Kitchen hygiene and organisation

babyworld food editor Fran Warde runs through some basic rules of kitchen hygiene and gives some handy tips on how to make cooking for your baby simple.

Babies are especially vulnerable to bacteria that cause food poisoning, so it is very important to store, prepare and cook food correctly, and keep your kitchen and equipment clean.

•   Always wash your hands when preparing food
•   Wash all fruit and vegetables before cooking
•   Always cook eggs all the way through
•   When reheating food always reheat to boiling or piping hot and then allow to cool to the correct temperature for serving
•   Always stir microwaved foods to heat evenly and to disperse hot spots
•   If you are ever uncertain about serving something to your baby, don’t serve it
•   The most hygienic way to wash up is in a dishwasher, as the temperatures that are reached are very high, and will kill germs
•   Change kitchen cloths regularly.

The above all sounds very serious, which it is, and care must be taken in your kitchen.

Once your kitchen is clean and shiny you can start cooking. All that you need for the early months are a small saucepan, a hand held blender, a potato masher or ricer, ice cube trays, small Tupperware pots and cling film. 

The hand held blender can be extremely useful for blending small amounts of food at the pulse of a button, they make cooking for your baby very simple.

One of many mothers' complaints is that they spend too much time cooking very little amounts of food. A good tip is to cook baby food when making your own supper, it's very easy to just cook a few extra vegetables or keep a little portion of your supper and mash it the next day – just ensure that there is no added salt.

Another handy tip is to cook in batches: prepare vegetable purees and freeze them in ice cube trays. Once the cubes are solid, remove from the trays and transfer into Tupperware boxes, label the boxes and then microwave the food as needed. As your baby's taste buds develop along with his appetite, you can easily adjust the amounts and combinations of food you feed.

•   For some recipe inspiration why not look through babyworld's recipe selection

•   Click here for more food features

•   Whether breastfeeding, bottle feeding or weaning, talk about your baby's diet on babyworld's feeding discussion forum 

•   Visit our feeding reference pages for additional information.