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APRIL 2018<br />
THE UK’S BEST-SELLING MAGAZINE FOR MUMS<br />
www.motherandbaby.co.uk<br />
THE No.1 PREGNANCY, BABY AND TODDLER MAGAZINE WWW.MOTHERANDBABY.CO.UK<br />
www.motherandbaby.co.uk<br />
Hello<br />
Mum!<br />
Our step-by-step<br />
plan will help him<br />
sleep in ’til seven…<br />
CROWN RULES<br />
Genius birth tips you<br />
can learn from Kate<br />
Free!<br />
15<br />
FUN THINGS TO<br />
DO TOGETHER<br />
ON MOTHER’S DAY<br />
How to get your confidence<br />
back – and then some!<br />
WIN A NURSERY MAKEOVER!<br />
Pregnancy<br />
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44-page guide to the<br />
best baby buys in 2018<br />
£3.99 APRIL 2018<br />
21 FEB TO 20 MAR<br />
Shopping
Contents<br />
Upfront<br />
6 News and views<br />
Our round-up of the latest<br />
essential parenting updates,<br />
key trends and fun stuff!<br />
16 Over to you<br />
All your letters, photos, emails and<br />
Facebook posts<br />
p47<br />
Win!<br />
Win a nursery<br />
makeover from The<br />
Gro Company!<br />
See page 120.<br />
On the<br />
Cover<br />
Bump&Birth<br />
23 Smart move, Kate!<br />
Clever birthplan ideas to pinch<br />
29 Sorted!<br />
Beat pregnancy allergies<br />
<strong>April</strong><br />
30 Will you choose a genderneutral<br />
name?<br />
Follow the biggest trend of 2018<br />
35 Dress my bump<br />
Fashion for work and play<br />
36 Birth stories<br />
‘My baby was born on<br />
Mother’s Day’<br />
47<br />
Beat your little<br />
one’s early rising<br />
and enjoy a lie-in<br />
<strong>Baby</strong>&Toddler<br />
40 Hold on!<br />
Snuggle up, and boost your baby’s<br />
health and development<br />
47 Get your mornings back!<br />
Say goodbye to 5am wake-ups<br />
52 Happy Mother’s Day<br />
Have a memorable 11 March<br />
57 Mixed feelings<br />
Help your toddler manage<br />
his developing emotions<br />
68 Time to ditch that nappy?<br />
Spot the signs that she’s ready for<br />
potty training, and make it easy<br />
82 Jean-ius!<br />
Dress up your little one in<br />
our pick of adorable denim<br />
Life&Kids<br />
88 You’ve got this, Mum!<br />
Get your confidence back with our<br />
tried-and-tested ideas<br />
95 Spring clean your<br />
mum-life<br />
Zap those household chores!<br />
96 Retro brights<br />
Step back into the ’70s with<br />
rainbow-bright nursery buys<br />
p23<br />
57<br />
Here to help<br />
COVER GETTY IMAGES<br />
p52<br />
p120<br />
p88<br />
Understand your<br />
toddler’s feelings<br />
Our experts answer all your questions<br />
75 Sleep<br />
76 Pregnancy<br />
77 Behaviour<br />
78 Eating<br />
4 | <strong>April</strong> 2018 | motherandbaby.co.uk
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23<br />
Discover smart<br />
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birthplan<br />
88<br />
Celebrate you this<br />
Mother’s Day!<br />
98 My baby’s got a job<br />
already!<br />
Meet five little stars of the screen<br />
102 Get cracking!<br />
Celebrate Easter with these<br />
delicious egg dishes<br />
Shop!<br />
110 Easter treats<br />
Arrange for the Easter Bunny to<br />
deliver some fun…<br />
Join us online at<br />
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112 The big test<br />
All-terrain pushchairs reviewed<br />
118 Llama drama<br />
The trend that’s toppled the unicorn!<br />
119 Six ways to…<br />
Bond with your newborn<br />
120 Giveaways<br />
Worth over £2,554!<br />
123 20% off at M&Co<br />
Exclusive offer for M&B readers<br />
124 Supermarket buys<br />
What’s new down the aisles<br />
130 Now I’m a mum, I know…<br />
Kiss FM DJ Neev Spencer shares<br />
her motherhood journey so far<br />
112<br />
All-terrain<br />
pushchairs tested<br />
by mums like you<br />
motherandbaby.co.uk | <strong>April</strong> 2018 | 5
SNUGGLE UP<br />
WORDS LOUISA PRITCHARD PHOTOGRAPHY GETTY IMAGES, SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
40 | <strong>April</strong> 2018 | motherandbaby.co.uk
<strong>Baby</strong>&Toddler<br />
Hold on!<br />
New research has revealed that simply holding your baby can<br />
