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Baby announcement food ideas


5 Fun Pregnancy Announcements You Can Eat in Feb 2023

When you find out you are expecting you want to make your announcement special, and these are 5 Fun Pregnancy Announcements You Can Eat!  Making this exciting time in your life even more spectacular is easy when you celebrate and share your good news with a fun treat that everyone will enjoy.  From cookies to cakes and fun things in between you are sure to find just the right way to announce your pregnancy with these ideas.

  • Great Free Pregnancy Announcement Cards

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Custom Cookies:  There are tons of baby themed cookie cutters out there to buy.  Grab some in the shapes of rattles, babies, bottles and pacifiers.  Make up your favorite batch of sugar cookies, cut them out and bake.  Ice them with pink and blue and your prospective due date.  “Baby X Due X” is a great way to ice these cookies.  Load them into boxes, tins or bags and take to your friends and family as a fun and tasty way to share your joy and pregnancy announcement you an eat.

Custom Cake or Cupcakes:  If your family is throwing a party for any reason, this is a great choice.  Having a special cake made with the announcement is so fun and easy, but cucpakes are even more fun.  You can add fun sprinkles, various colors and of course the due date to them to share your excitement with everyone.

Custom M & M’s:  Did you know you can order these classic candies with nearly any message you want printed on them?  This is a great and fun way to announce to your friends and family.  Have them put into special gift containers, or bagged like any regular candy would be.  Hand them out and watch the reaction as they notice your special news printed on these chocolate treats!

  • Insanely Awesome Pregnancy Announcements

Custom Fortune Cookies:  Whether you order a box of the regular classic fortune cookies with your announcement, or you grab one of the larger deluxe specialty fortune cookies to make the big announcement with, this is a super fun way to share your news.   This fun pregnancy announcement you can eat is great for casually sharing at the end of a meal with friends and family.  Serve up some dim sum like wontons, potstickers and similar and have a fun dinner party that ends with a special announcement tucked into this crunchy cookie.

Custom Lollipops: Use baby themed candy molds to make your own custom lollipops.  Announce by sharing these suckers with a small note attached saying, “Baby X Due X”.  This is a fun and cool treat that everyone will love receiving.

No matter what you choose, these fun pregnancy announcements you can eat will please a crowd.  From homemade treats to specialty ordered items, you are sure to make everyone thrilled to find out your special surprise.

Have you ever given pregnancy announcements that you can eat? What did you give out?

6 Unusual And Fun Pregnancy Announcement Ideas

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Here are six of our favorite unusual and fun pregnancy announcement ideas.

  1. The Unexpected Lunch

There’s something to be said about receiving an unexpected lunch delivery.

Especially one with the delivery of live geese and a dozen or so brightly colored balloons.

Now we’re not saying drop off wild geese at your partner’s office, but thanks to delivery, you can surprise him with a specially catered lunch to make the pregnancy announcement.

Have your delivery equipped with pink or blue dessert and a tiny bear print engraved on the receipt with the due date.

It’ll make him ponder and even give you a ring to question the strangeness of it all, and that’s when you can make your mark.

Without laughing at his confusion, we hope.

Suppose you are the type of person who enjoys going all out with big news.

In that case, you can make a trip to the restaurant beforehand and have them place a copy of the ultrasound photo into the box or bag.

You can count down the seconds before you get that urgent phone or video call.

A very unexpected lunch for your partner indeed.

2. The Delivery

Should you find yourself working in the office and your partner working from home, you can flip ‘the unexpected lunch’ on its head.

Now there are a few ways you can go about this: premake lunch or have lunch delivered.

Either way, your partner will get the message, and you’ll have one heck of a funny pregnancy announcement story!

And if you don’t want to go the food route because you know how particular he can get, you can make any delivery an ‘unexpected’ delivery with a phone call ahead.

Whether from his favorite coffee shop or sports venue, if they offer drop-off service, take full advantage of it to drop the bomb on him.

3. The Gag Gift

Here is another creative pregnancy announcement to give a try.

Similar to the holiday game you play with family, you can leave an unexpected gag gift attaching the baby name anywhere in your partner’s familiar environment.

Enjoy watching how long it takes him to get the hint.

Don’t give in or give up too quickly if he doesn’t immediately suspect anything.

Some people have delayed responses, and he could be one of the many.

Whether it’s:

  • a wild and head-scratching riddle
  • a baby announcement poem
  • or a physical item that’s out-of-the-ordinary

it should give him more than enough time to ponder on what it means before you lean in and drop the big news.

4. The Holiday Card

Should you want to get your friends and family members involved in announcing your pregnancy, skip the announcement card and announce it with a yearly holiday card!

Many families choose to have a family portrait taken during the holidays, and should this include your family too, why not make it a family portrait session they’ll never forget?

A new baby means new rules, and if you’re far enough along and already know the baby’s gender, why not make it a gender reveal as well.

Talk about a cute pregnancy announcement idea.

Bring in the props and find your photographer, and right before the “cheese,” everyone can toss pink or blue glitter in the air before announcing your pregnancy aloud.

Capture the exact moment on camera and have a few keepsakes of your partner and everyone else’s shocked faces.

You could also share an image on social media if you’re into that sort of thing.

Or, if it’s only just the two of you, make it a solo surprise pregnancy announcement mission – especially if it’s your first child.

Right before the timer runs out, you can toss colored glitter or confetti high into the air and shout ‘pregnancy!’ loud enough to throw him off his game.

You won’t have to watch what happens because it’ll all be recorded, and you can share the moment with your parents and both sides of your family for generations to come.

5. The Pet Groomer

Now, this funny pregnancy announcement requires a cute pet – whether yours or a friend’s/relative’s.

