The Homemade Baby Food Recipes Blog

Another recall to tell you about today and this one was - tragically - triggered by the death of a baby at the end of August.

The product concerned is the Playkids U.S.A. convertible crib/playpen/bassinet/bed with model number PLK-909. The problem is that the mesh sides of the crib expand, making a gap between the mattress and the side. The baby that died became trapped between the side rail and the mattress and suffocated.

You can find “Playkids U.S.A.” on a label sewn into the side of the crib and on the packaging. Also on the packaging is the product model number.

The crib includes a stationary side rail, a drop side rail, a bassinet and a canopy assembly. The sides of the crib, the mattress support, the canopy, the bedskirt and the bassinet are covered in mesh and fabric. These come in various patterns and colours (please see the CPSC website for images).

The Chinese made cribs were sold for around $100 in juvenile product retailers in New York from March 2007 through September 2008.

If you have one of these cribs, please stop using it at once and contact Playkids USA collect at (718) 797-0302 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday to receive a refund.

Tags: recalls

Baby Walkers are being recalled by My Way Corp. because they violate safety standards. This is because the walker can fit through a standard doorway and is not designed to stop at the edge of a step - this, of course, poses a serious hazard and the CPSC is advising parents that a baby using this walker could be seriously injured or killed. Thank goodness, no babies have been injured so far.

These walkers were sold for babies of at least 6 months of age and were available in pink, red, green, blue, and ivory. They have an activity tray with a steering wheel and other toys.

There is a sticker on the front of the walker that has “My Way Corp” printed on it.

These walkers were sold for between $18 and $25 at Independent discount stores from November 2004 through March 2008.

Please stop using this walker immediately and return it to the store you bought it from for a full refund.

If yo need more details, please contact My Way Corp. collect at (787) 758-5848 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday.

Source: www.cpsc.gov

As many of you know, we are a family run site and - in order to keep all our information free - we support our site with advertising. However, we do try to ensure that the ads don’t interfere with your enjoyment of our site - so today we’re asking for your opinions!

We’ve just added a new type of advertising to our Sweet Potato Baby Food Recipes page - you can see the page here.

With this type of advertising, certain words are highlighted and clicking on the link will give you more information if you want it.

So far, we have only added this form of advertising to that one particular page - because we’d love you to take a look and tell us what you think before using it more extensively through our site!

Do you find the highlighted links annoying or distracting? Would the links make you less likely to read through all the information we have available on that page?

We would REALLY appreciate you sharing your opinions by either leaving a comment below or contacting us here!

Thank you so much!

On Sunday we posted about an important recall of flour in Canada - the product was recalled because it contains too much folic acid, iron, niacin, riboflavin and thiamine.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has now issued an update to the original recall, to include more stores at which the product was sold.

Please note that the flour was distributed to the following stores in Ontario…

No Frills
Cash and Carry
Freshmart
Fortinos
Zehrs
Real Canadian Superstore
Loblaws
Independents
Valu-Mart
Your Independent Grocer

See our original post for more details

Tags: recalls

The American Academy of Pediatrics has doubled the amount of recommended vitamin D for all babies, children and adolescents, from 200 IU per day to 400 IU per day.

This is after trials showed that 400 IU per day is not only safe for children, but will prevent and treat rickets. Rickets is a disease affecting the growth and development of bones which is associated with vitamin D deficiency.

New research has shown that healthy levels of vitamin D may offer other benefits, too. It seems that receiving enough vitamin D throughout childhood can help prevent osteoporosis in later life and may also offer protection against autoimmune diseases, infections, diabetes and cancer.

Baby’s milk and vitamin D

Many infant formulas are fortified with vitamin D, so vitamin D supplementation is not always necessary as the amount provided by the milk may be adequate.

However - according to the AAP - breastfed babies do NOT receive enough vitamin D from their milk and should be routinely supplemented.

But is this ALWAYS the case?

There are organizations - including La Leche League - that disagree with routine vitamin D supplementation, arguing that a baby’s healthy vitamin D levels can be maintained by SAFE sun exposure. And that’s because the body naturally produces vitamin D following exposure to sunlight.

Read more about Your Baby and Vitamin D here…
before making the decision as to whether or not routine supplementation of the ’sunshine vitamin’ is necessary for YOUR little one.

What do YOU think?

Do you feel that  your baby should be tested for vitamin D deficiency BEFORE supplements are offered? Have you refused routine supplementation for your infant, but met opposition from your child’s doctor?

We’d love to hear from you - just leave your comments below or contact us here.

Tags: vitamin D

We’d just like to wish all of our Canadian visitors a very HAPPY Thanksgiving - we hope you have a wonderful and peaceful day.

Don’t forget to take a peek at our Thanksgiving Baby Food Recipes page, which is packed with ideas for helping baby share and enjoy the Thanksgiving meal!

Tags: thanksgiving

Subscribers to our newsletter may recall an article we published in May, all about how to make homemade lotion for your baby (here’s a link to that issue in case you missed it - and here’s a link to sign up to our newsletter so you don’t miss another one!).

The article was written by Erika from Organic Baby Resource, an excellent site devoted to organic baby care. Erika is currently running a great contest on her site - and we thought you might like to hear about it!

All you need to do is submit your own, original review of an organic baby product - and the more reviews you submit, the merrier!

• All participants will be entered in a drawing to win an eco-friendly diaper cake.
• If you send in 5 eligible product reviews, you will be entered into ANOTHER drawing to win a cute, organic baby T-shirt.
• If you have the second highest number of eligible reviews, you will win a set of organic baby bottles.
• And whoever submits the MOST reviews will win a $50 gift certificate to spend at Wild Dill.

