Making Baby Food for the First Time....

There is a great book called super baby food that has all kind of recipes. Written by ruth yaron. FANTASTIC book we still use it for some things and my son is almost 2.

Hi V. - if your son still won't eat what you make try starting him on finger foods. I had a problem with my daughter a few months back and started her on the gerber puffs. I eventually let her self feed puffs and I would sneak in bits of baby food in between her feeding her self. At 9 month this week, I now give her can green beans, pears, Gerber little crunchies (cheese Puffs), Ritz Crackers, Mac-n-cheese, scrambled egg, etc. Bottom line she wants to self feed. She's not too good so I help, as well as still feed /sneak in baby food thickened up with rice cereal. Remember the first 6 - 8 months up to 1 year + is all practice and trying new things. It's not about making a meal out of it. They still get most of the nutrients from mom's milk or formula. I wish some one had told me this for my first child and sooner with my second.
Best of luck
K.

Hi V.,
You did not say what you had been feeding your son up to this point. Also, it's not clear whether you think it's tart or your baby thinks it's tart? I have made my own baby food since my little girl was 4 months and she ate a lot of things that I did not think tasted all that good because she's not used to all the sugar and additives that we adults have become accustomed to. That said, I always tasted everything. With fruit, the sweetness does vary but I would think right now you should have your pick up of ripe delicious fruit. The other thing you can do is make medleys-even if it sounds gross to you. You can mix apple or pear with just about anything. And you know what, it's actually really good. Also try sweet potatoes (the gold ones-not orange-are actually the best)and butternut squash (actually any squash--even though it's not the best season right now for that). But if your fruit really is tart, it's probably not ripe enough or out of season, or you may want to try a different variety (e.g. sweeter apple-I use fuji or braeburn). Finally, I agree with the recommendation for wholesomebabyfood.com. A good book is the So-Easy Baby Food Kit. One last thing, I almost always serve my pureed food with a little Earth's Best Oatmeal or Rice Cereal. It adds calories, nutrients, and makes feeding a baby pureed peaches a heck of a lot easier.

Good luck!

To make tart fruit sweeter, mix with banana or add a little bit of apple juice.

I absolutely recommend you do make your own baby food. It is super easy, super affordable and definitely manageable on your tight schedule. I also work full time and did it when my children were 3 and a few months old. I guarantee you if I can do it, so can you. I still recommend you buy jar food, because it is convenient for times you go out to dinner or travel.

The easiest way I found is every time I cook something for the family, I also cook for the baby. This is how you work it into your schedule. Otherwise, you can do it all on the weekend.

I chop chicken breast in bite size pieces and cook them in chicken broth. Beef I cut thinly and cook the same way. Actually, I cook all protein and veggies in no fat, low-sodium chicken broth because it gives the food some flavor. Sometimes I choose to also steam some of the veggies. Anyway once you have you protein and veggies cooked, you want to puree them with the same broth you cooked them in because the vitamins for the veggies will seep into the liquid, and because a little liquid helps the puree process.

After pureeing your protein/veggies I portion it into Ice Cube trays (I bought the ones that come with a cover from "OXO"). I freeze the food and it is perfect portion control because each food cube is about a tablespoon.

Fruit is a little different because you don't need liquid to puree. Only I found that watermelon really doesn't work well for this method, but I still do puree watermelon and serve it to my baby in a net teether, so he can suck on it.

Veggies that work great are any squash, zucchini, broccoli, egg plant, corn, peas, but potatoes you want to bake in the oven until they fall apart. Great fruits are pears, strawberries, blueberries, mango, apples, bananas. Best of all, you can mix and match to come up with different combinations to serve your baby.

I hear people use blenders, mixers, etc. I have one of those "Magic Bullet" nock-offs call the "Mrs. Kitchen". It is perfect because it is small and takes almost no space on my counter.

Best of luck!

add apple sauce, pureed prune or pureed banana.

You can mix them with oatmeal or rice cereal...won't necessarily make them any sweeter but at least a little bit more mild.

I made my daughters baby food also. I used squash and sweet potatoes. These are on the sweet side and might make a good addition to tart fruits. Also, a banana smashed up at meal time could sweeten up the mix.

Hi there!

I have a picky eater too and what I do a lot of the time is add some applesauce to the food. The other thing is, if you pick ripe fruits and veggies, they shouldn't be too tart. You can add formula, if you'd like. But, I'm not sure that that's going to make the difference. The other thing you could try is adding some cinnamon or something along those lines, to the fruit. It could help to add a little more flavor. Hope this helps!

How about mixing them with bananas, apple sauce, or avocado?

Banana was always a good add in for that. But do it when you're about to serve it, not ahead of time since banana turns brown really fast and doesn't freeze well.

Add banana. Bananas are extremely high in fructose (especially if they are semi-brown) and are the least likely to cause allergies. You can add them to practically anything.

As someone already mentioned, mashed ripe banana is definitely sweet...or ripe pears. If you don't think applesauce is sweet enough, you can try making your own. When I cooked apples or pears down for a long time...they can start getting pretty sweet. I also added breastmilk. So yes, formula would probably help with flavor since your son is use to that taste.

For my daughter, I avoided sweetening things up when first introducing foods. I figured if I got her too use to it, she wouldn't try anything unless it was sweet. Some of her first fruits were banana, cooked apricots, apple, pear, and peaches. I was actually surprised how she took to apricots as they were rather tart. I would mix it into the cooked rice mush I made her.

Good luck! Just keeping trying and trying again various foods at different times. Some kids just refuse, refuse, refuse something for weeks and then suddenly want to eat it. If there was a food my daughter really rejected, I'd try introducing mixed in with something she liked. But other times she just suddenly would like it. Sometimes mashed versus pureed versus cubed mattered to her. Once she started getting a handle on utensils...sometimes using a fork versus spoon versus hand would make a difference on her interest in a food. For a while certain foods she only would eat if she could poke it with a fork!

I also agree that wholesomebabyfood.com is an excellent resource!

it's been a while since I made my kids baby food (they're 7YO now) but here's a helpful reference for all things homemade babyfood: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com .