Making My Own Baby Food

I have 3 kids and I put just about everything in a blender. If we were having mashed potatoes, meatloaf and green beans, I'd blend it all. My kids loved that. Of course that's after you have introduced the first foods to make sure there are no allergies. Are you making food and jarring/canning it? I'm not sure how you do that to make the food last. That was just TOO much work for me with no better nutritional content-and my Dr. agreed. My advice is don't make it too complicated for yourself. I found I'd rather spend time on the floor playing with my child rather than preparing food ahead of time.
You can also mash alot of foods with your fork.

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron is my baby feeding bible!

"Super Baby Food" is an excellent resource. This has a fantastic index that includes fruits, vegetables & grains. It tells you when you can introduce & cooking methods. It also has quite a few suggestions that I would have never thought of for food storage. As a nanny & mom, this book has been an invaluable tool to making my own baby food. Good luck!

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron is the best book for anything related to food and babies! She has information on nutrition, preparation, when to begin different foods, allergies, recipes, and lots of helpful hints and tips.

Good luck!

Hi R.!

What an excellent choice you have made to home make his food! I am a firm believer in Dr. Spock, and his book Baby and Child Care. I have a 8 month girl and I home make her food as well. The guidelines I am following are rice cereal first (mixed w/ breast milk), then green veggies, yellow veggies, and lastly, friut. Yellow veggies and fruit contain more natural sugars than the green veggies, so a baby may not give the green ones a chance if they have already had the yellow ones or fruit first. And of course, no salt or any other additives.

I started out with Rice cereal mixed w/ breast milk. Once she got really good at swallowing that, I started letting her sample one veggie at a time for a few days. I had pureed the veggies and froze them in an ice cube tray. Then after they were frozen, I put them in a ziplock baggie to store in the freezer. Then I could take out a couple of pieces, let them warm up to room temp and feed her. Hope this helps!

I have really enjoyed using the book called "So Easy Baby Food" by Joan Ahlers & Cheryl Tallman. Their website is www.freshbaby.com. I have made all of my 7 month old's baby food from this book. It basically tells you how to prepare the baby food in 30 minutes or less per week. They recommend using their "food cube trays" to freeze the baby food, but I just use small silicone muffin pans because the food cubes pop out really easy. I just pick what my daughter will eat for the day and take it out of the freezer in the morning. It's easy and I feel much better about feeding my baby fresh food!

Find the Super Baby Food book.
Buy a bunch of ice cube trays - if you can find them, the ones for the smaller ice cubes work well - they are 1Tbsp. servings
don't make your own carrots or other root veggies unless you KNOW what has been used on the soil for at least 7 years.
get a potato ricer - it's just easier for some of the foods, and less clean-up than a blender or food processor

The book has recipes in the back, but what I found the most useful was the month by month breakdown of what they could eat when.

Yes, it's a big book, but I never read the whole thing :~) I mostly used it for what to expect & what to feed monthly.

It has recipes for beginning eaters through toddlers & pre-schoolers, and some fun craft things too. I bought around 5 different books on making foods, and this is the one that I actually used.

As your little one gets older, you will find that you have to "prepare" less & less. Our girls were eating pretty much what we ate by 10 months old - yes, including spicier foods. If you teach them from the beginning to eat everything, guess what... they will!

My kids love Japanese curry, green chili, garlic mashed potatoes, etc, because we fed them REAL food from the start, not "kiddie foods" like chicken nuggets & mac & cheese (my oldest won't even eat boxed mac & cheese).

Part of the benefit of making your own food is just that - you can feed them something worth eating, and develop good, healthy eating habits from the start. We avoid most processed foods - no high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, etc, and my kids know what they should & shouldn't eat when they are out & about - and they are 5 & 7.

Congrats on the choice to make your own baby food! It's so nice to KNOW what you are putting into your baby's mouth, rather than hoping that the labels are telling you everything - and it costs MUCH less! especially if you grow some of it yourself!

Good luck!
J.

I also HIGHLY recommend the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. This has been an invaluable book to our family and is still used in our house and my son is 3 1/2. This should have all the information you are looking for and more about what food is good for babies and at what age it should be introduced as well as tons of nutritious receipes etc.
good luck,
M.

"super baby food"
it's the bible for baby food. Includes a lot of cool stuff about nutrition and what you can add in to children's food (like spirulina, brewers yeast). It also, of course gives you great lists of age appropriate foods and creative snack ideas for when they are a bit older.

good luck
E.

Hi R.,
Here is a great site: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/
I have absolutely loved making my baby's food!
J.

I think a great book is Super Baby Food. It has a great month-by-month guide for introducing foods and it is a terrific resource for making quanitities and saving them. I loved this book and used it when making baby food for all 3 of my kiddos (now ages 8, 6, and 3). Good luck -- commercial baby food is overpriced, overprocessed, and unnecessary in my opinion.

You should check with your pediatrician or naturpath about what foods to introduce and when to introduce them. Both my kids had severe food allergies and our ped recommended a naturpath to help us.

