Simple Tomato Soup for toddler

Many of us know tomato as a vegetable, but actually it is a fruit. It is high in acid content. Introducing raw tomato to infants below 10-12 months of age is not advisable, as it may irritate the baby’s tummy or give a rash around the bottom. However, one can start giving cooked tomatoes when the baby is 10-12 months of age. Cooking the tomatoes reduces its acidity. 

Tomatoe helps baby absorb more iron from other foods.

Tomatoes are rich in vitamin C which helps in iron absorption, so add tomatoes to meat, spinach and all those food stuffs which contains iron. Some people cook tomatoes in iron pot, as the acidity of the tomato draws iron from the pot and transfers it into the food.

Here i have coked simple tomato soup for my 19 month old daughter. For this we need just

: 2-3 big tomatoes

: half of an onion

: 1 clove garlic

: 1 spoon olive oil

: a pinch of black pepper and half a spoon butter

1. Heat olive oil in a pan. Add chopped onions and chopped garlic, sauté till it becomes soft and pink. Add the tomatoes with a pinch of salt and turmeric and cook in low flame till the rawness of the tomato are gone.

2. When the oil separates, add a cup of water and bring it to boil.

3. Grind the mixture in a blender with little water as per the consistency required and garnish with a pinch of black pepper powder and half a spoon of butter ( if you do not wish to give your baby pepper powder, dry roasted cumin powder is an option)

I also have shared Tomato Chickpea soup for babies Here

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How to make Desi Ghee for babies and toddlers

Pure Cow's Milk's Ghee

All moms are highly conscious to provide best possible nutrition to their babies, and many moms even chose fat free diet for kids too. But the fact is in a balanced diet for not only the kids but for parents too, little amount of fat is required for proper functioning of the body. Desi ghee or clarified butter is known for its miraculous properties since ages in Ayurveda (the ancient Indian medical science).
 Desi Ghee is the best among lipid media and increases the good cholesterol HDL(high density lipoprotein) in our body. It enhances absorption of fat soluble vitamins like Vit E and prevents oxidation of LHL (low density lipoprotein) which is the main cause of heart attacks. This may sound very surprising to many people but there are lots of information in the web about the health benefits of desi ghee, but with a condition that it should be taken in limited quantity. For kids 1-2 tea spoon ghee per day is enough for health. Today i will share my Ghee making steps.

1. Everyday after boiling and cooling the milk if we keep it refrigerated, then nice layer of thick malai gets collected on the top of the milk, i collect this malai and keep it in a bowl and keep collecting everyday till the bowl is filled.

2. Now take all the cream out in a big kadai and whisk it with a whisker or a spatula like here i have done. Few of my friends ask why we don't do it in a blender? because it will be a very sticky and messy job in it.

After about 3-5mins of whisking we get the cream out in the form of lumps.

3. Now we have to clean the cream with cold water. Sometimes i use cold refrigerated water but normal water too will serve the purpose. Just put a cup of water and whisk the cream again. You will get clean cream and left out whey which is to be discarded. If we do not clean the cream then lots of residue gets collected during the heating process.

4.Discard the water and again repeat the procedure with another cup of water. Wash it and discard the water.

5. Now put the kadai on low flame and wait for the magic. The cream melts and starts to boil and finally after about 10-15 minutes you will get the aroma of pure ghee. When the mixture is no longer boiling, it is the time to put the flame off. Since we have thoroughly cleaned the cream very first, the residue left is very less. Strain the residue and store the ghee in a dry and clean container.

Pure cow's milk's ghee is yellow in color while buffalo's milk's ghee is off white in color. In Ayurveda cow's milk's ghee is considered to be the best for anybody. I use this ghee to make soups for my 2 years old daughter Raima as well as include in our family meal. Along with a nice aroma to the food it is very healthy ( but as i said, too much is always bad, I use only 2 spoon per day for my daughter's meal).

Cow's milk's ghee

Custard Apple snack for baby

Usually we have custard as a dessert, but i tried to experiment it with a little twist and serve my daughter in the evening. She mostly finish off her lunch at 1 pm, play a little, have a cup of milk and take a nap at around 3 pm. In the evening when she wakes up around 5 pm, it is snack time for her. So this is how i make apple custard for my 19 month old toddler.

