New products - Ella's Kitchen Organic Baby Foods
Following hard on the heels of the Ella's Kitchen smoothie pouches come a new range of 4 Ella's Kitchen baby foods. Each of the 4 delicious varieties - apples & bananas, sweet potato, pumpkin, apple and blueberries, broccoli, pear and peas and carrot , apple and parsnip - are suitable from 4 months as a stage one weaning food. Packaged in the same kind of handy pouch as the smoothie fruits, Ella's Kitchen Organic Baby Foods are a very convenient way to take an emergency meal out with you in the changing bag. And at only 90p per pouch they are extremely good value for money. Ella's Kitchen foods are 100% organic fruit and vegetables, with nothing added, not even water. Now available at Kiddies Kitchen!
New products - Organix
The good people of Organix have been busy over the winter coming up with yet more healthy options for babies and young children. Kiddies Kitchen now has stocks of 3 fantastic new Organix products: The first two are new varieties of the ever-popular goodies bars - cocoa and raisin bars and the delicious sounding carrot cake bars. Both are suitable from 12 months. Both are now available on the Kiddies Kitchen website at £2.49 for a 6 bar multipack. I'm particularly excited about the third new product - lots of you have been asking for an organic rusk with no-added sugar and now there is one available. Organix soft rusks are suitable from 7 months of age and can be crumbled into baby's milk or cooled boiled water to make a weaning puree or eaten as a biscuit by slightly older babies. Each pack of rusks contains 6 individual packets of 2 rusks. Organix soft rusks are now available on the Kiddies Kitchen website or from our shop in Tavistock, Devon for £1.85. Organix rusks, like all Organix products, are made from certifed organic ingredients, and contain no added sugar (they are sweetened with natural fruit juices), hydrogenated fats or nasty additives. Kiddies Kitchen stock the entire range of Organix baby and toddler foods as well as products from other organic baby food manufacturers such as Plum Baby, Ella's Kitchen, Truuuly Scrumptious and Goodness Knows.
New products - Goodness Knows Forzen Organic Purees
The popularity of our frozen organic baby foods has led me to introduce another range of weaning purees. Goodness Knows are based in Cheltenham and produce a range of 9 single flavour organic purees suitable from 6 months. They are excellent value for money at just 99p per 60g pot. The purees are made in small batches by steaming or roasting organic fruit and vegetables. The puree is then frozen without any added water, preservatives or other nasties. Easily defrosted in the microwave the pots are large enough to add some milk to the puree if needed. Goodness Knows organic baby foods are available via mail order from Kiddies Kitchen or from our freezers in our shop in Tavistock. Please note that due to the special packaging and overnight delivery required to get the purees to you whilst still frozen a P&P charge of £10.00 is applied to each order.
Great news - pink and blue thermos food flasks are (nearly) in stock again
After what seems like an age I'm delighted to be able to say that the very popular pink and blue thermos kids food flasks will be back in stock very shortly. As a result I have put them back on the website so they are available to order again. These kid-sized food flasks will keep food hot for up to 6 hours and are therefore perfect for a young child's packed lunch. For hungrier (or older) children we have two larger versions available - 350ml and 500ml.
Gingerbread house kits are back
Wow! what a response to the fantastic gingerbread house kits available from Kiddies Kitchen before Christmas. I knew they'd be popular but we sold (almost literally) hundreds. A big thankyou to all of our customers who bought them. Next year we'll have a competition for the best decorated kit! Let's also take the opportunity to thanks Rachel Harrison French of the Gingerbread House Company in Tavistock who's hardwork and baking skills made it all possible - Well done Rachel!. Anyway - having take the gingerbread houses off the website in December due to the high demand I'm delighted to say that they are once again available. Perfect for birthdays, mothers day, valentines or just for fun at £14.99 plus P&P for a hand baked all natural gingerbread house kit you can't go wrong! Becasue the kits are baked to order a certain amount of personalistion can be done - for example we can ice your childs age onto the door or even provide bunting for decoration! Just call us if you have a special request and we'll try our hardest to help you out. A word of warning though - please give us (and Rachel) plenty of time by ordering at least 7 days before you need the kit - this gives us time to bake it, pack it and post it to you.
