Ruth's Blog
Cindy Crawford on CBS Sunday Morning and Why We Love Her at Super Baby Food
On CBS’s Sunday morning this past week, Cindy Crawford was featured. We love Cindy Crawford and not just because she is a fan of Super Baby Food and appeared with Ruth Yaron on a segment of Good Morning America, but also because she’s a wonderful gal..smart, bright, caring, and a giver.
The recent piece on CBS’s Sunday Morning highlighted Cindy Crawford’s charity work in honor of her brother who died at a young age from Leukemia. She is genuinely beautiful on the inside and out.
We thought it would be appropriate to share the segment of Good Morning America where Cindy teaches Charlie Gibson, and of course, the audience, how to make our favorite, Super Porridge! Enjoy!
Dr Greene Announces His “White Out” Campaign: No Junk Food For Babies
Super Baby Food loves Dr. Greene. Below is a video which announces Dr. Greene’s White-out campaign.
To learn more about The White Out Campaign, you can visit Dr. Greene’s website: DrGreene.com.
Desiccated Liver Powder as Nutritional Supplement for Baby
In a recent comment a mom asks about dessicated liver. We thought it was a great question and that we would ask Ruth for her thoughts…
The mom asks:
I really love your book. Thanks for such a great work.
I’d like to start using desiccated liver powder for my 8 months old daughter but I cant find the powder version of it, all I can find is the tablet version.
Can you recommend a brand/company who makes powder form of the desiccated liver?
Thnx.
Ruth Says:
Desiccated liver is a powdered nutritional supplement made from dried liver. It is high in vitamin B12 (a nutrient sometimes claimed to be lacking in vegetarian diets) and other B vitamins. You can introduce desiccated liver to your baby beginning at about 8 months. Add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon to your baby’s Super Porridge daily or several times a week to make up for whatever you feel your baby would be missing in a meatless diet.
I recommend the Now brand. Please go light on the liver powder so baby does not get too much iron. The nutrition section of Super Baby Food discusses the daily recommended amounts of iron. The iron is “heme” iron and is very well-absorbed, unlike iron from plants. You can also buy the tablets and crush them by putting them in ziploc bag and crushing with a spoon
Check back at the Super Baby Food Blog for more information for feeding your baby the very best!
Moms Want To Know About Feeding Oatmeal to Baby
Moms Want To Know About:
Feeding Oatmeal to their baby.
Mom Asks:
Is my 6 month old too young for oatmeal porridge?
Ruth says:
No, he’s not too young, you can start him on oatmeal Super Porridge, just make sure it’s very smooth so he won’t choke on any lumps. Get the organic steel cut oats or just plain oatmeal flakes from the natural foods store or the part of the supermarket that has “health” foods. Quick cook oatmeal or the brands processed with sugar aren’t as healthy as plain, unprocessed oatmeal. It is perfectly normal and very common for babies to get constipated when they start eating solid foods, especially on whole grains because of the fiber.
Here’s what to do about constipation: Feed him about 2 ounces of commercial jarred baby prunes with the oatmeal. Only two ounces, though, or you’ll have poop up the back ! With each meal, offer your baby a few tablespoons of plain water in a cup. Let him get used to and like drinking plain water, not juice. Thanks for writing! 
Sprouting Grains to Eliminate Phytic Acid For Baby Food
A mom asks Ruth:
“You don’t mention phytic acid in your book (Super Baby Food), but I have read that its presence in whole grains can limit the absorption of nutrients. Do you recommend sprouting grains before grinding them for super baby porridge, or soaking? Thank you!
Ruth says:
Great question! Actually, I sometimes do sprout my own grains before using them to bake bread or for porridge so that the phytic acid goes away and so that the nutrient content increases. I also grind my own grains into flour for baking using the Whisper Mill or the Nutrimill grain grinders. Grains must be totally dry before you use a grain mill or it gets ruined. I use an Excalibur dehydrator to dry my sprouted grains before grinding in my mill.
When soaked, the phytic acid takes a while to go away if the grains are whole kernels–about 8-12 hours. However, the grains for Super Porridge are first ground to a powder, not a fine powder, but a powder. The finer the powder, the faster the phytic acid disappears because more water comes into contact with the surface area of the powder. For well-ground flour like you would use in breads, it takes only 5 minutes of soaking to remove the phytic acid.
Grinding the grains to a course powder is perfect for Super Porridge. Much of the phytic acid goes away when boiled in water, but some may remain. Phytic acid is a phytonutrient that is good for us, so we should get some of it in our diets.
Because Super Porridge is only coarsely ground, it is low on the glycemic index scale, which is good. The lower the GI, the better the food is for us because it doesn’t shoot up blood sugar and cause the pancreas to quickly produce lots of insulin. An overworked pancreas can lead to insulin resistance and maybe even full-blown diabetes.
So the bottom line is, you can sprout your grains, but only for a day or so because otherwise they will be too difficult to grind with longer sprouts. And the grains must be totally dry before you grind them. If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can dry them in a low oven- at about 200 degrees so that all bacteria that might start growing are killed.
Happy sprouting and grinding! Thanks for writing!
Moms Want to Know About: Tips For Second Beginner Feeder in Your Family
When you start a baby on solid food for the very time, it is not always smooth sailing. Here’s a question from a mom about starting her second baby on solid food and Ruth’s answer. Maybe YOUR feeding solid question will be answered too!
Love Super Baby Food! My first child is a terrific eater and I know it is from using your book. However baby number two is presenting a bit of a challenge. She’s 6 months and becoming really gassy after rice cereal. I don’t get it. I am still nursing and am very careful about what I ingest. We haven’t been able to really start other solids like avocado and banana because it is such a battle. Could it be the rice cereal? We were about the start the super porridge, but now I’m not so sure. Thoughts?