The trick is to give your partner the lovely little task of dropping off and picking up the pet from the groomers.

Give the salon a heads up of your plan so that it runs smoothly, and at the time of the scheduled pick up, you can have the groomers announce with a team-led ‘congratulations’ with a pink or blue ribbon tied to your pet’s collar.

Or, if you’re up for it, you can bring in a shock factor.

Think of a drastic (pre-approved) haircut and color for your pup that your partner was unaware was on the menu.

He’ll get a shock factor alright, and you’ll get a phone call faster than a lightning strike.

Just be sure to hold in your laughs because he’ll obviously be in a state of shock and confusion.

6. The Food Dish

Creative pregnancy announcement ideas are best when there’s food involved.

Do your partner and family enjoy your baking?

If so, turn your desserts up a notch by creating a pink or blue filling or topping.

Now you may think this isn’t shocking, but imagine the looks on their faces when their usual slice of cheesecake is colored bright pink or blue.

They’ll think you’ve gone mad and suspect you of playing a trick or two, and while you have everyone’s attention, you can then drop the news on them.

Now extra precautions may need to be taken to ensure this goes according to plan, especially if you have mindless eaters in your gang that won’t think twice about their food before gulping it down.

For example, if you’ve baked extra special cupcakes, cookies or brownies, you could leave a card or note beside the baking dish or platter that’ll grab their attention when reaching for the dessert.

Two cards/notes if you’re attempting to make a twin pregnancy announcement.

Look towards Alice in Wonderland’s ‘Drink Me’ bottles for a bit of inspiration.

Use a large card and make sure that the writing is brightly colored or in thick, bold font.

The note will slow them down from grabbing and throwing the desserts back.

After noticing that their regular eclair is filled with an odd color and quite possibly the engraving of the baby names, that’ll be enough to get the conversation going and slide in your surprise.

Another trick you may try for cute baby announcement ideas is placing food coloring in the water cubes (if you’re still using ice trays).

Now, if pink or blue ice cubes don’t get their attention, then you might have to resort to plastering a giant blow-up of the ultrasound on the front of the fridge and let everyone play the game of guess who.

Whether you choose to go solo or involve friends to help surprise your partner and family after your positive pregnancy test, these six ways to make a cute pregnancy announcement will give you the shock factor that you’re looking for.

We hope you feel inspired to use these ideas to create your own fun pregnancy announcements.

Cooking with a child or dishes prepared by children. Recipes for cooking children.

Cooking with a child or dishes prepared by children. Recipes for cooking children.

"Go play by yourself! Wait! Do not touch!". How often do we say this when you need to cook dinner, and the baby is eager to help at all costs! And so do both girls and boys. And then, when a daughter or son grows up, one can only be perplexed - where did everything go? Well, you need to pull the child more often - and soon his desire to help will disappear, you can be sure.

The normal desire of a child to help in such an exciting business, which is cooking, needs to be cherished and cherished. No matter how difficult the dish is, no matter how busy you are, you can always find something for the baby that he can handle. Peel boiled, cooled potatoes or eggs. Wash vegetables. Make sandwiches or decorate a salad. Something to mix or even chop. And it doesn’t matter that the filling falls out of the crooked dumpling, the cream is smeared on clothes, and flour is picturesquely scattered on the floor. Is a piece of dough, a stain on clothes or a soiled floor really worth the resentment and disappointment of your baby? Of course they don't. And the benefits of what you take care of recipes that children can cook , and sometimes cook a new interesting dish with your child, there will be a lot.

Kitchen essentials

When we involve a child in the kitchen, we not only prepare him for adulthood or get another hand ready to help, but we also realize a lot of other useful aspects. Firstly, the fact that the kid was entrusted with an “adult” job becomes a very important moment for him in realizing his importance and necessity. Secondly, while working in the kitchen, the child learns independence, responsibility, new and necessary skills. Thirdly, the kitchen is an ideal "testing ground" for teaching mathematics and logic. After all, you need to count how many eggs, spoons of sugar or salt, drops of lemon juice and so on. You need to navigate in time. Fourth - food prepared by one's own hands is much tastier than mother's. So, your fussy little kid will stop suffering from lack of appetite. Fifth: cooking is a creative process. So, we not only teach the kid to cook, but also increase his creative potential. In other words, the list is endless. But in order to get only joy and pleasure from kitchen witchcraft, you need to remember a few simple rules.

The most important thing is to explain to the child how to behave in the kitchen and strictly follow this. After all, there are so many dangerous objects around - which means that there should not be running around or pampering. In order to have less washing, sew or buy a personal apron for your young chef (you can use oilcloth). Pick up a stable stool or other stand so that he can easily reach the sink, stove or table. And by all means explain that after cooking it is necessary to put things in order in the kitchen. By the way, usually children love to wash dishes - because they are so interested in messing with water.

Of course, not everything will work out right away. Do not scold the baby for this. Yes, it seems to you that there is nothing easier than making a neat pie. But remember - was he so neat when you first made pies? Immediately tune in to the fact that cooking with your child will take longer than usual. But after all, at this time you will communicate with your baby - which means that it will be spent pleasantly and profitably. So, here are some recipes for kids.

Cooking sandwiches with the child

The most accessible recipe for kids is sandwiches. You can even cut all the ingredients you need for this dish yourself. And let the kid lay them out on bread - the way it comes to his mind. After all, even a banal sausage sandwich can turn into a funny face. It is enough just to make eyes from halves of olives, a luxurious mustache from dill and draw a mouth with ketchup.

Hot Sandwiches is a good recipe that kids can make for Sunday breakfast. A preschooler can cut bread and cheese on their own and put it all in the microwave. And what difference does it make that the sandwiches are likely to be thick and crooked? Just imagine how proud and happy your child will be! After all, he did it himself, feeding mom and dad!

