blend it all raw. If you blended it long enough, it seemed pretty liquid... I mean, I guess if it's a baby, you might want to peel stuff like that first just to make it smoother. I just wondered if there was a certain reason. Oh, I guess we did use orange juice as a liquid to make it blend, come to think of it.
DeleteYes, It's better peeled if you're going for a straight puree - so they don't have pieces to choke on. Addie's probably old enough for some chunks at this point though! :)
DeletePears work for adults too! I drank pear juice like it was water when I was pregnant, and it did wonders. Ha
ReplyDeleteGood to know! I had no idea. Thanks.
DeleteHahaha! The things you learn while pregnant! Steffany, I'm filing this one away for my next pregnancy. ;)
DeleteThanks for a great, easy tutorial. I've added your post to my monthly round up of favorite reads :)
ReplyDeletehttp://thepierogiemama.blogspot.com/2013/09/monthly-its-september.html
Thanks so much, Bianca! :)
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