can you freeze banana baby food?

Well, as if I don't have enough to do I want to make all their baby food.... I got a baby food cookbook but some things I still don't understand, such as:

1) can you freeze the banana puree or does it get yuckie? I'm assuming you can't freeze avacado either. So for babies who eat banana's every day, do you just make a fresh batch every morning, doesn't that get time consuming?

2) how many tablespoons of cereal should babies, say 6mo-8mo, eat per day. a serving size is 4 tbs, do you just feed one serving per day?

3) which cereal is best? the girls will eat rice, barley, or oatmeal cereal. It seems like oatmeal is slightly more nutritions because it has 1g more protein but I'm curious what everyone does.

4) do you give cereal at every meal? once they are eating 2 or 3 meals a day and once you've tried a variety of food, do you sometimes just give a vegetable/fruit meal or 2 veggies, or a veggie/cereal or fruit/cereal?

5) do many mom's do veggie combo's once everything has been done as a single. it would probably be easier to make a batch of sweetpotatoe/carrot mix and freeze that, rather then having them seperate.

6) how do you decide which food to give each day (after you have run through a lot of foods seperately)?

7) at what age do you add the 3rd meal? they started with rice at 5 months and we're starting fruits/veggies now at 6 months. they have just started 2 meals a day.

TIA for all your help! Liz

 

1) My guys hate bananas, but I freeze avacado mash all the time. I put it in an ice cube tray, wrap it in plastic, and once it's frozen put the cubes into a freezer bag.

2) Our feeding guide from the pedi has 3-9 tbs cereal per day for 6-8 months.

3) I use oatmeal and barley, but not rice. (Constipating, and we have too many issues with that already!)

4) I use cereal *mostly* as a texture additive. I do oatmeal with fruits, barley with veggies. I use it for most meals, to vary the texture of the fruits and veggies, or to thicken yogurt. Neither of mine will eat cereal straight, and it took me forever to slide the daily recommendation into food without getting it spit back at me.

5) Veggie combos, yes. We buy our babyfood, but I mix between jars or buy combos. Very rarely do I feed a single veggie anymore.

6) I try to keep it varied, so if we've done peaches for a couple days, I'll move onto another fruit. So I just take stock of what we have, and grab something I haven't fed in a couple of days. Or mix things up to be a new combo. And if someone's having a fussy day, I grab his favorite. Even if I've already done that the past 3 days. Plus I usually tend to try to keep one "new" food in the rotation, even if it's just a new presentation of an old food (i.e. we're on fruit dices now, so though I've fed apples in the past, diced apples are new, and therefore interesting).

7) I was late in adding the 3rd meal. Only one of my guys can consistently eat solids (health issues with the other), and we've just been overwhelmed with aforementioned health issues. So only just now at 10 months am I getting my solids-eater a 3rd meal per day. He could have happily handled it at 8 or 9 months, I think.

 

1) can you freeze the banana puree or does it get yuckie? I'm assuming you can't freeze avacado either. So for babies who eat banana's every day, do you just make a fresh batch every morning, doesn't that get time consuming? Yes, I freeze bananas and avocado. But it is not time consuming at all to mash up some banana in the morning. In fact, it is probably less time than microwaving the frozen banana. I only freeze the banana, when I have a bunch and they are getting too ripe.

2) how many tablespoons of cereal should babies, say 6mo-8mo, eat per day. a serving size is 4 tbs, do you just feed one serving per day? Hmmm, I never measured it, but I probably made one whole serving and split it between the 2 of them.

3) which cereal is best? the girls will eat rice, barley, or oatmeal cereal. It seems like oatmeal is slightly more nutritions because it has 1g more protein but I'm curious what everyone does. I like the oatmeal because it doesn't seem as constipating, but I think it is just personal preference.

4) do you give cereal at every meal? once they are eating 2 or 3 meals a day and once you've tried a variety of food, do you sometimes just give a vegetable/fruit meal or 2 veggies, or a veggie/cereal or fruit/cereal? No, I don't give cereal at every meal. Anymore I just use it to thicken some of my thinner home made baby foods. We usually eat a fruit/cereal combo for breakfast. Yogurt or veggies for lunch. Veggies and fruit for dinner. This gets changed up though all the time.

5) do many mom's do veggie combo's once everything has been done as a single. it would probably be easier to make a batch of sweetpotatoe/carrot mix and freeze that, rather then having them seperate. I keep most of my batches separate, cause then I can make a larger variety of combos by thawing various cubes of food.

6) how do you decide which food to give each day (after you have run through a lot of foods seperately)? I just look in my freezer, x whatever they had yesterday, and pick something. There is no rhyme or reason to it.

7) at what age do you add the 3rd meal? they started with rice at 5 months and we're starting fruits/veggies now at 6 months. they have just started 2 meals a day. I started 3 meals at about 8 months.

 

woohoo i like this thread! more for me to learn and not have to ask about later!

 

You can definitely freeze banana and avocado! They'll turn brown, but they're still just fine to eat. If the color bothers you, you could add a tiny splash of lemon juice - I think that's supposed to prevent it.

 

1) can you freeze the banana puree or does it get yuckie? I'm assuming you can't freeze avacado either. So for babies who eat banana's every day, do you just make a fresh batch every morning, doesn't that get time consuming?

It is quick to mash up in the morning, but will freeze

2) how many tablespoons of cereal should babies, say 6mo-8mo, eat per day. a serving size is 4 tbs, do you just feed one serving per day?

I do one serving per day usually at breakfast, or to thicken my home made fruit purees

3) which cereal is best? the girls will eat rice, barley, or oatmeal cereal. It seems like oatmeal is slightly more nutritions because it has 1g more protein but I'm curious what everyone does.

I don't think it matters whichever they will eat

4) do you give cereal at every meal? once they are eating 2 or 3 meals a day and once you've tried a variety of food, do you sometimes just give a vegetable/fruit meal or 2 veggies, or a veggie/cereal or fruit/cereal?

I only give cereal for breakfast, a vegetable combination for lunch and either a meat or lentils, rice for supper with veggies and fruit.

5) do many mom's do veggie combo's once everything has been done as a single. it would probably be easier to make a batch of sweetpotatoe/carrot mix and freeze that, rather then having them seperate.

I freeze each kind of veggie on its own in ice cube trays. Then when I go to thaw something out for them I can mix any two together. I think it gives them more variety

6) how do you decide which food to give each day (after you have run through a lot of foods seperately)?

just pick what they didn't eat last out of what is in the freezer

7) at what age do you add the 3rd meal? they started with rice at 5 months and we're starting fruits/veggies now at 6 months. they have just started 2 meals a day.

I started the 3rd meal just before 8 months