How to Make Home Made Baby Food

Mushed avocado, sweet potato, potato, banana, those are all fiarly non-allergenic and yummy. Both of my children (now 5 and 2) started with avocado, then went to banana.

'super baby food' was an extremely helpful book for me... it breaks down month-by-month what you can introduce... be warned that there is A LOT of information in the book which can be overwhelming if you try to read the whole book front to back... but she's got some great ideas... and some were a little extreme for me... but you can pick and choose what will work for you...
i used my hand blender for all my baby food... it was super simple... just cook what you want on the stove top and hit it with the immersion blender... then freeze into ice cube trays and store in plastic bags... good luck!

I started with yellow squash. Peel it, cut it into squares and cook it until very soft. Mash it until it is very soft.

You can do this with a lot of the foods. Then start with finger foods. They love finger foods. Peas, etc.....

What a great request! The BEST thing you can do for her is to make her own food, and it is really not hard at all. My daughter only ate two jars of baby food (at her grandparent's house) in her whole babyhood. I also used the SuperBabyFood book, but found it a little daunting originally.
What I found easiest at first was butternut squash. Cut it in half, bake it cut side down on a cookie tray with some butter. When it is really mushy, scrape it into a bowl, mush with a potato masher, and fill an ice tray with what you are not going to use immediately (one cube = one serving ). Freeze that and you're good for a dozen or so meals! I also cooked broccoli, peas, and mashed overly ripe bananas, freezing them all. When I wanted new ideas, I would look at the baby food jar labels in the organic section of the grocer, and duplicate them myself (green beans, etc.). The biggest piece for me was freezing the results in ice trays. It is so easy to manage portions, and get a big quantity of food from one venture to the kitchen. The SuperBabyFood book has great ideas for more complicated/well rounded nutrition recipes. It's a great resource. Good Luck!

Oh, I wanted to add that the frozen food cubes can be easily tossed into a plastic ziplock or snap-lid baby bowl, and taken with you if you're going out for the day...they just defrost on the way!

Ok, so being low income and having 5 kids I kept it real easy.
I took what ever we where having for dinner, that the baby could have. And I would put it in a mayo jar, ad some juice, or water. And then put a blinder bottom on it, turn it over and put it on the blender. And puff you have home made baby food. Easy, simple, and cheep.
You want to stay away from allergy foods. And you want to make sure that you blend it good. But over all it is simple and easy.
Good luck
B.

You can check out a book from the library about how to make baby food for free. I never have, I have just made it from bananas, peas, green beans, brocoli, cooked apples . . . I take the food and smash it in a food processor. When the baby is little, I thin it out by adding it to breast milk or thin rice cereal. This way she gets the nutrition from the cereal and milk as well. Another trick to make a lot a head of time is to mix up the fruit or veggie and then put it in an icecube tray. Once it is frozen, put the cubes in a small freezer bag. Now you can defrost the type you want and then add it to the milk or cereal. Doctors recommend only trying one new fruit or veggie a week to check for allergies but once you do that you will have a variety of foods ready to go.

You've gotten a lot of great ideas. I'll add only that I've read that you should be cautious of making your own beets and/or carrots, because these root vegetables absorb nitrates from the soil (in areas where nitrates are high). Baby food companies don't buy these vegetables from parts of the country where the soil is high in nitrates. BUT - I don't know if the Pacific NW (assuming that's where veges at the grocery store are shipped from!) soil is nitrate-rich. Anyway - I didn't mean to "stir the pot" - I made some of my son's first foods and really enjoyed it.

I made several different kinds of vegetable baby food, but I never did fruit or meat. For vegetables, I would steam them until they were soft. Then I put them in the blender. I added little bits of the water from steaming the vegetables until the food was at the right consistency for my baby. Then I froze it in ice cube trays and separated the different kinds of food in freezer bags. Then I thawed them out one or two at a time and fed them to my baby.

Babycenter.com sells a food grinder that I used when my kids got a little bit older to feed them table food. You can take any kind of food, if it isn't too hard and grind it up into food that the baby can eat.

