I'm new here, and I'm making my own baby food

I'm new to this forum, but have been looking around on here for a few weeks now and decided to join. My twins are just over four months old. They were born at 37 weeks via c-section, planned c-section for 38 weeks but didn't make it. Baby A was 5lbs. 5oz. and 19inches, Baby B was 5lbs. 8 oz. 19 inches, they are fraternal girls. It is starting to get a little easier with them, we are developing somewhat of a routine, but it can still be very overwhelming. Since having the twins I feel somewhat isolated from my family, mostly because they don't understand what it's like to have twins. Both mine and my husband's family live two hours away from us. They want to see the babies, but they always want us to come to them. It is extremely frustrating. Were used to being on our own, we have always lived away from family, so that's not a huge issue for us. It's the fact that our family has no clue what it's like to have twins and they think it's just as easy as having one baby. Since the babies have been born we have already made probably 5 trips to see our family and they have only been to see us when the babies were born. Everytime we go to see them my mom always wants to take them to see everybody at all these different places and run around the whole time. With two babies it's just way to much to run around to see all these different people, but nobody understands how much it takes just to get them out of the house, they told me , Oh, just throw them in the car and come over, Yeah because it's that easy. I don't mean to go on about it I'm just frustrated that nobody really understands what it's like to have two babies and you try to explain it to them but they just don't get it. Sorry, just needed to vent a little bit.

I had a quick question about making your own baby food as well. I have been looking on wholesomebabyfood.com and it's a really great website. I have already made sweet potato puree and I am excited to make other things as well, but I am a little concerned. I am worried about the nitrates in the food. I'm nervous to make carrots especially, since they have a high nitrate level. Anybody else who has made their own baby food, any insight would be appreciated. I don't know if it's something I should be really concerned about. Oh, our doctor recommended we start on baby food at 4 months because one of the girls has reflux and it has helped so much already.

 

opcorn:

We arent here just yet, but we plan on making our own too...

We use to live over an hour away and people would NEVER come see us, always wanted us to come there...(that was with just one) and it will hard then, but holy heck... I feel ya.
The last time someone told me this, I let them watch all 3 of my kids (alone) while I went out (it was my mom) for a few hours... she was suppose to get ready for work here and go when I got home.... when I got home, she was a mess, the house was a mess, she wasnt ready for work, and called in sick to go home and sleep off the chaos of the day :laughing:

 

Oh man! I so understand where you're at... my family did not get how tough it was to pack the kids up either and expected me to lug them around everywhere. Right now they're as portable as they're ever going to be because they are probably still in bucket seats and will probably still nap in the car, but in a few short months they'll be a lot more active and have to have more of a routine. I used this as an excuse not to visit anyone :lol: My house was perfectly set up to be baby proof and I told everyone that we were working really hard to stay on a schedule so if anyone wanted to see the twins they had to come to me.

As for nitrates.. my understanding is that this isn't really a risk at all. By the time babies are able to eat solid foods, they have developed the gut bacteria to process the nitrates. Most of the problems seen with nitrates come from babies who are drinking unmonitored well water.

That being said, if you're super nervous about it, I believe that commercial baby food is thoroughly tested for nitrates, so you could always use that. I made all my own baby food though and it was quite fun and rewarding. With things like carrots where there was a potential nitrate concern I would steam them, throw away the cooking water and add more fresh water to puree. Using organic vegetables also helps because there is no nitrogen based fertilizer used.

 

Yeah-people came to us those first few months! Eventually I ventured out with them-to get out of the house! We had Christmas at our house instead of the inlaws, babysitters came here, etc. However, our parents are ten minutes and twenty minutes away! :laughing: But I remember when we were in Italy... We were celebrities. So MIL of course had to show of the grandbabies-and 'gemelli' no less! So we would wake up, get ready, then get in the car and visit this aunt. Then go to this lady's house because she was the godmother at their wedding. And then we would go to this other house because her mother's mother went to school with a great great grandmother. Yes-it was THAT ridiculous. Mind you-we were there to visit the great grandparents, yet we were pulled in 39588 directions-with nine month old twins in a foreign country. I'll be putting my foot down the next trip, that's for sure!

