Annabel Karmel Organic Purees‏ Giveaway

 

It’s giveaway time on the blog!

Back when we first started the weaning process I bought Annabel Karmels book. I remember regularly referring to the feeding guide just to make sure I was giving Baby Z enough bottles and food. After all, food had now been added to his diet as well as milk and it was a daunting, messy and exciting time all at once. We went through a journey of making good purees, bad purees, trying shop bought purees and then mixing in finger foods and, over time, Baby Z became fully weaned.

Over twenty years after the publication of her first book, Annabel Karmel, the UK’s number one parenting author and expert on baby and children’s nutrition, is launching her first range of organic baby purées in pouches. Annabel Karmel’s organic purées are based of some of the most popular recipes from her books, and made with the best possible ingredients that you could find in your own kitchen.

“Ready made fruit and vegetables purees that taste natural are much easier to make than meat and fish purees, which have always been a bit trickier and can often taste bland. A common mistake when weaning is to continue feeding only fruit and vegetable purées after six months. This diet is too low in calories and lacks the fat and nutrients found in proteins such as meat and fish, which are important sources of iron and essential fatty acids and vital for your baby from 6 months.” Annabel Karmel.

Annabel’s pouches (130g) are perfect for busy mums and dads who don’t always have time to cook from scratch or for those that feel unsure of how to start introducing meat and fish to their baby’s diet.

The range comprises of:

Sunday Best Roast Chicken, Cosy Cottage Pie, Scrumptious Salmon & Sweet Potato, Lovely Lentils & Tomato, Tasty Chicken & Butternut Squash, Fruity Apple, Pear & Blueberry.

Suitable from six months, the MSRP for the purees are £1.49 each and they will be available from Sainsbury’s in June and Tesco from July.

Want to Win a Set of Purees?

If you’d like to win a set of Annabels new purees, simply leave me a comment below with some way of contacting you. (e.g. Twitter name or email address). You have until the 30th July to enter.

You can have additional entries in the giveaway by doing any of the following (Leave an additional comment for each to confirm you have done so):

• Like Annabel Karmels Facebook Page
• Like Not My Year Offs Face Book Page
• Follow Me on Twitter

5 winners will be selected at random and contacted after the 30th July 2012.

 

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How Much Is Enough?

I think I’m starting to get a bit confused with the “building up” of food and drink for the baby.  Maybe its information overload or worrying unecessarily but I think I may be after some advice from other parents out there.

The reason for my puzzled state goes something like this.  My, now 6 month old, baby boy has never been fantastic on milk and its always been a bit of a challenge to make him drink all his bottles.   I think on a GOOD day he manages about 20oz.  On a NORMAL day this can range between 15 – 20 oz.  The Health visitors have never seen it as a problem, as he is following a line on his growth chart and is consistent in his growth pattern.  So…not the best milk drinker, but so far, so ok.

Now.  Since food has been introduced it is becoming even more difficult to get him to drink the “required” 20oz a day.  Apparently that is what the guidelines say.  And apparently after 6 months this becomes even more important due to depleting baby iron reserves.  At the moment he us having 2 meals comfortably a day and in the next month or so I should be building up to a 3rd meal.

My worry is that milk is just going to get pushed out even more than it is doing now.    Having scrutinised a few suggested baby meal planners it looks like baby should be having about 4 bottles and 3 meals a day.  That sounds like a heck of a lot of food and drink to give to my little one even in a couple of months time.  And for one who seems to have a dislike of milk anyway its like the perfect little “get out of milk, free” card for him.     He loves food and wolfs it down.  It just the milk he doesnt seem keen on…or the bottle? Or the brand of formula? Or…hmmm, I don’t know what.

At the moment I’m thinking I’d like to stick to two meals a day so that the 3rd “meal” could then be a bottle of milk.  Or maybe substitute with something like a yoghurt or milk based pudding.  Have other parents done this?  Does it work?  Will it give him enough of what he needs to keep going/growing/thriving?  Or should I be giving him smaller portions of food and that way he has to drink more milk?

I would love to hear what other parents are doing / have experienced.   Do people out there have milk-haters, food lovers?  Did milk get crowded out of your little ones diet earlier than you wanted?  Did you sneak it in every other which way instead?  Basically, as you can see, I am a bit… ok…a LOT confused.

What Not To Do When Weaning

I’ve linked up to Flashback Friday. I started weaning Baby Z about May last year and it was very interesting at first…

Well, we’ve been weaning for about 4 weeks now. I’m still no expert and as expected its all a bit of trial and error and generally experimenting with lots of flavours. And, my god, the poo, the POO!! I thought one could not get anymore obsessed with poo than I already was. I had obviously never weaned before though.

At the moment we are going through “why is his poo like goat poo? Why!! Why!!”. Is that too much information? It is though, like little pellets. It feels like a bit of a seesaw balance of omitting foods, adding a lot more liquids, a bit of orange juice, a lot more massage and todays latest; prune juice. I think (THINK!) we are about halfway to finding the right balance, but I get the feeling that it will only be until the next new flavour, taste and texture is added. I hate you poo!