Another vote for Super BabyFood... it can seem daunting, but I love overloading myself with information when it comes to my child, so I didn't feel put off by it.

A wonderful first food, as previously mentioned, is avocado! Full of healthy fats (which are so important for babies and brain development), easy to digest, and it mashes so easily. I put ours in a mini-processor (cuisinart) and added a few table spoons of warm water.

We had constipation issues with the rice cereal, we switched to Earth's Best oat cereal and it helped a lot. We also learned that bananas needed to be very watered down into a puree, or mixed with a little apple juice due to the constipation (but I wouldn't recommend sweet foods first).

There are tons of books out there, and many of them create more work than it's worth. We found steaming veggies, putting them in the cuisinart and then the little ice-cube trays was super easy! No added anything, except water for smoothing out texture. We just tried everything that we gave her for the first time for about 3 - 4 days to make sure there were no "issues" and then tried something new.

Our daughter is now two and eats anything--seriously!

I agree with the poster who preferred the So Easy book to the big Super Baby Food book. I hardly had time to MAKE the baby food, let alone read such a dense book. Although I use it for reference and spot recipes and such. But the So Easy one was...SO EASY for lack of a better term. Making it is really easy--basically steam the veggies until soft, then puree, put in trays and freeze. But the book separates it into age appropriate foods and gives you recommendations for mixing different foods. Of course you can find many differing lists about what to give when, but I did like that this one came with a laminated card I could hang on my fridge, including emergency choking instructions and such.

There is a great book called "Super Baby Food". I was given this book and I think I only used a couple recipes out of it, but my little girl kinda skipped over the baby food and went to the table food stage! So I have this book and it is in great condition, you are welcome to it! Just message me if you are interested. I live in Vancouver.

Williams and Sonoma sells a baby food maker. It is awesome!! It steams and purees in the same container....super, super easy! I have made everything in there....they also sell a cook book. Cooking for baby, that helped me as far as when and what to make.

The book "Super baby food" by RUTH YARON is a must have for the when's and what's of baby food cooking. It's awesome!
It takes you through the when to introduce foods, the nutrition breakdown, how to freeze and store it properly, and some recipes for later as toddlers. I can't recommend this enough. Look for it at the library if you can't afford to buy a copy. My daughter NEVER ate canned food, and we traveled with homemade food often! Love the book. I'm glad you're making this choice, nutrition is SOOooo important and so overlooked by so many!~ Good Luck

I started my daughter out on the orange vegetables - carrots, squash, and yams. I would steam the veggies and then put them in the blender with a little breast milk until I got the consistancy that I wanted. I usually did larger batches and then filled ice cube trays up and froze the portions. I put the cubes in a freezer bag and kept them in the freezer. The "ice cube" is the perfect portion size that I could pull out when needed. You can get creative once your daughter gets used to more and more foods. It really is a lot of fun!

There isn't really a trick to making home baby food (although the lady below had some good ideas). My son just ate bits of whatever I was eating. I never fed him canned baby-food from a store. He had lots of cooked veggies, fruit, rice, wheat-free crackers, etc. It's more about the foods that you're not supposed to feed until after age one which are, eggs, wheat, dairy, nuts and some shell fish. Everything else is fine, so long as it's soft enough.

Remember to always feed your child what you're eating (except super spicy food and after age one) with the expectation that everyone (including children) eats these foods. If you do that, your child will be a good, well balanced eater for life. If you cater to you child and make them kid-friendly food you're much more likely to get a picky eater. Good luck!

Check out savingdinner dot com. Hover over 'shopping', then 'specialty menu', then 'for the little ones'. For less than $5 you get a shopping list and instructions for making 3 stages of baby food from 6-18 months. The website also has other dinner and meal planning resources that I've been using for several years now and love it. Their service has become a lifeline for our family. My little one is almost 6mos as well and I can't wait to try the baby food for myself!!

My doctor suggested starting all your vegis first before fruits due to possible allergies and taste issues. Once some babies taste yummie things like fruits it can be harder to introduce some of the vegies.

