Does anyone make their own babyfood?

I was thinking about making my own babyfood this time around, but maybe I am crazy since I work fulltime and have a four year old. I definitley don't have a lot of "extra" time. If you do it, how time consuming is it and what products would I need to buy? Thanks!!!

 

I made all of my own babyfood for my girls - but I love to cook, I only work part-time (10 hrs a week!) and these are my only children! I would usually do a big batch cook once a week during the girl's nap time & then on the weekends. I froze loads of stuff so that it was quick & easy to pull out. A lot of fresh fruit purees you can just whizz up right when you are ready to feed your little ones.

I used BPA-free freezer trays from "Fresh Baby" like these: http://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Baby-Easy-Breast-Trays/dp/B0007CS4EU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1275096217&sr=8-1. I got by with 2 of them, but I think 4 would have been better. Once the purees were frozen, I just threw them into ziploc bags & made sure that I named & dated them.

I found a regular sized food processor to be essential for large batches of stuff for the freezer, & I have a smaller 3 cup mini-food processor as well for just pureeing up smaller amounts of fresh fruits etc. I use an oxo steamer insert which has been great: http://www.amazon.com/Oxo-Good-Grips-Pop-Up-Steamer/dp/B000HCBDF2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1275096409&sr=8-1. I still use it a lot to steam veggies etc for my girl's snacks and finger foods.

I bought Annabel Karmel's book "First Meals" which has been terrific, but I also used 2 great websites: www.wholesomebabyfood.com and www.weelicious.com

I hope ths helps! Good luck making your own food, it is very rewarding. But I did find it really hard to keep up with the quantities required, and given that you are working full time outside the home as well you may find it even tougher. Do what you can but don't make it too much of a chore! There are plenty of babies out there who do just fine with jarred baby food, and a happy Mummy is the best thing any baby can have!

 

I don't think you are crazy. I make my own baby food (most of it) and I have a two year old running around. But...stay at home. I found the Baby Pro steamer/cuisinart combo a must. I think, as the boys are getting older and eating more, I will be switching to a regular pot/steamer basket and a regular chopper. Just starting out and learning whether you like making the food or not, the Baby Pro is a must! I freeze the food in Baby Fresh ice cube trays.

It's SO much easier than I thought to make food. For instance, squash: wash the outside, cut off the ends and throw them out, slice up squash and put it in the steamer. Pour water in the steamer. Wait. Pour extra water out of squash after it's steamed and put squash in chopper. Puree. Put into ice cube tray with top and freeze. That's it! The longest, most time consuming part is when it's steaming. That's when I do other things like dishes, laundry load switching, etc.
Super easy! You CAN do this! (If you want to!)

PM me if you have any other questions!

 

you're not crazy! i did it and i work full time. i have a magic bullet for making smoothies and it has a great pitcher/blender attachment, so that's what i used to make my purees. a regular blender or cuisinart would work, too. for more fibrous veggies like squash i also pushed the puree through a mesh sieve during the early days. i froze individual 1 oz cubes in an ice tray and then transferred them to labeled ziplock freezer bags (with date). i loved making baby food and i totally recommend it.

here's a photo of some of my cubes. that's apple, sweet potato, plum/banana and avocado.

here's a shot of everything in the freezer.

i'm happy to answer any questions you might have! :good:

 

I have a 5 year old and work full time. I spend 1 weekend every month to month and half making food. I use the wholesome baby food website and a cuisinart.

 

I made all of my own baby food. It really isn't that much work. I only pureed veggies. For fruits I just mashed them (I never cooked them). I did buy regular applesauce instead of making it myself.

With baby #3 I am considering not doing much baby food at all and holding off on solids until she is basically ready for finger foods. I will probably still do some baby food, but not as much. My twins were mostly on finger foods at 9 months or so and I really preferred them self-feeding to feeding them with a spoon. That may not work for all babies though. Some are not ready for finger foods until they are older.

Good luck! I would give it a try and see how you like it and how much time it takes you. I just used my blender. I never needed anything else for pureeing the veggies. One key is to add plenty of water or the veggies won't blend well.