change his genes for the better. Time to snuggle up…<br />
As mums, we all want to give our<br />
babies the best start in life.<br />
And all this striving to be<br />
the best mums we can<br />
be can get tiring!<br />
Great then, that<br />
you can now simply snuggle up<br />
on the sofa with your little one,<br />
and know you’re being a damn<br />
good mum. Because you can<br />
boost your baby’s development<br />
and health, and even impact his<br />
genes, by simply giving him a<br />
cuddle. Remarkable new research<br />
from the University of British<br />
Columbia in Canada has revealed that<br />
the amount of physical contact babies<br />
receive can affect them at a molecular level,<br />
and these beneficial effects can last for years.<br />
The study of 94 babies looked at how<br />
cells function and mature in ‘high-contact’<br />
While you’re both<br />
snuggled up close, just<br />
think about this: you’re holding<br />
your baby, and stimulating his<br />
pressure receptors. This is<br />
increasing the activity of one of the<br />
largest nerves in his body – the vagus<br />
nerve – which is slowing down<br />
his heart rate and reducing<br />
his blood pressure. And<br />
this relaxes his brain<br />
and body.<br />
youngsters who were cuddled and held a<br />
lot, and in ‘low-contact’ babies. And the<br />
result? Although the scientists say more<br />
research is needed, it seems that close<br />
contact and cuddles somehow<br />
changes your baby’s body at a<br />
genetic level, and help with his<br />
biological development. ‘This<br />
study looks at how you can<br />
leave traces on a baby’s genes<br />
by stimulating the pressure<br />
receptors under his skin,’ explains<br />
professor Tiffany Field, director<br />
of the Touch Research Institute in<br />
Miami. ‘Touch affects your baby’s<br />
brain waves and immune system, so as<br />
parents, it’s a good thing to hold him as<br />
much as you can.’ So ditch the mum-guilt<br />
that quietly nags you to get out and do more<br />
with your baby, and discover all the lovely<br />
ways that simply having close body contact<br />
with him can set him up for life.<br />
‘When Eyla was<br />
small, we’d spend cold<br />
autumn mornings cuddled up<br />
in bed and I’d take selfies and<br />
make videos of her gurgling at<br />
me so I could share these moments<br />
with her grannies and grandpas<br />
who live South Africa.'<br />
Dee Drysdale, 37, from<br />
Stirlingshire, is mum to<br />
Eyla, 17 months<br />
MEET THE<br />
EXPERT<br />
Dr Tiffany Field is<br />
the director of the<br />
Touch Research<br />
Institute, which<br />
is dedicated to<br />
studying the effects<br />
of touch therapy, in<br />
the department of<br />
paediatrics at the<br />
University of Miami<br />
School of Medicine<br />
CHEST-TO-CHEST<br />
You’re probably relishing those early cuddles,<br />
but the way you hold your baby can make<br />
a difference, especially in those first few<br />
months. ‘The best way to hold your baby<br />
is with his chest to your chest,’ says Tiffany.<br />
‘A study carried out when babies were<br />
vaccinated at two months found that the<br />
youngsters held chest-to-chest cried less and<br />
were less irritable than those held with their<br />
back to their parent’s chest. You’re able to<br />
provide more support and pressure to your<br />
baby’s whole body in this position.’<br />
And this gentle pressure, which you’ll be<br />
applying without even realising when you’re<br />
holding your baby, is absolutely vital for his<br />
motherandbaby.co.uk | <strong>April</strong> 2018 | 41
Birth stories<br />
‘My baby was born<br />
on Mother’s Day’<br />
Meet Caroline Pears, who became<br />
a mum on this extra-special Sunday<br />
Edward having<br />
a well-earned<br />
snooze!<br />
Caroline and<br />
Edward, back<br />
at home<br />
WORDS RACHEL TOAL<br />
Clutching the card and<br />
chocolates I’d bought for my<br />
mum, I waddled around the<br />
shopping centre. There were<br />
just a couple of days to go until two<br />
significant events – Mother’s Day and<br />
the date I was due to be induced with<br />
