parenting – Pattu Mommy

Millet Health mix (Sathu Maavu) pudding

In Southern India, there is a millet health mix called Sathu Maavu (literally translated to Health flour in Tamil), which is given to babies, toddlers and is also consumed by adults for it’s rich protein, minerals, calcium and fibre content, and it’s generally gluten free as well. Here is a link for a good brand that I buy for my kids. But it’s tricky to come up with really tasty dishes using this ingredient (it tastes healthy..iykyk 😉 )

I came up with this recipe to make it not just as a health supplement but as a really yummy dish. It’s basically a version of an Indian sweet dish called Halwa (pudding), we are using this millet health mix instead of wheat flour or any other flour that’s generally used for making this dish. You can substitute this with any millet flour as well. I have kept the sweetness level to a minimum on purpose, and it actually tastes great by letting us taste the nutty flavor or the millet health mix. Andddd, it’s toddler approved !!

So here you go – the recipe for your not so guilty dessert !

Ingredients

Millet health mix / Sathu maavu (or any millet / ragi flour)	1/2 cup
Ghee (Clarified butter)	3-4 tbsp
Hot Whole milk (or any milk, but hot)	1 cup
Jaggery powder (palm sugar)	1/4 cup
Cardamom powder	1/4 tsp

Method

Take a heavy bottom pan, and heat the ghee
Add the millet health mix flour and roast it on low flame, for 3-4 minutes, till the mixture starts to bubble
Add the jaggery powder and stir well
Add the hot milk, it will all start bubbling, keep stirring on low flame till it starts to thicken and the mixture starts leaving the edges of the pan
Sprinkle cardamom powder and serve it hot.

CAWD Cake

Carrot Apple Whole wheat Date Cake

I wanted to come up with a no-butter no-sugar no-white flour healthy cake (I know you next question is – how is this a cake then!) for my toddler, and this is the ultimate recipe that has become a hit – either for breakfast or for snack!

You got carrots, apples, whole wheat flour and date sugar as main ingredients – so all good stuff!

So let’s get started!

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour	1 cup
Baking soda	1 tsp
Salt	1/4 tsp
Ground cinnamon	1 tsp
Eggs	2
Date powder	2/3 cup
Oil (any flavorless oil)	2/3 cup
Whole milk	2/3 cup
Vanilla extract	1 tsp
Apples (crushed / pureed)	2
Carrots (grated)	4 large / 5 medium

Method

Preheat oven to 350 deg F
Whisk together dry ingredients – whole wheat flour, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon and date powder
In another bowl, beat the eggs
Add oil, milk and vanilla extract to the eggs and mix
Fold in the crushed apples and grated carrots
Mix the wet and dry ingredients and fill in a greased cake tray
Bake for 45-50 mins (this is for a glass cake tray, timing for metal cake tray could vary)
Insert a fork in centre and see if it comes clean – to check of the cake has cooked

Pattumommy’s checklist for baby essentials on Day 1 of homecoming after birth!

This checklist is to help you feel confident about all things you may need for Day 1 of when you bring your new born baby home! It’s a time to celebrate and have fun and take lots of pictures, and not frantically go to your nearest store or make an urgent Amazon order and wait by the door to get your baby needs at the last minute!

So here you go! Let’s go step by step:

Baby essentials to have on Day 1

1. Baby Crib and Mattress

Baby gets their own bed! This may need a little bit of research, based on your style, purpose and budget. The main size differences are between a standard crib, mini crib and bassinet, and their respective mattresses. But you would need this on Day 1 of bringing the baby home.

