feeling guilty about neglecting the baby food blog
Well, three months passes quickly doesn't it? In that time we have continued to add more baby food to the Kiddies Kitchen baby food delivery service website. Our new favourites are the Holle cereals ranges and, of course, humzingers fruit sticks (of which our kids can eat their own weight in one sitting). Not only are all the holle cereals organic and biodynamic some are gluten free, and all are great as a a dairy free baby food base. Smooth and wholesome they will give your baby a great start in life Labels: baby food, organic baby food
Busy busy busy but not baby food blogging
Its always this time of year when we get innundated by lunchbox orders on our sister site www.lunchboxesetc.co.uk and my good intentions about keeping the blogs up to date go out of the window! We've been noticing a real increase in the popularity of a packed lunch in these credit crunched times and all our lunch boxes are flying off the shelves. Now is also a great time to mention our new and totally unique personalised lunchboxes. These are our first "own brand" product line and we are extremely proud of them and the fantastic artwork that was produced for us by Sara our local designer. There are currently two designs to choose from and both can be seen on the lunchboxesetc.co.uk site. Anyway our original online baby food store continues to grow with more new products being added each week. We are currently trying to reorganise the shop a little to make things easier to navigate so we have new formula milk, doidy cup and highchair categories accessible directly from the home page. Not forgetting our best-selling lilypadz reusable breastpadsWe always welcome suggestions for new products that you want us to stock so feel free to leave a comment on the blog or even email us. Labels: baby food, highchairs, insulated lunchboxes, lilypadz, lunchboxesetc
back to school and back to blogging
Some of you know that I also run a website that just sells lunch boxes ( www.lunchboxesetc.co.uk) and, not suprisingly it gets quite busy at this time of year with all the back to school excitement. This year the best selling lunchboxes have again been our (almost) unique plain plastic lunch boxes, although the new thermos coolfresh range of lunch bags and insulated lunch coolers have sold strongly. I think these appeal to older kids and grown ups as well given their relatively plain designs. With the back to school rush now subsiding I'll once again be turning my attention to the baby food blog and hopefully coming up with some useful recipe suggestions in the near future as well as annoucing new products as and when they appear in our store. It occurs to me now that my own kids are getting older that the kiddies kitchen should not just be about food but that the kitchen table can be the scene for all kinds of food based science fun and look out for future blog piosts on the subject of kiddies kitchen science projects! In the meantime there is one more new lunch box product to announce. Several month ago I blogged about our new personalised lunchboxes. Well the prototypes have been produced and have stood up to a bit of washing and throwing around so we are almost ready to launch them on www.lunchboxesetc.co.uk. All I need to do is take a couple of photos for the website and they will be available to order. Having seen the finished articles I can't wait to get them up on the site and I'm confident that they will make very popular additions to the site. Labels: baby food, back to school, lunch boxes, personlised lunch boxes
Our top 5 baby food purees
Most babies are weaned at between 4 and 6 months. Current World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines recommend a full 6 months of breastfeeding before introducing solids, but many parents find that their babies are ready for a small amount of food before that time. Medical advice indicates that babies' digestive system is too immature to cope with solids before about 17 weeks but after that their appears to be little evidence of any benefit in delaying the introduction of solids (in developed countries). So having waited until your baby is ready, what should you give them to eat? Our advice is to keep it simple; gradually introduce a range of pureed fruit and vegetables such as pear, carrot, green bean, sweet potato and parsnip. Once you have tried a range of single flavours you can start experimenting with interesting combinations - why not try pureed parsnip, apple and swede for example? Try to use organic vegetables and fruit wherever possible. Parents in the UK may find that they are eligible for the government backed fresh start scheme which provides families with vouchers to redeem against the cost of fresh fruit and vegetables and it is certainly worth investigating whether you qualify for this scheme. Another great tip is to steam and puree bulk quantities of fruit and vegetables at once and freeze them in ice-cube trays so that you can mix and match to create your recipes later on. A microwave is invaluable for quick defrosting. Listed below are our five favourite baby food purees suitable from 4-5 months of age: Sweet potato, carrot and courgette puree Sweet potato, swede and green bean puree Mashed avocado and apple puree Broccoli, pear and pea puree Carrot, apple and parsnip puree If you follow the advice above and freeze single flavour purees in ice cube trays then it is easy to experiment with these and other flavour combinations. As a rough guide 1kg of raw vegetables or fruit will produce around 25 frozen cubes when steam or boiled and then pureed. After a month of combining fruits and vegetables in this way your baby will be ready to move on to more complex flavours including a little meat. We'll shortly publish our top five stage two weaning recipes as well! Good luck and get pureeing! Labels: baby food, purees for babies, stage 2 weaning
Humzingers fruit stix
 Humzingers, in case you haven't ever seen them, are 100% dried fruit sticks perfect for lunchboxes, picnics, days out, or even to eat at home. Made from only dried fruit and with no added sugars these fruit bars are a healthy alternative to chocolate, crisps or biscuits and each bar is equivalent to 1 of your recommended 5 a day fruit and veg portions. We have had some supply difficulties in recent weeks (mainly keeping up with demand) but I'm glad to say that we have now got good stock levels and will again be sending humzingers to hungry children all over the world (if you parents order them). Apparently, judging by the recent spate of orders from the Channel Islands you can't get humzingers there any more, but rest assured we are happy to dispatch a little parcel of goodies to you from this side of the water.... Labels: baby food, humzingers, online food delivery
Food Standards Agency publishes new caffeine advice for pregant women
