Gearing up for solids

Enough talk! It's time to introduce solids to Izzy. I haven't made too big of a deal out of it to friends and family because I don't want to deal with the onslaught of advice that comes with the announcement. Instead I've made the following purchases that I hope will aid the big introduction:


• First Meals by Annabel Karmel

• Baby Food Freezer Trays

These are worthy of adding to your registry, which I didn't think of a year ago. I read through the recipes, did the shopping, own the equipment, now onto the cooking.
The recipes seemed simple enough. Get some fresh veggies or fruit and steam them. Then put your freshie (fresh fruit or veggie) and a little of the water used to steam your chosen freshie into a blender, or food processor, or one of the blenders marketed just for making baby food, and hit the button. (Or crank a food mill if you have the time.) But there's a little more to it.
Should we go the organic route?
Words like pesticides and antibiotics send shivers down my spine. Now that I think about those words in relation to my baby I get nauseous. So you can imagine that organics were an obvious choice for us. I strongly believe that all those additives have a negative impact on one's health. And bonus! I get to shop at whole foods without feeling like a yuppy because I’m doing it for Izzy.
What freshies should we choose for Izzy first?
We will heed the advice of our pediatrician (and every book I read) and go with rice cereal. I ordered Happy Bellies brown rice for her first solids. But after she gets used to the cereal we’ll introduce her to one type of freshie every couple days. On our adventure to whole foods, I bought carrots, broccoli, pears and apples. Seemed like enough variety to get things started. I knew I would be freezing most of these.
After rounding up the supplies, equipment and food, I spend some time running my own cooking show for Izzy. She sat in her highchair and looked on as I peeled and chopped everything up. As each item steamed to perfection, I would narrate the process to Izzy. Fortunately it doesn’t take long for freshies to cook or else we would have had one bored little baby.
All that was left to do was to freeze the excess. I poured the mush into the freezer trays and closed the lids tightly. The freezer trays and containers hold 1 to 2 oz. of food, so she’ll have food for the next month.
I just hope Izzy likes broccoli, or I’ll be making a broccoli mush soup for Mommy and Daddy.