The most important thing to know when starting solids is that whatever happens is fine. This is completely new for your baby and they might love it or hate it.
It's pretty overwhelming to start weaning and introducing solids to your little one. You are probably not sure when to start, with what food, how to prepare it or offer it to your baby. You're not sure how your baby will take it and what to do next.
Firstly, choose one food at a time and offer it for about three days in a row for the first month. Later on, new foods can be introduced each day but always one at a time. That way you can easily identify any allergies.
We chose sweet potato. Why? Well, it's loaded with great nutrients and its full texture and sweet taste should make it easier for the baby to accept it.
Baked Sweet Potato Ingredients
To make this Baked Sweet Potato, you will need the following ingredients:
Sweet potato. It's best to choose an organic one if possible. Nevertheless, sweet potato should be washed and peeled before baking.
Baked Sweet Potato Nutritional Benefits
Sweet potato. Sweet potato is a great source of beta-carotene and vitamin A as well as antioxidants and anti-inflammatory nutrients that help our bodies fight diseases.
How To Prepare Baked Sweet Potato
Heat the oven. The easiest way to prepare sweet potato is to bake it in the oven for about an hour. This brings down the prep time to just 5 minutes and you still have an hour left before it is done and should be served. So preheat your oven to 360°F / 180°C.
Prepare the sweet potato for baking. Wash and peel the sweet potato and cut into strips about the width of your pinky finger.
Bake. Once the oven is preheated, place the sweet potato in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. When it is finished, let it cool for about 5 minutes prior to serving or further preparing or storing.
How to BLW. For BLW serve as is. It has to be so soft you can mash it between your fingers.
How to mash and/or puree. To mash/puree baked sweet potato, either use a fork and mash to get some chunkier (but still soft) bits or simply put in a blender and blend. If needed, add tablespoon by tablespoon water while blending until the desired consistency is reached.
Baked Sweet Potato Tips
Best way to serve Baked Sweet Potato. Baked Sweet Potato is perfect for both baby-led weaning (BLW) and pureeing/mashing. For BLW you can just serve as is since it's already cut prior to baking. Otherwise, you can puree or mash as you prefer.
How much of Baked Sweet Potato to serve. At 6 months of age, we suggest half a sweet potato for one meal... bearing in mind that at the very beginning, your little one might not have more than a couple of bites!
Additional starting solids tips. Just remember – this is completely new for your baby and if they show signs of resistance at first (or even a few times), that's completely fine. Just keep going with it and over time your baby will get used to eating.
More Starting Solids recipes?
Need more recipes for starting solids with your baby? Check these out:
Wean With Confidence eBOOK
This is so much more than a recipe book. This is a full weaning plan written by a PhD nutritionist for your child's entire first year, based on the latest science. This will take away the mental load of wondering if you're feeding your child the right food. It's what we wish we had when we were weaning our own children.
Baked Sweet Potato for Baby (BLW, Puree, Mashed)
Ingredients
- ½ medium sized sweet potato
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Heat the oven. Preheat the oven to 360°F / 180°C
- Prepare the sweet potatoes for baking. Wash and peel the potato and cut into wedges about the width of two of your fingers stuck together.
- Coat in olive oil. Place the wedges on a baking sheet (add parchment paper if it is not a stainless steel baking sheet) and drizzle with olive oil. Use your clean hands to mix it all up to make sure each sweet potato wedge is coated. If you coat it in olive oil it will keep it soft enough for a baby-led weaning baby to chew on and give it flavor and healthy fats to keep the baby full.
- Bake. Place the baking tray in the oven for about 30 minutes. The sweet potato needs to be so soft that you can mash it between your fingers. Wait 10 minutes for the potatoes to cool before serving them blw style, as sweet potato mash or pureed.
Pureed Sweet Potato for Baby
- To puree baked sweet potato, place it in a high speed blender or food processor with a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of water. Blend until you have a smooth sweet potato puree.
- Place puree on a pre-loaded spoon in front of the baby so they can explore. Or place a tiny bit of puree on the tray so they can dip their finger and then lick it.
Mashed Sweet Potato for Baby
- Place the potato in a bowl, drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil and use the back of a fork or a potato masher to mash it leaving some texture.
- Offer on a pre-loaded spoon.
How to serve sweet potato baby-led weaning?
- You can serve it as sweet potato wedges as they come out of the oven.
- For a blw sweet potato the most important thing is that the baby can easily grab it and also that they are soft enough for your baby to easily mash with their gums. You can check that by seeing if the potato is soft enough for you to easily mash it between your fingers.
Video
Notes
- Sweet Potato Puree or mash is best stored in airtight containers in the fridge. In freezer use ice cube trays or specific trays for baby puree like this one from Keedo Feedo.
- Baked Sweet Potato Wedges can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge and freezer
- Store in fridge for 3 days and freezer for up to 6 months
- Thaw overnight in fridge in airtight container
- To serve remove it 2 hours in advance from the fridge so the puree or blw version reaches room temperature and then you don't have to reheat it
- Reheat in a small saucepan on the stove with a teaspoon of water
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