Have you ever tried to get an octopus dressed and ready for bed? Perhaps one that was given espresso 30 minutes before? No? Ah well, then you are underqualified for bedtime in our house. At ten months old, baby Atticus has become mobile and incredibly wiggly. He’s crawling, walking and flinging himself across the furniture, drawn like a little magnet to anything hot, dangerous or high off the ground.

I was told baby boys were different from baby girls and, oh man, you were not kidding. It doesn’t matter how relaxed bath time is, how dim the lights or chill the music, once he is dry, the job of getting him into 1, a diaper, and 2, a onesie, is basically impossible. Last night I managed to pin him down using all four of my limbs but then had no arms available for actual dressing of said naughty baby. I ended up laughing and then he was laughing. But he still wasn’t dressed.

Somehow he ended up in his adorable fluffy onesie with dinosaur feet, but not through any skill of my own. I think he simply gave up ten seconds before me. Who knew it would be a battle of wits from such a young age?

Fortunately, he is giving us zero dramas with food. So far so good with the weaning; this little pumpkin will eat literally everything I give him — although he is also discovering how fun it is to fling blueberries and yoghurt drops to Arloe (the dog). Arloe now thinks Atticus is much more interesting than when he was a milk-drinking poop machine.

Last night I roasted some pumpkin, which ended up being a firm favourite. I also held some back to make these tasty little low-sugar pumpkin muffins as a Hallowe’en treat.

When I came up with this recipe, I was aiming for a naturally low-sugar, gluten and dairy-free recipe, suitable for lunch boxes or health-conscious adults. It’s a tricky combination as many of the successful gluten-free recipes use heavily processed ingredients as binders (it’s the gluten that is so good for that in baking). Low-sugar recipes often resort to artificial sweeteners, which are another nutritional no-no.

Here I used a combination of brown sugar and apple sauce. However, if you can find Sucanat or coconut sugar, you could use that instead of the brown sugar — even better!

The reduction in the sugar does mean that these are less sweet than regular muffins or cakes. They are still sweet, but not super sweet. You can frost them with a little homemade buttercream or — especially for little ones — you can skip it. I usually make a “flax sugar” mix to sprinkle on top. You put this on just before they go in the oven. The recipe below makes more than you need but that’s deliberate — it’s great as a topping to plain yoghurt too!

Pumpkin mini muffins (makes approx 36)

Ingredients:

Muffins

1c cornmeal

⅔c brown rice flour

¼ tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pumpkin pie spice (use more for adults or stick to this for kids’ palates)

¾ c brown sugar or Sucanat

2 eggs, whisked and at room temperature

½c apple sauce

1c pumpkin (either roasted/steamed and well mashed, or tinned)

½c extra virgin coconut oil, melted or avocado oil

Flax sugar

¼c milled flax seed

¼c fine brown sugar or Sucanat

¼c desiccated coconut

Method:

1, Preheat your oven to 330F.

2, Prepare the flax sugar — mix all ingredients and crumble any sugar lumps with your fingers. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge.

3, Place mini cases in the mini-muffin pans.

4, Add all dry ingredients to a large bowl and mix.

5, Mix in the eggs, apple sauce and pumpkin, using a hand whisk.

6, Mix in the coconut oil or avocado oil until well combined.

7, Fill the cases until they are almost full.

8, Sprinkle the flax sugar on top.

9, Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until firm but springy on top.

10, Cool in the trays for a few minutes and then transfer to wire racks.

• The advice given in this article is not intended to replace medical advice, but to complement it. Always consult your GP if you have any health concerns. Catherine Burns, BA Hons, Dip ION, BNTA is a fully qualified nutritional therapist trained by the Institute for Optimum Nutrition in Britain. Join Catherine on Facebook at www.facebook.com/nutrifitandnaturalnutritionbermuda or instagram @naturalbda