Beets: How to Safely Offer Beets to Your Baby

Katie Ferraro (0s):

Are you trying to squeeze the starting solid food stuff into your already busy schedule? Well, I have an all-in-one done-for-you solution that's going to take the guesswork out of feeding your baby. My online program is called Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro contains all of my baby-led weaning training videos, the original 100 First Foods content library plus a hundred day meal plan with recipes like the exact sequence of which foods to feed in which order? So If. you wanna stop trying to piece all this feeding stuff together on your own? I would be honored If you would join me inside of the program. You can get signed up at babyledweaning.co/program.

Puffworks (31s):

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Katie Ferraro (1m 31s):

And while there's a lot of different ways that you can do beets, if you've got the time, they're a little labor intense. They take some time, you gotta plan ahead. But roasting beets is great. You just preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, cut the tops off the beets, scrub 'em under running water first to remove any dirt. And then I like to wrap them in aluminum foil at first and add a bunch of oil in there. If. you can make sure they're fork tender when they're done. You let it cool, cut it into strips about the size of your adult pinky finger. But hang tight because I have way easier ways to feed your baby beets inside of this episode too. Hey There, I'm Katie Ferraro, Registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in baby-led weaning here on the Baby-Led Weaning Made Easy podcast.

Katie Ferraro (2m 12s):

I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, leaving you with the confidence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby-led weaning. Hello and welcome back. In today's episode, we're gonna talk about beets and how to safely offer beets to your baby. Now full disclosure, beets are one of the very few foods that I absolutely detest and despise. When I was a kid, I hated tomatoes and beets and my grandpa used to say to me, you should try a food you don't like every year just to make sure you still don't like it. And one year I started liking tomatoes, but to this date, and I'm 44 years old, I try beets every year and they make me gag. They taste like dirt, I can't handle them.

Katie Ferraro (2m 53s):

And you might be like, then why would you wanna feed 'em to your baby? Well, there's lots of benefits to eating. Beets and beets are one of the foods on our 100 First Foods List. There are nutrition benefits to beets. People have used beets for many different reasons over the years. There's a lot of ancient origins. So I think like back in civilizations such as the Egyptians and the Greeks, they use them a lot for food dyes or as dyes food coloring. So beet juice has been used as like a natural food diet. I sometimes around Easter time you see people, mom's much more creative than myself using beets to dye their Easter eggs still used today in some culinary applications. But from a nutrition standpoint, beets are wonderful because they're packed with a lot of essential nutrients. Things like folate and vitamin C, potassium and fiber.

Katie Ferraro (3m 35s):

They also, as are all fruits and vegetables, contain a lot of antioxidants. So in beets, the particular one are called beta lanes, which give them the really vibrant colors. So I like to start each of these mini training episodes with a tip of the day. In today's babyledweaning tip of the day is be on the lookout for beet colored poop after you offer your baby beets, right, especially the dark red ones. There's different colors of beets. You know, I know some of you are fans of the gold beets, the dark purple red ones though, after your baby eats them and digests them, it will look like there is blood in the stool. But don't freak out. Usually we do freak out when there's blood in the stool, right? Like, what's going on? Why is there blood in my baby stool? That's certainly cause for concern, but just remember for a day or two following beets, it's gonna look like blood, but it's just the Beets and it's nothing to worry about.

Katie Ferraro (4m 21s):

Now when can you Safely start offering your baby Beets? Beets are a fabulous first food. You can do Beets as soon as your baby is sitting on their own and demonstrating those other reliable signs of readiness to eat. You gotta watch out with the beats though because they definitely do stain. And while I normally don't Advocate for feeding your Babies when naked, like people send me pictures all the time and I'm like, can you repost this? Like absolutely not. I do not share pictures of other people's naked Babies. I don't feed my Babies naked because you know what? I don't eat naked most of the time all the time. Depending upon where you live when it's drafty, that can be uncomfortable for your baby. It can be cold. So we normally say feed your baby with clothes and then put a babyled weenie bib on. But because Beets stain and beet juice is really hard to get out, it is one of the few times that I will sometimes be like, Hey, we're just gonna eat in our diaper today and just do the Beets.

Katie Ferraro (5m 6s):

When it comes to making beets, how can you make beets well inside of My program, Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro, we share lots of ideas on different recipes and ways to incorporate beets. And even though, as I've said it's one of my absolute least favorite foods to make, the Beets really are an incredibly versatile food. So there's a couple of different ways you can do Beets. I'm gonna explain a little bit about a longer way to do it and then a super duper easy way as well. If, you wanna make the beets yourself cooking them in the oven. It's gonna take you about an hour. so you kind of gotta think ahead on this one. You preheat the oven to 400 degrees. We cut the tops off the beets, we scrub 'em under the running water to get off any of the dirt. Okay, I will wrap the Beets in aluminum foil. Sometimes I'll add like a bunch of extra olive oil in there too.

Katie Ferraro (5m 47s):

Why not more fat? Better for the Babies? And then cook them until they're fork tender. Now you can also boil beets. This is the one I can't handle. It makes my whole house. Like I walk in the house and there's boiling beets. It like attacks the back of my throat. It's just, oh, I can't stand it at all. One of my dad's favorite foods are beet tops. We'll talk about cutting the tops in a second, but the smell of cooking beet tops makes me wanna just like run outta the room. But if you're down to boil beets, you trim clean, boil the beets. That's also gonna take about an hour. So this is a little bit labor and you know, kind of energy intense If. you have a pressure cooker If you. I know a lot of you have an instant pot that's still sitting in the box. I always say If, you have an instant pot and you have a baby. You should really put the two together because like so many amazing baby foods can come out of an instant pot if you're doing the pressure cooker setting on the Instant Pot, I peel and cook the beets on high pressure for about 15 minutes.