You should get "Super Baby Food"! It is an awesome resource. I have used it with both my children and lent it to several other people who all say the same thing. "My kids eat great, healthy food."

But before you buy it and are ready to start solids try sweet potato, banana and avocado. make sure you wait four to seven days of being on a new food before you introduce another new one.

have fun!

I started doing mashed up veggies then once they were eating veggies on a regular basis added in meat I think that was around 8 months and then added in fruit. My kids are big on eating their veggies now. Good luck.

S.

I made a lot of my own home made baby food, I just steamed the fruits and vegetables myself, either on the stove top, or in the oven, then I usually blended them up and put them into ice cube trays (for easy portion sizes) and froze them and stored them in quart size freezer bags. When I made a large quantity at a time, I labelled everything with what it was, and when it was made. Now, I still make a few things, but I only make a little at a time, and I can tell what it is by looking, so I don't label anymore. (my son is 3 now).

I got a lot of great ideas from a website, I think it was called wholesomebabyfood.com They also have one for toddlers, which I think is just wholesometoddlerfood.com.

There are certain foods, for example, that you should NOT buy at the grocery store and steam for your self, because of the nitrate (or nitrogen, I can't remember exactly...but it tells you on the website)...those foods include carrots and things like spinach. At a very young age, kids need carrots that were grown under specific conditions, in certain soil, so that's why you need some store bought baby foods sometimes. It is good to read about those. Just for good information.

Hope this helps.

I think one of the best things you can start her on is veggies.
All of them, green ones first. Avocado is a great first one ( I see another reader posted that one, NICE!). Then the other colors leaving the orange ones until last ( carrots, just due to the sweetness of them). You will be rewarded later in life when you serve food at the table and you don't hear, I don't like that!
I used ice trays made up the baby food, in the blender (we didn't have the luxury of food processors back in the day 70's). Freeze the food, and then when frozen take out and put in zip lock freezer backs to take out as needed.
When it comes to eating the fruit, bananas should be on the spotty end, (they actually have more vitamins when they are left to ripen and better for the baby).

I would just use cooked vegetables and mash them. I have a baby food mill given to me by my SIL. You can also use a blender. You can do a lot at once and then freeze them in an ice tray - one cube per serving. Then store them in the freezer in a freezer bag until you need them. You can do the same with fruits (cook and mash and freeze). When you are ready to introduce meats cook thoroughly and give her very small shreds, or grind them up as well.
With my boys - now 6 and 4 - I usually fed them what ever veggie we were having just without adding anything to it. I am looking forward to doing it all again (in a few weeks)with my 4 month old girl.
As for what to do next if I remember correctly start with vegetables, then fruits then meat and dairy. (avoiding allergy food like eggs, peanut butter, strawberries etc) Also waiting 3 days in between introducing new foods just to make sure there is no reaction. You may know that already, but I'm just trying to think of what I remember.
Good luck.

I also used wholesomebabyfood.com. I found really great information there. Lots of recipes and good tips too.

Making baby food is simple.

The easiest that I can remember are mashed bananas, avocado, peas, sweet potatoes/yams. Just blanche the veggies with no added salt or oils and then toss them into your food processor and pulse until smooth. When my sons reached about 9 months I would make a little extra of what ever veggies I had prepared to go with my dinner and then just toss them into the food processor. It gave them variety and I did not have to work very hard at it. I also used unsweetened oatmeal mixed with unsweetend apple sauce -I used store bought apple sauce (not Gerber but a big jar of the Trader Joes stuff) At about 12 months I started to add a little of the proteins that I served with my dinner to the veggie mush.

I stored extras in ice cube trays in the freezer...this way when ever I needed something I would just pop out a cube and microwave it for a minute. It worked for us

Good luck!

Book recommendation:

"Super Baby Food"

Talks about what to introduce when and, even better, has a section on how to prepare baby food. Includes information on when foods can be introduced, methods for cooking and buying.

Good luck
R.

