Doing your best for Baby's diet

(First published 19th October, 2009)

DOING YOUR BEST FOR YOUR BABY'S DIET:

Q: My friend is very health-conscious.  Since her baby boy started on solids, she cooks quantities of chicken, meat and vegetables, divides it into meals in ice-cube trays and freezes it.  She takes some out of the freezer every day and thaws it for her little boy's meals.  What's a bit worrying is that my friend heats every meal in the microwave, which means everything her little boy eats has been microwaved.  Could there be any danger in this, or am I worrying unnecessarily?

NUTRITION ADVISOR REPLIES:

A: Microwaving foods can help to maintain their nutrient value because they heat food rapidly and don't require added water.  Retention of heat-sensitive and water-soluble vitamins, in particular B vitamins and vitamin C, is better compared with other methods such as boiling, where water-soluble vitamins are often thrown away with the water. 

Most health professionals don't advise heating foods in a microwave for babies or young children.  This is because microwaves can heat food unevenly and form hot spots, which could cause scalding.  This means that one spoonful of a food could be cold, while the next spoonful could burn a baby's mouth.  Allowing one or two minutes standing time for the heat to even out and stirring foods before feeding will reduce the risk of hot spots, but other cooking methods are usually advised for young children. 

Any cooking method that minimises the time, temperature, and amount of water needed will help to preserve nutrients, so steaming, stir frying and baking will help to preserve the vitamin content. 

Parents also need to be careful about defrosting foods for babies and young children in the microwave if foods are not going to be cooked and eaten straight away.  When food is defrosted in the microwave it can get warm enough to allow harmful bacteria to grow. 

It is also important to ensure that containers are labelled as "microwave safe" as there has been concern about the possibility of some plastic containers not intended for use in the microwave melting and potentially leaking chemicals into foods.

The clever Wean Machine makes easy work of  making fresh meals for your baby any time, anywhere.