You can find out more - and enter the contest - here…

…and make sure you submit your entries before the closing date of October 31.

Good luck!

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has issued a warning not to eat no name brand all-purpose flour. This is because the flour may contain very high levels of folic acid, iron, niacin, riboflavin and thiamine.

The flour concerned is sold in 2.5 kg (5.5 lb) bags. The bags have lot codes beginning with 125J and UPC 0 60383 01375 2.

This flour has only been distributed to the following stores in Ontario:
No Frills
Cash and Carry
Freshmart
Fortinos
Zehrs
Real Canadian Superstore
Loblaws

If you cannot find the lot code on the product, please check with the retailer if the flour you have at home is involved in this recall.

Four different reactions have been reported by consumers. Apparently, the flour turns yellow-orange when mixed with water - it is a typical light beige colour when dry. The excessive iron and niacin in the flour can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and flushing/itching of the skin. Presumably, these reports refer to reactions in adults and the risk to infants may be higher.

The CFIA is warning consumers not to eat ANY products made with this flour, even if they contain only a little flour.

If you need any more information, please call the CFIA at 1-800-442-2342 / TTY 1-800-465-7735 (8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time).

Source: www.inspection.gc.ca

Tags: recalls

We are sometimes asked how many times it is safe to reheat baby food.

The simple answer is once - and once only.

By ‘reheat’, we mean warming the food after it has initially been prepared. In other words, you can take a piece of meat and some veggies, cook them and combine them to make a meal for your baby. You may then store this prepared meal in your fridge or freezer. When you’re ready to use it you should heat it until it’s piping hot, allow it to cool to a safe temperature - then serve it.

If your baby doesn’t finish the meal, YOU SHOULD DISCARD IT.

It is NOT safe to put it back in the fridge and heat it again later.

Now, the best option to avoid waste would be to heat the food in smaller portions from the outset - you can always heat a little more if necessary. And this form of portion control is, of course, yet another advantage of making your own baby food - heating small amounts of food is so much less wasteful than having to open a large jar when you only need a little food!

If you DO need to warm extra food during your baby’s meal, we recommend calling for someone else to do it for you so that you don’t need to leave your baby.

For some reason, our little ones would finish a bowl of food and look as if they wanted more… but if I got up to warm more food, then they’d refuse to eat it! Yet if I got hubby to do it, then smoothly carry on feeding from the new bowl, they’d eat it all!

Your little one may not be quite as contrary as ours… nevertheless, this is a tip worth bearing in mind!

So what’s the risk of reheating food twice?

Well - for one thing, the nutritive quality of food diminishes every time you heat it. But more crucially, the risk of food borne illness INcreases. This risk is compounded by the fact that your leftover baby food will contain traces of your baby’s saliva from his spoon. Unfortunately, this introduces yet MORE bacteria into your little one’s food.

So to sum up…

Reheat your baby’s food just ONCE after cooking it, in small quantities to avoid waste… and you can be confident that his food will be not only delicious, but safe for him to eat, too!

Read more about safely heating baby food

Tags: heating baby food

We received two separate e-mails this week from Mums whose little ones seem to have developed a sweet tooth already!

Connor only seems to like certain fruits

Mum Beverley told us…

and he’ll eat sweet potato for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But that’s all - if I try to offer him anything else, he either grimaces, gags or won’t open his mouth at all.

Well, Beverley, this is actually a very common problem - and it’s not surprising when you consider that infant milk (breast milk in particular) has a very sweet taste. If milk has been your little one’s sole source of nutrition for much of his first 6 months, then a little resistance to an entirely new flavour is natural!

That being said, we DO recommend trying to nip this in the bud as early as possible. Tempting though it may be to keep your baby happy by indulging his sweet tooth, in the long term it may limit the range of nutrients he receives and lead to very picky eating later on.

In our experience, the best way to get around a preference for sweet foods is to serve savoury ones in disguise!

Say, for instance, your baby has a passion for sweet potatoes but will steadfastly refuse to eat zucchini (courgette). Then try serving a meal of sweet potato, with just half a teaspoon of zucchini stirred in. Continue to serve this combination for a couple of days, then increase the quantity of zucchini to 1 teaspoon. Over the next few days, continue to increase the amount of zucchini you are adding to the dish, until it becomes the dominant flavour. Eventually, you should be able to serve it separately to the sweet potato!

Of course, we are using zucchini as an example and you can apply this technique of combining sweet and savoury flavours to any foods that your baby either enjoys of refuses.

Don’t always assume that a grimace means your baby doesn’t like a certain food!

Anxious to please their babies, some parents are quick to withdraw a particular food, convinced that a grimace means that their little one does not like the flavour. However, babies expressions at mealtimes are not always reliable indicators of their opinions - they may pull a face more in surprise at a new flavour than in displeasure! It may also take several attempts to get your baby to try - and appreciate - a new taste… so don’t give up too quickly and assume that your little one will only eat sweet potato!

Veggie recipes to tempt your baby

Take a look at some of our vegetable recipe pages - we have lots of ideas and delicious combinations to help your baby enjoy a range of flavours…

Pumpkin

Swede (rutabaga)

Bell peppers

Lentils

Butternut squash

Sweet potato

Vegetarian recipes (6 mths+)

Vegetarian recipes (10 mths+)

Don’t forget to leave a comment and share YOUR tips for helping a sweet-toothed baby appreciate a wider range of flavours!

Tags: feeding problems