Baby feeding, part 1

We came to India with a stash of ~20 assorted jars of Earth's Best organic baby food, one box of Earth's Best multigrain cereal, and a container of HappyBaby organic vegetable puffs. As planned, we went through most of the baby food jars during our two weeks of travel in Maharastra, and towards the end began transitioning to making our baby food on the go.

Baby-friendly foods that are readily available here:
Fruit - bananas, apples, watermelon, papaya, oranges
Veggies - carrots, potatoes, green beans (though they're sometimes tough), parsnips, eggplant, an green summer-ish squash, 1 orange winter-ish squash (called 'pumpkin' here, though not what we call pumpkin), beets, okra
Starch - white rice, 'idli' (a steamed rice cake, slightly sourdough-ish), a variety of flatbreads (naan, chapatti, paratha), pasta (in the international section of grocery stores)
Protein - yogurt, eggs, packaged cheese, and occasional fish or chicken off our plate if it isn't too spicy
Seasonings - garlic, baby onions, fresh coriander (i.e., cilantro), and other herbs I haven't yet identified. Salt and various peppers would be available too but I'm mostly steering clear of these!

Some of these stretch the definition of baby-friendly. We haven't yet fed Thomas everything on the list but he has taken quite well to some of the unusual stuff, including plain idli (Indians try to sweeten it for us, either with honey or milk with sugar & coconut), eggplant, and plain yogurt. Allergenic foods like eggs and fish were once considered off-limits for babies but recently it has been concluded that there is no evidence that delaying the foods prevents allergies, so we've given them to him -- especially since good protein sources are harder to come by than the other items. Dahl (lentils) would certainly be readily available but if bought/prepared for us it is very salty and often spicy, and I haven't yet tried making it in our electric kettle. I also still need to explore what other beans & legumes might be possible.

Aside from the few items that can be served plain (bananas, idli, rice, yogurt), here is the routine:

Step 1: Fruit & vegetable prep

Fruit and vegetables get washed in a three-step process. First, a soapy scrub to remove any dirt & debris. Second, a 20-minute soak with 1 tsp veggie wash (bleach works) in 5L water. Third, a rinse with bottled water. I generally wash enough fruit and veggies for a few days and then keep them in our produce bowl.

According to Stauffer et al (J Travel Med 2002), even raw, unpeeled produce can be considered safe for consumption after this process. We actually do boil and/or peel everything we give him for chewing and digestion reasons, so the three-step wash isn't strictly necessary for travelers diarrhea prevention for now, though it will be if we get to the point of any raw veggies while here. But I like to wash things to remove potential pesticides as well, and I just feel better having clean produce to work with.

Step 2: Food prep
The tools are shown, except that I forgot to include the vegetable peeler we brought from the U.S. We peel and then chop veggies or apples into small pieces, then boil them in just enough water to cover in our 0.5-L electric kettle. The kettle has an auto-shut off feature so sometimes we have to keep pushing the button in order to keep it (nearly) boiling. Then, if we want a puree we put it through the hand-crank food mill, or otherwise we just mash it with a fork. We generally do some of both: he seems to digest the pureed foods better, but he enjoys finger foods so we give him some small pieces at times as well. If we are making enough to store we put them in the baby food jars we saved from the beginning of the trip.

Step 3: Storage
One of the best items we found to bring was a small six pack-sized refrigerator. Without kitchen access there really would be no other way to keep from having to prepare food for Thomas at every meal, and there would also be no way to store breastmilk. The fridge generally stays stocked with a few boiled eggs and various jars of apples and vegetables. We haven't yet found a small enough container of yogurt to fit in here but hopefully we can include that as well. We tried to keep a carton of milk for late-night cereal for us, and it fits but it unfortunately doesn't really leave enough room for Thomas' stuff. The cereal here is mostly all very, very sweet anyway.

The only downside of the fridge is that when they come to clean our room they hit a switch outside the door that turns off all the electricity to the room. It is easy enough for us to turn back on, but we have to be aware on days that we aren't at home and make sure that we use that food immediately (it does stay pretty cool with the insulation of the fridge) or toss it soon after.

Step 4: Wash dishes
This happens in the same bucket used for washing the fruit.