Before you introduce sweet potato to your baby, speak to your pediatrician to confirm if it is the right time for you introduce it. Most babies develop a good head to neck control by 6 months of age, which is a good sign to understand your baby is ready enough for solids. You can check out this detailed post on how to introduce solids to your baby. In this post I have shared 3 recipes for different age groups. Stage 1 for 6 months old babyStage 2 for 7 to 11 months babyStage 3 for 12 months to 2 years old The texture of the baby food is different at each of these stages & is likely accepted by most babies. However if your baby still cannot eat it then you may go back to the earlier texture (stage 1).
Choosing sweet potatoes
Choose locally grown sweet potatoes as they are fresh and more delicious. If possible look for organically grown and less fibrous sweet potatoes. Avoid those with lots of fiber as they really don’t get pureed or mashed well.
4 ways to cook sweet potatoes
Stage 1 – sweet potato puree
Stage 1 food is for babies who completed the 6 month and is into 7 month. At this stage a baby needs pureed food atleast for a few weeks so it is easy to get used to solids. The best way to make sweet potato baby food for stage 1 is to puree the boiled or steamed sweet potatoes with some warm water or the water in which it is boiled. Most pediatricians suggest using breastmilk. You may go ahead if you prefer. But I always preferred warm water as it is easier for babies to digest single foods. How to make: Peel and chop the boiled sweet potato and add them to a blender. I used a glass chopper here. Earlier I would use steel and glass smoothie blenders for my babies which I had kept exclusively for making baby foods. Blend the sweet potatoes first and then pour water in batches just as needed. Blend to a slightly smooth puree. Over blending makes the sweet potato puree very sticky. Here is the texture of the prepared stage 1 sweet potato baby food. I haven’t made thicker or smoother than this anytime.
Stage 2 – Sweet potato baby food
Stage 2 is for babies after completing 7 months. Once your baby develops a taste for different veggies and single grain cereals, you can try this one. To make food at this stage I would cook the peeled and chopped sweet potatoes along with some rice. We Indians introduce homemade ghee (clarified butter) to babies along with solids. So I would add some ghee to this and then mash all of them well. At this stage a baby can easily accept mashed foods without having to puree them. So you can keep the texture slightly coarse. However if your baby is unable to accept it then puree it in a blender. As your baby grows, increase the serving size and move on to a coarse texture. This is the stage where the baby learns to accept mashed foods. So aim to move towards mashed foods from pureed. After 8 months you can add clear soups, broths or more veggies to increase the nutrition. Use only veggies that you have introduced previously. The second option for stage 2 is to just mash or puree the boiled sweet potato with some precooked rice which you make for your family.
Stage 3 – Sweet potato rice baby food
Stage 3 sweet potato baby food is for babies from 12 months to 2 years. The first option is to just add some butter and mash the sweet potatoes well. Most babies begin to enjoy mashed soft foods at this stage without having to puree them as they love the texture. If your’s still can’t then go back to the earlier stage until your baby is ready. The second one is made with rice, sweet potatoes, ghee and jaggery. Back home in India, jaggery is introduced to babies after 6 to 7 months considering it is a rich source of iron. Once your baby completes 12 months, you can make this rice and sweet potato dish with jaggery and ghee. It is like a pudding and tastes delicious. If you do not want to introduce jaggery to your baby too early at 12 months, then you can always wait until your baby turns an year old. This is the picture of the food made with jaggery, rice, ghee and sweet potatoes.
How to make
Soak rice for about 30 minutes and cook it with sweet potato. I used half brown rice and half white rice and soaked it for about 2 hours. Then i cooked it on a low to medium flame until soft for two whistles in a pressure cooker. If you have an instant pot, cook it for 10 mins with PIP method. Dissolve jaggery in clean drinking hot water and set aside. While the rice is still hot, mash it up well with a spoon. Don’t worry about the color. Rice gets discolored due to the sweet potatoes like you see in the picture below. Filter jaggery water to the pot. Make sure the rice and sweet potato is softly mashed before adding jaggery syrup otherwise the rice turns grainy. Stir and make a uniform thick mixture. You can optionally cook on a low to medium flame till the rice bubbles well. Add ghee. You can also add cardamom powder to flavor it. Cool it completely and feed the baby before 2 hours of preparing it.
