I believe it is important to raise children with a healthy junk food free diet. We practice this in our own home and I think it’s important to encourage others to do the same.

At Beyond The Baby we have decided to make a commitment to you. We will never promote or advertise any ‘junk food’ company or product on our site. We will only display healthy recipes with minimal fat and sugar content and will will continue to provide you with education and a wonderful resource to help you make healthy choices for your family.

We will give you recipes you can make yourself with no preservatives, low sugar and fat. We will help you with ideas for healthy snacks, lunches and dinners.

Your childs eating habits in the first 5 years of life are the blueprint for the rest of their lives and we will help you build a solid healthy foundation for a wonderful happy life.

Jen and the team at Beyond The Baby

Baby feeding is always a controversial topic – breast or bottle, when to start solids etc. We have decided to stop all of the silliness! We all know breast is best but we are realists and we understand breast is not always possible for a multitude of reasons. So we have put together some fabulous articles to help you in all areas of baby feeding, no matter what you choose!

We have kicked off our feeding month with some fabulous articles!

Frequently Asked Formula Feeding Questions -We have gathered the most popular questions about formula feeding and answered them for you!

Health and Nutrition While Breastfeeding – What should you eat and what should you stay away from during breastfeeding?

We will also have some awesome giveaways that will be announced over the month!  Including a breast pump package and other baby feeding supplies!

We hope you enjoy our baby feeding month and we would love your feedback! New articles will be up every 3 days so make sure you keep an eye out!
Jen xx

I am always surprised at how many parents are not educated in exactly what healthy food is. We all know fruits and vegetables are healthy but many parents aren’t aware of hidden calories in foods especially processed foods and can often be fooled by creative marketing and packaging.

I always read labels not so much to find out the fat content but more to see what preservatives are used, how much sugar it contains and any other nasties that are not good for my family.

While I was shopping recently I was in the canned fish aisle and picked up some “Kids Tuna”. I was in a rush so I put it in the shopping trolley without reading it and assumed that by saying “kids” it was perhaps softer than normal tuna or maybe had a milder taste. How wrong I was!

When I got home I read the label on the tuna, to my horror it contained more than double the fat, triple the sugar, triple the carbohydrates and double the salt than regular tuna!

For years companies have been selling products that we all assume are kid friendly because many people do not know how to read labels or don’t bother to read them.

In school we all learn about the healthy food pyramid, it shows how many servings of each food group we need per day. In my opinion this is not enough education, most people have no idea how to read a label and what is a healthy amount of fat, protein, sugar etc in one serving. They assume that if it says “healthy” or “fruit” or “wholegrain” on the packaging that it is healthy. I have seen it first hand when someone handed me a fruit bar (biscuit crust with fruit in the middle) and said “it’s ok it’s only apple and some cinnamon”. Reading the label I saw it contain 13g of sugar, preservatives and 6g of fat …. not just apple and cinnamon.

In our house we have a zero junk food rule for Cooper. However he is allowed to have treats at a birthday party or special occasion. This is generally a cupcake and a mini sausage roll which I am proud to say he will gladly exchange for fruit!

I am amazed at the responses I get from some people, I am always asked “Can Cooper have “insert junk food here”, when I respond “No I have packed some fruit for him, he isn’t allowed those foods”. Most respond by rolling their eyes and saying “well what do you feed him?” or “my kids have to have sweets everyday or they drive me crazy!”. The most common response is “isn’t that hard to stick to?” …. the answer …

It’s actually easy! We said from day one that while we had control over what Cooper ate he would only eat good nutritious food. No junk food. The biggest key is planning! It’s not hard, I just make sure before we leave that I cut up some fruit, pack some rice cakes and if we are going to be out for lunch and I know we wont be able to get anything healthy I pack him a sandwich. I never have to hide vegetables and sometimes actually have to give him the meat portion of his meal first or he will fill himself up on vegetables alone!

We don’t allow him any drinks other than water and milk. He has never had juice (except sip out of his friends sippy cup by accident).

It is amazing how much we are judged for our decision and treated like the odd ones out. It has become normal to allow you child to eat chocolate, cakes, chips and drink soft drink and energy drinks from a very young age and on a daily basis.

As part of our healthy lifestyle we also feed Cooper mostly organic food. I cook using organic eggs, meat, pasta, flour etc. Anything that has an organic option. Every Sunday we get up at 7am and head down to our local (or not so local! 20 mins drive) organic farmers market. We want to teach Cooper the importance of buying locally, supporting local farmers and eating organic food. It’s not always possible to eat organic, but it is becoming easier.

