Homemade Baby food

My boys are starting a bit late on "solid foods" due to spitting up...but now they are in full swing and doing a GREAT job of it! I am making my own baby food...mashing...puree-ing...steaming....whatnot. Anyone else making their own? Any tips or hints or red flags? Thanks! I am really trying to give this a go.

 

Hey There,

I made some of my own for my son. I found that it was a great way to introduce foods that weren't standard but at the same time it was very time intensive. It does work out to cost less though... I bought a book called blender baby food that had some good combinations in it. I think one of my favourites was bananas mashed with avocado. No cooking involved! The book had a ton of other combinations that I found pretty inspiring. Check it out if you happen to be in a book store one day...

http://www.amazon.com/Blender-Baby-Food-Re...e/dp/0778801187

 

Yeah to you Mommy!!! It takes dedication to make your own baby food, but it is better for them (providing you don't cook all the nutrients out - my mil made my son broccoli once... it was grey by the time she was done, bleh). If prepared in quantity and frozen properly you are home free. It sounds like you've got the basics down. My biggest advice as as he gets a little further along food wise is that you feed him what your family eats. I would portion out whatever we were having for dinner before salting etc., mash it up and off you go!

Donna

 

The "Super Baby Food" book is really good, I think it's by Ruth Yaron. The things I liked making for my kids were squash, sweet potatoes (yams), avacado, pears, bananas...I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of them right now. I used to buy a bunch of one thing and cook it all and mash it all in the food processor (add a little water if it's to thick) and then put it in ice trays and freeze it. Then you just pop them out into a freezer bag to store large amounts. This is what the book above teaches you how to do. It also tells you how to cook all the different things, and at what ages they can have all the different foods. It's really very helpful.

It saves a lot of money, and you know what your baby is eating.

 

I made some of my own food and really enjoyed doing it! wholesomebabyfood.com is a GREAT website for getting started. We also have a Twin Wiki entry on the subject... [Wiki]Making_Your_Own_Baby_Food[/Wiki]

 

I make all of our baby food. It is really easy. I just buy organic fruits and veggies, cook them, then puree them, pour them in ice cube trays, then transfer the frozen cubes to freezer bags. try wholesomebabyfood.com
Good luck

 

I printed out the feeding chart from wholesomebabyfood.com and stuck it on the fridge, so I didn't have to keep running to the site to check what they could eat when. That helped a lot! I used to do the steam/blend/freeze thing, but what I just do now, if I don't feed them jarred, is give them some stuff of what I'm eating. It's so much fun! But mine are a little older than yours. Once they hit 8 months there is really a lot of foods that they can eat and it makes it easier to feed them what you are eating. They now love bagels and cream cheese, yogurt, cheese, cheerios, chicken, baked potato, toast, waffles, scrambled egg yolk, plus all the veggies ... I can usually pull out some things from dinner or lunch and give it to them. Like tonight I made this chicken soup with beer, which obviously they couldn't have but I just steamed some chicken, carrots, and squash and then chopped it up and off they went.

 

I started out doing it, but I was really on the verge of PPD, so I decided that the goal of making my own 100% organic baby food was one ideal that I could throw out the window and still look at myself in the mirror every morning. I love the Super Baby Food cookbook by Ruth Yaron. Do a Google and you'll find her website.

That said, there are a number of things that I do on my own (eg. bananas, soft fruit, bits of bread, etc.) When you start your babies on food late, like most of us do nowadays, it's really not long till you can give them bits of table food. The easiest of all!!!!

My first child never had a jar of baby food (where's my "good mommy award"! lol), was EXTREMELY healthy, and still loves broccoli. It really wasn't difficult at all. Just significantly more time consuming than jars.

 

Thanks everyone for your support!! I have been to the wholesomebabyfood.com website and have the Super Baby Food book. The boys are now on sweet potato and I think avacado will be next. I am doing with icecube tray freezing thing and it is working out great. I figure if I take an afternoon each week I will be able to keep up. Kudos to anyone who has made even ONE meal of homemade baby food!! :a_smil09: I am excited about giving them table food later on and snacks they can pick up with their hands! Who would have thought that this would tickle me so much...I am having a blast with these kids!

 

I'm doing my baby food as well and I'll try hard never give them jared food.

But i've a question here, the frozen cubes, when & how do u get them out of the freezer?! Is it in the same day or the day before you give it to them?

Menna

 

I make all of our baby food and I love doing it. It's so much easier than I ever anticipated. About once every week or two I do a big batch and the babies are eating like a couple of kings! I don't have a book, I just follow the guidelines on www.wholesomebabyfood.com and I've never had a problem.

Once the food is frozen in the trays I just put the cubes into a marked ziplock bag. Frozen food lasts 2 months in the freezer so I'm still using some great stuff that was in season in August (like peaches) and the boys are loving it. I take out all the food for the day in the a.m. and put in in the fridge in little dishes.

 

QUOTE(Dr. Menna @ Oct 6 2007, 10:02 PM) [snapback]438642[/snapback]
I'm doing my baby food as well and I'll try hard never give them jared food.

But i've a question here, the frozen cubes, when & how do u get them out of the freezer?! Is it in the same day or the day before you give it to them?

Menna



Do you mean when to get them out to defrost? I just take them out when it's time to eat and microwave it for a minute or maybe less. I had the time down exactly for it to be the right temp with my other kids, but I haven't started solids with these two yet.

 

To get the frozen ones ready to eat I usually zap them in their feeding container for a few seconds then stir. If I need to thin it out a bit with formula, I use hot water (I have an instant hot water dispenser that I LOVE) and add that to the partially thawed cube. Works like a charm. I anticipate (since we are only on two foods) having colorful bags of little cubes in the freezer. I will be able to write out the menu each day and the nanny will be able to follow it easily. I am feeding them the rice porridge and make enough for 3 days and leave it in seperate containers in the fridge, have not frozen them yet.

Any foods you guys have found that just do not freeze well? :nea:

 

QUOTE(kitka5150 @ Oct 7 2007, 02:44 AM) [snapback]439060[/snapback]
To get the frozen ones ready to eat I usually zap them in their feeding container for a few seconds then stir. If I need to thin it out a bit with formula, I use hot water (I have an instant hot water dispenser that I LOVE) and add that to the partially thawed cube. Works like a charm. I anticipate (since we are only on two foods) having colorful bags of little cubes in the freezer. I will be able to write out the menu each day and the nanny will be able to follow it easily. I am feeding them the rice porridge and make enough for 3 days and leave it in seperate containers in the fridge, have not frozen them yet.

Any foods you guys have found that just do not freeze well? :nea:


not yet, but some foods come out runnier after being frozen. I usually don't thin alot before freezing and thicken up w/ cereal when thawed if it is too runny