Would you like to learn how to make Japanese food for your baby, but don’t know how?
Here is a new cooking show with three Japanese mums to show you!
Part 1 – How to buy ingredients for making Japanese baby food
Three Japanese mothers, Kaori, Akiko & Tomoko, take us on a guided tour of a supermarket in Japan and give us advice about some of the ingredients they often buy for making baby food for their babies. Similar to other countries, vegetables such as carrots, pumpkin, sweet potato, and spinach are often used in Japan, but there are also some unusual ingredients which may be unknown to mums and dads from overseas. In this cooking show, I have asked our three Japanese mums if they could show us some of these more unusual ingredients and how to cook them in their favourite baby food recipes. Here are the ingredients that they recommend us to try, and some tips on how to buy them at the supermarket!
– Yamato-imo (sweet yam), cabbage, natto (fermented soybeans), soft tofu, shirasu (white bait), tara (codfish), kombu (dried kelp), and katsuo-bushi (dried bonito flakes).
In upcoming posts, Kaori, Akiko & Tomoko will show us how to use these ingredients in their favourite dishes!
Hi Kate,
When do Japanese families add meat to their infant’s diet? BabyCenter tells US mom between 7 and 10 mos. That seems so young to me. I see so many more ideas for food choices here!
thanks, diane
Hi Diane, thanks for your message! According to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the majority of families start to introduce meat around 12-18 mths age. They usually introduce fish and chicken first (around 9-12 mths), and then pork and some beef after the baby turns 12 mths.
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/shingi/2007/03/dl/s0314-17c.pdf
After talking with my Japanese friends about baby food, I learned that many hesitate to feed their baby pork or beef too early as Japanese pork and beef often contains a lot of marbling (fat).
Here is a Japanese website that explains that marbled meat is not suitable for babies:
http://赤ちゃんと離乳食.com/niku.html
Lean meat is okay though. Here is a website in Japanese which shows how to prepare lean meat for baby food:
http://www.sutekimama.com/baby/babyfood/003_beef.html
In Australia, feeding babies lean beef is recommended to provide protein, iron and zinc for the baby’s growth and development.
There are amazing baby food recipes in Japan! I am hoping to post more on this soon!
Kate xx