JulieBhosaleAchive

Gluten is the proteins found in certain grains. Not all grains contain gluten - wheat, barley, and rye contain gluten. When flour and water are combined, and kneaded into dough this gives the elasticity which provides structure to bread and other baking and helps them rise. Many people today are intolerant to gluten. Our gut is very sensitive and gluten is known to really irritate this. This is also one of the reasons why I recommend holding off on giving babies grains ( read more on this here ). In addition, many foods containing gluten (including the flour itself) can be really processed. Below are my top three recommendations for gluten substitutes however as gluten does add that elasticity the binding of these alternatives will have a slight different affect but well worth having a go with! Almond Meal Almond meal, almond flour or ground almond (all these names refer to the same product) is simply made from ground sweet almonds. Almond meal is a great high protein, low carb alterna...

Sleep and food go hand-in-hand. It can be a vicious cycle which is difficult to break when these get out of harmony! I actually have a whole section on this in my new book coming out in August. Sleep, or a lack of it, is one of the biggest challenges we are faced with as parents, especially in that first year. I really encourage mums and families to seek help when struggling with this - we are not meant to know everything about parenting - which includes getting your baby to sleep! This weekend I am down speaking in Hamilton for our National Starting Solids Tour - home to the incredible Emma Anderson who is the founder of Sweet Dreams NZ - she is also delivering a presentation at this event and she has a guest blog here on tips to help with self-settling. Emma Anderson - Founder of Sweet Dreams NZ Self-Settling Advice Like many areas of infant sleep, the topic of self-settling has varied opinions and philosophies on when you can start teaching your baby how to self-settle, and even i...

Introducing food high in iron to your baby is crucial. As our breast-milk and formula has only trace amounts of iron babies are born with enough iron stores to last them up until around six months of age, after which iron must be supplemented in their diet. As a really high source of haem iron (very easily absorbed) I am asked a lot about how and when to introduce meat into a baby. You can read more about this over my previous blog here and this is a great high iron puree to try with your baby! It is one straight from my new book The Nourished Baby   (available on pre-order now!) These ingredients especially the mince, liver and kale are all great sources of iron. The trick with using liver (which has 9mg/100g of iron) is to nuterialise the smell with some lemon juice before hand - just allow a few hours for this. Ingredients: 150g lambs fry 1/2 lemon 1/2 cup mince (or other red meat like a lamb chop) Coconut oil or olive oil (for pan frying meat) 1 carrot, chopped (can leave skin on) ...