1. Peel, core and slice half of an apple. Half of an apple is enough for a toddler.

2. Pressure cook or steam the apple slice and puree it. I generally do not take out the blender for just half of an apple, instead i mash it up in a sieve. this is less messy.

3. Now prepare the custard ad per the instructions given on the packet. ( generally i warm up 1 cup of milk and dissolve 1 spoon of custard powder in it and then bring it to boil, custard powder should be dissolved in warm milk only, if the milk gets too hot, the powder will turn into lumps and won't dissolve)

4. Now mix in the apple puree with the custard. Let it cool. add few drops of vanilla essence and serve it to the baby. If the baby is ok with chilled food stuff, you can also refrigerate it for half an hour, it tastes better when chilled.

Potty Training My Daughter

For a 1st time mom, everyday brings new challenges and everyday we learn new lessons. I fondly remember every milestone my baby reached and also those hard work behind their success. I also remember about potty training my daughter. It took almost 6 months to be patience and train her!

image source: here

It all started when my daughter began to stand up around 12 months of age and took her first step. As she started get going...
it was not possible at all to stop the busy toddler. When she was a baby in bed, crawling and playing, all her pooping activities used to be in bed, in her nappy (in laying position) but now when she realized the enjoyment of walking and moving around, even while pooping, she didn't have the patience of standing in one place and finish off the job! I was so tired running behind her and clearing off the messy poop!!
I brought a portable potty seat for her, but she thought mommy has brought a new toy!! she would play with it, keep her small toys inside it, beat it like a drum etc etc, but when i tried to make her sit on it, she would scream and stand up. Full 1 month it continued! But as doctors say, we should never force our child to do or learn anything, every child is unique and every child learns in his own pace, so i kept waiting and trying...

1. I kept an eye on the signs of readiness for her to use the potty seat.

2. I made a routine to make her sit on the potty seat (with her cloths on) everyday which she supposed to be "her new TOY" and sing songs for her, make her play and mean while at the time of her pooping i used to hold her thighs up in my lap and asked her to poop. In this way she learnt to poop in one place quietly and not running around!

3. Till she was 14 months old, she was able to hold and inform me that she wants to poop. She would say aaa.poti and make facial muscles tight which gave me signals she wants to poop.

4. I started to take her to our washroom along with me and literally demonstrated how mommy use the toilet and how you should too try it.

5. I also started with the exercise of asking her to pee in the potty seat after every an hour, it saved my many cloths dippers and slowly and gradually she learnt that her "New Toy" is basically a place to pee.

6. Then she completed 15 months of age and i started asking her to poop in her potty seat. Yeah she started to poop in the potty seat, but after 30sec she used to get up and say "potty ho gaya" (means potty done) but while wiping off, again she used to poop!! That was another few challenging weeks when i couldn't make her sit for a long duration patiently.

7. I gave her toys to play with while sitting in the potty seat, started to play with her, attracted her attention towards some home video of her in my mobile and this is how by the time she completed 19 months of age i managed to keep her sitting in her potty seat till she completely finished pooping.

Trial and error method, and learning from every experience, finally made by baby potty trained. Raima's potty seat remains in a fixed place and today when feels the urge to poop, takes the  potty seat and sits herself on it ( i just only have to take her pants off which she can't at present). Even some times, after 5-7 minutes when she doesn't gets up and i ask her to get up, she says "potty isn't over yet" !!
Being portable, i take the potty seat along with us in long journey, it is very useful as now my daughter nags she wont poop in dipper even when out of home. Once she completes 3 yrs of age i will slowly start to teach her to use the public toilet as she will be going to her play school then.
so, this is my journey of potty training my baby. What is yours?

When my Daughter turned two years old...

Mom and me

Its said that time flies very fast, it is so true. I feel like it was yesterday that i brought baby Raima from hospital and was happily raising up her and the next moment felt, how beautiful and bubbly my little darling has grown up. We celebrated her 2nd birthday on 8th Feb in her grandpa's home, it was a close friends & family and homely affair which Raima enjoyed a lot..

Raima cutting the cake