Some useful links:

2. Diaper Station, Changing pad and Diaper Essentials

Diaper changing is something you may start in the hospital itself, so you can get familiar with the process there! Essentially you would need (have added some useful links for each product) :

a. A Diaper station or a sturdy dresser table that can act as diaper station
b. Changing pad
c. Changing pad cover
d. Changing pad liners
e. Newborn diapers
f. Butt cream
g. Diaper wipes
h. Diaper wipe warmer (nice to have, not mandatory .. makes your lives so much easier when you need to change the diaper when baby is sleepy and don’t want to wake your little one up with cold diaper wipes !!)
i. Diaper pail (to easily discard used diapers)

3. Swaddle blankets or ready to use swaddle

This is another thing to be researched before your baby’s birth – whether you want to swaddle your baby or use a swaddle sleep sack! Usually a mix of two generally works.

I prefer muslin swaddle blankets for swaddle as well as just covering the stroller kinda purposes, and a swaddle sleep sack for longer sleep durations so that baby’s hips and legs are free to move.

Some useful links:

Muslin swaddle blankets: Aden + Anais

Sleep sack swaddle: Halo, Aden + Anais

4. Newborn Healthcare and Grooming kit

This includes both the healthcare essentials like digital thermometer, and other grooming essentials like comb, nail filer and clipper, medicine dispenser etc.

In addition to this, it’s always better to have a good quality rectal and forehead thermometer for babies always handy.

Some useful links:

Rectal thermometer

Forehead thermometer

Newborn grooming kit

5. Newborn hat, mittens, socks and zipper onesies

Those cute hats, mittens and socks are pretty necessary to keep the newborn warm and cozy! And the two sided zippered onesies are so easy when changing diapers, especially when you new to it!

Some useful links:

6. Baby Nasal Aspirator / Snot Sucker

This is an absolute must! Babies often get their delicate noses blocked and hospitals generally send you home with a bulb like syringe to remove the snot out, post delivery. But it’s a real hassle and frankly there is a better product which is way easier and convenient to use! it’s called the snot sucker (don’t worry..there’s a filter which makes sure you don’t literally end up sucking the snot by mistake!)

Here’s a useful link: Nose Frida

This comes along with the necessary spare filters and nasal saline spray that’s used to loosen the snot, but you can also but the saline spray separately here or something similar.

7. Baby bottles

This is something which we don’t know if we would need it initially..could be if you have to feed formula, or if someone other than mom is gonna feed the baby mother’s milk through bottle when mom gets some rest!

So have few baby bottles ready just in case – I highly recommend the Comotomo bottle, it generally is liked by most babies and is a safe bet – here’s the link – Comotomo

8. Sterilizer

This was something I got it late and wish I had it from day 1 ! No matter if whether you are exclusively breastfeeding or using bottles, you’ll have either the bottles and parts of breastfeeding pumping parts for wash and sanitizing. If you want to splurge somewhere, I would recommend here – saves so much time, especially when every single minute counts!

The one I recommend combines sterilizer and drier, so you don’t need to dry the parts separately, here’s the link – Baby bottle steam sterilizer and dryer

Another one for quick use which is a microwave sterilizer is here – Microwave steam sterilizer

Image source: Unsplash

Formula Recall – Feb 2022: Attention Parents! Similac, Alimentum & EleCare

Baby formula is a primary (sometimes the only) source of nutrition for infants, and it’s very important that parents are aware of any recalls (voluntary or otherwise) related to baby food products. Abott nutrition, which is the maker of well known infant formulas has issued voluntary recall of three of their powder formulas, suspecting a possible contamination of Cronobacter sakazakii and Salmonella bacteria. The recalled products are powder infant formulas of the following brands:

Similac
Alimentum
EleCare

If you have bought one of these products recently (end of 2021 – beginning of 2022), look at the bottom of the container – there should be a lot number, as shown below:

If the code (lot number) begins with 22 through 37, and contains either of the letter combos – K8, SH or Z2 and have an expiration date of April 1, 2022 or later, then they are part of the product recall.

You can check directly by going to https://www.similacrecall.com/us/en/product-lookup.html and following the instructions there.

And parents, if you have any doubt regarding possible consumption of the recalled formula by your baby, contact your pediatrician or health care provider. Stay safe!

_{Image source: https://motherhoodcommunity.com/similac-recall/}