I know you have a lot of responses but I just wanted to add one more, I used "Top 100 Baby Purees: 100 Quick and Easy Meals for a Healthy and Happy Baby" by Annabel Karmel, its a small book full of recipies, I liked it because it has a lot of variation and tells you little nutrition tips and exact cooking times for each food and how to transition from purees to other foods later on. She has a website, and I also love www.wholesomebabyfood.com like some other mamas have suggested.

My children started on veggies first - you only introduce one new food at a time and only that food for a number of days so that you can watch for any food allergies. I want to say we started on yellow and orange veggies first - ask your pediatrician - but I made all of my own baby food. I would buy the unsalted sweet potatoes and then drain any juice in the can - put it in the blender and blend it up and add water if needed for the proper consistency. Then you store it in ice cube trays - each ice cube is about one ounce of food. Cover the trays and put them in the freezer and just pop the number of cubes you need in the microwave for 15 seconds at a time to heat them up. You can do this with all of your veggies and fruits. The only thing I bought from the store were the meats and that was just to get them introduced to the meats. Once they were ok and I was no longer concerned about allergies (at this stage they can eat foods with little chuncks in it) then I would just take some of our dinner (not seasoned too much) and put it in the blender too. Works great and costs less - One can of beans cost maybe .99 and will give you at least 12 servings versus 1 jar of baby food for the same price and only 1-2 servings. Have fun

"Super Baby Foods" by Ruth Yaron (http://www.superbabyfood.com/index.html) is a great resource! You can probably check it out from the library, but it's also worth the investment of buying it. Avacado, squash, and banana are great second foods, but need to be really well smashed. I made nearly everything for my daughter before she turned 1 and we still make most things for her. She's only had 2 jars of babyfood ever and I rarely buy foods geared to kids. It's also worth the investment to get a good food processor if you don't already have one. Some people swear by the "Magic Bullet" but I've personally never tried it. Good luck and feel free to e-mail me if I can be any more help! :)

If you have a KitchenAid Mixer, it has a food strainer attachment you can buy that can strain and make baby food. Also, blenders and food processors are good for making baby food.

I would start with fruits and veggies. Bananas are great because they are easily mashed up.

Good for you! I've always made my daughter's food and I'm quite proud to say she's NEVER tasted anything pre-packaged! I found the Ruth Yaron book too daunting. I posted a similar request and found out about the book, So Easy Baby Food. I LOVE< LOVE> LOVE it! The recipes are super easy, it's broken down by months what they can eat, it lists the nutritional content of each food, it recommends foods to mix together, and my favorite part? It recommends herbs and spices to mix with the food at the appropriate ages! My husband does all the cooking for the two of us. I hate it. But, I've never felt burdened making my daughter's food. I spend about 1 hour/month (yes, month) making stuff. I have gotten together with friends with little kids and we have puree parties. I make a lot of one food, get together with friends, and come home with a variety of foods. I think you'll find the process really fun.
Good luck!

I make food for my 7.5 month old daughter. Her first food was sweet potato which is real easy. Bake the potato, smash it up with water. She eats carrots, steamed smashed with water, and apples and pears just cut up and mashed with water, etc. The best advice I got from my daughters naturopath is to introduce 1 food at a time. For example, give her carrots then wait 2 days to see if she has a reaction. If you mix apples and pears for example and baby has a reaction you won't know which one gave it to her, and sometimes it takes a few days for a reaction to appear. And she also said that baby doesnt have to really eat a lot for it to be introduced..smearing it all around her face counts. I have a cool tool like a food processor for baby food. The brand is KidCo. It was a gift so I have no idea the price. But if its in your means, its very nice.

The SUPER BABY FOOD BOOK is the best! I used it for all 3 of our kids. It's a wealth of information and can be a little overwhelming at first, but once you get started it's not that big of a deal. There nothing like knowing what you're feeding your babies is good and is so much better than the store bought garbage, especially the rice and grain cereals. Good for you and HAVE FUN !

