Baby Healthy Bites

Healthy meals made with love!

The Truth You Need To Know About Instant Noodles.

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Truth About Instant Noodles by Baby Healthy Bites

Instant noodles have quickly become the staple food for both kids and adults.

Its really not surprising, in the world we are living in today, we are so short on time and in less than 5 minutes you can have a delicious bowl of instant noodles ready.

It apparently looks like a “life and time saver meal” so it’s easy to opt for instant noodles as a meal for our kids but have you ever stop to think if these noodles are really safe for our kids?

I know TV commercials and the radio jingles have sold to us how instant noodles can be a great meal choice for our kids but really!! are they?

I will state out the facts of why they are not the best choice, and while they are not the best options, I realize the fact that sometimes it may be the only option we have in some situations. So, I will also be sharing alternative and healthier recipes to make it more nutritionally valuable for your kids.

Why Instant Noodles are Harmful for Infants and Older Children?

Here are some reasons why instant noodles aren’t good for your little ones.

It is Highly Processed
As the word “instant” implies, instant noodles are highly processed. The focus is not on any vitamins or minerals, which leaves them void of any nutritional value. Such food items are usually termed as empty calorie consumables. Naaa, I don’t think this is what anyone would want to give their kids on a regular basis.

Trans Fats Carriers
Let me explain this in lay terms, so to achieve a longer shelf life, these noodles are steamed and then deep-fried in oil during their processing. This leads to trans fats from the oil to become a part of the noodles, this could lead to weight gain in your child (Ohh no no, not good weight gain) I could almost read your mind mums, who want their kids to add some weight.

Wax Coating
In the bid to make the noodles to look attractive for you to buy it, they are coated with a layer of wax in the manufacturing process. Wax is quite harmful to children and is known to cause damage to the liver.

Propylene Glycol Content
Noodles cannot be dry and need to retain their internal moisture. This is attained by adding propylene glycol to them. Kids are at a higher risk with this chemical since it gets collected very quickly within the heart, liver, and kidneys, causing long-term damage to them.

High Monosodium Glutamate ( The famous MSG)
MSG, as it was famously abbreviated and reported in the news, is widely used in instant noodles for a very important reason. It highly enhances the flavor. However, this chemical is harmful to children as well as adults, since it is known to lead to brain damage.

Sodium as a Preservative
Noodles already contain salt in high amounts to preserve them for long durations. Sodium, the element present in salt, also directly affect the vital organs of the body and can cause damage when consumed excessively.

Presence of Harmful Chemicals
Apart from the aforementioned ones, various chemicals such as plasticizers and dioxin are present in the packing material of the noodles. While cooking the noodles, these chemicals might find their way into the water and are extremely harmful to consume.

Chose Healthier Alternatives

What you Should Do?
As tasty as various noodle recipes for kids might be, after knowledge of their harmful nature, one needs to be more careful before directly serving them to your children.

How to properly prepare instant noodles.
On cooking the noodles, you can make sure that the noodles are drained well so that all the excess fat and salts are removed from them.

Instead of resorting to the packaged flavouring and seasoning that accompanies the noodle packets, try your hand at using home-made seasoning alternatives that do not contain salts and other chemicals in such quantities.

Since the entire noodle preparation does not inherently hold any nutritional value, you may try to add some chopped vegetables such as cabbage, carrots, peas, beans, etc. to make it visually appealing and tasty to consume as well.

If your child is already hooked on them, you can incentivize the serving of instant noodles by limiting the number of times you purchase them and dishing them out only on certain occasions.

Potato Noodles
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Ingredients

  • Noddles
  • Boiled Irish potatoes
  • Curry
  • Diced beef/chicken/fish
  • Onions
  • Chicken/beef stock
  • Sea Salt
  • Nutritional Yeast

Steps

  1. Boil water in a pot or sauce pan.
  2. Pour in noodle broken up into pieces in the boiling water. Allow to cook for 3-5 mins.
  3. Sieve our the water from the pot and discard the water.
  4. Pour a little oil in the pot, saute onions, carrots, cut potatoes and meat.
  5. Add the chicken or meat stick.
  6. Add the drained noodles and stir properly.
  7. Finally add your seasonings. If you are using scrambled eggs, add it at this point.
  8. Please DO NOT use the seasonings that come with the noodle packs and the water used to boil the noodles should also be discarded.
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Other healthy noodle recipes

Be sure to check out my other noodle recipes.

Simple Veggie Noodles

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veggienoodles
Veggie Noodles by Baby Healthy Bites

Where are my indomie Mamas. This is for you! Actually I don’t even have any form of instant noodles in my home, said a BIG NO to instant noodles for almost 2 years now for reasons I think we all know.

But I was given some noodle packs and since I won’t throw them away, we made something without using the regular seasoning that comes in the packs.