And now it is somewhat easy to bring them places while they are in those infant carriers. After that-you need a mini army! LOL! Not really, but each stage has it's challenges. And as they get bigger, and more mobile-it's just a whole new world! If people are so set on seeing the kids-make them come to you-grandparents included. Put your foot down now before it gets worse!

As for nitrates, I have no clue, but the pp's gave some helpful ideas!

And lastly, :welcome: to TS! Glad you came out of lurkdom!

 

I know what you mean about family. My MIL lives less than 3 hours away and she never comes to visit - thinks we should come to her.

I made all my own baby food for the first two and plan to do so for the second two as well. It's not very hard. I buy all organic vegetables, and cooked them in big batches and freeze them in cubes. I made big batches of food maybe once a month and then it's as easy as popping a few cubes out of the freezer and defrosting. Buy organic and you don't need to worry about what's in the food. I love wholesomebabyfood.com, it's an incredibly great resource for getting ideas and nutritional info. They also have great charts about what ok to feed at what ages.

One of mine has reflux so we've started her on cereal too, but I'm having a heck of a time getting her to eat much of it. what time of day are you giving it? we didn't start the other 2 on cereal until 5 months.

 

I have always made my own baby food also - for all 5 of my kids, and i did the same with the carrots - steam, throw away cooking water and puree with fresh water.

I would make up a big batch of pureed foods then freeze it in ice cube trays. Same with spaghetti sauce - I'd freeze a jar into ice cube trays and take out what i needed when I needed it. Pasta - same thing. Cook up a big batch, then freeze it. When you need it put it into boiling water for a minute or two and voila! You can do the same as rice - just microwave it to defrost/warm.

 

I loved making my own baby food. So much cheaper and I feel like mine are better eaters now because of it. They get used to eating what we eat and how I fix it. I don't have an answer on nitrates. I do have the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron, my friend gave me that I will use as a reference this time. It recommends 2 things to help 1- don't feed carrots, beets, turnips, and spinach until after 7 months as these tend to be higher in nitrates 2- always feed organic fruits/veggies. I bought little 4 oz containers and froze them after filled. This was better for us than ice cube sizes as I was feeding 2 babies and mine were great eaters and it didn't make sense to me to freeze them in 1 oz (ice cube size)as we would go through them so fast. so you might want to think about that when you make large batches.

 

yes yes and yes to all the previous ideas for the making baby food. I had several ice-cube trays already so I used those, I thought they were 2oz size? anyway, just measure what you have so you know what you're giving. and yes, b/c of twins you can freeze in larger cubes since you've got 2 babies! great idea.

I also had the Super Baby Food book - a great resource.

sorry about the hassles of going to everyone else... if its too much, I'd say something, and say that you'd be happy to enjoy time with them at your home... our families are in town, so we didn't have to travel hours, 2 hrs each way is a lot of driving for you guys... it'd be nice if every other month they could come to see you.

I will say that after you ditch the infant carriers... it gets worse! I loved my double snap & go and carriers - which is why we used them until 20 months! it sure made getting in and out of cars a lot easier.

 

Soooooooooooo know what you mean!
We are supposed to go to family's for Chrissie this year and though it's only around 30 mins away, it may as well be 30 hrs. Same amount of work. WE all take turns hosting Christmis eah year, so technically it's not our turn, but I don't think anyone fully appreciates how hard it will be for us (mainly ME) with 2 8 month old babies who are still bf and prob crawling by then. Are they volenteering to care for the bubs while I have the day off and have a few wines for Christmas - Yeah right pfttt :rotflmbo:

I cook most of their food but still use some bought stuff for variety and quick meals if we do make it out the house.

Love it!!!!!!!
I would sooooooooooooooooo love to do this experiement with DH, MIL, best friend, and any number of people who come up to you in the street on an outing. Would love to sit back and watch!!!!!!opcorn: