Making Baby Food

I have used:
The Baby Bistro Cookbook
First Meals
www.wholesomebabyfood.com

It is so much fun and so much better for the baby! Good luck and have fun :)

Hi there.....T., i make my own food with fresh/frozen veggies and fruits. De thaw or take out seeds, skin etc....put them in my braun (food processor) with formula and when the baby is ready add rice baby food a little at a time. store in cubes or put in used baby food jars and eat up.....

good luck

S.

T.-

I have made my own baby food for both my children. They both really enjoyed it and it was a real bonding experience. I felt so good about giving them fresh, organic baby food that was not filled with preservatives. I have a 6 year old and whenever I make her veggies, I just make some extra and blend it up for my 9 month old. The "Magic Bullet" blender is awesome. I highly recommend it. I used to store the frozen food in ice cubes tray (worked just fine) but I have switched to trays and serving bowls made by KidCo company because it is much more convenient. Good luck!

Mashed bananas are the easiest food to make homeade. You can bring them anywhere you go, and you just mash part of it for the baby when it's time to eat. The other part would be very healthy for you or another child. They are a great first food because they are sweet like breastmilk and won't cause constipation problems like rice cereal.
You may want to consider waiting until 6 months to start your child on babyfood. It's the age the American Pediatric Society recommends. We started my first at 5 months because we "couldn't wait" and he spit it up like crazy and had problems with constipation. We waited until 6-1/2 months with my second and had no problems.
Both of these websites have great information on starting babies on solids.
www.askdrsears.com
www.kellymom.com

When I was making my own food, I found this website to be an amazing help. http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

It has a schedule of what foods to introduce when and tells how to make them. Mostly, I often just boiled the veggie/fruit or steamed it and then pureed it in the blender (and I got one of those mini-babyfood processors when we got ready for meats). Then you pour it into an ice cube tray and freeze. Then pop the ice cubes out and put in baggies marked with the type of food and date. Then at lunch time, you can put a couple of cubes in a plastic container to thaw in the fridge. It works great and honestly is really super-easy. I did this while being a work outside the home mother. Proud to say the only time I bought store-bought food was when we went out of town.

Good luck!

My daughter is 8 months old & I have been making her baby food. I used the book "Mommy Made". It has recipes & good advice. It was recommended by one of my friends & I wasn't sure I wanted to do it at first because I was thinking about how much time it would take, but it really doesn't take that long. About 2 hrs to make a 2 week supply. And I did a taste test myself & the homemade stuff tastes much better than the bought stuff, even when it's organic bought food. So far my daughter hasn't ever rejected anything I've given her. Also, gives advice as to how & when to introduce certain foods. Very helpful. Great for you making you own baby food

I see others recommended the Super Baby Food book. I wanted to
add that I absolutely love it and still think it's a great
resource with 7 & 9 yo.

There is a WONDERFUL website... www.wholesomebabyfoods.com
I used this site religiously while I was making my DD's food. I bought a veggie steamer and that made everything a lot easier (plus healthier). In addition, I purchased the ice cube trays from Tupperware that have the lids. On Sundays, during naptime, I would make food for the week, and freeze them in the ice cube trays. Then I would seperate the ice cubes into freezer bags with the date written on them. I actually enjoyed making it (although I HATE to cook) and have great memories of doing so! I say GOOD FOR YOU AND YOUR DD!

I made homemade fruits for my 3 kids. i just wrap each piece of fruit in tin foil, then I bake until soft, then food processed them ( I did peel too I just got rid of the seeds), then placed them in freezer trays, then just heated them up when it was time to eat

Hi T.,
When my children were infants, I purchased a food proccesser. Most nights after dinner, I would puree some leftovers.... veggies, potatoes, meat, pasta, rice or whatever we had. I would then put them in ice cube trays, wrap the trays in plastic and freeze them. I would then pop out one or two "ice cubes" and heat them up when my kids were ready to eat!
Saved money and knew exactly what my children were eating since I was the one preparing it. By the way, it smells much better than the jar food, lol.
Good luck!
N.

Mom of three great kids...Ryan 12, Troy 8 and Audrey 3. Wife to a special guy for 18 years.