So, really, there’s no way I can class myself anywhere near masterful at this weaning malarkey. What I can tell you though, is the stuff you probably shouldn’t do. I have plenty of those. Don’t get me wrong, I am really enjoying it. I, no, we, are on what looks like a bit of a learning curve.

So here goes, what NOT to do. (so far!)

1. Don’t stand in the supermarket fruit and veg aisle staring at a Butternut squash wondering whether you should buy it, and if you do, how the hell are you going to cook it? Actually, how the hell are you even going to peel it? I have to admit we don’t really (ok, never!) have eaten the thing. So why do mums get obsessed by it for babies? Anyway, point is, all that staring will, at some point, result in one of the staff asking if you’re ok and if you need any help. Aka “move along lady, you’re blocking the fruit and veg aisle!”. At this point you’ll grab the squash anyway and scurry along sheepishly.

2. Don’t dress the baby in white. Mostly, enough said. But has anyone else noticed that even with a bib on, food will find it’s way behind it, over it, under it. Bibs seem a bit useless to be honest.

3. When making purees, make sure you peel the fruit / veg. It is very messy trying to get skin off afterwards and not really worth stress levels going through the roof.

4. Don’t puree everything in sight and then expect the baby to like it all. I made the mistake of getting “adventurous” and then getting sick of all the puree that all looked green. We went back to a flavour at a time. It works really well. And I LOVE (well baby does) the Ella range. It’s very nice. (and yep I taste everything I give to baby, especially if I’ve bought it ready made).

5. Balancing a bowl of baby porridge between your legs whilst you feed baby is a bad idea. He will knock it a clean 180 degrees straight onto your jeans. Trying to wipe porridge OFF jeans is a worse idea. It spreads everywhere and seems to dry into something looking like dried glue.

6. When baby looks like he’s going to sneeze with a mouthful of food, get out of the way quickly. Don’t start wondering if he will a) sneeze and b) will he spray food everywhere. He’ll do both and it’ll be on you.

7. Don’t put baby on the carpet immediately after eating. Food will get transferred onto toes that will get shoved into his mouth and, if you’re very unlucky, also get sicked up onto carpet.

8. Don’t exclaim “is someone doing a poo poo” straight after weaning. Slink away to do the dishes and casually call out to OH to change baby’s nappy. Then listen out for the horrified “oh my god!! It stinks!!”

9. Don’t give your baby coke. I haven’t done this but I’ve seen someone who has. It was just so shocking!! But I’ll stop mentioning it now, honest.

Come link up to Flashback Friday…

Finally, a blog!

Hello all!

Finally, I got off my bum and decided to create a blog. I’ve actually wanted to blog for quite a while but then things like a new born baby, sleepless nights, and general exhaustion got in the way. I am now a complete yummy mummy who lunches regularly and decided to blog about balancing a baby as well as a social life.

Well, ok, not really. I still class myself very much a “new mum” and am still learning how to do even the basics for a new baby. If I manage to get out and about during the week, as well as cook, clean and look after myself then that is a major achievement. So far, after 4.5 months, I still haven’t managed it. I give myself another 6. I think that’s fair isn’t it?

So why the blog? Besides the fact it’s quite cool to have a blog, I’d very much like to keep some kind of record of my baby adventures and share this with my friends, family and anyone else who likes to read my ramblings. My memory, it seems, disappeared with the end of my pregnancy and, coupled with still doing night feeds. Every. Single. Night, I need some way to look back and smile at the day-to-day antics of Baby Boy (who is now 4.5 months, flipping heck where has the time gone!) and not simply remember things like the night feeds. Dont get me wrong, they are lots of fun too. Hmmm.

Its also the first time in my life I am not either studying or working. When I was pregnant I stupidly had the idea that maternity leave would be a “year off work”. I would repeat this gleefully to anyone within ear shot and somehow managed not to see the knowing smirks from the folk that had already crossed over into parenthood. I think I realised after about the 2nd hour of having a baby that this was definitely Not My Year Off. Hence; the title. Genius. I know.

Oh…and finally, a bit about me. I am a very young 30 something living in the North West of England. I had my first baby in December 2010 and am still getting to grips with motherhood and the lack of memory. Its . This week I actually don’t want to go back to work. I never thought I’d feel like that after having worked my butt off very hard over the last 10 years to get where I am. I’m enjoying the time with baby and watching him turn into a cheeky smiler. Mind you, Upsy Daisy is starting to wind me up. I don’t get how her skirt flaps up and down. And Iggle Piggle running around trying not to go to bed? Actually, I might be running back to work come next year.

Go easy on me! I dont know much about blogging ettiquette yet!

This Post is being Showcased on the lovely The Boy and Me’s Blog. Check out other “First Posts” by clicking the icon below.