? for those who make baby food at home

I thnk my babies are ready for chunkier food. So far I've been processing the food. How would i do it to make it chunkier? if i process it less it ends up uneven and still has larger unsafe pieces.
How large can the pieces be? My girls aren't getting the idea of finger food and i think maybe eating chunkier food might help them. Is it safer to keep processing it totally till they figure out finger food?
thanks.

 

Hi,

Here's a thought - maybe with sweet potatoes, pears, apples or the like, you could puree all but one half potato.. then hand dice the piece you left out and add it back into the puree when it's done.

You can also cook regular (not quick oats) oatmeal on the stove -- adding the oatmeal after the water starts boiling -- this will make an oatmeal that keeps the oats more in tact -- then you could add that into the puree. Rice is another small texture item that is good in a puree.

I stopped feeding my kids baby food when they started to hit the Stage 3's -- I read the ingredients and began making my own casseroles for them -- by mincing the veggies and making a gravy with everything all mixed together. They loved them and I could control what the texture was and what I was putting in them.

Good luck

Teri D

 

You could try mashing some of it with a fork, instead of using the blender.

 

After realizing that Wesley (11.5 months) wasn't eating as well when in finger food form, I just made "Dinner Medly No. 1" a couple of days ago. I pureed the lima beans up really well, put them in a bowl. Then I did carrots, leaving some chunks. There were some large chunks, but I tried to cut them down with a knife. I added it to the bowl. Next came squash, and it got down to pieces but not chunks, and into the bowl. Then I added the baked flounder after I cut it with my hand pastry blender. I mixed it all up, and I think he's doing well with having some bigger chunks in the mix now. I've just been careful to look at each spoonful to make sure there aren't any really big chunks. He didn't like it the first couple of times, but I think that was the lima beans rather than the texture. He really doesn't like them.

I don't know if that was helpful at all or not.

 

I stopped using the blender around 8 months. The best and easiest for us are sweet potatoes. I just peel them, and cut into very small squares, add abut 2 tbs of water, then microwave the whole batch. My kids LOVE them and they are perfect for picking up.
Have you also tried lettign them self feed bananas, ripes pears cut up, peaches, nectarines, kidney beans, black beans, crackers, bread cubes, etc? There are some great options out there. Best of luck!

 

I started mashing with a fork or a potato masher when they seemed to crave a chunkier texture.

 

I'd mash with a fork versus a blender.

 

Or you could use a ricer too.