Baby Food Diary 6.

I wanted to wait a while before introducing sweet fruits to my baby.
I read an article online that advised against feeding sweet foods to your baby early on, or else they tend to develop a sweet tooth and won't eat new foods unless they're sweet.  That's why I have so far only introduced not-so-sweet things such as rice, sweet potato, avocado, carrot, and spinach.  Sweet potato and carrot are sweet, but not overly sweet, so they don't really count according to...um...me.  But I am crazy because my baby doesn't even have any teeth yet and I am already worried about him having sweet tooth!

So, for his introduction to sweet fruits, I chose apples.  I chose apples because before I launched my baby food-making adventures, I bought a carrot and apple puree for our 14 hour flight to Japan coming up soon.  My baby has been fine with carrots, but what if he is allergic to apples?  We must test to see before we get on board.  I should just feed him the baby food I bought, but the whole purpose of this blog is to make my own baby food, so for the sake of this blog, I decided to make applesauce for my baby.

I looked up some recipes for applesauce on the internet, and it seemed pretty easy to make.  You just have to pick sweet apples, add cider, cinnamon, sugar, etc. and boil it down.  But of course, I can't mix in things like sugar and cider when I am making applesauce for a baby so here is what I did; just peeled, cut off the stems, cut into small pieces.  I did all that just with a knife.  Not even a peeler.

Then I boiled them with medium heat, covered for about an hour.
When they were done, I drained the  water really well and mashed it with a fork.  (For applesauce, it's easier to mash with a fork than a spoon).  Once again, I did not have to use a food processor.  Great - less dishes to wash.

In making applesauce for the first time, one thing I discovered is that cooked apples don't taste half as sweet as row apples.  So now I know, all the applesauce I have been eating all my life had so much sugar in it.

And one other thing--I thought apples are a good sauce of vitamins, but when I looked it up, I was surprised by how little apples contain vitamins.  Regardless, it's a rich source of fiber so it's good for babies...

My baby's reaction:

Not so great, which was quite shocking.  I was expecting him to like it a lot but he didn't seem to be enjoying it as much as sweet potatoes or carrots.  He was just making face as if to say it's so gross.  But then again, every time I took a spoon to his mouth, he'd open his mouth so wide and wait for me to feed more and more.  So maybe he liked it.  I don't know.  Babies are just so mysterious.