We also don’t hide vegetables, he gets them on his plate and will happily eat any vegetable we give him – spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, squash and much more!

I see so many children who are obese and children with very poor health due to their eating habits and it makes me sad. I have struggled with my weight for years and would never want to put my child through that. I think teaching them good food habits from a young age is important to help them make better choices as they grow older.

I would love to hear what you think! How do you eat at home? Can you confidently read a label? Are you conscious of your child’s food habits?

Leave a comment!

Jen xx

We are really committed to providing unbiased unique information for all of our members. Next month is baby feeding month and we have been working hard to write new articles on all areas of baby feeding – breastfeeding, formula feeding and solids.

We believe everyone has a right to access information on all options and we are going to provide it! Every women has a right to choose how they feed their baby and while breast is best it is also not always possible.

When I had my son I wanted more than anything to breastfeed him for atleast 12 months. That was my plan anyway. My birth didn’t go to plan and by 6 weeks I was on medication for PND and insanely stressed. No matter how much I fed or pumped I just didn’t have enough milk. We were comp feeding from 4 weeks and finally at 14 weeks we were down to 1 breastfeed per day. My husband and I decided the stress of me trying to feed him was enough and we put him on formula for all feeds. Since then he has thrived, gained weight and grown to a beautiful 19 month old full of life energy.

When I was looking into formula feeding I found the lack of information disgusting. It was like formula was a dirty word and no matter how many questions I asked or what I searched no one would give a straight answer and just kept telling me to keep trying to breastfeed. From that day I knew I had to make Beyond The Baby and unbiased site for all mothers, no matter what their feeding choice.

I believe breastfeeding is the best start a mother can give her child, but I am also a realist and understand sometimes it is not possible. Women should not be judged.

So next month is Baby Feeding month! Everything you need to know about Baby Feeding!! I hope you enjoy the articles and information as well as reviews and hopefully a few giveaways!

Jen xx

A few weeks ago I was rushing through a shopping centre and came across 2 girls selling their cookbook! I was in such a rush I grabbed an order form and a meatball and took off to the car. I put Cooper in the car, sat down and at the meatball and almost died! It was so good!

I finished my busy afternoon and emailed the girls – Amanda and Sally!

They were nice enough to give me a cookbook to review some recipes so here is my first review!

The cookbook is called Kaotic Kitchen – Mince and Sausages. Amanda only dropped the book off to my house today so on my way to the shop tonight I flicked through it and decided to make Chicken Parmigiana and Gazpacho Salad!

My brother and his girlfriend are staying with us for a few days so they were my guinea pigs!

I was a little cautious as I have never used chicken mince to make parmigiana before and always used chicken breast fillet. So I followed the recipe and served it up, watching everyones face as they took their first bite and was greeted with lots of “yummy noises”!

We all loved it! I actually don’t think I will bother cooking parmigiana any other way anymore! This was so much easier and tasted so yummy!

The salad was so fresh and had a wonderful crisp taste with a light tang.

I am so excited to cook more recipes from this book and even more excited to giveaway 3 copies of the book later this month!

So check out Kaotic Kitchen and grab a copy of this awesome book and stay tuned for more reviews!

Jen xx

No matter whether you’re a stay at home mum or a working mum, we all seem to run out of hours in the day. By the time 5pm comes around most of us are scratching our heads shouting “WHAT’S FOR DINNER?”.

I have found the easiest way to be prepared for dinner is to do a monthly “cook up” of my son’s favourite ready to heat meals and place them in the freezer.

I am a huge fan of another blogger – http://superorganizer.blogspot.com/ she has mentioned an amazing book called Frost Bite. There are two versions, one for the family and one for toddlers to teenagers – Both books are available from Fishpond.com.au. I ordered a copy of both of these last week and I am really excited to find new recipes. They have recipes that are perfect for freezing for the whole family.

Frozen dinners are so easy and just as good as freshly cooked meals. I cook fresh vegies to accompany the meal and it takes 5 minutes rather that 40 minutes to prepare his dinner. This saves me so much time and reduces my stress!

Some of the favourites in our house are -

* Tuna Mornay
* Spaghetti Bolognaise
* Meatloaf
* Quiche (made with wholemeal bread base not pastry)
* Mild Chicken Curry

These dishes freeze so easily and are always a hit! Don’t forget to freeze excess muffins, banana bread, pikelets and cakes! They make easy and quick snacks and defrost nice and quickly!

Jen xx