baby food

Hey which do yall think is easier and cheaper with twins buying the food or making it your self. And if you make it yourself do you only use fresh or would frozen vegs be fine. I am not sure whether you could use can or not. Any suggesions would be great

 

I think making it is cheaper. I have made and frozen some, but my girls have not had any yet - waiting until they are 6months. I have heard some people say that their babies did not care for the homemade baby food, and preferred the store bought. Here is a really helpfull website all about babyfood: www.wholesomebabyfood.com
I am going to try to use mostly fresh produce. I think that with using frozen, if you cook it, puree it and then refreeze it, its OK. The key is that you have to cook it - but I could be wrong about this...

 

I make my own but I do it as my twins seem to prefer it over bought stuff though it is more time-consuming. It´s definitely cheaper for me to make it too. Just one 250g jar of puree costs 1€ (=US$1.30) so buying 4 a day would soon add up! They also tend to contain added sugar and salt which I don´t add. I prefer them to taste natural sugar found in fruit.

I use fresh veg, fruit and fish (I live in the largest European fishing port city!). I do keep some jars of the bought stuff for emergencies only but they dont seem to take to it as well!

 

i think store bought food is certainly convenient. however, home made isn't difficult - it just takes a little more effort. i also think home made is probably less expensive because you'll be using foods you likely already buy.

you can easily use frozen veggies for home made baby food. i think the main benefit to fresh is that it's, well, fresh. but there's no reason to not use frozen.

www.wholesomebabyfood.com has lots of great info about making home made baby food. i also found this book and this book useful when planning solids. GL!

 

I use both at the moment, although I'm moving towards making it all. Store bought is more convenient for sure, but when you have two it really adds up after a while, especially as they begin to eat more meals.
Its much cheaper to buy veges etc, make a pile, and freeze it. There is the initial cost of a food processor or blender if you don't have one. I bought a mini cusinart food processor for $30. We use both frozen and fresh veges. I'm going to start doing meats soon, as up until now I've been paranoid about cooking and pureeing them properly, so I've been buying them. Making it is time consuming, but if you make large batches, then its not such a big deal.

 

I'd definitely try homemade first. It's what we did, but mine hate the texture and only want jar unfortunately.

 

I made all of the food for my first (singleton) son...it was SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper...as long as I paid less than $4.50 per pound of food, it was cheaper...because that's what the math works out to be when you figure out what you pay per ounce of jar food. I made it in BIG batches and froze it in these great ice cube trays with silicone bottoms and had a lid...can't remember what they are called but you can find them on amazon.com. They are pricey (about $10 per tray!) but it still works out way cheaper in the end (I think I bought a total of five trays so that I could do big batches)...I would make a ton of puree, all different kinds and put it in tupperware in the fridge as I froze batches in the ice cube trays and then transferred the frozen cubes to gallon ziploc freezer bags...it made about a month's worth and I didnt' have to do it often. I hope to be able to do it again with my twins. Highly recommended...maybe have a couple jars in the pantry in case you run low and/or are sick or something and can't make more!

 

I made most of the baby food for my twins, and I loved doing it!

 

Thats for the info. I have been debating on the issue. I think the same issue if you run low you will have to do one or the other. thanks again

 

I've known some babies who have only had homemade and don't like jar which can be a hassle when you travel. I think it is good to mix it up. Some stuff is easy like mashed potatoes, bananas, avocado, yogurt, sweet potato etc. I quit buying the baby yogurt and instead buy the homogenized milk yogurt with no sugar no additives type. I started to make some and then I got pg and couldnt' stand the smell or have the energy. It was fun for awhile. I did like a hand blender to make it easier.

Heather

 

I always thought it was easier to buy the baby food. However, mine were not big eaters, so we weren't not out tons of $$. HTH .

 

i used a lot of jar food with ds. but have had the time with the boys to make and so far havent bought any jars.
we only have 2 trays (i think its anabel karmel trays - they are bigger than usual ice cube sizes) when we make big batches we just fill the 2 trays and put the rest in the fridge while that freezes then put in freezer bags and freeze the rest.
i think that best thing about home cooking as that they will be more inclined to eat the food you eat when they are growing.
we dont have a problem with taking food on trips. we just put the frozen cubes in a pot and it defrosts on the way. we will do that when they go to the childminder as well. you just need a couple of hours a week set aside to do bulk cooking. which is often hard to find i know!!! but if you are cooking for the family anyway -just make more and puree the extra.
hope that helps

 

I bought food for DD1 and make it for the twins. Buying is definitely easier, hands down. But making is much cheaper, tastes much better, and is fresher for the babies. They do prefer the food I make over the stuff that I buy (for when we are out). They don't like the smooth texture of the store bought stuff and have a harder time eating it because it's so thin.

 

I make my own and I find it easier and cheaper. I can make appropriate portions and hardly have any waste. I use ice cube trays as well as these Cubes to make bigger portions and for travelling.