Ruth says:
NO BATTLES! Wait a week and then gently offer again. Try banana well mushed and liquidy-tastes like breastmilk. Ages 6 and 7 months are for LEARNING TO EAT. Not until 8 months will you baby actually need calories from solid foods to supplement breastmilk. Wait a few days, try again, and let me know how things worked out. Never force or push! (Rice cereal and gas – I’m not surprised. I’d be willing to bet that the cereal as first food will be changed to banana some day.) Make sure your baby is getting an iron supplement and a vitamin D supplement-ask your pediatrician.
If you have any feeding solid food questions, do not hesitate to leave a comment here. Ruth would love to hear from you and to help.
Freezing Ground Grains for Super Baby Porridge?
One of our fabulous Super Baby Food parents asked about saving time by grounding up the grains for Super Baby Porridge and Freezing for use later. we thought it was such a great question that we would share Ruth’s answer.
Regarding the freezing of Ground grains for use later, Ruth says:
I’m not really sure how long (ground grains) will keep in the deep freeze after grinding. I know that I put in my book, Super Baby Food, that they will keep for two months at refrigerator temperatures, so in the deep freeze, figure about six months or more.
Please note that in the next edition of my book (due out soon), also entitled Super Baby Food, that I will be recommending that you do NOT grind in advance. I will be recommending that you grind them immediately before cooking. The reason for this is the fresher the grain and the more recently that it has been broken open by grinding, the more nutrients it has and the less nutrient loss to air, light, and heat. So if you have a blender/grinder, I would suggest you use it daily. If you do not have a blender/grinder and borrow someone else’s to do batch grinding, then it might be more convenient if you store in the fridge up to 2 months or in the deep freezer in good-quality freezer containers for about 6 months.
Thanks for writing!
Ruth
Which Food Should Be Baby’s First Food, Part 2
In Part 1, we reviewed some baby first foods. Here are some other great first food choices.
Mashed ripe banana is an excellent first food for baby. Bananas are nutritious and very easy for your baby to digest. Many other cultures use bananas exclusively as their first baby food. Try to buy only organically-grown bananas.
Mashed, ripe avocado is also an excellent first food for baby. Avocados are extremely nutritious and contains the fatty acids that your baby needs for brain development.
Cooked, mashed sweet potato is another favorite first food for babies who are at least 4 months old. It, too, is highly nutritious and filled with beta carotene (vitamin A).
Yogurt is a good first baby food for babies who are at least 6 months old. Whole milk yogurt, the plain variety, instead of low-fat yogurt, is recommended because your baby needs fats. Remember that yogurt, in the under 1 year old, should not be fed in place of breastmilk or formula, but may be fed as an additional first food.
For an informative video that describes baby’s first foods, check out the video starring Ruth Yaron and Cindy Crawford.
Stay tuned for more information to feed your baby right here at the Super Baby Food Blog.
What Foods Should be the “First Foods” for Your Baby, Part 1
If the most popular question about feeding baby is “When”, the second most popular question has got to be, “What?” In a recent post we discussed your baby’s first meal. In this post and the next, we will cover, in a bit more detail some first food choices for your baby.
The first foods you should feed your baby are those that are easily digested and least likely to trigger an allergic reaction. The most recommended first food is commercial iron-enriched baby cereal. You and your pediatrician should decide which food should be given to your baby at her very first meal.
Commercial iron-fortified baby rice cereal is the first choice of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Rice is easily digested, is rarely an allergen, and thins readily when added to liquid. Most commercial cereals, are refined and processed. Earth’s best brand, however, is not. It is made from whole brown rice and is organic. If you would like to you a commercial brand, I suggest you use Earth’s Best.
If your baby is at least 6 months old, I recommend homemade whole grain brown rice or millet cereal as baby’s first food (ie. Super Baby Porridge). These cereals are easily digested, but your baby must be at least 6 months old before he has the necessary digestive enzymes to handle the complex carbohydrates in these cereals.
For an informative video that describes baby’s first foods, check out the video starring Ruth Yaron and Cindy Crawford.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of First Foods right here at the Super Baby Food Blog.
How Large Is a Baby Food Serving? More Information to Feed Your Super Baby
In the Super Baby Food, I write about the “food serving.” Here’s more information about the “food serving” as it relates to your baby.
The amount of food in a serving varies tremendously with the day and the baby. The formal, technical definition of a baby food serving is “however much your baby will eat.” The point is that there is no absolute size or standardized amount of food that constitutes a serving for a baby. But to give you rough idea, the hypothetical average beginning eater’s food serving probably falls somewhere between 1 and 4 tablespoons.
A major part of the Super Baby Food System is the preparation of ice-cube sized frozen vegetable cubes. For beginners, a serving size is generally 1/2 veggie cube to 2 veggie cubes. Start by giving your beginning eater a food cube made by filling the ice cube about half-way. If she wants another, she”ll let you know.
Another major part of the Super Baby Food System is the home-making of whole grain cereals, like Super Baby Porridge. A food serving of homemade cereal for beginning eaters is 1/4 – 1/2 cup of cooked cereal. This equates to 1-2 tablespoons of dry uncooked cereal before it’s stirred into boiling water. Remember that “baby serving’ is VERY flexible. All babies are different and all appetites are different – it’s simply a rough idea. Give your baby as much as he will eat, but watch carefully for signals that he has had enough, and don’t try to feed him more food after he loses interest.
Watch for our next blog post on similar-sized food servings to help with the balance of your baby’s Super Baby Food Diet.