There is also a more complex recipe for cooking by children - recipe for morning sandwiches . It is necessary to add a drop of mustard and parsley, previously finely chopped, to the mayonnaise. You need to spread this mixture on bread, add sausage on top (you can replace it with a slice of boiled meat), cover everything with cheese and put in a microwave or oven. The sandwiches will be ready as soon as the cheese is melted.

You can also cook unusual apple sandwiches with your baby is a good recipe that kids can make. For sandwiches, you will need an apple (grated), cheese, butter and a white loaf cut into slices. If the grater is plastic, then you can trust your child to grate an apple. Slices of bread should be smeared with butter, put a grated apple on top, sprinkle a little sugar on top, put a piece of cheese on top and fry under a lid in a greased frying pan. The sandwiches are ready when the cheese is melted.

Very delicious sweet croutons and can be built from a slightly stale long loaf. The recipe for cooking by children is quite simple: half a glass of milk is beaten with an egg and a tablespoon of sugar. Slices of a loaf are dipped into this mixture (your child will do this best), and spread on a preheated pan, greased with vegetable oil (and this is your concern). You need to fry on both sides. Such unusually tasty sweet croutons are perfect for morning tea or coffee. By the way, they are eaten much faster than they are cooked.

Recipes that children can cook - extraordinary soup

Most often, the child, without giving up "snacks", categorically does not want to eat soup. The way out suggests itself - you need to cook the soup together. And be sure to come up with an unusual name. For example, Edible Bugs Soup , which turns into a regular soup with meatballs, is a great recipe for cooking with children. You will need a small onion, medium-sized carrots, five to six potatoes, a parsley root and 300 grams of minced meat. While the baby washes vegetables, boil two liters of water. Finely chop the onion, grate the carrots, cut the potatoes into cubes. Put all this together with the parsley root in boiling water. A child can salt the soup if you first measure the right amount of salt. Ten minutes after the vegetables, we lower the meatballs into the soup. By the way, a child can also make them - you just need to control the process. Another five to seven minutes - and the soup is ready. It remains only to add a piece of butter and finely chopped parsley. This is how a small miracle happens before the eyes of a child - from seemingly ordinary products, a fragrant, beautiful and incredibly tasty soup is obtained. Well, why not try it?

Cooking fun snacks with the child

For children, not only the taste of the proposed dish is important, but also how it looks. And many boring dishes can be restored to their attractiveness, just by changing the appearance. For example, Cheesy Yellow Cheesy Chicken is a good recipe that kids can make. Boil 5 eggs, let cool. Let the child clean them, and you carefully cut them in half, in no case breaking the proteins. Set the egg white halves aside. To the yolks add 100 g of grated cheese and 20 g of butter, drip with mayonnaise. Thoroughly mash with a fork and mix well. Put the halves of the proteins on a plate decorated with greens. Fold the balls rolled from the cheese mass into them - these will be the bodies of the chickens. Roll up the heads and put them on top of the bodies - both can be done by a child. Boiled carrots are suitable for beaks, pieces of black bread or olives are suitable for eyes. By the way, the birds may not be chickens, but some other chicks - and then they can be seated in nests of boiled or fried cauliflower in an egg.

Cheerful snowman is made from three boiled potatoes connected with toothpicks. The hat and nose are made from boiled carrots, and the eyes are made from canned peas. A simple recipe for cooking by children will bring joy to both you and your baby.

There are many recipes that children can cook - from an ordinary egg you can make a hedgehog, or a funny pig or a cute bunny. It just takes a little imagination.

Culinary geography of recipes prepared by children

From joint culinary creativity, you can create a wonderful opportunity to get acquainted with geography. To do this, sometimes it is enough to cook some kind of national dish. First you need to find a country on the map, read about the climate there, what kind of people live in it, about their customs, culture, and traditions. And then cook dinner in the traditions of this country. For example, quesadillas are Mexican flatbreads.

Recipe for making children quesadillas: for start to make tortilla cakes, which will serve as blanks. We will need two glasses of flour, a teaspoon of salt and 50 grams of bacon (can be replaced with grated margarine or butter). Put it all in a bowl and grind it thoroughly to form small crumbs. Then pour in a little one and a half cups of hot water and knead the dough. Divide into twelve parts, each thinly roll out, giving the shape of a round cake. Let the kid try to work with the dough. The task is difficult - but very interesting. Moreover, you can always correct what happened - and one or two cakes can be baked "as is" - just imagine how many impressions there will be. The cakes are fried in a dry frying pan, the first side is half a minute, the second is ten seconds. They should come out as if a little undercooked, pale. Do not overdo it - otherwise our cakes will become brittle. The tortillas are then filled with filling and turned into quesadillas. For the filling, almost anything is suitable. Here, for example, is a very tasty option: boiled chicken meat, corn, grated cheese, sweet peppers, sour cream, a little parsley. Put the mixture on the half of the tortilla (this is another thing for the baby), fold it in half, fastening the edges with a toothpick, and put it in the microwave or oven until the cheese is melted.

A great recipe for cooking by children - a favorite dish of most little gourmets from Italy. Of course, we are talking about pizza. By the way, "pizza" means "pie" in Italian.