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has issued new advice to pregant women lowerng their recommended limit for the daily intake of caffeine. The new limit is 200mg per day, down from the previous recommended limit of 300mg. Caffeine is present in coffee, tea, chocolate, some soft drinks and certain medicines. The new 200mg limit is equivalent to roughly 2 mugs of coffee per day. The FSA took action after new research undertaken on the agency's behalf by Leicester and Leeds Universities indicated that too mush caffeine might result in a baby with low birth weight (which may in turn increase the risk of some health conditions for the baby in later life), or could possibly result in spontaneous miscarriage. The FSA sought to reassure pregnant women who had been following the previous advice, saying that the risks were likely to be very low and they should simply reduce their intake to the new recommended level. Any pregant women still concerned are advised to consult their midwife or GP. The new advice follows a study of 2,500 women in the UK which suggested that caffeine intake may be associated with an increased risk of foetal growth restriction. Tea was found to be the major source of caffeine for the pregnant women in the study. Labels: baby food, caffeine in pregnancy, health, pregnancy
New products - baby food preparation equipment
What with the credit crunch I thought it was a good idea to promote some products that ease the process of making your own baby food. So I have created a new department within the Kiddies Kitchen baby food shop dedictated solely to baby food preparation equipment. As well as the usual baby food freezer trays, we also now have a couple of very cool baby food steamers and blenders from Lindam and Beaba. We also have the rather cool perfect puree from amadeus - this clever little device is designed to quickly grate raw fruit and veg into a perfect puree! Labels: baby food, baby food preparation equipment
Our new squidoo page about baby food
Social bookmarking, well its a thing that passed me by a bit (funny how having two young children mitigates against spending 12 hours a day on facebook), but anyway apparently its all the rage, and we have entered into the spirit of things buy creating our very own squidoo page about baby food. It has all kinds of things on it like a news feed about baby food, a couple of our favourite products and lots of google ads! Our squidoo page is at http://www.squidoo.com/baby-food-1Labels: baby food, kiddies kitchen, squidoo
stars in the making....
A busy day at Kiddies Kitchen HQ in Tavistock with ITV filming in our shop for more than 3 hours this morning! We should be appearing shortly on the west country news programme as part of a series on local food businesses, which I'm delighted about as our unique baby food delivery service deserves to be more widely known! So apart from a short interview with me there should be the opportunity to see our boys doing a bit of hands on biscuit decorating and pastry rolling (And generally getting in the way whilst they try to film...) plus an opportunity to get a good look around the shop. the item should be shown sometime in the next couple of weeks.... keep your eyes peeled. Labels: baby food, kiddies kitchen baby food shop
baby nat organic infant formula now in stock!
We've loved Baby Nat's organic teething biscuits and first cereal so I'm delighted to say that we have the baby nat infant formula (from birth) and the baby nat follow on formula (from 6 months) back in stock for home delivery via our baby food delivery service on www.Kiddieskitchen.co.uk. Both formula milks come in substantial metal tins. Baby Nat products are all certifed as organic by te relevant regualtory bodies and are produce dto the highest possible standards. Labels: baby food, baby nat formula, infant formula milk
new products - baby pasta meal kits
 We're very pleased to have found these new baby pasta meal kits from mOrganics. Created by a well known Australian chef, Sue Pearson, the kits comprise 150g organic, gluten free pasta stars and a jar of organic pasta sauce. All you need to do is cook the pasta and stir through the sauce for a quick, nutritious and organic meal. Each box also contains a great recipe suggestion like adding ricotta and spinach to the sauce. The Morganics range is suitable for children from 12 months of age. Labels: baby food, baby pasta sauces, ella's kitchen organic baby food, home shopping
Organix baby food - whole range available from Kiddies Kitchen
It may only be a local phenomenon round here but I've noticed that the amounts and varieties of organix baby food available in our local supermarkets can be extremely variable. The annoyance of having driven to a supermarket only to find that the particular flavour of rice cakes, or fruit purees is not available was one of the reasons I set up Kiddies Kitchen in the first place. We endeavour to have the whole range available at all times, and if an item is out of stock it is only usually for a very few days until our next delivery arrives direct from organix themselves. Buying in bulk is a great idea as all our stock has good long shelf lives and will dilute the cost of delivery! Organix baby food has long been a favourite in our house, particularly the finger foods and goodies ranges. Fruit bars, gingerbread men, animal biscuits; you name it our boys will devour them! Labels: baby food, online shopping, organix baby food
Ella's Kitchen announce new stage 2 recipes
Ella's Kitchen seem like they have been around for ever but its still only about two years since the orginal stage 1 baby food range went on sale. Since then Ella's Kitchen baby food has become one of Kiddies Kitchen's most popular products; everyone seems to love the packaging and of course the organic, no gimmicks, no junk ethos behind the whole range. You can buy the entire stage one baby food range (along with plum baby, organix and a fabulous range of frozen baby food from organic producers like miniscoff and truuuly scrumptious) online at www.kiddieskitchen.co.uk. All the links above will take you to the relvant shopping page on our website. Last week Ellas Kitchen annouce new stage two recipes - they still come in the trademark pouches but now include meat and fishin the range as welll. Unfortunately we have no stock of these at the moment as they have been launched exclusively in Waitrose and Tescos but rest assured we are lobbying hard to be one of the first independents to get our hands on them. Feel free to email Ella's Kitchen in support of us! In the meantime for those parents whose babies are ready to move onto stage two weaning foods I recommend the plum baby range, which are tasty (I know, I test everything myself!) and come in agreat variety of recipes. Labels: baby food, ella's kitchen baby food, shop online, stage 2 weaning
Ella's Kitchen - The Italian one
A short post to say that we now have all three of the new Ella's Kitchen pasta sauces in stock again. The Italian one complements the Indian one and the American one. All three are available individually at £1.75 from our online shop http://www.kiddieskitchen.co.uk/. Labels: baby food, baby pasta sauces, ella's kitchen
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