First, wait. Many pediatricians want you to wait until 6 months now for solids... and that is a very recent change (my doctor changed his mind between my 2.5 year old and my 10 month old!)

Second, you'll definitely want to start with cereals, and pretty watery cereal at that. I liked Earth's Best, because it is the only major brand made with brown rice instead of regular.

Third, get a book like 'Super Baby Food' (my pediatrician recommended) so you learn when by month it's okay to give certain fruits and veggies, and what things need to be cooked vs. raw.

From there, all you need is a blender, whatever from the market, and a water to thin it. Start by replicating the first foods that Gerber makes (carrots, beans, squash and peas are easy and tasty). You may want to actually buy some storebought so you can match the texture the first few times.

Last, pour the results into ice cube trays and freeze. Pop out of the trays and into freezer-safe bags for storage. Each cube is about an ounce, so you can thaw one or more to eat solo or mixed with cereals.

Have fun!

Hi T.,
All my 3-kids started out with Annabel Karmel's baby recipe book; you can find a selection of her books in any B&N or Borders bookstores. She has easy receips, which foods to eat when, and wonderful blends of foods. I took the time and effort to cook all my kids baby food; all 3-are great healthy eaters; something I hope will stay with them forever to ward off illness, disease and obesity.
Good luck!

I recently saw some great books at the library on the subject. You could look there, check out the books and copy the info you want. That's what I do. Have fun!

The book super baby food is great. I encourage you to wait untill 6 months to start your little one on solids, but you can start making it and freezing it now. Good luck!

C.

Smashed banana or baked sweet potatoes or baked squash are easy places to start. Make a bunch at once and freeze them in single portion sizes.

The book Super Baby Food will be a great resource for you. It tells you how to make fruits and veggies and has recipes for when your child is older. IT also helps with the freezing process as well.I just took the basics from the book because some of it is beyond what I would do. It is super easy too.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0965260313/booksto...

Check out the book "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron. It is FULL of recipes and healthy kid food ideas. The best thing I got from it was the way to make your own rice cereal from regular brown rice -- my babies loved it.

Try www.wholesomebabyfood.com. They have lots of yummy recipes and provide a chart for when to introduce different foods. Good luck. It's a bit of work, but it is sooo much yummier than jarred baby food. I also found some some recipes on Martha Stewart's website. You just have to do a bit more searching.

I made all of the food for both of my sons when they 1st started eating. Since they have taste buds that taste every single morsel- you don't really need "recipes". Your baby will probably love the same healthy foods you ate while you were preg. I boiled (or microwaved) veggies and then used a small (baby) food processor to make it really smooth. The very fist food my boys ate and LOVE still today is banana's. I would smash really well just with a fork and spoon feed them. After you know baby tolerates that specific food- I think you're supposed to wait a week or so. Then you can give another food. Another next good one is sweet potatoes (softened in micro or boil) then smash w/ small processor till all lumps are out -so baby doesn't choke on lumps. A small processor is best b/c u usually make small amounts of food each time and a large one is too big to grind tiny amounts. Also, I would sometimes make extra and freeze very small (baby portions) in cups w/ lids. I think Advent makes milk freezer/refrg cups -a bit big- but good. I also found tiny cups w/ lids at the container store. I used pencil and piece of tape to lable what food was inside cup and dated it. I only kept in freezer for a little more than a week -i noticed it didn't taste as good if frozen too long. That way you don't have to use/ clean blender after each meal.
I loved making food 4 my kids to eat. No salt, no preservatives, no color, etc. they just love the natural taste of each food alone. now they eat healthy and don't require all of the xtra junk that goes into packaged foods. remember every new food tastes good to them -they have strong taste buds now. peas taste great alone. regular potatoes, squash, zucchini, avocados, apples, peaches, etc. there are also lots of great books out there for more. Good luck 2 u!-:) J.