If you don't want to mess around, you can buy ready-made pizza dough. But it will be much more interesting for the baby to cook pizza with mom - from start to finish. Mix a tablespoon of sugar and 7 grams of dry yeast in a bowl with 4 tablespoons of water (we will need a glass of warm water in total), set aside for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, mix a teaspoon of salt and 350 grams of flour. Make a slide on the board with a recess in the center. Pour a tablespoon of vegetable oil, prepared yeast, the remaining water. Knead the dough for 5 minutes, put in a warm place for about half an hour. During this time, the dough should double in size. Knead again for a couple of minutes, roll into a layer about half a centimeter thick and spread on a baking sheet, previously greased with vegetable oil. It remains only to prepare the filling. Mandatory components of any pizza are tomatoes (or tomato paste) and cheese. Everything else is at the mercy of your imagination. You can simply put slices of tomatoes on the dough, sprinkle cheese on top thickly, do not add salt and pepper, and bake it like that. You can use boiled chicken or beef. Diced ham or any other sausage will do. Pizza with fish and other seafood like squid or shrimp will turn out well. Vegetarians can use mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, you can even lay zucchini or eggplant, pre-fried. Here, for example, one of the options: chicken plus canned pineapple in small pieces, plus cheese, plus herbs. Let the child choose the pizza with what filling he wants. And he will put it on the dough himself.

Favorite recipes for children to cook or prepare a delicious dessert with your child

This is something that will not only be cooked with pleasure, but also eaten with delight. And there are simply a great many recipes for preparing sweet dishes for children that are available for cooking with a child. Here are at least apples in a puff .

Grate a pack of margarine (250 g) on ​​a fairly large grater or chop with a knife, grind with flour (3 cups are needed) until a homogeneous mixture of crumbs appears. Add a glass of sour cream and half a teaspoon of soda, quenched with a tablespoon of vinegar. Knead the dough well. Sixteen medium-sized apples cut in half, remove the core. Divide the dough into 32 parts, roll each part into a ball, then flatten it with your hand into a cake. Place an apple cut side up on each tortilla. We wrap and connect the edges of the cake together - carefully, there should be no holes in the dough. On a baking sheet lined with baking paper, spread the resulting puffs flat side down, after dipping the convex side in sugar. Bake over medium heat until the puffs are golden brown.

Even if the child is very small, he will be able to wash the apples himself, put the chopped halves on the dough. Older children can wrap apples themselves in the dough - it turns out to be very elastic. They can dip puffs in sugar and spread on a baking sheet.

Apple Pyro Biscuit g is a delicious recipe that kids can make. 6 apples washed, peeled, cut into medium-sized cubes. Sprinkle with sugar (about a tablespoon), mix. Separate 4 proteins from the yolks, beat in a steep foam. While whipping, you can tell the baby that Dr. Aibolit cooked his famous eggnog in much the same way. Continuing to beat, slowly pour a glass of sugar into the whites (this is where you need one more hand), then pour the yolks. Carefully, add flour in small portions, and mix the dough no longer with a mixer, but with a spoon. This is the most crucial stage, you need to mix carefully, otherwise the biscuit will settle and no longer turn out to be airy. Pour sliced ​​apples into the bottom of a cake pan greased with margarine, carefully place the dough on top. Gently, trying not to shake off, put in the oven (it should be already preheated). Bake on medium heat for 15-20 minutes. The dough should acquire a golden hue. One of the main criteria for readiness is the amazing smell that filled the kitchen. Gently pry the finished pie with a spatula, separating it from the bottom and walls of the mold, then turn the mold over, laying out the pie so that the apples are on top.

Another favorite recipe for kids is shortbread cookies . After all, these cookies can be cut out of a layer of dough with funny molds. The dough itself is very simple - 250 g of melted margarine, two cups of sugar, three eggs, a bag of vanilla sugar, two teaspoons of baking powder for the dough, mix well, add 2.5-3 cups of flour, knead the dough thoroughly again. The finished dough should be elastic. Roll it into a large board with a thickness of 0.5 to 1 cm. And then the fun begins. Give the child molds - and let him squeeze the cookies out of the dough and transfer it to a sheet previously lined with paper. Bake until golden brown over medium heat. From scraps of dough, you can mold your own invented wondrous animals.

As you can see, cooking with a child is easy and exciting, and both for the child and for you, it's worth trying. And the recipes that kids can make are always tastier! Joyful preparations and bon appetit!

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Recipes for a tasty and healthy life

Spring fun:

Boats

Sun. The snow melts. Droplets tap on the windows. Brooks ran. Spring streams are very small rivers. I wonder how homemade boats will float on them? A walnut shell with a match mast or a wooden "steamboat" - a chip? Where will the turbulent current take them? Will they overcome the thresholds? Will they fall into the whirlpool? It is advisable not to run aground, otherwise you will have to call a “tug” - a dry stick and correct the situation. And if your ship got into a huge puddle sea, then here it will either moor at the coast, or fall into a storm caused by a passing car. If the stream is long, then you can follow its “banks” for a long time and even arrange a sailing regatta. And then, of course, award the winner. So you can simultaneously get pleasure, vivid impressions and knowledge of mathematics, physics and natural science, walking and enjoying the spring sun. After all, a stream is a natural, greatly reduced model of a river, and most of the patterns: the flow of water, the stability and reliability of ships, their movement, and much more - coincide.

If your boy (or girl) is inquisitive, then such walks are a little paradise for them. The more questions a son or daughter has, the more interesting it will be for you to go for a walk, the higher the probability of active intellectual and creative development of the child. At 7 and 8 years old, it is not too late to launch boats. And if a company is selected, and even of different ages, then any options are suitable. Meet spring!

Ball, chalk, rope and rubber band.

A multi-colored round ball lies on a shelf. Skipping rope or "jump rope" - what is it? Oh yes! This is such a rope with two wooden or plastic handles, you have to jump through it in gymnastics, but it doesn’t work. Near the house. On the pavement, someone drew rectangles with numbers with chalk. Classics. You can jump on them. You don't have to go to hell. Nothing special. Walking alone is not fun. Nothing to do. Here in the company - another matter. You can scream loudly, chase each other, push each other. It is even more interesting to stand nearby and play the game on the phone. Preferably the same. Who will set the record faster. Oh! What are those guys doing over there? Two (a little boy and an older girl) stand opposite each other and hold either a rope or an elastic band on their feet. And another girl jumps over it, clinging with her legs, and twists some strange figures. But at the end of the jumps, the gum returns to its place. Great!