So here is my recipe, save and share with other mums so they know a better way to prepare any instant noodles they have.

Simple Veggie Noodles
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Ingredients

  • Noddles
  • Carrots
  • Green Pepper
  • Onions
  • Beef/Fish/Scrambled Eggs/Chicken
  • Tomato sauce or Tomato Stew
  • Sea Salt
  • Nutritional Yeast
  • Black pepper

Steps

  1. Boil water in a pot or sauce pan.
  2. Pour in noodle broken up into pieces in the boiling water. Allow to cook for 3-5 mins.
  3. Sieve our the water from the pot and discard the water.
  4. Pour a little oil in the pot, saute onions, carrots and meat.
  5. Pour in sauce or stew and add a little chicken or meat stick.
  6. Add the drained noodles and stir properly.
  7. Finally add your seasonings and veggies. If you are using scrambled eggs, add it at this point.
  8. Please DO NOT use the seasonings that come with the noodle packs and the water used to boil the noodles should also be discarded.
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Stir-Fried Egg & Veggie Noodles

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stirfriednoodles

The little man refused to allow me take the picture of the meal and kept digging into the plate. Had to take a shot anyhow.
But today’s meal is stir fried noodle (without the seasoning) with veggies. I used coconut oil to stir fry.
It’s relatively a very simply meal that can go for the family and kids.

Check out the recipe below.

Stir Fried Egg & Veggie Noodles
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Ingredients

  • Noodles ( preferably wheat noodles if you have access to it)
  • Carrot
  • Green pepper
  • Yellow and red bell pepper
  • Spring onions
  • Onions
  • Nutritional yeast (seasoning)
  • Sea salt

Steps

  1. Break noodles to small pieces and per-boil in hot water. It should get too soft.
  2. Once it's a bit soft, drain off the hot water with a sieve and pour ordinary or cold water over the noodles.
  3. Chop carrots, onions, pepper and doing onions
  4. Using a non stick pot and low heat ( if available) heat up a little coconut oil.
  5. Pour your onions, carrots, bell peppers, sea salt.
  6. Once your veggies are soft, add the noodles and mix thoroughly.
  7. Add nutritional yeast till you have your desired taste.
  8. Finally add the spring onions and take off the fire.
  9. Fry the egg separately and just mix with the noodles.
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Semolina For Babies: When To Introduce, Health Benefits, and Recipes.

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Rich in Iron, a perfect and cost-effective cereal for babies.
I wish I knew about this when my kids were younger.
While looking for a new cereal I could give my daughter during the lockdown, apart from rice, oats, pap, and store-bought cereals (Oh yes. I give my kids Cerelac and the likes from time to time), I came across Semolina for Babies online.

Of course, I carried out my research to make sure it’s safe for babies and kids.
It’s funny how I didn’t remember how my mum loaded my siblings and I with semo and wheat cereal when we were kids (just wished it was blended with fruits. I would have been happier to take it).

In places like India, babies are introduced to semolina cereal (popularly known as sooji) from 6 months of age.

Semolina is a product of wheat.

There are quite a few good things going for this smooth and creamy semolina porridge.

  1. A rich source of iron and potassium (major nutrients needed for a growing baby).
  2. The presence of proteins in semolina, along with carbohydrates, Vitamin B, and Vitamin E make it an all-round nutritious choice.
  3. Since it is easy to eat and digest, there is no fear of constipation issues with your baby on this one.
  4. It is healthy and filling for babies and toddlers.

How To Make Semolina For Babies.

It requires little ingredients.
It is a welcome change from pap, oats and other cereals.

  1. Mix the semolina flour/powder in water to dissolve properly to a light paste.
  2. Place in a saucepan and cook on low heat until it thickens.
  3. Add baby formular.

With these steps above you have your basic semolina base.
You can spice things up a little by adding dry fruits, fresh fruits, berries, turmeric, cinnamon, date syrup. For kids over 1 year, you can add honey. The options are really endless.

Things To Consider When Making Semolina for Baby Food.

Although semolina is one of the best foods to give to your baby, you cannot afford to take chances. There are certain things you should keep in mind when making semolina for your baby.

  1. Though semolina has many nutrients, the quantity of nutrients is less in comparison with other grains. So it is necessary to fortify it with vegetables, fruits and milk.
  2. The consistency of semolina, the water required and the amount of time it takes to cook depends quite a bit on whether the grains are fine or medium-sized. Thankfully ours in this part of the world is fine.
  3. Semolina is a product of wheat. Make sure you watch out for any allergies or tummy issues when feeding a baby.

