Okayu=rice porridge, was Lily's first meal.
Plus with the fact that babies in Japan start solid at 5 months old, she has shown signs of readiness for solid a few weeks before that. Lily is now 5 months and a half and I decided it's time for solid.
I'm so unlike many of you. I was so malas and not too keen to go through all the excitement to prepare her food. bahaha. My style? Just ask one person I know what to buy, which brand, go to the shop, went straight to the section and look for the brand that she mentioned, without taking extra effort studying the others. Coz you know, one brand that suits others might not suits us. But in this case I just make use of whatever I bought.
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| The haul. (1) Pigeon baby food preparation set, (2) baby spoon set, (3) okayu set (pink box), (4) sippy cup, 5-7 months old, (5) a bowl, (6) cube trays for storage (not in the picture). |
You know I was one of the left behind woman in the clique pretty much in every clique I belong to. So, before Lily I just listened to their story of raising their babies, so I did catch here and there and made mental notes from that. Raising Lily alone in this foreign country, these mental notes really helps. Now it's time to use another one, i.e. the first meal paeds in Japan will recommend is okayu.
Okayu
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| The okayu set (in pink). The set comes with a glass pot, a dual-function plastic cup (pink) (to measure the water and as the mortar) , a spoon with dual function (to measure and as a pestle), a silicon fetcher. |
I remember the ladies were talking about a small pot for babies' okayu preparation that is invented to be used in the normal rice cooker. So, mommies won't need to prepare the okayu separately especially when we only need to prepare the okayu from one teaspoon of rice. That would be mendokusai (troubling). So, that was the first thing I bought.
The pot is designed to prepare okayu from 1/1-1/10 consistencies complete with a cup to measure water needed for each consistencies. So, for Lily, since she is a 'beginner', she'll start with 1/10 consistency.
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| Okayu preparation. (1) We need our rice; cleaned and ready. For preparation of 1/10 okayu, measure 1 spoonful of rice and water (according to the measurement on the pink cup. (2) Place the glass beaker in the middle of the rice cooking pot and cook like usual. (3) Rice and okayu when cooked. Take out the okayu from the rice pot. |
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| (4) The cooked okayu is transferred into the pink cup which also used as a mortar. Pressed the okayu with the back of the spoon provided. Back of spoon has rough bumps that helps to puree the rice beads. (5) the 1/10 consistency-okayu. |
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| Lily's first feeding session. hehe.. she need a high-chair for feeding, her okayu in a bowl, baby's water in a sippy cup and..her favorite butterfly (which is so not recommended to have any toy while feeding). |
