Pumpkin is highly loaded with Vitamin A, Beta Carotene and also good source of potassium, protein and iron. It is known as one of the great first foods for babies, at any time of the year.
Today, I tried giving pumpkin to my baby for the first time. My challenges when preparing pumpkin before puréeing were slicing a smaller piece of pumpkin from the whole fruit and peeling its hard skin off the flesh. It required heck lots of my energy to slice a pumpkin while its skin was still attached to the fruit and peeling its skin using a sharp knife was equally not an easy deed. I really admire people in the USA on their skills in beautifully carving raw pumpkins as flawless Halloween decorations. Click this article to learn how to cut pumpkin, it may be useful. Anyhow, once the pumpkin's skin was peeled, it's so much easier to slice the flesh of pumpkin into smaller chunks.
As much as I dislike pumpkin as food, my baby loves it. One small bowl was not enough and she started making a cat-like noise when her bowl was empty and could not patiently wait until I offer her the second round.
Here's how I made the Pumpkin Purée today.
The lovable fruit for babies.
Pumpkin Purée
Suitable for babies aged 6 months old ++
Ingredients:
Methods:
Peel the skin of pumpkin and cut the pumpkin flesh into small chunks.
Make sure that the pumpkin's seeds are already taken out.
Boil or steam the pumpkin chunks for 20-30 minutes until soft and tender. The pumpkin flesh should feel soft when pressed.
Mash the steamed or boiled pumpkin chunks in a baby bowl or grinder bowl with a spoon or fork. A well-cooked/steamed pumpkin is so easy to mash with fork/spoon.
Feed the mashed pumpkin to baby when it's not too hot.
I learn that pumpkin turns brownish orange when cooked so don't sweat about it when you're about to feed it to your baby. On another note, I often hear that after eating pumpkin or sweet potato, babies would pass motion more often than usual but their stool should not be diarrhoea-like. This possibly happens because pumpkin and sweet potato are easily digestible for their little tummies and high in fibre too. Knowing this, I reckon the best bet is not to feed our baby with sweet potato or pumpkin every day. In addition, too much beta carotene consumption is not good to their bodies either.
Need more information about using pumpkin as baby food? Read here.