Semolina Recipes

Vanilla Flavored Semolina Cereal

Ingredients

  • Semolina flour/powder
  • Vanilla extract
  • Date syrup
  • Baby Formular/breast milk

Steps

  1. Prepare your semolina base and shown above. Just add 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla essence while cooking.
  2. Sweeten with a little date syrup.
  3. Add milk and serve.
  4. For older kids, you can add some toppings, in this recipe I used sweetened oats crumbs.

Semolina & Yogurt Cereal

Semolina & Yogurt Cereal

Ingredients

  • Semolina Flour
  • Baby Yogurt/Plain yogurt
  • Baby formula/breastmilk
  • Date syrup

Steps

  1. Prepare your semolina base and shown above.
  2. Add baby-friendly yogurt or any plain yogurt.
  3. Sweeten with a little date syrup.
  4. For older kids, you can add some toppings, in this recipe I used sweetened oats crumbs.

Try out these recipes and let me know how it goes in the comment section. Have any questions? drop a comment below.

Everything You Need To Know About Constipation In Babies.

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Vector cartoon boy sitting in the bathroom with pain in the stool because of constipation.

There is nothing more distressing than when you start to notice changes in your baby’s stool.
Where your baby had a bright yellow runny poop, all of a sudden it changes color becomes hard. In some cases, some babies even strain when trying to poop.
The most frightful is when your baby who would usually poop once or twice now poops once in 3 days or more. I know the kind of crazy thoughts that could run through your mind 😁 I don’t even want to mention the outrageous thoughts that ran through mind. Thinking about them is hilarious to me now.

I will ease those fears with this post so continue to read along. Be sure to save and share this post with mommas you know might be going through this.

It’s usually very normal when these changes happen with your baby’s poop especially once they begin taking solid foods.
The appearance, smell and texture of their poop will change quite dramatically so have no fear Mama.

Here are a few of the changes that will occur.

What to expect when baby is introduced to solids.

  1. It’s stools will often be the colour of the food eaten.
  2. It may also contain small pieces of undigested food.
  3. The frequency with which they pass stools may change too – sometimes a baby can go a few days without a bowel movement.

Now all these mentioned above does not necessarily mean your baby is constipated. If the poop is soft when it finally appears, then it is very likely that things are going on fine, neither does straining while trying to poop indicate constipation. All these are quite common reactions your baby will exhibit as it adjusts to the new texture and firmness of its stools.

But baby constipation can arise as his intestines learn to cope with this new form of nutrition being introduced.

The resulting hard stools can sometimes tear the delicate skin around the anus. These tiny but painful tears can cause your baby to sub-consciously hold back his stools.

Unfortunately, this compounds the problem – his body will absorb the water from these stools, making them even harder, plus the large amount of stools in the intestine will cause discomfort and pain.

Signs to look for.

  1. Stools are hard and dry. This is probably the clearest indication of constipation in baby.
  2. Your baby cries as he “poos” – straining might be normal, but crying indicates a greater discomfort that needs investigating.
  3. Your baby seems unwilling to feed and is generally unhappy.
  4. Blood is visible in, or on, the stools.
    REMEMBER – If your baby is displaying any of these symptoms, discuss them with your doctor.

Now, let’s look at simples home remedies you can use to to relieve your baby’s discomfort and prevent it happening too.

Home Remedies For Baby Constipation.
ALWAYS OBTAIN THE CONSENT OF YOUR CHILD’S DOCTOR BEFORE INTRODUCING NEW FOODS, JUICES OR WATER TO YOUR BABY.

  1. My first remedy to babies who have just been introduced to solids is that they should be given lots of clean water to aid bowel movement. After every meal and intermittently during the day.
  2. Try giving your baby cereals with high fiber e.g oats, barely or mixed grain cereals.
  3. I usually suggest starting with easily digestible purées like banana, avocado or sweet potato as your baby’s first food and then gradually graduate to cereals.
  4. Make your baby’s food a bit runny ( light in texture )
  5. For mums who have access to prune, you can make prune purée as it’s very good at aiding bowel movement.
  6. Offer fruit or vegetable purée about twice a day.

Offer other foods that help soften stools – these include pears (a gentle but effective option that we recommend trying first), peaches, apricots, plums, cherries and peas.

Physical remedies you can try to help ease your baby’s constipation are;

💩Massage baby’s tummy gently, in a clockwise direction, starting at his navel and moving outwards.
💩Give him a warm bath – this will make him feel relaxed (if he enjoys his baths!) and you can continue the massage technique to “get things moving” and relieve discomfort.
💩 ‘Cycle’ baby’s legs – this exerts gentle pressure on his intestines by moving the muscles in his tummy. Simply put him on his back, hold his legs and turn them gently, but quickly, in a cycling motion.
💩 If hard stools have caused tears to baby’s anus, alert his doctor and use Vaseline to protect his delicate skin.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Constipation in babies should always be checked out by a medical professional,to rule out any underlying cause.