my first baby. And it was only then that<br />
I suddenly made the connection. ‘Ooh,<br />
I may have a Mother’s Day baby,’ I thought,<br />
excitedly. But I still didn’t really think about<br />
me being a mum.<br />
When the day arrived, I popped round to<br />
see my Mum as my husband Ben packed my<br />
hospital bag into the car. We’d recently moved<br />
CAROLINE<br />
PEARS, 34, AN IT<br />
PROJECT MANAGER,<br />
LIVES IN YORK WITH<br />
HUSBAND BEN AND<br />
SON EDWARD,<br />
EIGHT MONTHS<br />
to a house just nine doors down from<br />
Mum’s – we’re really close, and she’d<br />
been there for me every step of the<br />
way through my pregnancy. As I kissed<br />
her goodbye and wished her a happy<br />
Mother’s Day, I felt a pang of excitement<br />
at the next job on my to-do list.<br />
We arrived at the maternity ward at midday.<br />
I was 12 days overdue and had been hoping<br />
for a natural start to labour. But it wasn’t<br />
to be, and I put my apprehension about the<br />
induction process to the back of my mind. It<br />
was important to stay positive, I knew. And<br />
seeing all the people carrying flowers and<br />
cards on their way to visit their mums in<br />
36 | <strong>April</strong> 2018 | motherandbaby.co.uk
Bump&Birth<br />
hospital reminded me how lucky I was to<br />
be expecting a Mother’s Day baby.<br />
After being shown to our own room,<br />
a midwife examined me and inserted a<br />
prostaglandin pessary to try to artificially<br />
dilate my cervix. The process was fine, and<br />
not painful at all. After that, it was a waiting<br />
game. Ben and I went for a wander round the<br />
hospital and I tried not to get impatient when<br />
contractions didn’t start immediately.<br />
That afternoon, a midwife placed a monitor<br />
onto my bump to measure the baby’s heart<br />
rate. It was surreal watching the lines on<br />
the trace – they showed I was having minicontractions,<br />
but I couldn’t feel a thing.<br />
The midwives reassured me that this was<br />
quite common in the early stages. It wasn’t<br />
until teatime that I felt the first twinges.<br />
They came on slowly, like mild period pains,<br />
each lasting about 30 seconds. Gradually,<br />
they became more intense, until I had to<br />
breathe deeply to manage them.<br />
There was only one thing for it – I<br />
messaged my mum for reassurance. ‘Relax<br />
and keep breathing,’ she texted back. It felt<br />
good to have her advice. By now the intensity<br />
was r<strong>amp</strong>ing up, and I gratefully accepted<br />
the gas and air that was on offer. When I<br />
was examined, I was told I was 5cm dilated<br />
and in established labour. It was exactly the<br />
news I had wanted to hear. Despite being<br />
uncomfortable, I reminded myself that each<br />
contraction was part of the process, and every<br />
one would bring me closer to the end.<br />
It all started to become a bit blurry after<br />
that. I remember being on all fours on the<br />
bed, swaying gently through each contraction.<br />
I’d done pregnancy yoga, so I remembered<br />
the breathing techniques we’d practised. Plus,<br />
I’d been fit and healthy before I got pregnant,<br />
and I’m sure my strong core helped me cope<br />
with the contractions. Ben busied himself,<br />
offering me sips of water and dabbing my<br />
brow with a flannel. It was almost as if he<br />
was part of the midwife team! Later in the<br />
evening I opted for a Meptid injection, which<br />
is a bit like the painkiller pethidine. It was<br />
really effective: I knew it was working because<br />
I started chatting and joking with Ben again,<br />
in between contractions.<br />
By 7pm, I’d reached 9cm, and the midwife<br />
said she’d leave us to it for another couple<br />
of hours. She seemed to know instinctively<br />
how long my labour would take. And one<br />
moment I was thrilled that the end was in<br />
sight, and the next I felt overwhelmed by<br />
the feeling I couldn’t cope. ‘I can’t do it!’<br />
I cried. Ben squeezed my hand, I focused<br />
on my steady breathing, and moments later<br />