Baby food is sooo simple. I made and still occasionally make it form my 12 month old as he doesnt have many teeth yet. I have a book that someone bought me,
More or less, I have a mini cuisenart, I just steam my veggies and fruits and then chop or puree them to the desired consistency. With the sweet potatoes and squash i use a bit of cinnamon and apple juice to help its consistency, as they are both very thick, and I have been told the cinnamon is good for babes and the apple juice is good for bowels! If you are interested i can get you the book name and/or some of the other recipes in it! I then froze a lot of my foods in little containers and it makes life sooo much simpler!

Hi J.,

Just to add to the advice you/ve received...

Our pediatrician's office supplied a chart with recommendations for which foods to start at which age and suggested serving sizes. It's been a great quick reference.

I also have a hand-me-down copy of Super Baby Food. Yaron advocates a vegetarian diet in the book, so meats are somewhat neglected. Otherwise, its been a good resource.

I basically did what Kajsa S. I would steam veggies and then take my Magic Bullet - I'm sure you could use a regular blender and a little water and puree' the veggies and put them in a ice cube tray. Freeze them and put them in freezer ziplock baggies. I believe about 2 or 3 cubes is a serving. You can do this with pretty much most veggies. I mostly did it with bean, peas, and carrots. If you used canned veggies rather than frozen or fresh - make sure that the cans say that there was no salt added. good luck. Have fun with it too.

I'm also on board with the "super baby food" book. excellent book with more than just what food child can have next. Highly recommend.

Hi Jen,

Making your own baby food is very easy. Start with soft foods. With my kids..my daughter's first food was split pea soup over creamy mashed potatoes. It looked awful but was her very favorite for a long time. My son was into mashed potatoes and either beef or country sausage gravy. (He started on the beef gravy). However, Banana can be mashed..you can even take cooked rice and send it through a strainer..or other sieve. Mash it up good..that's your rice cereal..or if you have a coffee grinder you can clean out you might be able to grind uncooked rice..don't have any experience with that though..so no guarantees.
Carrots are good one as they cook down very soft. Easily mashed. When its time to combine foods, you can simply mash/grind your own meals as needed. They sell things called "rice pearls" now which is a smaller version of white rice from what I can tell..that might be useful to you though. Making your own babyfood means you don't spend the extra on the packaging for the most part and there will be no preservatives too. Always set aside a portion of a meal for your daughter...mash it up..or dice it up. If she's to young for it yet, put a few kid sized portions in the freezer. I used ice cube trays and wrapped each portion in multiple layers of plastic to keep it from getting freezer burned..and when they froze I dumped them all into a baggy..instant baby-tv dinners!

Anything you aren't allergic to you can probably feed her outside of some obvious ones like honey, milk and maybe cheese...these can cause allergies if they are given too young. Honey can cause botulism in the very young. (At least raw honey..most is pasturized now. The trick is to start bland and work your way up to the more tasty stuff.

My mom would say don't give her fruit first..that worked with both my youngest kids, but not with my first. She refused anything but applesauce for a couple of months. But..just try little bits at a time. As she gets her teeth add soft cooked carrot sticks..instead of mashed. She will be able to hold food eventually, so make it easy for her. Give her strips of carrot cooked soft enough to mash when she's around 8mo. old and she might be able to hold them and start feeding herself even. My kids all insisted on feeding themselves (usually with their hands) while I shoved the occasional spoonful of something they needed to eat in their mouth. When she gets big enough for bread...PANCAKES YUM! There are so many things to put in pancakes you can't go wrong and its a possible to even use meat and vegies and have them eat it. (Also known as Shepherds pie to some..or have heard it compared to that). Crumble cooked sausage in, maybe some apple bits, banana or something sweet if you want..and Voila..breakfast lunch or dinner in a convenient patty. Babyfood is simply pureed big people food. If you have blender, food chopper or what have you..drag it out and start experimenting..make a list of foods you are introducing and cross out what she absolutely won't take in..circle what works and put a star next to goal foods that she will grow into. But most of all be proud you won't ever have have to pay for babyfood in a jar. I do recommend if you intend to put your child into daycare that you let him or her try some of the babyfood in a jar, as that way it won't be a big surprise when it's offered up. It is smoother and sometimes kids on table foods don't like it because it doesn'thave the texture they are used to. Good Luck!