 

I highly recommend making your own food....I personally think the jar stuff tastes awful! It doesn't take that much time and one batch of food goes a long way. I tended to make my food on Sunday night and would make 3 reciepes at once so I always had a huge variety of food to offer (it would take me about 1-1/2 hrs). I LOVE LOVE LOVE Annabel Karmel's reciepe books...(she also has some receipes free online on her website) I would make her receipes, puree with a magic bullet, and then pour into ice cubes trays, cover them and freeze, when frozen I would empty the trays into large ziplock bags and label them. At mealtimes I would just take out 1-2 cubes for each kid and voila (each receipe would make 2-3 ice cube trays worth..)! I still make and use some of the recipes even now that my kiddos are turning 2!! Even my DH loved the reciepes (minus the puree part....

 

We used wholesomebabyfood.com and now also use wholesometoddlerfood.com. I have a cuisinart but also a tiny food processor. Usually every third Sunday or so I would bake or steam up everything, puree and then put into ice cube trays wrapped in saran wrap. My favorites due to ease were squash (we sliced it and baked it face down per the recipe on wholesome baby food), yams, and carrots. I kind of missed once we were done with purees...it was soooo easy. Now I have to work a little harder to make meals interesting. My kids loved avocado and that doesn't even need to be pureed. Just split it in half and scrape the spoon against it and feed them right out of the avocado - that was a great one to take on the go - it stains though (although Oxiclean takes it out). Ripe pears are awesome also. And it is amazing what you can mix with whole fat yogurt. I highly recommend making your own...just takes a little organization but in the end I thought it was pretty rewarding. I won't say I never opened a jar of food but for the most part, we made it and I think you just get used to the process. Good luck.

 

This is such great information!! Thanks so much! Out of curiousity - did you do this to save money, save the environment, or health reasons? Or all 3?

 

I do not think that you are crazy. I made all of my babyfood for my boys. I also have a 3 year old and a fulltime job. I did it mostly for nutrition. What sold me was on Thanksgiving we had leftover sweet potatoes. My MIL made it into babyfood for me. If you looked at it it was a nice bright orange the packaged food was more of an orange-brown. By doing it myself I could cook it the best way to preserve the nutrients.
I bought a food processor and used small 8 oz containers and made big batches at once. I work 7 on 7 off so on one 7 off I would do fruit and the other 7 off do veggies. I don't know that it saved a ton of money but, I know that I preserved a ton of nutrients and my boys loved it. I still make a lot of their finger food fruits and veggies.

 

We personally did it because we grew up in very unhealthy families and we are on this mission to do as much as we can to give our girls a great start. Like I said, we always had some jars on hand - I am realistic, and I think there are definitely some great jar choices (favorite is Earth's Best), but I figured if I can feed them fresh produce and cooked food I was really going to try to do that - I want them tasting what I am eating. It wasn't until I bought a few jars that I realized the cost we would have incurred if that is all we had done...would've amounted to approx. $12/day minimum to feed them from jars/prepackaged/etc...if I hit the sales. Now we do this organic door-to-door delivery and it is wonderful. I think we order a medium box, $38/week with free delivery from local farms. It is awesome considering what you pay at the store. And the Farmer's Markets are starting...mmm...I am getting hungry. Good luck to you.

 

sort of all three but when i calculated the cost savings that was the clear winning reason. it's a huge HUGE money saver.

although i agree with PP that i just bought organic all natural apple sauce. since it's so readily available it just wasn't worth doing.

i recommend making your own whole milk yogurt, too.

 

You're not crazy at all!!

We make our own, but I go the super easy route. I always make something for myself that they can eat too. I have never frozen anything or used cube trays or whatever. I just give them some of my food. It has really helped me to make sure I am eating healthy. We also did what is called baby-led weaning where I let the boys have soft cooked finger foods and learn early how to feed themselves. It's messy, but it's very fun for them and also allows us to eat while they eat.

