How to Serve Hard Boiled Eggs to Your BLW Baby
Eggs are a nutritional superpower. They have 14 important nutrients that will help your baby develop, such as vitamins A, D and E, as well as folate, iron, zinc and choline. Not only that, but the protein they contain is of such high quality, that we use eggs as the standard for excellence for all other sources of protein. Wow! Check out my recipe below for the perfect hard boiled eggs for your baby led weaning baby.
Some of you may be thinking, well what about eggs being high in cholesterol? Surprisingly, the cholesterol in food has little impact on blood cholesterol and eggs are healthy for your baby to eat regularly. That being said, in order to be safe, it is important to cook the yolk thoroughly. This can take some trial and error and a lot of kitchen time, not to mention those grey, dry and overcooked yolks can crumble in baby’s mouth and be hard to handle. But don’t fret! To keep your brains from being scrambled, I have done all the work for you and am sharing my perfect recipe for hard, but not-too-hard-boiled eggs.
Check out this video to see how easy it is to prep hard-boiled eggs for your BLW baby:
Warning*
BLW is contraindicated for babies at risk of dysphagia, such as babies who have an anatomic disorder (cleft palate, tongue tie), a neurological disorder (developmental delay, hypotonia, oral hypotonia) or a genetic disorder. Follow-up by a health professional (doctor, pediatric registered dietitian) is necessary for babies at risk of anemia such as babies born prematurely, babies with low birth weight (less than 3000 g), worries related to growth, babies born to an anemic mother, baby for whom cow’s milk was introduced early and/or a vegan baby.
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How to Prepare Hard-Boiled Eggs But Not Too Hard (6 months and up)
Start by getting a large pot of water boiling on the stove. Make sure you have enough water to fully cover the eggs.
Next, gently lower each egg into the water. Using a spoon to guide you can be very helpful. You want about 2 to 4 eggs per large pot.
The next step is a little surprising…it is time to turn off the heat! By leaving the pot on the same element and quickly placing a lid on, the heat stays within and the eggs cook gently.
Leaving the eggs in the pot, start a timer for ten minutes. In the meantime, prepare a bowl with ice and water and set aside. Once the timer rings, gently retrieve the eggs and place in the ice bath, to help them cool rapidly.
After 5 minutes in the ice bath, remove the eggs and dry them with a cloth. To remove the shell, gently tap each end of the egg on a hard surface and peel carefully.
Finally, you want to cut the hard boiled eggs into quarters to make it the perfect size for little BLW hands. You can store hard-boiled eggs in the fridge in a sealed container for up to one week.
These hard boiled eggs are now perfectly cooked and the ideal size for little hands. Serve them on their own, or with a little spice to change it up and help introduce new flavours to your BLW baby!
Precautions
Before doing Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) with your baby, it is important to proceed safely by contacting a pediatric registered dietitian. Among other things, make sure that:
- your baby is ready and does not start too early
- your baby is sitting at 90 degrees
- you do not place food in his/her mouth with your fingers
- the environment is calm during meals
- you offer the right foods to your baby
- you watch your baby eat at all times
- you contact a pediatric registered dietitian to make sure you are proceeding safely
Do you have any tricks to make your hard-boiled eggs easier to peel? Let us know in the comment section below!
