ikan kurau - threat fin fish


Ingredients:

2 oz threat fin fish
4 oz mixed vegetables
5 oz rice - cooked

Method:
Cook the fish with just enough water
Add in mixed vegetables
Once fish is cooked, crumble to small pieces
Mix in the rice. I added more water to make gooey consistency (her desired consistency while teething this week)

* This fish is sweet, it makes the whole dish tastes yummy
* Obviously she finished it all, no pics
* No allergies to this fish, yay!!

sick baby = long week

I have pictures that need words (read: ingredient, method) before my memory fails.
I haven't posted coz LO has been sick, DH brought her to see a paediatrician (Dr. Yong Junina is fantastic with kids- considering LO has major stranger anxiety). Mommy had to work, thus it was baby, DH and FIL who went to see her. I hate my job, can't be home with my baby (sorry, I do feel this occasionally)


I hate meds (ironic since I prescribe it). Maybe coz the idea of stuffing LO with chemicals?! (Of course the FDA doesn't recommend cough/cold meds for under 2 years of age). Arianna is taking:
  • paracetamol
  • salbutamol
  • acetylcysteine
  • oxymetazoline nasal spray

I have no qualms of taking meds myself, but for LO? Probably that explains why I'm making homemade food... less chemicals the better.

We are using organic wash in place of the usual baby washing liquid. We just stopped sterilising her eating utensils (spoon, plate, bowls), so let's hope this wash wouldn't leave chemical residue.

weekday dishes


Savoury Meat with Rice
Ingredients:
1 clove of garlic - diced to very small pieces
2 oz meat - minced
3 oz mixed vegetables
4 oz rice - cooked
olive oil
Method:
Heat olive oil, and lightly fry garlic
Cook the meat with the garlic
Add in mixed vegetables, cook till veggies are soft
Mix in the rice

~ Not her favourite, either because of the meat, or the strong taste of garlic

Brinjal Rice
Ingredients:
3 oz red snapper (ikan merah)
3 oz mixed vegetables
2 oz brinjals - steamed
4 oz roce- cooked

Method:
Cook the fish with mixed vegetables
Once fish is cooked, crumble to small pieces
Add in brinjal
Mix in the rice

~ Steamed brinjals was from the table. It was her first try, she was okay with it
~ Don't think she noticed the brinjals in the rice... super soft by then

Chicken Spaghetti


Ingredients:
4 oz spaghetti
3 oz mixed vegetables
2 oz chicken- cooked and shredded
1 tomato- diced
1/2 shallot
olive oil

Method:
Lightly fry shallot till translucent
Cook chicken with tomato and mixed vegetables
Mix in spaghetti

* not a big hit... LO doesn't like chicken that much

Cod Rice


Ingredients:
1 oz frozen peas
3 oz broccoli
3 oz cod
4 oz rice- coooked
1/2 shallot

Method:
Cook cod with shallot along with broccoli and peas with just enough water to cover
Once cod is cooked, mash into small pieces
Mix in the rice
You can cook longer if you prefer a dry dish (LO loves gooey, wet consistency)

~ great mid week recipe
~ was a hit!!! LO must've liked the fresh cod taste

egg yolk

I've been giving half a yolk on Saturday and Sunday. And on Monday, she managed to finish a whole yolk. So far so good, no allergic reaction... but of course her rash can appear after 1-2 days time.

I couldn't wake up at my usual cooking time last night, and I missed my midnight pump session. LO was super duper clingy, and fed too often (2-3 hourly? I lost track). So here I am at 6 am, cooking.

Yesterday's dish of cod/rice/broccoli/peas was a hit! She ate most of it at lunch (she rarely takes heavy lunch during weekdays). For dinner, she had egg salad, and just a little bit of meat spaghetti and cod rice.

Good combination for egg salad:
egg yolk (obviously more yummy with whole egg)
zucchini

I have to read up on mayonaisse, or attempt to make the likes of it. That'll be yummy!

Chicken Rice



Ingredients:
2 oz chicken- shredded
3 oz mixed vegetables
4 oz rice- cooked

Method:
Simmer the chicken, keeping some of the liquid
Shred the chicken (to manageable size for your LO)
Cook the mixed vegetables together with the shredded chicken using the liquid
Add in the cooked rice
~ Another simple weekday recipe
~LO loved this! She couldn't pick out the chicken :)

Fully BF, working and pumping-part 3

I work in a busy clinic, so I'm not pumping 3 times at work *sigh*
I pump once just before leaving for work. Once at lunchtime. And recently added midnight pump.

Ideally, you should pump every time your child feeds when you're away. (probably this is the time I should whine about my work, but not many doctors are happy with their work condition anyway).

