Special Considerations for Storing Baby Foodsby Marily | More from this Blogger 15 Feb 2007 01:12 PM If you have a baby in the house, it is important to consider what baby will need in an emergency. As with many stored foods, the nutritive value of canned foods slightly decreases over time. For most people this is not a big problem, but for infants those vitamins and nutrients are more crucial. It is also more important to keep your foods fresh and safe for feeding to baby. Here are some points to consider when storing food for babies and toddlers: Look ahead. Unless you want to have to update your baby's emergency food supply every couple of months, make sure to look ahead to the types of foods your baby will be eating for the next few months or year. For instance, if your baby is not currently eating solid foods but will be starting them in the next few months, you should store these foods. These include cereals, crackers, and jarred baby foods. You may choose to store enough of these foods to last you through your baby's first year. As your baby grows, you already have a lot of the baby food on hand and can replace your baby foods with other foods that baby will eat in the months ahead. Store a variety. When looking ahead, you may not be able to predict if your baby will be allergic to various grains, fruits, or vegetables. Also, some babies are pickier than others and will not eat certain foods. For these reasons, it is important to store various types of grains, fruits, and vegetables for baby in your food storage in case you are not able to use one item. Learn to make your own. Store-bought baby food is kind of expensive and can be difficult to purchase all at once for many. In addition, it is hard to guess exactly how much to store. For these reasons, you will probably want to supplement store-bought baby foods with homemade ones in times of emergency. Check back to the be prepared blog for a couple of articles about making baby food in emergency situations. Store formula. Whether you breastfeed or not, it is important to have some formula on hand, just in case. Formula is the most important item to store for an infant, since if you have some stored food on hand you will probably be able to make your own baby foods if necessary. If these other foods are lacking in nutrition, at least baby will have a healthy, nutrient-rich bottle to drink. Breastfeeding moms may want formula on hand to thin homemade baby foods, or in case of an emergency when mom cannot nurse her baby. Check out these handy Enfamil Nursette bottles that come ready to use, in 3 oz. or 6 oz. bottles. These are great options for long-term food storage, or 72-hour emergency kits. Related Articles: Planning for your Baby's Needs During an Emergency The Importance of Food Storage Relevantpreparedness tags User Comments ashleypaige (5) 07 Feb 2008 03:04 PMThis is such an overlooked need! While babies can eat much of the same foods as we can, I like to avoid meat and processed food (for me and for them). I would like to do more research on this! http://www.usingfoodstorage.com marlenesmagic (15) 19 Oct 2008 07:59 PMWhat a topic that most people never think about. Adults can almost eat anything and of course still need some nutritional value in their food, but babies and growing children need the neccessary fats, calcuim and protien that is hard to come by in food storage. My wife address this very topic in her book. (Marlenes Magic with Food Storage.) www.marlenesmagic.com. She has recipies and things to store for children/babies. We have some info up on the site right now that you can download if anyone is interested. Community Tags New Company Discuss this article
|
Be Prepared categories |