felt calm again. It was lovely being on our<br />
Three things<br />
I’d tell my<br />
friends<br />
I drank two cups<br />
of raspberry leaf<br />
tea each week from<br />
the 36th week of<br />
my pregnancy. It’s<br />
supposed to help tone<br />
your uterus and make<br />
contractions stronger,<br />
and I’m sure it helped<br />
with my labour.<br />
Always follow the<br />
instructions, though,<br />
and don’t try this until<br />
the end of your<br />
pregnancy.<br />
Everyone talks<br />
about slow, calming<br />
music helping labour,<br />
but I found familiar<br />
upbeat tunes helped<br />
my stamina towards<br />
the end. The Dirty<br />
Dancing soundtrack<br />
gave me just the<br />
boost I needed.<br />
Try milder<br />
pain-relief methods,<br />
such as gas and air<br />
and Meptid, as a first<br />
step. They really had<br />
an effect, and I still<br />
felt totally in control<br />
of my labour.<br />
The perfect<br />
Mother’s Day gift<br />
own after that. Ben turned on the television<br />
to discover that my favourite film, Dirty<br />
Dancing, was on! I love the soundtrack and,<br />
although I was too distracted to concentrate<br />
on what Patrick Swayze was saying, the music<br />
gave me a real energy boost in between<br />
contractions. As I swayed to the beat and<br />
puffed on the gas and air, I willed the baby<br />
to arrive before midnight. I really wanted<br />
my Mother’s Day baby.<br />
The midwife came back in after two hours<br />
and, as promised, announced that I was ready<br />
to start pushing. I was so impressed at the<br />
accuracy of her timing! Still on all fours,<br />
I mustered up all my strength, determined<br />
to put everything I had into the task. I felt<br />
a massive low-down pressure, as if a giant<br />
ball was trying to escape from my body.<br />
‘OK, push,’ the midwife said. It was the<br />
hardest thing I’ve ever done, but at last the<br />
contractions felt productive. Knowing I was<br />
almost at the end felt so good.<br />
It only took eight massive pushes before<br />
I felt an overwhelming pressure. ‘You’re doing<br />
so well,’ Ben whispered. Squeezing his hand,<br />
I gave another almighty push and the baby’s<br />
head came out. After a break of a minute or<br />
so, I pushed hard again and the shoulders and<br />
body followed. I lay back on the bed, eager<br />
for a cuddle, and the midwife handed me<br />
baby Edward. As I held him close against<br />
my skin, relief flooded through my body.<br />
Inspecting each and every one of his tiny toes<br />
and hands, I felt so happy.<br />
Once we were settled, I called Mum to<br />
tell her the good news. I was a mum, with a<br />
Mother’s Day baby, and despite my concerns<br />
about induction, all baby Edward needed<br />
was a little kick-start. I’ll never have a better<br />
Mother’s Day present.<br />
SHARE<br />
YOUR<br />
STORY<br />
Tell us<br />
about your<br />
birth experience<br />
facebook.com/<br />
motherandbaby<br />
motherandbaby.co.uk | <strong>April</strong> 2018 | 37
NAME GAME<br />
Will you choose<br />
WORDS HATTIE GARLICK PHOTOGRAPHY GETTY IMAGES, ADOBE STOCK<br />
A GENDER<br />
NEUTRAL<br />
NAME?<br />
What do Cheryl, Beyoncé<br />
and Facebook founder<br />
Mark Zuckerberg all<br />
have in common? No,<br />
not wardrobes bigger<br />
than all our bedrooms<br />
combined: they have all recently given their<br />
babies gender-neutral names. And little<br />
Bear, Rumi and August are far from unique.<br />
A roundup of last year’s most popular baby<br />
names reveals that gender-neutral ones are more<br />
popular than ever, both in the UK and the US.<br />
‘There has been a revolution in naming,’ says<br />
Laura Wattenberg, who has spent the last<br />
decade studying the names we choose to give<br />
our children and what those trends tell us. ‘And<br />
the rise of the unisex name tells us a huge<br />
amount about the futures that 21st-century<br />
parents are aspiring to for their children.’<br />
So where does today’s sudden rise in genderneutral<br />
names have its roots? You might<br />
assume it was in the 1960s that gender-neutral<br />