New products - 2 new Plum Baby flavours now available
Kiddies Kitchen's best selling Plum Baby Superfoods range of organic baby foods have just expanded with the introduction of 2 new flavours: Beetroot and apple with artichoke and plum, pomegranate and guava. There are now 8 Plum Baby varieties to choose from, including the old favourites Parsnip Apple and Pea and mango and banana. Kiddies Kitchen prices remain very competitive with our multibuy offer of 6 boxes (12 pots) for £12.15 plus P&P.
Weaning your baby 2 - which foods and when
In our first article on weaning (Weaning: Part 1 - when to wean and first foods) we reviewed the advice on when and how to introduce solids into your babies diet. In this article we look more closely at how you can move from first tastes to introducing protein and other food groups and which foods should be avoided during baby's first year. Stage 1 - Good First FoodsAt this stage all foods are going to be pureed so naturally sweet fruits such as eating apples and pears, bananas and avocado will be good to use. Choose root vegetables such as carrot and parsnip which are also naturally sweet. Sweet potato and butternut squash also make excellent purees. All these can be frozen individually and offered in interesting flavour combinations to introduce variety into baby's diet. Before six months try to avoid foods containing: Dairy products, wheat or gluten, fish or shellfish, eggs, citrus fruits, salt, sugar, nuts or honey. There are some really excellent first foods available commercially - try Truuly Scrumptious (frozen) or Plum Baby Superfoods - both of these brands are organic and of really first rate quality. Otherwise fire up the stove and get pureeing! Also coming soon to Kiddies Kitchen are the new Ella's Kitchen savoury baby food pouches - we're very excited about them! Moving on - stage 2 weaningAt around 6-9 months of age your baby will probably start cutting teeth and be ready to move on to slightly more textured foods. The baby's reliance on milk as the main source of nutrition will begin to reduce and solid meals should become and established part of your baby's routine At this point you can start to introduce new foods such and fish, chicken and red meats, other vegetables such as onions, tomatoes, spinach, leeks, sweet corn and peas beans and pulses such as lentils and dairy products such as yoghurts, fromage frais and cheese. You should still be trying to avoid salt, sugar and honey as well as nuts and other common allergenic foods. If you need inspiration, try one of Kiddies Kitchen's unrivalled range of children's cookbook and parents manuals. You can rely on authors such as Amanda Grant, Annabel Karmel and Gina Ford to present sensible, simple and healthy recipes. Stage 3 weaning (9 -12 months)
If you thought the last few months were messy you ain't seen nothing yet! By now your baby may enjoy trying to feed themselves. One useful tip here is to use two spoons – one for baby and one for you, so that you can be sure that at least some food is going in their mouth! As hand-eye co-ordination improves, your baby will enjoy finger foods. Why not try hummus and breadsticks or vegetable sticks. We had great success from offering a selection of cooked vegetables as a starter course to a meal. Organix do a great range of savoury rice cakes suitable from 6-7 months as well as salt-free carrot sticks and corn snacks. Fresh fruit is always a good standby snack and Kiddies Kitchen's dried fruits such as apricots, raisins and cranberries often go down well in between meals. Stage 4 weaning - 12 months plusAt this stage there are now very few foods that should not be given to baby. It therefore becomes easier to share family meal times with baby eating the same as the other members of the family (albeit baby's portion should be un-salted and may need roughly mashing or chopping into manageable chunks). Baby will find cutlery and spoons easier to use by now and you can move onto metal forks and spoons such as those from Vital Baby. Don't be surprised if there is a distinct dip in your child's appetite. The growth rate slows significantly in the second year and so, until they start toddling, energy requirements and therefore appetite, will also fall. Continue to provide a varied and interesting diet to minimise the risk of food faddiness - don't be surprised if new dishes are initially rejected (it can take a few goes). It is equally possible that old favourites may fall out of favour for a while. The best advice is to keeping plugging away, reintroducing foods every now and then, to maintain variety. In the next article we'll look at some of the common feeding problems encountered in the first year and share a few tips for coping with them.
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