Hi T.,
I agree with the other respond.
I did start with banana and yoghurt mixed and mushed with cheerios. Boild frozen fruits and strained them trough a strainer.Or boild fresh apples until soft.Pasta is good to with carrots. Marion

Hi T. ~
I started with Veggies first. Sweet Poto/ green beans, carrotts etc. Fresh is best, so if you hold off for another 3-5 weeks you will see the best ones coming into the markets. Do NOT add salt or sugar - just wash, cook <well done> and puree it. Once you have gone through the veggies, <be sure to stay on one for about 10 days or so, just so you know they tolerate, and don't react to it> intro. the fruits; same thing - fresh is best - wash / cook well puree.

MY KIDS LOVED IT. Hard to do when we traveled, as I was not smart enough to freeze it ahead and tried to feed them 'jar' food ~ worked but they were not real happy with us.

GOOD LUCK.

Now, SAHM with six children - ages from 22 - 5!! Never a dull moment!!

Hi T.,

As a mom who made food for both kids and a Shaklee supplement taker, I love your mission!!!

My suggestion for making baby food is to start slowly and not 'make' anything. I'd give your DD food that is ready to go. One of the first things I gave both kids was avocado. I'd pick a ripe one and just give it to them on a spoon. It's a boat load of nutrition in one bite and lays good groundwork for future healthy eating. We moved on to ripe fruit like papaya and very ripe mango. The more raw food I could give them the better they liked it.

There are a million books out there on organic baby food making and the like. I think all you really need is a good mill which teaches the baby to appreciate different textures rather than just pureed textures. As they get older texture becomes more important than taste and some babies transition more easily if they've experienced baby food with varying consistencies.

I loved bringing avocadoes or sweet potatoes with us to restaurants and feeding them their own food. It's so easy to pack for an outing and I know exactly what is going in their food.

Resist the urge to get them on to grains. They weaken the immune system and teach them early on to rely on carbs instead of veggies.

Good luck!!!

Hi T.,

I made all of my own baby food for my kids. I would reccomend the book "Feed Me, I'm Yours." I don't remember the author and I recently gave the book to a friend. It has great recipes and a few suggestions like freezing the food in ice cube trays so you have single servings that can be thawed whenever you need them. Steamed pears were by far my kids favorite food and to this day pear is both their favorite fruit (they're now 4 and almost 3.)It's really not that much work to make your own and well worth it. It's much easier to transition them to family meals when they're already eating "real" food.

Super Baby Food is a great book. I can't remember the author, but the cover is purple. It's a bit on the "crunchy" side, but there are some middle of the road recipes. Mainly, puree the stuff you're eating prior to spicing it heavily. I'd puree things with just plain old salt in it. The other thing I like about the book is it gives good info on how much they should be getting at what age.

Hi T.,
My 7 month old is doing great with homemade baby food. My sister-in-law had given me the "Super Baby Food" book by Ruth Yaron and it is sooooo helpful. It breaks everything down for you. What foods to be given at what age, different ways to prepare each food, best ways to store your food, etc. Highly recommend it, although I do purchase his cereal from the store, everything else I make myself. You can freeze most veggies and fruits in ice cube trays so they are in individual sized portions. You can save alot of money without feeding your child preservatives. Avocado, bananas, sweet potatoes (all thinned out with formula or breastmilk) and single grain rice cereal (Earth's Best Brand) are best to start with. Good luck, I think it's worth it! Let me know if would like anymore information.
J. B., Mokena

At my child's 4 mo visit I was told at 5 to 6 mo she could start on squash. (I currently just nurse her & give her breast milk with organic rice cereal by spoon at night before bed). What I did with my first daughter was cook half of a squash (steam or cook in oven) then puree in blender with baby water. I was told early on not to mix veggies - just to try one at a time & continue for a week or so. (Incase there are allergies you can pinpoint them right away). That half of a squash lasted like 2 weeks, then I tried carrots. This early on, you just need to make sure it is pureed completely.

Super Baby Food (a book) is wonderful. Also there's a homemade baby food websites like www.wholesomebabyfood.com.

You will LOVE doing this! It's so easy and so inexpensive!