Katie Ferraro (6m 34s):

Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back.

Katie Ferraro (7m 45s):

So that's three different ways. Pressure cooking, boiling or roasting beets, your call. Do it however you want to. We remove the skin, we cut the cooked soft beet into strips about the size of your adult pinky finger. But there are two super duper easy ways to do beets that do not involve you having to cook beets. You can buy canned beets or the beets that are already prepped. So canned beets I love, right? Canned food is amazing. You sometimes see these other accounts and they're like, I never feed my baby any processed food. Like, well that's good for you. I loved canned foods, a totally affordable way to have an already prepped low sodium food. You can find low sodium versions of beets. I looked for no added salt.

Katie Ferraro (8m 26s):

Canned beets If you can't find those. You rinse your canned foods under the faucet. That can reduce the sodium by about 30%. My general rule of thumb, when I'm looking at foods that I'm going to feed to my baby, if they have a nutrition facts panel on there, if it's packaged processed food, I just wanna make sure there's less than a hundred milligrams of sodium per serving of a food that I'm going to feed my baby. You can usually find beets, no problem. When you take those canned beets, you cut them into strips about the size of your adult pinky finger. I put them in the silicone suction mat or bowl so the baby can use their whole hand or their palmer grasp to rake and scoop the beets up and out and into their mouth. Now another option is there are already prepared fresh beets that a lot of grocery stores carry now.

Katie Ferraro (9m 9s):

Okay, so one of the brands is called, I believe it's called Love Beets. This is not sponsored by them at all. I do not love beets, but I love the Love Beets because they're already all prepped. So loved. Beets is gonna be in the refrigerated section of your grocery store. So it is like a convenience food. It's gonna cost a little bit more than buying the plain beets, but for me it's totally worth it. And sometimes parents worry about the Love Beets. It's like, oh my gosh, Katie, there's vinegar in it. It's totally fine for your baby to have vinegar. Okay, the Love Beets for the most part don't have any added salt. There's a few varieties, like a few flavors where they do add some salt, but most of them are way less than a hundred milligrams of sodium.

Katie Ferraro (9m 49s):

So I like the ones with the balsamic vinegar or the different vinegar taste. Or you can just buy plain old beets and let the baby just eat those if they're already prepared. There's different brands out there besides Love Beets, but I know the love beets ones they have at Costco as well. And again, they have vinegar in 'em, which is totally fine. Just keep an eye on the sodium. Same thing. You pick the bigger pieces so that you can cut them into strips about the size of your adult pinky finger. Put it in the mat of the bowl, let the baby pick it up, bring it to their mouth. You can also do other things If. you get more creative. You can grate Beets into different fritters. If, you want it blended it to soups. You can make beet chips for when your kid is older. It's, I've done that for my kids. They actually like it. I can't handle it. Actually went to a restaurant the other day with my mother-in-law and I didn't really like the kids were screaming and we like trying to make them behave at a restaurant and I just like, whatever that salad is, I'll get that.

Katie Ferraro (10m 36s):

And there were beets in it and I forgot to ask to take 'em out. And even like the beets touching the other salad stuff, I was like gagging. And then I wasn't eating my dinner. My kids like, you did your dinner because you don't like Beets. I was like, oh my gosh, I have a terrible example. But hey, it's fine. I try 'em once a year. That was my one time. I still don't love them, but I hope your baby loves them. If. you want more information on how to make all of the foods on my a hundred First Foods List Safely for your baby. Check out My program Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro. It has over five hours, but not too much. It's like not overwhelming. I just took everything you need about starting solid foods. Safely put the videos together. I also have my 100 First Foods content library where you can watch videos about how to make the foods read, about how to prep them.

Katie Ferraro (11m 16s):

Cut right to the chase. I also have a hundred day meal plan, which a mom just told me. She described it as a game changer, which I absolutely love. You can sign up for the Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro program. If you go to babyledweaning.co. Remember, there's lots of different benefits to doing beats. Keep an eye on your baby's poop. It's one that I'm gonna maybe feed my baby naked 'cause I don't want it to stay in the clothes. But If, you baby tried beats and you love it. Send me a picture. Tag me on Instagram at babyled wean team. Maybe I'll see you inside of my program: Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro more information at babyledweaning.co/program to learn more. And I hope that your baby ends up liking beets If you're interested in doing baby-led weaning, but you're not exactly sure, like what does that mean?

Katie Ferraro (12m 8s):

What does it look like? Where do I start? My online program called Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro has everything you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods and get them to eat over a hundred foods before they turn one, whether you're terrified of choking or maybe you've started but you feel like you're feeding your baby the same foods over and over 'cause you don't know what to feed next. Or you're looking for guidance on how to prepare foods safely for your baby's age and stage. My program has exactly what you need. There's five hours of concise self-paced video training. You can knock this thing out during nap time this week. You also get access to my 100 First Foods content library so you can see and learn exactly how to prep all of the a hundred foods as well as my original a hundred days meal plan. I've been refining this program for the last seven years.

Katie Ferraro (12m 50s):

Just today, a mom wrote to me and told me that the a 100 days meal plan has been a game changer for her busy lifestyle. When you join the program, you also get access to over a hundred phase two combination food recipes. So you're gonna try out the trickier textures, push your baby's palate. And what's cool about these recipes is your whole family will enjoy them. So everything you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods is inside of the program. It's created by me, a Registered dietician who specializes in infant feeding. If you're tired of hunting and pecking around the internet trying to piece this stuff together on your own, I put it all in one convenient place for you. I invite you to check out the babyled weeding with Katie Ferraro program that's at baby led weaning dot co. Again, that website is baby led weaning dot co and click on program to learn more.