How to Make Baby Food Out of Pumpkin

Once your baby is six months old you can feed your baby pureed pumpkin. It is easy to add this to cereals, yogurts or even meats. Most babies can even tolerate a little bit of cinnamon and melted butter to make it extra tasty. When shopping for pumpkins look for pie pumpkins or sugar pumpkins for best results.

A pumpkin is a type of squash and is a member of the gourd family (Cucurbitacae). This family also includes squash, cucumbers, gherkins, and melons. They are full of nutrition including Vitamin A and Beta Carotene. It is an excellent nutritious vegetable to cook and puree. Pumpkins are also good sources of potassium, protein, and iron. They are low in fat, low in calories but high in fiber.
Before you puree it you must boil, steam or bake the pumpkin. You must also chill it immediately after cooking or it will turn brown.

The simplest Pumpkin Baby food recipe is –
• 1 sugar pumpkin
• Water
• Cinnamon.
Cube cooked pumpkin and mash it or blend it until smooth.

Nice variations include adding a bit of mashed apple or apple sauce or a bit of cooked oatmeal to the blend. This makes this a great breakfast food that is chock full of Vitamin A.
Another very nice combination is half a cup of pumpkin puree and two mashed bananas. If your baby likes a smoother texture add a bit of yogurt or milk while blending to make it less lumpy. Other fruits that go nicely are peaches and pears, especially together in a batch of pumpkin puree.

To make a savory pumpkin puree for baby add two tablespoons olive oil, a bit of onion, a cup of vegetable stock, a pinch of sugar and pepper, rosemary and basil. Cook the mixture thoroughly and then to sit with lentils, brown rice or quinoa for a healthy meal.

By the way if you do not want to go to the trouble of scooping out a pumpkin and baking the flesh to puree it into baby food then you might want to use canned pumpkin. Most canned pumpkin can be used directly out of the can. Read the label first to find out. It will say it was cooked first.

If using canned pumpkin then try to use a kind like Libby's which has 100% Pure Pumpkin on the label.

Pumpkin is economical to puree up in a baby bullet. It lasts for 1 week in the fridge or up to three months in the refrigerated. Do not be alarmed if pumpkin separates when thawing. This is a natural effect and does not mean it has gone bad.

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Dual Diagnosis and Teen Addiction

Dual diagnosis defines a person who has both an alcohol and drug problem and who has emotional and psychiatric problems either as a result of the addiction or has been medicating existing psychiatric problems with drugs and alcohol to escape from the misery of them.
According to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association thirty-seven percent of alcohol abusers and fifty-three percent of drug abusers have at least one serious mental illness. This means that if your teen is a schizophrenic or has ADD he or she is more likely to be a drug or alcohol abuser.
There are all kinds of different psychiatric problems that are thought to occur in tandem with drug or alcohol dependency. These include:
• Anxiety disorders like panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and phobias
• Depressive disorders like depression and bipolar disorder
• Other psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and personality disorders
According to a study conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health study, f you have anti-social personality disorder you are 15.5% more likely to abuse a drug or alcohol. If you are a manic depressive you are 14.5 percent more likely to abuse it during a manic episode. Following that the person with schizophrenia is most likely to abuse alcohol or drugs at 10.1 percent.
In general dual diagnosis experts do seem to agree that recreational drinking and drug use may be an attempt on the part of the addict to try and medicate a preexisting psychiatric problem. Both drugs and alcohol can help release inhibitions, help a person feel more relaxed and confident and also help bury feelings of panic, nervousness or low self-consciousness.
To take care of a person with a dual diagnosis, treatment often entails figuring out what the primary condition is. Sometimes it is the substance abuse problem that is the fueling disorder and sometimes it is the psychiatric disorder. At any rate medication and a long stay in a rehab is often prescribed to get to the bottom of what is really triggering the dual diagnosis.
The upsetting thing about having to treat a teen with this is that often even more drugs are used to treat a drug addiction. It can be very difficult to find exactly the right drug to solve the problem. It is like finding the key to the absolutely right door to find what will restore the balance in your child's brain.

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