My DD first food was avacado. I avoided grains until she was about 18 months altogether. There is some discussion over the body not processing grains until the molars coming in and something about when that happens there's something happening in the gut as well.

Since we have known food allergies in the family we just decided to err on the side of caution. We started with veggies and then moved to fruits.

I bought a baby food processor (but any small food processor will work) at BRU for $10 and I'm still using it today. I would steam whatever and process it then store it in 1/2 cup mason jars in the freezer.

After your daughter has shown she's got several foods she can safely eat you can make a little veggie soup and blend that for her as well.

HTH,
C. WAHM
5 y/o virtual twins
owner: http://www.BeHappierAtHome.com

I agree that "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron is the way to go. It was so unbelievably intelligent and informative, you might learn a thing or two yourself too! Not to mention how healthy my little two-year-old is. I am pregnant again and will definitely use the same method!

I stared with apple sauce, squash, sweet potatoes and peas. Our doctor said not to give her more than one new thing every 4 or 5 days to get her used to it and make sure she is not having a reaction.

I just cooked them and put it thru a food mill, then stored it in little plastic contaiers in the freezer. I just get one out when its time to feed the baby, and heat in the microwave for 30 seconds, then stir and test for warmth carefully. It find this very simple and feel like it is better for her too. Mine is now 11 months old and want to eat what we eat as much as possible.

You can find baby food grinders at most stores. Target has them for under $10. Then just cook the food and put it through the grinder. Add a little liquid at the beginning so the consistency won't bother the baby. They prefer smooth food at first. Your doctor should be able to give you a list of which foods are appropriate at which age, or Drs. Sears give a pretty comprehensive list in "The Baby Book."

I loved making my sons baby food, and felt really good about not buying any baby food jars. The first foods you can make are yellow vegetables, like butternut squash or sweet potato. Just cube it, or buy it frozen, steam it until it is really soft, then blend it with a bit of water. You can decide how smooth or thick you want it to be. It is delicious and so yummy when it is freshly made. Carrots are also good initially, and when your baby gets used to them, you can combine and start adding green veggies, like peas, green beans, broccoli, and plain potatoes. You can make a vegetable medley of carrots, potato, peas and corn, for example. Hold off on fruits, but you would make those the same way. Steam for a bit, pealed and diced, then blend. Fruit doesn't really need any water though, or else it just turns into juice. Bananas can be mashed and eaten just like that. Same for avocado, just mash it and maybe add a tiny bit of water. You'll be surprised how yummy this all tastes. When I have trouble getting my son to eat his potatoes or squash sometimes I'll add a spoonful of applesauce and he eats it right up. It works! Good luck!

i have been doing this as well. there are great books avail used from amazon. the womans last name is karmel. i think it is called super foods. but puree of anything will work. i started with fruits and veggies and added chicken but she has great recipes. cheaper and better for your babe. enjoy!

Wow! I also have 2 boys ages 10 and 5 and a little girl 6 months. I will be making her food also. I am using the site www.wholesomebabyfood.com for info on it. it is a great site. check it out.

After you've read Super Baby Food, look for Jessica Seinfield's Cookbook for new recipes.

Making baby food couldn't be easier. Good next things to start her on are: avocado, sweet potatoes, squash. The latter two you can peel and boil (sweet potato) or bake/steam (squash) and then put it through a cuisinart or even a baby food grinder (I have a hand mill I bought at Natural Pantry that works really well). Then fill an ice cube tray with the mush, freeze it, put them in zip lock bags and you have a month's worth of baby food right there. I also make my own rice cereal--I cook brown rice and then put it through the feed mill. It is easy to do and better for baby than the commercial rice cereals. Good luck!

Get "THe SUper Baby Food" book. It is really good. Teaches you how to do everthing and gives kids a really healthy start. I am a nutrition teacher and both my kids have been raised using that book.