names first rose to prominence, introducing<br />
hippy names such as Rain and Sunshine. Not<br />
so, says Laura: ‘A lot of the hippy names<br />
that emerged in the 1960s came about<br />
through adults changing their own<br />
names. The vast majority of babies<br />
being born were still being given<br />
very conventional, gendered names.’<br />
Parents were only prepared to<br />
break the mould when it came to<br />
nicknames: ‘We’ve always been<br />
comfortable with nicknames that<br />
boys and girls can share,’ says<br />
Laura, ‘such as Chris.’<br />
The first signs of a real shift towards<br />
gender-neutral names came in the<br />
It’s the biggest trend of 2018 so far…<br />
MEET THE<br />
EXPERT<br />
Laura Wattenberg is<br />
author of The <strong>Baby</strong><br />
Name Wizard<br />
(Harmony, £11.18);<br />
babyname<br />
wizard.com<br />
moment<br />
in time<br />
Past events have inspired<br />
gender-neutral names. Data from<br />
The National Archives shows that<br />
901 babies were given the name<br />
Verdun between 1914 and 1919, a<br />
nod to one of World War One’s<br />
longest battles. Post-war,<br />
‘Victory’ enjoyed<br />
popularity.<br />
1990s. ‘Two things happened,’ explains Laura:<br />
‘<strong>Baby</strong>-name statistics came into being, so for<br />
the first time, people could see what the most<br />
common names were, and began looking for<br />
more unique ones. And then we have the rise<br />
of the internet. Suddenly, you could Google a<br />
name and see straight away that, no, that<br />
one’s taken!’ From here on in, the number of<br />
babies who only share their name with a<br />
handful of others has risen year on year.<br />
In the search for more distinctive names,<br />
surnames or places were adopted as first names<br />
– think Brooklyn Beckham. ‘They were unusual<br />
baby names, and sent out a message about your<br />
cultural interests, but everyone could still spell<br />
and recognise them,’ explains Laura. That<br />
they were unisex was neither here nor there.<br />
But the most recent flood of unisex names<br />
are all about having no assigned gender,<br />
reflecting the different way that today’s<br />
parents are thinking. ‘There are two groups<br />
of unisex names prominent at the moment,’<br />
says Laura, ‘and they stem from very different<br />
places. First of all there are names that start<br />
out with no gender association at all, such as<br />
River. And then there’s a trend for boys’<br />
names being used for girls.’ Hollywood<br />
stars Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively,<br />
for ex<strong>amp</strong>le, have a little girl called<br />
James. Here in the UK, Frankie and<br />
Ray are among the most popular<br />
gender-neutral names so far this year.<br />
And there are advantages to<br />
choosing such a name, as it might<br />
just give your little one a competitive<br />
edge in the future. ‘There’s still a<br />
perception that giving a girl a more<br />
masculine name makes her appear<br />
30 | <strong>April</strong> 2018 | motherandbaby.co.uk
Bump&Birth<br />
Chosen by<br />
Mila Kunis and<br />
Ashton Kutcher for<br />
their daughter<br />
WYATT<br />
Chosen by Frankie<br />
Sandford and<br />
footballer Wayne<br />
Bridge for their son<br />
CARTER<br />
LYRIC<br />
Chosen by<br />
former<br />
Backstreet Boy<br />
A J and his wife<br />
Rochelle for<br />
their daughter<br />
motherandbaby.co.uk | 2017 | 31
POTTY TRAINING<br />
PHOTOGRAPHY ISTOCK, SHUTTERSTOCK<br />
Time to ditch that<br />
NAPPY?<br />
Wait until you see these signs that your youngster<br />
is really ready to potty-train, and it’ll be much easier<br />
for both of you, says Sarah Ockwell-Smith<br />
Like getting a lovely new tooth,<br />
ditching the nappies is a little sign<br />
your child is growing. But while<br />
teeth emerge when they’re good<br />
and ready, and need no help from<br />
eager mums, knowing when to<br />
potty-train is a little trickier. Children do not<br />
develop at exactly the same pace. And gaining<br />
the physical and mental abilities to be able to<br />