051108_003

I use a double pump, so I guess it makes up for my 'inability' to pump at work. I could manage 8-10oz at my lunchtime oump, but now I'm down to 4-8oz. I know the quantity differs between each mom, just as long as you are pumping enough for LO's consumption.
When she was 3 months, I had 16-30oz in the fridge (rarely I work till 9pm).
Now that she's taking more solids, she takes 8-15oz during the day.

Fully BF, working and pumping-part 2

Since I had started pumping during my confinement, I have a nice stash 20+ bottles in the freezer. I store in bottles/ Avent cups in the amount of 4-5ozs i.e. one feed.
Growth spurts- the time when I dip into my freezer stash (she goes through them ever so often)

Feeding and Storing EBM
*I'd have to thank my lucky stars my PIL volunteered to take care of LO*
LO gets fresh BM mostly. MIL just have to put it at room temperature, or uses Av*** bottle warmer.

If using frozen BM, I usually have put in the chiller coz *once thawed, use within 24 hours*
I store fresh EBM in the chiller section, and it can last *3-8 days*. Personally I'd use it within 3 days, if not used, then I add it to my freezer stash.
Stored in normal freezer, it can last 3 months, and in deep freezer- up to 6 months.

Fully BF, working and pumping-part 1

No... this is not another post, preaching on the wonders of BM. I don't impose my values on anyone, but I make my values known to people. Same situation with BF, I don't enforce the National Breastfeeding Policy on my staff. Ironically I'm in healthcare, a baby friendly clinic in fact and there are many wiith new babies (we are in the childbearing age group)...but not many are motivated to EBF till 6 months. I do ask them to BF for as long as possible. But I know some would eventually wean off even before 6 months.

I've been pumping since day 3 post partum. I was at the Pantai Medical Centre (with a baby friendly status), and I couldn't master hand expression to relieve my engorgement. I used Spectra pump, yielded colostrum/BM up to 3oz/session! LO didn't latch on and suck properly, probably due to her jaundice as well. They gave the colostrum/BM via cup (no bottles, artificial teats here).

We keep giving BM using cup till she was 2 weeks old. I direct BF, and gave her extra if she was still hungry. We had to do it because she lost more weight than she's supposed to. Her jaundice persisted, and we even used home phototherapy. Once she was cleared of jaundice, she finally BF like a champ.

I kept pumping even during confinement to relieve of breast engorgement. Thinking back, it might be due to Milkmaid Tea (I kept taking it to make sure I have enough milk for LO).

Salmon Rice


(LO finished the whole lot for breakfast, lunch and dinner! But I repeated on Saturday morning)

Ingredients:
3 oz rice-cooked
3 oz mixed vegetable
3 oz salmon

Method:
Cook salmon, with just enough water
Add in mixed vegetables
Once cooked, break salmon into small pieces
Mix the rice in, making sure all fluids are absorbed

~In cases where LO refuses protein, cooking this way makes sure the salmon are well hidden. Ever since she mastered pincer grasp, she uses it to pick food out of her mouth
~A great weekday recipe, she seems to love it!

Corn Pasta




Ingredients:
1 oz meat- minced
1 oz corn
1 oz broccoli
3 oz pasta
2 tbsp mango puree
olive oil

Method:
Cook pasta till al dente
Heat a little oil and cook meat
Add in corn and broccoli
Once cooked, mix in pasta
Add 1-2 tbsp mango puree to taste

Day 3 - Cherating

So I'm up at 12.30am for her midnight feed, and my midnight pump. Back to old routine *sigh*
Here's what she had, dinner was at home actually.

Breakfast:
3 oz rice
1 oz snapper
4 oz watermelon
Lunch:
1 oz broccoli
1 oz chicken
2 oz rice

Tea:
5 oz ciku (seriously, she finished it all- bought at R&R)

Dinner:
1 slice of bread
cornflakes
corn
refused chicken/ broccoli

~Now that we're back home, she became a fussy eater again?
~Yay, managed to survive the trip mainly on homecooked food.
~There are still some recipes that I haven't blogged. Hope I won't forget it :)

Day 2 - Cherating

Great, no allergies to Heinz Stage 1. She slept well last night, we did bring her fav blankie (3 in fact). And she had normal poop today after stopping the olive spread (remember: soy lecithin) since Saturday. 3 days to flush it out of the system. Funny thing though, there are yellow and black soya bean in the multigrain bread.