Definitely get the book Super Baby Foods, www.superbabyfoods.com there is a quiz to assess your baby for readiness on solids and would wait as long as you can. Your baby has to at least double their birth weight by the time you start solids. Dispite popular belief, rice does not have to be their first foods. I tried and my baby gagged so hard she threw up and started with an avocado. My peditrician applauded for thinking outside the rice cereal box. Avocado's are a great first food, full of good fats, great for the brain, skin, hair and nails. My daughter loves avocado to this day and mix it with banana's, sweet potatoes, just about anything. The book also says which are great first foods. Also, you do not have to give veggies first, it is up to the parents to create their taste buds for different foods. Happy Baby Bellies is an excellent rice cereal and full of probiotics, located at Whole Foods. Oh, go purchase Magic Bullet from Bed, Bath and Beyond to puree your foods! Good Luck.

Hi T.,
I just started making my own baby food and found this web site very helpful : www.wholesomebabyfood.com.
Hope this helps!!! Good luck!! : )
M.

I made (and am making!) all of my daughter's food. It's super easy - a couple times a month I'd steam a bunch of vegetables, make some meat dishes, puree them in a food processor and freeze in ice cube trays. When frozen, I'd pop them out and put in gallon ziplocks, labeled with what they are. Super easy! I loved the book First Meals by A. Karmel and the website wholesomebabyfood.com.
Good luck!

We made our own baby food using the book "super baby food." Our doctor recommended the book. We just cooked veggies and fruit and put everything in the blender or food processor and put it in ice cube trays in the freezer so we could use it throughout the week. It was great because we started doing it together and then my husband took that on as his job on the weekends and I could just focus on breastfeeding and pumping.

Good methods are to cook a bunch of veggies (mixed & individually) and store them in ice cube trays & Ball jelly jars in the freezer. Take them out as needed. Sweet potatoes (baked & stored in the fridge in skins), Bananas & avocados are great and easy to take on-the-go & mash up as needed:) Great job saving the $ & watching the preservatives by making your own!

T.,

I have been making baby food for a couple of months now and really there is not much to it. I would suggest getting a rice steamer, a food processor, and some baby food trays with lid for your freezer. Some people recommend using ice cube trays but I like the ones with the lid (available at babies r us)because they also have a "dry erase" feature on the end of the tray that allows you to label and date the food (frozen pureed carrots, butternut squash and sweet potatoes look an awful lot alike)

For fruits (apples, pears)and veggies, I just clean them, peel them, remove seeds and steam away. Once they are soft, I puree them in the food processor. Bananas, avacado, peaches, and other softer foods I just puree. Don't add any salt, water or sugar. Its best to start with single ingredient foods - easier to weed out possible allergies etc. The finished product get scooped out, labeled, and frozen. I think the rule of thumb is not to keep it for more than a couple of weeks frozen, or a few days in the fridge.

Once your baby is ready for more adventurous foods, you can blend flavors and add meats, beans or other soft foods like pasta and rice. I would suggest using unsweetened, unsalted, organic, pastuerized items. A friend of mine even takes small portions of what she and her husband are eating for dinner and purees it all together for her little boy.

Let me know if you have more questions or need any suggestions! I've had a blast making food for my little guy!

I started making my own baby food a few weeks ago and my daughter loves it so much more than Gerber foods, plus I know exactly what's going into her body.

A few tips I can offer:

1. Buy a Magic Bullet - this thing is wonderful and the perfect size for pureeing foods. It's worth every penny.

2. Always steam vegetables/fruits so they'll maintain as much nutrients as possible and use the water they were steamed in to thin the foods, it also contains the nutrients from the vegetables.

3. This is the BEST website I've ever come across for baby food preperation and recipes. http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

T. - dittos to the Super Baby Food book, although you have to wade through a lot of unnecessary information, it's worth it.

I also want to echo the moms who say wait until six months. We did, and haven't really had any food issues at all.

Also, you can easily make your own cereal, the recipe is in the Super Baby Food book, but you basically grind 1/4 c. of organic brown rice in a blender or coffee grinder until completely pulverized (about 2 minutes) and cook it on the stove in a cup of simmering water for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. It doesn't have the added iron that commercial cereal does, but if your baby is drinking breastmilk that shouldn't be a problem. We haven't used commercial cereals or formula, and at her 9 month check-up our daughters iron levels were just fine. Do talk to your pediatrician about this, but don't be afraid to buck the system when it insists on giving your child vitamin supplements.