There's nothing very difficult about cooking for your baby. It just requires a little extra care and attention in
preparation of ingredients. Here's basic procedure:
1. PREPARE YOURSELF Always wash your hands with soap and hot water and dry them with a clean towel before you start cooking. Likewise, carefully wash your equipment (blender, pots, bottles, etc.) before use.
2. PREPARE THE FOOD Always wash, peel and dice fruit and vegetables before cooking. If there are any seeds/stones, remove them.
If you're preparing meat, cut away all fat before cooking. Once cooked, cut meat into very small pieces and remove any bone or other hard bits.
If you're preparing fish, remove any fat, bones and other hard bits before cooking. Once cooked, crumble it into small pieces and remove any remaining traces of bone and skin.
3. COOKING THE FOOD With exception of avocados and bananas, all fruits and vegetables must be cooked before giving them to your baby (until he's at least 10 months of age).
Fruit and vegetables can be steam-cooked, boiled, or micro-waved. Some fruits like apple or pear can also be oven-cooked.
Steam-cooking is best option because it retains most nutrients. If you don't have a steam-cooker, don't worry, boiling or micro-waving is fine. Keep water to a minimum and try to strike a balance between not over-cooking (to retain maximum amount of nutrients) and not under-cooking (to make digestion easier).
NOTE: Beet, carrots, turnip and spinach should always be boiled (as opposed to steam-cooked or micro-waved) because they contain potentially harmful nitrates which are largely removed during boiling.