manage without nappies is a gradual process –<br />
there’s no internal switch that clicks ‘on’ at some<br />
magical date. So the reality is that the ‘when’<br />
of potty-training will be different for each<br />
individual child. Ultimately, there is only one<br />
way to decide when it is time to begin pottytraining,<br />
and that decision should be made by<br />
one person and one person only: your youngster.<br />
This doesn’t mean that you have no<br />
involvement in the timing of potty-training.<br />
Your role is that of watcher and waiter.<br />
You watch for certain signs and behaviours,<br />
and you wait for the right time. And it’s<br />
an active, purposeful wait: you need to be<br />
prepared to go as soon as your child is ready.<br />
WHEN’S NORMAL?<br />
● Research suggests there’s<br />
a window between 24 and<br />
30 months that makes for<br />
easy daytime potty-training.<br />
● Night dryness doesn’t<br />
happen until later, usually<br />
between three and five<br />
years, and it’s still normal<br />
for there to be accidents at<br />
MEET THE<br />
EXPERT<br />
Sarah Ockwell-<br />
Smith is a parenting<br />
expert, mum of<br />
four and author of<br />
The Gentle Potty<br />
Training Book<br />
(Piatkus, £10.99)<br />
the end of this time scale.<br />
● These are just averages,<br />
so it’s perfectly normal<br />
for your youngster to<br />
fall outside of these<br />
figures. Some children<br />
will train much earlier and<br />
some much later than<br />
the scientific ‘norms’.<br />
GET SMART<br />
You might be<br />
waiting for a<br />
huge ‘pennydrop’<br />
moment,<br />
with streamers<br />
and fanfares, but<br />
it rarely happens<br />
like that. Knowing<br />
when your youngster<br />
is ready to start pottytraining<br />
isn’t always obvious.<br />
Many of the physical signs are<br />
invisible, and she needs to be emotionally<br />
ready, too. But there are usually subtle, often<br />
overlooked, behavioural signs that she’s<br />
ready. And you can use these quiet cues,<br />
along with her age and what you’re about to<br />
learn about her physiology – and, of course,<br />
your own instinct – to make a decision.<br />
But just before we look at what these<br />
behavioural signs of readiness are,<br />
we need to have a chat about what<br />
aren’t. There are many ‘signs’ that are<br />
commonly believed to indicate pottytraining<br />
readiness, but are simply normal<br />
childhood behaviours, with no direct<br />
link to potty-training. These include<br />
your youngster telling you that she has<br />
done a pee or poo while she’s doing it or<br />
after she’s done it – but potty-training is<br />
all about her knowing that she needs to<br />
go before she’s done anything. So while<br />
awareness is a good start, she’s not<br />
quite there yet. Other mistaken ‘signs’<br />
include taking her nappy off, which is<br />
great fun for many children, or playing<br />
with poo, which is generally regarded<br />
as an excellent source of play-dough<br />
she’s found all by herself! Following you<br />
68 | <strong>April</strong> 2018 | motherandbaby.co.uk
ARE GIRLS<br />
EASIER?<br />
In a word, no! There is no<br />
difference in the physiological<br />
maturation of the bladder or<br />
bowel between girls and boys,<br />
and no behavioural reasons why<br />
girls should be easier and<br />
faster to potty-train<br />
than boys.<br />
<strong>Baby</strong>&Toddler<br />
KEEP<br />
THE NIGHT<br />
NAPPIES<br />
Youngsters usually need to be dry<br />
in the daytime for at least six<br />
months to a year before the nappies<br />
can come off at night, and often it<br />
takes a lot longer. So think of<br />
potty-training during the day,<br />
and taking the nappies off<br />
at night, as separate<br />
tasks.<br />
I jumped the gun with Buzz<br />
because I had so many other<br />
people commenting, ‘Oh, is he<br />
not trained yet?’ He wasn’t<br />
ready to ditch the nappy and<br />
it made us all miserable, so we<br />
gave up. Six months later, Buzz<br />
was running around the house<br />
and shouted, ‘I need a wee!’ so<br />
