Tops & Tails Veggie Exploration

Aw, my girl when she was younger!

This was a great activity for her and would keep her occupied when I was cooking dinner. I would give her the parts of veggies I wasn't using in the meal. This time it was the tops and tails of yellow squash and zucchini. She got to explore the sensory aspects of them and play around.

Seaweed Sensory Bin for Babies

Isn't this bin cute and inviting? What baby or even toddler wouldn't like it? All you'll need for the base material is some Roasted Seaweed Snack from Trader Joe's. I'm sure there are other stores that sell something similar as well. This one is great because it provides a new texture for babies. It's crunchy, very thin, and a bit oily. Definitely some new textures to experience. Then just add in some bath toys that would be in a pond/ocean/body of water.

Baby Food: Exploring New Textures And Combinations. Carrots & Peas

Don't those textured purees look delicious, especially side by side?

Baby will surely love these! Carrots are safe to introduce to babies 4 months and up, while peas are safe to introduce to babies 6 months and up. You also want to only introduce one new puree at a time in case there's an allergy. But since both of these purees are more textured (usually started around 8 months) to help baby learn to chew, you've probably already introduced both, making them a safe side-by-side choice.

Now, our pea purees were always pretty textured due to the peels and all that. So peas always offer a new texture for babies. Carrots don't exactly puree perfectly smooth either, but to make them more textured and even have some soft lumps to start baby off on some real chewing, follow this method:
Wash, peel, chop and steam the carrots until they're pretty tender when poked with a fork. Then pulse them while you puree them. Most food processors/blenders have this option as one of the buttons, and the Baby Bullet manual explains how to do it. This will puree some and also leave some soft chunks in there for baby to begin chewing! Make sure you're nearby when they're eating (you'll probably be feeding them anyways).

Serving foods side-by-side like these helps baby get used to a variety of flavors in their daily diet and get more nutrients since both veggies offer different ones. You could even try pureeing them together if you think your baby would like that.

Breast Milk Popsicle

Breast milk popsicles are a great thing to give to babies and toddlers to help cool them off in the summer heat, or soothe teething pain. They're very simple to make and can be made in perfectly proportioned sizes with these Tovolo Jewel Pop Molds. 

This is one that I made with the above mentioned popsicle mold set! All you have to do is pump or hand express some breast milk and then pour it into the molds and freeze. For a young baby you could pour the breast milk into ice cube trays and make breast milk ice cubes that you could put in a mesh feeder such as this one from Munchkin.