Top 10 Healthy Nigerian Homemade Foods to Start Your Baby on Without Any Issues
Once your baby has been exclusively breastfed for six months, it’s imperative to introduce solid foods to them to meet their nutritional requirements. However, not all solid foods are suitable for babies, even though they are homemade. The kind of homemade food you give your baby after 6 months can significantly influence their health. This is why it is greatly advised that you should go for natural and highly nutritious food. Previously we have discussed extensively on Food Items That Should Be In Your Kids Food Basket When Going To School. Kindly go through it and drop your comments.
To ease the stress of thinking of which kind of foods to go for, I have carefully compiled the top 10 healthy Nigerian homemade foods to start your baby on without issues.
Top 10 Healthy Nigerian Homemade Foods to Start Your Baby on Without Any Issues
Here are the top 10 healthy Nigerian homemade foods that you should incorporate into your baby’s meal to ensure optimal growth and development and minimize issues.
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1. Pap and Custard
Pap and custard are one of the most common healthy Nigerian homemade foods for babies. Pap, also known as ogi or akamu, is a nourishing meal made from fermented maize, millet, or guinea corn. However, most parents prefer using guinea corn and millet for making pap for their babies. Pap has a semi-liquid consistency that provides hydration without burdening a baby’s delicate digestive system.
Pap is rich in carbohydrates and contains traces of protein and potassium, which are essential for providing energy, maintaining optimal blood pressure, and repairing and developing muscles, tissues, and skin.
Similarly, custard shares a semi-liquid form like pap. Custard is made from fresh milk and eggs, and it is rich in essential vitamins and minerals, particularly B12 and calcium, which are needed for enhancing cellular resilience and bone strength. Also, custard contains protein and healthy fats, which makes it a healthy option for promoting healthy weight gain in babies.
2. Vegetable Puree
Vegetable puree is one of the top healthy Nigerian homemade foods to start your baby on without any issues. Yellow vegetables like carrots and squash are suitable for babies because they are good sources of beta-carotene, which is essential for enhancing your baby’s clear eyesight, glossy hair, healthy skin, good growth, and resistance to infections. Green leafy like pumpkin and spinach are also healthy.
To make a vegetable puree, blend cooked vegetables like carrots, pumpkin, and spinach into a smooth puree. After being cooked until it is soft, blend the vegetable until it is smooth.
3. Fruits Puree Top of Form
Fruit puree is similar to vegetable puree, but in this case, you make use of fruits. Banana purees, in particular, are excellent choices for babies due to their richness in fiber and potassium and it is super gentle on the digestive system. Avocado purees are also a good choice. It contains beneficial unsaturated fats that support both physical and brain development in babies. Similarly, blend the chosen fruits until they become smooth and suitable for the babies.
4. Mashed Beans
Beans are a suitable and healthy meal for your baby. Due to the baby’s tender digestive system, you have to mash the beans to allow the baby to absorb them better. Mashed beans offer a nutritious blend of protein and fiber, which are essential nutrients your baby needs for proper development. Cook the beans until they are soft, then mash or blend them till they are smooth. Ensure you use less spices and pepper in preparing the beans.
5. Moi Moi
Moi moi is a traditional Nigerian dish and one of the top 10 healthy Nigerian homemade foods to start your baby on without issues. Moi Moi is a steamed bean pudding made primarily from beans, eggs, and spices (onions and pepper), and it is rich in protein. It is soft, easily digestible, and suitable for babies. Ensure you keep the spices at minimal levels. If your baby reacts to spices, you should make the moi moi without spices.
6. Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Mashed sweet potatoes are a good source of fiber and unarguably one of the top 10 healthy Nigerian homemade foods to start your baby on without issues. The excellent part of sweet potatoes is that it is gentle on your baby’s stomach and easy to digest. What you have to do is cook the sweet potatoes until they are soft, then mash them until they become smooth. Top of Form
7. Eggs
Eggs are incredibly nutrient-rich food. It is called a superfood because it contains all the essential nutrients required for a single cell to develop into a baby chicken. Eggs are rich in carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins B2, B9, and B12, along with choline. You can incorporate eggs into your baby’s diet around 12 months of age. If your baby exhibits allergies, particularly to the egg whites, begin with the yolk, which lacks the proteins responsible for triggering allergies.
8. Meat
After 4 to 6 months, your baby’s iron reserves, which are vital for oxygen transportation, start to diminish. So, you must introduce iron–rich food to your baby, one of which is meat. Meat provides easily digestible heme iron in sufficient quantities. Additionally, meat is rich in zinc, vitamin B12, fat, and proteins.
While all types of meat, including poultry, are beneficial for babies, some are richer in iron than others. For instance, pork liver has the highest iron content, while dark turkey meat has more iron concentration than white meat.
9. Fish
Fish is an excellent source of protein and omega-3 fatty acids, which are vital for various aspects of baby health. Despite fish being a healthy food, go for low-mercury fish as they are safer for babies. Low-mercury food includes salmon, tilapia, herring (shawa), and sardines. While serving these fishes to babies, ensure they are thoroughly boiled and soft. Remove all bones from the fish to ensure the bay does not get stuck while eating.
10. Yam Porridge
Yam porridge is rich in carbohydrates and essential vitamins and minerals. To prepare yam porridge, cook chunks of yam along with vegetables such as tomatoes, onions, and peppers, and protein sources like fish or meat. You can mash the yam porridge to make it easier for the baby to chew and swallow.
Conclusion
You can gradually introduce all the top 10 healthy Nigerian homemade foods to start your baby on without issues and observe how your baby reacts to them. These foods provide essential nutrients like protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals necessary for your baby’s health. However, discontinue a meal immediately ice your baby reacts to it negatively or develops allergies after eating it.