to the toilet we went. Now he<br />
was ready!<br />
Giovanna<br />
x<br />
motherandbaby.co.uk | <strong>April</strong> 2018 | 69
Get<br />
Cracking!<br />
If your little one turns up her<br />
nose at eggs, it’s time to get<br />
clever with these irresistible<br />
treats, says Annabel Karmel<br />
MEET THE<br />
EXPERT<br />
Annabel Karmel<br />
is a children’s<br />
food expert,<br />
bestselling author<br />
and mum of three<br />
French toast<br />
with berries<br />
Prep: 5 minutes<br />
Cook: 5 minutes<br />
Makes: 8 triangles<br />
Method<br />
1 Mix together the egg, milk, icing<br />
sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl.<br />
Cut each slice of bread into triangles<br />
or, if you wish, use cookie cutters to<br />
make fun shapes. Dip the bread into<br />
the egg mixture, coating both sides.<br />
SUITABLE<br />
FROM<br />
1 YEAR<br />
2 Melt the butter in a frying pan,<br />
and then fry the bread for about<br />
5 minutes, turning halfway through,<br />
until golden brown and slightly fluffy.<br />
3 Serve with the berries and a dusting<br />
of icing sugar and cinnamon.<br />
Ingredients<br />
● 1 egg, beaten<br />
● 1 tbsp milk<br />
● 2 tsp icing sugar, plus<br />
extra to serve<br />
● A good pinch of ground<br />
cinnamon, plus extra to serve<br />
● 2 slices of bread, crusts<br />
removed<br />
● A knob of unsalted butter<br />
● Raspberries and<br />
blueberries to serve<br />
102 | <strong>April</strong> 2018 | motherandbaby.co.uk
Ham & cheese<br />
soufflé omelette<br />
Prep: 10 minutes<br />
Cook: 5-10 minutes<br />
Makes: 2 portions<br />
SUITABLE<br />
FROM<br />
6 MONTHS<br />
● 2 large eggs,<br />
separated<br />
● 4 tbsp milk<br />
or cream<br />
● A little salt and<br />
freshly ground<br />
Ingredients<br />
black pepper (for<br />
babies 12 months+)<br />
● A knob of butter<br />
● 2 slices ham, diced<br />
● 50g Cheddar<br />
cheese, grated<br />
Method<br />
1 Preheat the grill. Mix<br />
the egg yolks and milk<br />
or cream into a mixing<br />
bowl, and season.<br />
2 Put the egg whites into<br />
a bowl and beat using an<br />
electric whisk until stiff.<br />
Lightly fold the whites into<br />
the yolks until combined.<br />
3 Melt the butter in a<br />
frying pan. Add the egg<br />
mixture to the pan and<br />
swirl around until starting<br />
to set around the edges.<br />
4 Sprinkle with ham<br />
and cheese, then place<br />
under the grill for about<br />
4 to 5 minutes, until<br />
just set in the middle<br />
and lightly golden.<br />
5 Carefully tip onto<br />
a plate and serve<br />
in wedges.<br />
Tuna tortilla tartlets<br />
Prep: 15 minutes<br />
Cook: 15-18 minutes<br />
Makes: 12 tuna tartlets<br />
SUITABLE<br />
FROM<br />
9 MONTHS<br />
Method<br />
1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/<br />
350°F/gas mark 4 and grease a<br />
12-hole mini muffin tin with oil.<br />
2 St<strong>amp</strong> out 12 x 7cm circles<br />
from the three wraps. Push the<br />
tortilla discs into the muffin tin<br />
holes to make 12 little cases.<br />
Divide the tuna, sweetcorn and<br />
tomatoes between the cases.<br />
3 Mix the egg and sour cream<br />
together in a small bowl or jug,<br />
season lightly with salt and<br />
pepper (if using), and divide<br />
it evenly between the cases.<br />
Sprinkle with the cheese.<br />
4 Bake for 15–18 minutes until<br />
golden on top and set in the<br />
middle. Remove from the oven,<br />
and serve with cooked chunks of<br />
carrot, broccoli or sweet potato.<br />
Ingredients<br />
● A little sunflower oil<br />
for greasing<br />
● 3 mini tortilla wraps<br />
● 25g tinned tuna in<br />
oil, drained<br />
● 25g tinned<br />
sweetcorn, drained<br />
● 3 cherry tomatoes,<br />
quartered<br />
● 1 egg<br />
● 3 tbsp sour cream<br />
● A little salt and<br />
freshly ground black<br />
pepper (for babies<br />
12 months +)<br />
● 2 tbsp finely grated<br />
Parmesan cheese<br />
● A little cress, to<br />
garnish<br />
Recipe suitable for freezing<br />
motherandbaby.co.uk | <strong>April</strong> 2018 | 103
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