weaning
Weaning:
the Italian way
Their TV programmes have had our mouths watering, but the Chiappa sisters have now turned their attention to feeding their little children. Here Michela Chiappa tells MM how the Italians do it...
South Wales. Brought up in an Italian brood, we lived next door to our uncle, as well as to our grandparents. So our lives have been hugely influenced by both the Italian and the British ways of living, and our upbringing has been focussed on family and food. Emi and I have recently become first-time
T
mums. Fiamma was two years old when I gave birth to Serafina and Emi added yet another girl to the clan when she gave birth to Fiorenza. Food and family should be at the heart of
what we do. Eating well is not just important for our health, but it’s what makes the world go round and, in our opinion, this food education should start from birth.
58MODERNMUM
hose of you who know me and my sisters, Emi and Romina, will be aware that we were raised in a large Italian community in
So, what to do? How can we get baby
weaned and eating fresh meals from scratch, while sitting at the table with the rest of the family in as little time as possible? If you follow our easy plan, by the age of
one your baby should be able to eat a version of the same meal you feed the rest of the family. Every recipe we use has less than fiſteen
minutes’ preparation time. We know how hard it can be for a parent to juggle busy lives, kids, work, but we don’t think your cooking should suffer as a consequence. When we started weaning, we looked for
tips and recipes online, but so many ideas went down the plughole because they were completely impractical. Our ABC recipes are all about practicality.
Introduction flavours (six-eight months) Tis is all about first tastes. Put simply, a baby can eat almost anything by six months.
Tere are very few things a baby cannot eat. It’s good to introduce the main food groups one by one, to help ease in your baby’s digestive system and also to check for allergies. Babies are OK eating from all the different
food groups from six months. However, the following in the order I went for are: • Vegetables and fruits • Meats and eggs (first white meats and fish, then red meats)
• Gluten, nuts and pulses
Exploring textures (eight-ten months) As soon as the first foods have been introduced, you can begin to have fun and starting introducing new flavours and textures. One meal a day really should contain meat or fish, as, by eight months, a baby needs the additional nutrients they provide (protein, vitamin B, zinc, iron and omega 3 fatty acids).
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