- Mom, how does she do it?

- Nothing special, I can do it too!

- Mom, what are you talking about! How can you do that?

-Do you want me to show you?

- You won't fall?.....Wow! Mom, you are great! Why didn't you show me this game?

We all come from childhood. We, too, were small, loved to run, walk and play. They often gathered in large companies and played dodgeball, classics, and Cossack robbers. The times and interests of children have changed. But this does not mean at all that they are not at all interested in all the previous games. The kids just don't know about them.

Silence

Evening. The city falls asleep. Why go to bed so early when dad is watching TV? Mom is talking on the phone with her friend in the living room. The older brother sits at the computer, watches a video of a concert of a popular group and at the same time draws something to a friend “on the wall” in contact. Only the dog is stretched out on the rug near the bed and dozing: one eye is closed, the other is peeping. Late. Maybe it's time for everyone to sleep? In the house opposite, someone just turned off the light and opened the balcony. The sky is dark. On it are bright stars and a young month. Can't sleep. The pillow is hot, you need to turn it over to the other side. A car drove into the yard. Neighbor hurries home. The engine stopped. The door slammed, the alarm went off. Hurry steps ran by, and the access spring sang its song. The dog growled softly and scraped its paw on the floor. She is dreaming. If you close your eyes and close them tightly, you can see a bright orange door. The leg is numb, you need to roll over. The light in the living room went out. The orange door is gone. Now the house is quiet. The TV is off. A fresh breeze came from my brother's room, which means he turned off the computer, opened the window and went to bed. There was a comfortable lulling silence. She has her secrets. It makes it possible to hear the ticking of the clock on the piano, the fuss of sparrows under the roof, the ringing of a vase of sweets in the refrigerator. It brings warmth and happiness. I wish she would come earlier, at least once a week!

Adults are lucky. They have the right to stay up late and eat and drink whenever they want. Watch TV and talk on the phone without paying attention to the time. This is cool! They are the lucky ones. Or not? 'Cause they might miss my silence Grandmother is also an adult, the most adult. She listened to me and now she knows everything. Mother! Dad! Live one day and evening according to "my" rules. You installed them yourself! You will visit my magical world, and I will become a little more mature.

The child is small. What to feed a child in the summer at home and while traveling

In the summer, children, as if on command, become little ones. They also become adults. Why? When we eat, the body "throws" a lot of blood (fluid) to the gastrointestinal tract in order to digest food, secrete juices. In the heat, he needs the same fluid to cool his body temperature. Therefore, it reduces the appetite so as not to be torn on all fronts. How and what to feed a child in the summer, at home or on a trip?

Very hot weather dehydrates the body, leading to thickening of the blood. Therefore, in summer, foods with a high liquid content should be preferred. These are cold vegetable soups, salads made from juicy watery vegetables - tomatoes and cucumbers. From fruits - apples and pears, and, of course, berries. In summer, experts recommend limiting meat dishes, they are too heavy and difficult to digest - and do you need it, stand at the stove and fanatically fry, stew, bake? Take a break from cooking in the summer. In the heat, the body needs a lot of energy. Energy is most easily released from foods that are sweet, rich in carbohydrates and micronutrients. These include fruits, watermelons and melons, as well as dishes from them (comotes, purees, juices). Be sure to need sour milk, low-fat cottage cheese. As a source of protein, we consume eggs and nuts. The meat is preferably boiled - rabbit, turkey, chicken, and seafood is better.

All leafy green vegetables are very useful in summer. They provide the body not only with vitamins, but also with mineral salts, which are lost during sweating.

Watercress, spinach, celery, beet greens and other vegetables are especially good, both raw and cooked.

We have already analyzed the basic rules for feeding small children here: A small child: well, how to feed him! And is it necessary?

Summer food: light, healthy and… wet!

If your baby is less than a year old and you are concerned about the introduction of complementary foods, here are some simple rules for the summer. Divide all age norms by two. For example, the volume of porridge at the usual time should be increased to 100 g - in the summer, 50 g will be enough for a child. Do not introduce meat in summer, or do not exceed a dose of 2-3 tsp, this is enough for a child up to a year old. Do not introduce heavy or exotic foods in the summer, and leave the yolk until the fall too. Your child is still receiving breast milk or formula in full, so summer berries and fruits are not relevant to him. When you give a child a couple of berries, you do it for familiarization, and not for special benefit. He may not assimilate new food, and all the berries will come out entirely. Therefore, do not rush to shove all the summer gifts “for vitamins” into the child - up to two years, the child absorbs useful substances primarily with milk protein. And do not wean in the summer from the breast or from the mixture, the heat is stress for the body, there is no need to arrange another strong stress. And the body's resistance to bacteria, which are much more numerous in summer than in winter, will suffer greatly.

In summer, a small child often despises complementary foods and settles securely at the breast. And this is good, only the mother is not always comfortable, and the child gets the best and healthiest food for hot weather. Don't worry, it's not forever.

From doctor's consultations (website babynotes.ru). Advises Mikhail Yuryevich Denisov, MD, Professor, Novosibirsk State University, pediatrician and pediatric gastroenterologist:

Never force-feed a child. If it is hot outside (above 25 degrees), be sure to give your child water to drink, but in no case mineral water. You can give weak tea without sugar, fruit drinks. It is better to feed in hot weather with easily digestible foods - vegetables and fruits, pay less attention to cereals. You should postpone the introduction of new dishes until the heat has subsided. As for the volume - watch your child - how much he will eat, so much he will eat. You will make up for the lack in the fall. In hot weather, it is better to give the main food to the child in the morning and closer to the night.