As for giving them some of our food, If I need to I mash it up or blend it. If we are having broccoli for example, I cook the boys broccoli longer so that it's very soft. And I also make sure all the food is very low in salt and sugar. But it has worked well for us. At 9 months our boys love broccoli, green beans, lentils, a few different variety if peas, and all kinds of other healthy stuff.
For days when I have made something that is not really baby friendly I always try and have something baby-friendly on hand like avocados, yogurt, apple sauce, etc that they can have.

We did it for several reasons, but mostly because we wanted them to learn to love healthy, fresh veggies from the beginning and because we wanted to share meal times with them. Also the environmental aspects were important to us. We grows some of our own food and wanted to share it with them.

Good luck! I think it can be so fun!

 

Hi i always make my own babyfood and did it for ds1 as well as the twins i live in Ireland and the norm her is to amke your own yes the odd time people use jars if out or away from home on holidays, i have annibel karmels books too and shes great i also have her mouli which is great with progressing onto lumpier foods ,first i user a hand blender then the mouli and now i have a wean machine its portible and easy to use www.theweanmachine.com i normally do chicken caserole ,beef caserole lamb caserole and mixed veg i freeze in big plastic tubs ,enough for the 2 babies and defrost as needed happy cooking!

 

I have always made my own - to the point that when I DID buy a few jars for a trip with my eldest she refused to eat....

I have never used a website (altho I've checked out the wholesome foods one mentioned. I just take out some of whatever I'm cooking for the family before adding too much seasoning early on in their solids career and mash/puree it as needed. Then as they get older and can handle the seasoning I just give them whatever we're eating (with exception to egg/pnut butter).

I will puree/mash a large amount of veggies and ice cube tray them, in addition I'll freeze spaghetti sauce in trays when we have it as a meal - then I can pull it out for lunches etc.

I've done it 1)cost, 2)convenience - its amazing how someone will become so used to having jarred that if they run out they have NO CLUE what to do for food for their babe when their house is FILLED with food! 3)to me its just the way its done...

 

I made my own food because I wanted them to have more organic fruits and veg.s. But I soon found out that the packaged foods had less variety then I was able to give my kiddos by doing my own. My kids now are great eaters and they love most veg.s, fruits, and meats. For example they were exposed to foods like zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, turnip, plums, nectaries, papaya, kiwi, etc.. I found the stores carry only a fraction of foods I could make them and tend to have only the staples, sweet potato, carrots, corn, peas, apples, pears, and peaches.

** I do agree though organic packaged applesauce is worth buying instead of making**

 

Soooo much great information!! Even though I didn't ask yet, I am in the same boat as mommylaura (minus the four year old). & Have had the same questions about making our own baby food. Everyone has asked me if I'm gonna make our own & I haven't been sure how to answer them. But with all the tools out there I think I can do it!

 

you can absolutely do it! and if you run into a snag, it looks like there are plenty of people here who can answer your questions.

personally i got a little thrill every time i would calculate how many ounces of food i could get out of a few sweet potatoes, compared to the price per ounce of comparable babyfood. you can make organic babyfood yourself for less than the price per ounce of conventional jarred food, no matter what the brand. since life is so much more expensive with twins, it was nice to discover something where it felt like we could come out ahead, financially.

do a little research because you do want to follow some of the guidelines about which foods to introduce at which age, and there are a few important bits of information about when you can use cooking water to thin the puree and when you should avoid it. wholesomebabyfood.com is fabulous for that kind of information.

 

I did it for the twins too and loved it! Like others, I'd just take a day and make enough food for 2-4weeks... however much time I had and what varieties of fruits and veggies I had! Now I just give them pretty much what we're eating or I make toddler food to freeze! I love knowing that our left over meals won't be wasted b/c we were busy and didn't eat them. I just package them up and freeze!

The other thing I love is that I like to use rice pasta or corn pasta for ALL my kids and I can make baby food w the ingredients I choose! I do find they're more adventurous eaters than my girls were off of jarred food but at the time making baby food wasn't as big of a thing!

I bought the freezer cubes and bought four packages, w 8 cubes in each. I didn't find that to be enough so I bought the ice cube trays as well.