Homemade Baby Food

[MommyMuffin]

I am entertaining the idea of making most of my own baby food, as I will have 3 infants. I found a book with a few recipes. I am the type that has to have a recipe....FOR EVERYTHING!! ::

Does anyone else make their own baby food? If so, have you noticed a cost difference? How much time does it take you? Are you on the food program? Any cookbooks or recipes to share?

Thanks

[thecrazyisout]

I make baby food for my current 8 month old and it is quite easy once you get the hang of it...at the beginning of course you can do simple things like steam carrots and then puree..always use formula milk/mother's milk, or the water from steaming carrots to add nutrients when you puree. The cost depends on what you believe in...organic/frozen fresh...since it is winter, I use frozen for cost effectiveness. IN the summer I go to the farmer's market to get veggies.

I will see if I can find my book I use and send a link...it was nice for new ideas.....

As for time, it doesn't take as long as you think when you do a lot at once. I use ice cube trays freeze the food, then put them in zip loc bags. I dread doing it, but I find when I start I realize it isn't that bad.

[youretooloud]

It's healthy, and more fun. But, it might not be cheaper. Just fun.

http://www.babybullet.com/ I want to buy this thing... because it's so cute. If I had a baby of my very own though. Maybe one day when I have grandkids, I'll buy it.

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

[nannyde]

I make all of mine.

It's easy. Just steam fruit and veggies and puree. Make ice cube or muffin tins of it and freeze. Ziploc the cubes. Nuke the cubes as needed.

[SimpleMom]

I make mine as well. Puree fruits, veggies. ice cube tray to freeze, baggie to store in freezer, and warm up on the oven in a pan (add a little formula or milk first--melts better). I'd say it's cheaper. I even puree meals (only for my own chlid since the food program doesn't count it as a full serving of fruit/veggie.
Have fun with it!!

[melskids]

i make mine too. same way others mentioned. or alot of times, i'll just puree it as i make it for the big kids. i have this little electric onion chopper, that purees like a champ. funny thing is, ive never actually used it to chop onions

[Unregistered]

loved making homemade baby food!

I did this, but I found the earths best bananas to be superior for some reason. The earths best stuff can be gotten by the case on amazon moms with subscribe and save for a very good price.

I made fantastic combos too when we started meats and pastas, quinoa makes a great cereal (buy the flour and cook like creamed wheat).

If you buy some food, you can reuse the jars for freezing. Remember to leave some room at the top and use enough moisture.

[Jewels]

i make my own baby food for daycare, I just make it by the day though, I don't make big batches and freeze, so if we have steamed carrots and apples for lunch, I just take some aside, and puree them. So I guess I find it cost effective, because I dont buy to much more, the only thing I do is buy a few extra frozen bags, in case i want to get the baby something different, so I buy organic frozen bags of squash, and sweet potatoes, frozen bags of organic fruit, and if I need something, I just take some out, defrost it in the microwave, and puree. Really easy once you get the hang of it, when I made all my daughters baby food, I did the big batches and froze, But I am actually finding it alot easier with my current baby to just do it by the day.

[afmama]

I thought about making baby food for my own son. But the new thing now is "baby led weaning." Basically you wait until baby can sit up well on their own...which works out well since the APA recomends waiting until 6 months for solids anyway. And you just chop up whatever you're eating for them. It helps them regulate how much they want to eat and get used to textures. So they aren't shocked when they turn one and everything is different. Really interesting research out there about this.

[Missani]

i make my own baby food for daycare, I just make it by the day though, I don't make big batches and freeze, so if we have steamed carrots and apples for lunch, I just take some aside, and puree them. So I guess I find it cost effective, because I dont buy to much more, the only thing I do is buy a few extra frozen bags, in case i want to get the baby something different, so I buy organic frozen bags of squash, and sweet potatoes, frozen bags of organic fruit, and if I need something, I just take some out, defrost it in the microwave, and puree. Really easy once you get the hang of it, when I made all my daughters baby food, I did the big batches and froze, But I am actually finding it alot easier with my current baby to just do it by the day.

This is what I do. I just make it daily for the baby with whatever we are having. If for some reason I don't have time, I will make the leftover fruit/veggies/whatever and use it for the next day. I use a Beaba Babycook now that I got on ebay for a great price, but when I made it for my own kids I just steamed and pureed with the food processor.

[Cat Herder]

I make all of mine as well. Parents love it, too.

I use the same techniques as PP.

[SilverSabre25]

I thought about making baby food for my own son. But the new thing now is "baby led weaning." Basically you wait until baby can sit up well on their own...which works out well since the APA recomends waiting until 6 months for solids anyway. And you just chop up whatever you're eating for them. It helps them regulate how much they want to eat and get used to textures. So they aren't shocked when they turn one and everything is different. Really interesting research out there about this.

I despise spoon feeding infants and am seriously considering going this route with this next baby. You can still give them a wide, wide variety of foods, just steam them/cook them and cut them up itty bitty (or mash them a bit...babies can do a lot with self-feeding mashed stuff, if you're willing to wipe up the mess).

[nannyde]

I did this, but I found the earths best bananas to be superior for some reason. The earths best stuff can be gotten by the case on amazon moms with subscribe and save for a very good price.

I made fantastic combos too when we started meats and pastas, quinoa makes a great cereal (buy the flour and cook like creamed wheat).

If you buy some food, you can reuse the jars for freezing. Remember to leave some room at the top and use enough moisture.

My kids love quinoa too. I buy it from Pauls Grains in five pound bags. It keeps really well in the freezer. I add it to a lot of stuff and add a lot of stuff to it. It's an AWESOME hearty winter breakfast and goes wonderfully with zippier fruits like blackberries, raspberries, gooseberries, rhubarb. If you just add a little bit of those fruits to the cereal and increase over time the kids will learn to love it.

It's a great "base" food to add new foods to to get them aclimated to a different texture or zippier taste.

All my kids (almost two to almost five) love pureed stews, meats, fruits, and veggies. I even puree bananas, grapes, oranges for them right before they eat them. I have kids that won't eat whole orange slices but they love the pureee. The trick is to puree them RIGHT before serving.

For the same reason that kids love applesauce, puddings, and yougurts...... they love the other foods pureed and blended.

[MommyMuffin]

One of my parents did not want me making her baby homemade peas or green beans due to not knowing the amount on nitrates in them. I was going to buy food from the farmers market...have any of you heard of this or not gotten a positive response from parents when saying you have homemade baby food? I think I might post this on the parents thread to.

I was thinking of just buying that child peas and green beans and making it for my own child and the other infant in my care.

[nannyde]

One of my parents did not want me making her baby homemade peas or green beans due to not knowing the amount on nitrates in them. I was going to buy food from the farmers market...have any of you heard of this or not gotten a positive response from parents when saying you have homemade baby food? I think I might post this on the parents thread to.

I was thinking of just buying that child peas and green beans and making it for my own child and the other infant in my care.

Is she saying that regular jarred baby food is free of nitrates? Does she just do organic?

Hmmm I haven't had anyone say anything about wanting regular food over home made baby food even before I switched to organic. We don't really talk about it that much. I think they are just happy they don't have to provide baby food. It's getting really expensive per ounce and it's super watered down.

I'll tell ya what. I'll work on a blog for you on this so you can see how I do the baby food with the kids. I've been at it for a long while so I have a good system that works for my kids. I hope you guys can use some of the ideas for your kids and to sell to the parents.

Once they SEE the difference of home made baby food they want to BUY it from you. It's SO much better than commercial food and SO much cheaper.