If the child has already grown out of complementary foods, in the summer it is recommended to slightly change the feeding regimen. During the midday heat, the child is offered not lunch, but a second breakfast, but dinner or afternoon tea - especially after a long walk - is made more dense.

What should our tanned and unbearably thin child eat to make his body feel good?

• Two or three servings of foods containing calcium, eg milk, cheese, yogurt.

• One of the foods rich in iron: fish, beans, eggs.

• Two types of flour or cereal products - bread, rice, vermicelli, pasta or porridge.

• One serving of fresh fruit or fruit salad.

• One serving of fresh or steamed (or baked) vegetables, vegetable soup.

Many adults evaluate food exclusively by plates. Ate a plate of something hot - well done. In the summer, the child does not need your full plates, they will come in handy in the winter. The portions required for normal functioning are extremely small.

Here are the approximate daily allowances for children aged 2 to 5:

Cereals (pasta) - 150-200 g.

Meat or fish dishes - 70 g.

Vegetables - 150 g.

Fruits, juices - 100 g.

Fresh fruit and vegetable salads - 40-50 g.

Rye bread (for the whole day) - 50 g.

Wheat bread (for the whole day) - 110 g.

Dairy products - not less than 350 g.

Imagine visually a 70-gram piece of meat or fish. That's not a lot. 150 grams of vegetables - an average plate. And 100 g of fruit is half a banana. To summarize: children need very little food, in summer its function is to supply energy, nourish the body with vitamins. Potatoes with meat or mushrooms in hot weather can cause intestinal upset, an excess of yeast will lead to bubbling and cramps. If a child does not want to eat in the summer, but only wants to drink - wonderful. Just great. Think of food he could drink. Summer soups are also drunk from a mug, not only from a boring plate that nails to the table. By the way, soup can be drunk from a cocktail tube. Does the child only want to grab pieces? Amazing. Think of what he could grab. Pieces of food can be pricked on skewers or toothpicks.

Drinking food ideas:

*Vegetable broth.

*Kefir (yogurt) with herbs and finely grated cucumbers, radishes. If vegetables are added, kefir should be diluted 50/50 with water.

*Fresh juices.

*Milk soup with noodles, rice, vegetables.

*Muesli with yoghurt (kefir).

*Fresh or dried fruit compote. In summer, compote is called a full-fledged replacement for soup.

Food "grasping":

*Cheesecakes with berries.

*Baked pieces of vegetables with herbs.

*Stuffed tomatoes and peppers.

* Zucchini and eggplant slices stuffed with vegetables - or so.

*Balls of boiled rice with any filling - vegetable or fruit.

*Cannelloni pasta (large tubes) stuffed with vegetables or cheese and herbs.

*Baked fruit. Apples, pears and bananas can be stuffed with cottage cheese.

*Zucchini fritters with carrots.

*Pieces of vegetables and fruits on colorful skewers.

- In such weather, children are not particularly hungry, - says pediatrician Evgeniy TIMAKOV (interview for kp.ru). - Do not force food - replace food with water. Every day, the baby should be given about a liter of water. Calculate the average dose according to the formula - 40 - 50 ml of liquid per kilogram of the child's weight. Morses help well - cranberry, currant. But with juices, albeit clarified for children, be careful: because of the sugars, they can only increase thirst. Even if the child loves them very much, try to limit yourself to 200 ml per day. In such weather, you can have a little “bite” - cookies, a cheese sandwich, not at the prescribed breakfast or afternoon snack, but also during the day, when the baby wants. At night, when it is not very hot, you can give a glass of kefir or low-fat baby yogurt. In the heat, food for the baby should be only fresh - freshly cooked. The season of watermelons and melons will soon begin, which not only quench thirst well, but are also rich in vitamins and fiber. Delicious pulp from the middle will become both food and drink. In the heat - this is a good way to feed the baby.

We read about supplementing children under one year of age here: Summer. Part I: infancy

What is there to fear?

- Chips and other salty snacks, sweet biscuits, chocolate and sweet drinks. Many children like this food, but it is of no nutritional value. This food day after day saddens the stomach, lowers immunity. Ice cream contains a lot of fat and hits the pancreas. In the summer, you can’t do without ice cream - choose not chocolate varieties, not ice cream and not chemically grey-brown-raspberry something in chocolate.

- Let's remember the golden rule: what is useful for adults is not only unnecessary for children, but also harmful. From drinks, children should not get carried away with industrial juices, they have very few vitamins, and they burden the stomach. Kvass, useful for adults, children do not need either, like any yeast food, after three years, kvass is allowed in a volume of no more than a glass. Mineral water is given to children after a year and a half, necessarily a dining room (not medicinal) and without gas in an amount of no more than half a glass.

- In the summer, ANY food has a reduced shelf life. Watch your habit: in nature or in the country, salads are sometimes crumbled in advance and left in warm places. Even at home, ready-made salads should be immediately put in the refrigerator. We recall from the last article about pre-holiday diets: a salad that has stood in the sun turns into a biological weapon. Raw meat or fish left out of the refrigerator is unfit for food after 4 hours, sour milk - after 3 hours. Okroshka and other cold soups do not have a shelf life, they are not harvested for future use.

- Bad bacteria multiply faster than rabbits in hot weather. Wash your hands and your children's often. Purely educational fact: do you still think that harmful bacteria live exclusively on doorknobs and toilet rims? 40 times more bacteria live on keyboards (they jerked their hands back with a squeal) and in wallets.

Do not rush to pamper your children with exotic fruits or cherries from the beginning of summer. Most likely, you will be sold modified "vitamins" stuffed with chemistry. Here are the approximate dates for the ripening of some fruits and berries: cherries - June, apricots - July, peaches - August-September, cherries - July, watermelons and melons - the end of August-September.

If you or your child already has stomach problems, in the summer you will have to give up everything sour: currants, sour apples, plums, citrus fruits.

If there is a disease associated with the esophagus (difficulty swallowing, heartburn), or a hernia of the esophagus, you are contraindicated in the gifts of gardens that will slow down the work of the esophagus - these are pepper, dill, garlic.

If the child has a tendency to frequent stools, then a large amount of fiber will not benefit. Especially a lot of it in raspberries, so do not get carried away with this berry. On the other hand, if you suffer from constipation, raspberries are your product.

Eat melon, it contains a lot of food enzymes, similar in composition to those found in our intestines, so it is well absorbed. The same goes for eggplant. These fruits and vegetables digest themselves, and the body spends less energy on them.

If you have an increased acidity of the stomach, and you love parsley, cilantro and garlic, the acidity will increase even more. If, on the contrary, it is reduced, this greenery will only be useful.

Recipes

Vegetable soup with kefir

Cut boiled potatoes, beets, carrots, boiled eggs, fresh cucumbers and green onions, greens into a saucepan. All this must be seasoned with fresh kefir of medium fat content. Add sourness - lemon juice or a little vinegar. There is a more modern invariant - instead of the usual boiled beets, use pickled beets - it turns out simply divine, and no additional sourness is needed. So that the soup does not turn out too thick for a hot day, take three quarters of kefir and one quarter of beetroot marinade. Accordingly, if there was no pickled beets - one quarter of water with lemon juice. You can add a little salt, but more often it muffles the special taste of the dish. So, we put the seasoned soup in the refrigerator and ... we wait with great difficulty when it cools down.

Green okroshka

Ingredients: chilled water, sour cream, mustard, salt, boiled new potatoes, radishes, cucumbers, eggs (one per person), dill, green onions, cilantro, basil.

Pour some chilled water into a cup and dilute sour cream and mustard in water. It is difficult to indicate the exact proportions, since the varieties of sour cream are different, as are the varieties of mustard, so you have to try and experiment. If the acid is not enough, you can add a little citric acid or lemon juice. Salt to taste. We chop the boiled chilled potatoes, as for Olivier - pieces the size of a pea, we will do the same with eggs and cucumbers. Finely chop the greens, mix vegetables and herbs with the okroshka base and serve.

Beetroot

1 medium beetroot, 1 tomato, 1 fresh cucumber, 1/2 egg yolk, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of sour cream, a small bunch of green onions, dill, 400 g of water, 1 teaspoon of salt solution.

Wash the beetroot, peel it, chop it on a grater, put it in a saucepan together with the tomato rubbed through a sieve, pour hot water (200 g) and simmer over low heat for 1-1.5 hours. To prevent the beets from burning, you need to gradually add water. By the end of beet stewing, pour hot water (200 g) into the pan, boil for 10 minutes and cool. Rinse cucumber, onion and dill with boiled water, finely chop, dip in beetroot, add salt solution and mix well. Pour sour cream, mashed with boiled egg yolk, into a plate with beetroot.

Potato with cottage cheese

Boil the right amount of potatoes (peel, but do not cut!), and while they are cooking, carefully knead the cottage cheese, adding a little sour cream to it, just enough so that it becomes similar in consistency to curd cheese. Salt, do not hesitate, you can add a little black pepper. And then the miracle begins. You simply spread the potatoes on one half of the plate, and put the finished curd mixture on the second. Decorate the dish with dill on top and be sure - of your choice - chopped garlic or green onions. Place a bowl of sour cream next to it, and a pickled cucumber in the middle of the plate, as a symbol of victory over the exhausting heat. Eat hot potatoes with cool curd cream together, sometimes adding sour cream. Just? Very. But when you try it, you will feel the surprisingly subtle taste of a miracle - no one can explain why the taste of salted cottage cheese mixed with steaming potatoes fascinates, but it is unforgettable.

Melon and grape salad

Arrange the washed lettuce leaves nicely on a wide platter. Peel a small melon from the peel and seeds, cut into cubes. Mix the berries from one bunch of ripe pitted grapes with melon, sprinkle with lemon juice and put on lettuce leaves. Can be sprinkled with walnuts.

Cheesecakes with berries

Cottage cheese - 2 packs, soda - 2 tsp, vinegar, egg - 1 pc, sugar - 7 tbsp. spoons, flour - 5 tbsp. spoons, vegetable oil, berries - 300 g, heavy cream - 100 g, sour cream - 150 g.

Cottage cheese, mix with egg, add 5 tbsp. tablespoons of sugar and soda slaked with vinegar. Fry in vegetable oil. Berries (you can take kiwi, apricot), whip cream and sour cream, and pour cheesecakes with this sauce.

Pumpkin with orange

Sprinkle 2 cups pumpkin pulp with granulated sugar, half a sliced ​​orange and ginger. When the pumpkin gives juice, boil for 5 minutes. Serve chilled.

"Charlotte" summer

This pie is prepared quite simply - from a stale long loaf, red currants and raspberries. To prepare "charlotte" wash the berries, about one and a half cups of raspberries and half a cup of currants, sprinkle them with sugar. At the bottom of a deep dish or saucepan, lay the prepared slices of white bread with the crust cut off (the thickness of the slices is about 0. 5 cm). Lay out the sides of the form. Pour in the berry filling, level it with a spoon, place the loaf slices on top and place the load. After a while, turning the shape over, you will get a beautiful raspberry-colored charlotte. Cut into pieces and serve with cold milk.

Apples in dough

200 g flour, 140 g butter, 70 g sugar, 1 egg, small apples, sour jam.

Knead the dough from flour, butter, sugar, yolk and salt, leave it for an hour. Select the apples, wash them well, peel them, remove the core and fill with jam. Roll out the dough to a thickness of 2-3 mm and cut it into squares. Wrap each apple in a square of dough, pinch the ends at the top. Brush with egg white, sprinkle with sugar, put on a baking sheet and put in the oven. Bake over moderate heat until done. Serve warm.

How to feed a child on the road?

In the summer we traditionally travel a lot. Even if we don’t get a vacation, there are still gaps for going out into nature, and we stay longer in an ordinary park than before. Even a walk in the park can be called a little trip. Today we will miss only the plane - a separate article is being prepared about air travel.

In the park, at the cottage or on a hike, canned food helps us out. The best way to feed your baby, no need to reinvent the wheel. Canned food is useful up to three years, inclusive, or even longer - why not, if the child eats. Banks can be stored for a long time at a temperature not higher than +25.

It is more difficult with an older child, therefore, when going for a long walk, try to feed him more heartily and be sure to take food with you: yogurt (if it is not hot outside!), sandwiches, fruits. Pour water or compote into plastic bottles with a non-spill cap: it is more likely that the child will drink from the bottle, and not from a mug like at home. Fatty foods, even in small quantities, are harmful to the pancreas. Remember that even harmless products are poisoned in summer. Sauces, ketchups are also prohibited - they contain dyes and preservatives that can cause inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Prepare dry rations in advance: muesli, rice balls, pies or pancakes with dried fruits or rice, bread. For any fermented milk products, take a cooler bag with you!

We are going, we are going, we are going on the train

Babies are incredibly lucky: there are no problems with food on the road. If you feed your child with a formula, then you must definitely have a thermos (or rather two) with boiling water with you: firstly, in order to dilute the formula for feeding, after cooling only the amount of water that is necessary for each portion of the mixture , and secondly, in order to immediately! after feeding, rinse the bottle thoroughly (it is advisable to have a bottle brush with you). It is advised to take with you as much water as you need for the entire trip (of course, if it does not last more than a day). If you take boiling water from the conductor, a change in water can adversely affect the digestion of the child.

Food for older children should not be taken too much - food storage conditions on the road are far from necessary. Baby food in jars, juice, water is a must, apples are enough. On the train, the child often begins to act up, and the mother offers him various snacks as a consolation. A snack discourages appetite, and when the meal time comes, the child will refuse - the regime is violated, a chain reaction of digestive failures begins. Constipation or diarrhea is a frequent result of the “wrong” way. Here are some tips from seasoned moms:

- If the child has a good appetite, and you are sure that he will not refuse food, take vegetable soup in a thermos, mashed potatoes - for a couple of times. You can put food in several small thermoses. But if you know for sure that it will be hot on the train, thermoses will be an extra load.

- The conductor always has boiling water, you can brew baby porridge or cereal that is boiled for a minute, as well as baby soups from boxes.

- If the child is already over 1.5-2 years old, then usually, he eats the same as adults: sandwiches, hard cheeses, hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes and cucumbers, boiled potatoes, meatballs, pancakes with dried fruits. All this is suitable for the first day of the trip, when you can still save food taken from home. To store it, use not plastic bags, but special containers made of food-grade plastic or glass jars with lids.

- What is most interesting is that sometimes children eat almost constantly on a trip. Usually, before leaving, excitement interrupts their appetite, but before they have traveled even ten kilometers, they are already asking for food. To do this, stock up on a light nutritious snack. Not thick sandwiches or cakes, but sandwiches made from thin slices of bread with lettuce, ham and cheese.

- You can also take bags with children's herbal tea with you on the road.

- Instead of cookies and sweets, take a package of dried fruits, pre-steamed and dried - or ready-made industrial (soft).

And don't be afraid to oblige with your problems the conductor or employees in the cafes near the station, the dining car! If the menu in the dining car or cafe is not designed for small children, ask them to cook porridge (rice) without additives and crumble fruit into it. For a child, vegetable soup, scrambled eggs or vegetable platter can be prepared. In many trains, the conductor has a refrigerator and a microwave in the compartment. Well, they won’t refuse to put cottage cheese in the refrigerator or warm up a jar (plate).

What not to take:

- Do not take with you some new food that is unfamiliar to the child. It is not necessary to buy pies, dairy products, meat and even more fruit from roadside vendors on the road - it is likely that they were not stored in proper conditions, moreover, these products are an excellent breeding ground for bacteria. Knowledgeable people say that vegetables for sale are boiled right there in unwashed buckets. And it’s better not to think about how and with what pies are baked. As for ice cream: at the station, take a good look around. Most often, an ice cream stand is somewhere nearby, buy ice cream in it, and not from peddlers. Many stations also have stalls with dairy products.

- Do not take a lot of sweets: the stomach will suffer. Candied fruits also belong to sweets, these candied fruits have no use, as they are already boiled and sugared.

And the most important piece of advice: don't fanatically feed your child on the road! It can be hot in a train, stuffy (as in a car) - new terrain, new experiences, all this leaves its mark on the appetite, which can completely disappear. After all, children, first of all, absorb new impressions, and do not think about whether they are cold or hungry. It is better for the child to eat very little than to be poisoned by not very healthy food or get intestinal problems due to the persistent pushing into the mouth of either chicken or biscuits mixed.

Third part: How to protect your child from mosquitoes, ticks and other bloodsuckers

The second part is here: Summer. Children dress, shoes and protect from the sun!

First part of the cycle: Summer.

Learn more