baby - Cooking Bell Peppers For Your Baby

Bell peppers make a tasty addition to your baby's diet and -- despite their misleading name -- they are not "hot"! They can be found in a variety of colours, including red, green, yellow, orange and purple. Their bright colours are a good indication of their excellent nutritional value -- bell peppers are a rich source of vitamin C, vitamin B6 and vitamin A (from beta-carotene). They also contain folic acid. Red peppers in particular contain lycopene, a valuable carotenoid which, in adulthood, helps protect against heart disease and cancer. Bell peppers are also believed to protect against such conditions as rheumatoid arthiritis and the development of cataracts in later life. With such an impressive list of health benefits, it's clearly a good idea to encourage your little one to enjoy bell peppers from an early age -- thereby establishing a healthy start that should continue into adulthood. When you are buying bell peppers to cook for your baby, look for ones that are deeply and brightly coloured, with taut skin free from blemishes. Check the stems, which should appear fresh and green. Some bell peppers can be very oddly shaped, but this does not reflect on their taste or quality. Many babies prefer red, yellow or orange peppers to green ones, as they are sweeter. Bell Pepper Baby Food Ideas You can include bell peppers in your recipes for babies from 6 months of age. Make sure that you introduce bell peppers to your baby alone at first, or with another food he is already safely enjoying. This is to help you identify and prevent potential food allergies or digestive problems. Cut sweet red pepper into slices and serve as a finger food to an older baby, accompanied by a cream cheese dip. Stir chopped bell peppers into your baby's favourite casserole or stew. To create a truly delicious red pepper puree for your baby, place a whole pepper under a hot grill/broiler. Blacken the skin on all sides, then place the pepper into a sandwich bag. Leave for 10 mins. On your return, the skin will slip easily from the pepper. Remove the seeds and puree. You can mix red pepper puree with other foods -- try combining it in a blender with sauteed onion and courgette (zucchini). This will produce a tasty soup that you can serve to your baby either hot or cold. Or use the puree as a tasty spread on lightly toasted bagels. Try serving your baby a stuffed bell pepper -- simply blanch a de-seeded pepper in boiling water for a few minutes, then drain and stuff it with your choice of any of the following: cooked rice a little sauteed onion and garlic chopped mushroom chopped cherry tomatoes a little oregano. Bake at 350 deg F for 30 mins, for a simple and delicious meal for your baby. Christine Albury is the owner/editor of Homemade Baby Food Recipes - your guide to dealing with the many aspects of introducing solid foods to your baby. For more baby food recipes using peppers, visit Preparing Bell Peppers For Baby. Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christine_Albury baby - Baby Yeast Infection Not only can adults with skin folds get a yeast infection, but so can those wondrously-pinchable chunky babies and toddlers. When working as a toddler teacher, I had come across both sexes of children with yeast infections. One of my toddler girls had a huge rash under her armpit. When I pointed this out to her mother, she was brought to the doctor that same day. The following morning, her mother came to us with a cream - it was a cream to kill the yeast infection under her armpit! It is truly distressing to have a child who cannot talk, eventually come down with a yeast infection. On a baby, the only couple of signs you get from a girl is just as unnerving to the child as to the mother. If your daughter cries every time she urinates into her diaper, and has a lot of redness and swelling in her vaginal area, then it may be time to take her to the pediatrician. I also had a toddler boy end up with a yeast infection. This child happened to have his foreskin attached to his penis still. If you do not know, many children nowadays happen to have the foreskin removed within a few days after birth - whether for sanitary purposes or religious reasons. If the foreskin is not pulled back from the head of the penis and cleaned properly, then a yeast infection can occur. One this child, the recurrent yeast infections became so much that his parents finally decided to put the child through surgery (at 21 months of age) to have the foreskin removed. Now, this does not mean that an uncircumcised boy will always get yeast infections, but the parents do need to make sure that they are properly cleaning the area. This also means that the child must be taught to do this as a young man, or, as an adult, that man can get a yeast infection around the head of his penis. Infants can also be susceptible to a form of yeast infection in the mouth, called thrush. Thrush is seen in the mouth a small, white patches on the insides of the cheeks, and the roof of an infant's mouth. It is normally painless, but can become uncomfortable enough for an infant to refuse to breastfeed. That being said, a mother can contract a yeast infection in her breasts if her infant has had thrush. Both the infant and the mother would need to be treated for the infection. On the mother, small red or white patches can show on the breast, as well as red or purple discolored nipples. During breastfeeding, the mother may experience shooting pain in the breast, or even a more sensitized nipple area. Many antibiotics to treat yeast infections can be passed through breast milk, so doctors truly need to exhibit caution when treating this type of infection. Some mothers swear by eating more yogurts that contains good bacteria, and lessening consumption of yeasty foods.