Breakfast:
3 oz watermelon
1 slice of multigrain bread
Heinz apple/mango puree- used as jam

Lunch:
3 oz broccoli
3 oz watermelon
garlic bread/ pizza crust (Pizza Hut)- due to technical glitch, did not bring her carbo

Dinner:
1 oz chicken
3 oz calrose rice
5 oz watermelon

DH&I had 'nasi kerabu', 'nasi dagang', 'nasi minyak' for breakfast. Had Pizza Hut for lunch (couldn't find a sushi joint). Had 'mee celup' and 'mee goreng' for tea. Dinner was 'nasi goreng USA', 'nasi goreng daging merah' and 'sup tulang' for dinner. We have 'keropok lekor' and 'jagung bakar' for supper- but I think I'll skip...too full as it is.

trip to Cherating


Arianna is only 11 months old, and totally on homemade food. I was thinking real hard on how to feed her. Here's what we brought:
  • rice cooker (the super duper small one- made for Japanese market)
  • toaster
  • multigrain bread
  • calrose rice
  • spiral pasta-can be cooked in the rice cooker
  • broccoli (cooked)
  • chicken (cooked)
  • snapper (cooked)
  • spiral pasta (cooked)
  • watermelon (diced)
She ate 1.5 slice of bread for tea time... not bad considering she only eats 1 slice for breakfast. And she only had 1 slice of chicken sandwich for lunch before the journey.
She ate heartily for dinner, for once! She had pasta, snapper, broccoli, watermelon, and Heinz apple/mango puree-as her dessert. This was stage 1 food that I never used, ever! Let's hope she doesn't develop any allergic reaction to it.

allergies

From my previous post, it seems that LO is only allergic to:
Nestum baby cereal (vomiting)
white bread (rashes)
cheese (vomiting)
tofu (gassiness)

But going way back...she was also allergic to:
formula (vomiting)

We just started giving her toasted multigrain bread, and she loves the olive spread. But in this past week, her eczema flared up, and she had soft stool (more of yellowish, explosive stool she used to have). Found another culprit:
soy lecithin (gassiness, rashes, soft stool)

I guess the stats are true, 50% of babies who are allergic to cow's milk are also allergic to soy.

Tomato Rice

Ingredients:
3 oz rice
3 tbsp tomato sauce
0.5 oz cucumber- diced
0.5 oz broccoli- into very small florets
1 oz salmon

Method:
Cook salmon, once pink- crumble into small pieces
Add in broccoli, cooked till soft
Add cucumber and tomato sauce
Mix in the rice

~simple recipes during the weekdays :)

Salmon pasta



Ingredients:

4 oz spiral pasta (her current fav)- cooked al dente
1.5 oz salmon
1 oz green bean
quarter onion- sliced thinly
olive oil

Method:
Saute onion with olive oil
Cook salmon till pink, add in green beans and cook till soft
Toss in pasta



Spiral_salmon

Lamb Fried Rice



Ingredients:

3 oz cooked rice
2 cloves garlic
1/2 bulb onion
1 oz minced lamb
1 tbsp tomato sauce
1 oz mixed vegetables
olive oil

Method:
Lightly fry onion till translucent, add garlic and fry till fragrant
Add in minced lamb and mixed vegetables
Add in tomato sauce (I use homemade tomato sauce, full of onions and tomatoes rather than preservatives)
Mix in the rice

~I introduced garlic!
~this is really nasi goreng, baby style.
~Arianna has passed the test of 4 days of lamb, yay! No allergies
~I think she did pass out ungirlish wind, perhaps anti flatulence property of garlic?

Spaghetti with Stir Fry Lamb



Ingredients:

6 oz spaghetti (cooked al dente)
2 oz minced lamb
0.5 oz broccoli
0.5 oz mixed vegetables
olive oil
1/4 of small onion

Method:
Lightly fry onion till translucent
Add minced lamb, broccoli and mixed vegetables
When vegetables are soft, toss in the spaghetti
Best eaten warm, as lamb tends to be oily

Salmon sandwich



Ingredients:
0.5 oz onion
2 oz salmon
1 oz broccoli
1 oz cucumber
Olive oil
4 slices of wholewheat bread

Method:
Lightly fry onion
Add salmon, cook till pink
Add broccoli, at the same time mash up salmon
Take off from heat once both are well cooked
After it has cooled, add diced cucumber for texture
Serves well with wholegrain bread, best as cold dish

Note:
Make sure fish are thoroughly cooked.
Raw vegetables may be introduced after 8 months

Tried and tested

We started solids just a few days shy of LO's 6 months. Occasionally the 4 day rule was ignored, as LO shows immediate signs of allergy.

6 months:

white rice
apple
banana
sweet potato
'air zam zam' (usually it's cooled boiled water)
'ciku'
carrot
broccoli
barley
papaya
'kailan'
brown rice

7 months:

prune
'sawi'
spaghetti
spinach
Nestum baby cereal
guava
spelt rusk
pear

8 months:

salmon
cod
cauliflower
beef

9 months:

calrose/sushi rice
watermelon
pasta

10 months:

carrot noodle
onion
cheese
corn
goat cheese
rockmelon
olive oil
white bread
mango
wholegrain bread
chicken
tofu
tomato
lamb (just over 8 hours ago)