I found Anabel Karmel's book about first foods to be really helpful too. She talks about the rough transitions between baby food and toddler food.

I made my own baby food - it's easier that you think! - and froze it in Demarle flexipan trays. It gave me control over portions and the food reheats very easily. The trays do double duty because you can bake in them too, so now that the kids are older I cook their food in them; muffins, fritatas, veggie-loaf, I even freeze yogurt in it for them. Great investment!

I highly recommend the books by Drs. Sears (husband and wife pediatricians with many kids). I currently use their "The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood" for nutritional guidelines for our whole family.

A really GREAT book about baby nutrition is "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron. She's pretty hard core about not using anything processed, and concerns about food allergies, but she also has done her research about nutrition and infants-toddlers.

I used a few recipes from it, but mostly I read the guidlines in the index to find out what foods were appropriate at what age. I don't have a picky eater, so we had lots of fun experimenting with all sorts of yums early on!

One food that doesn't get as much acclaim in the US as it should is the wonderful avocado. So many beneficial fats and oils for developing brains and bodies! My daughter loved it when I made it as a puree, and now that she's 13 months, she loves slices of it to munch!

Good luck to you, your son is lucky to have a mom who wants to make him delicious and nutritious food!

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. She is completely thorough and provides lots of extras. Had to take the info with a grain of salt because she's clearly got more time than I do, but she answered every question I might have had and then a lot more.

There is a month by month breakout of which foods to add at which times. Nice reference/summary pages as well.

HI, I made food for both of my children and LOVED the book simple baby food. I did not feed my children exactly as she suggests, but it is a great resource 140for how long to cook, how to blend, when to introduce. And the back of the book has a ton of great ideas and suggestions.

I'd love to send you my handout for introducing foods starting with least allergenic and working up to more reactive foods if you'd like. I am a naturopathic physician and work a lot with babies and children.

Doc Sam
###-###-####

This isn't really an answer to your question, but I thought I'd suggest something that I heard somewhere about making your own baby food. I just steamed my veggies and then pureed them in he food processor but the tip I got that was so great was to freeze them in ice cube trays so you have small serving sizes to heat up. You can even move them to a large freezer baggie and freeze other veggies so you have a good variety in your freezer at all times. I've done this for 2 of my kids and pretty soon will be doing it for #3, it is a major time saver!!

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron is a very thorough book detailing all of the essentials you need to know to make your own food. It was invaluable for me - so detailed and clear. It has been my baby food bible.

My sister turned me onto the Super Baby Food book by Ruth Yaron. She gives you a list of foods your baby is ready to eat each month (each chapter) from month 6 on. She has you puree veges and put them in icecube trays and then ziploc bags in the freezer. I spent about 45 minutes pureeing several veges once a week). She also talks about how to combine proteins to make complete proteins and when and how to introduce finger foods. It is a very practical book for the busy mother. You don't have to sit and read for an extended period of time to learn how to do it. She refers back and forth to different pages so your reading is quick and to the point but if you need more information you can go to another page. Very easy to follow for very healthy eating. My 14 month old stilleats the whole grain super porriage. I love this book!!!!

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron is an awesome, awesome book. I highly recommend it. She also has a website.

"Super Baby Food" is the best I've found. Good luck!

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron was an excellent resource for us. It took a while to get into the super baby cereal that she talks about, but we did eventually get into that. I have friends who just used it as a guide for other foods. The only thing to remember with the cereal is that, unlike the store bought cereals, the ones you make at home are not iron fortified so you may need to give your baby additional iron.

The best book that kept things simple was - The Petit Appetit. I loved it and found it very helpful...

Get
Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron
It was my bible and the only I found with such detail. Very annoying with some of her tips and layout design is horrible, but content is very good.

Hi R.,
I used a great book that was very easy to use. It does have recipes, but begins with what, when, how, when it comes to making baby food. It is called "First Meals" by Annabel Karmel.
Also, you may or may not already know this, but ice cube trays are great to use when making baby food. you can put your pureed food into it (some of course can't be frozen), freeze it, and then put the cubes into a freezer ziploc w/ the date made on it so you have your single servings of food right there for baby to warm up if you ever need it!

Hi R., I've got a handout with how to introduce solids for every three months along. I'm a naturopathic doctor, midwife, and mamma. Feel free to stop by my clinic for a handout on this tricky issue. I'm bringing this list to our mama/baby group tomorrow b/c several women have asked for this same list. ###-###-#### is our clinic # at Parkrose Chiropractic and Health clinic at 11125 NE Sandy Blvd.
Best wishes, and enjoy your baby, A.

I made my own baby food and it's super easy! I started with fruit. Apple sauce. I just peal and cut the apples and cook them on the stove in water for about 10 min or until soft. Then I blended them up, cool and serve. I used about 6 med. apples and that make about 4 servings. You can do the same for any fruit you want to make. When you are done introducing one wait 3-5 days to see if there is a reaction to it. If nothing then try another and or combined them.
I did basically the same thing for the veggies.

These are good reference websites.

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/FruitRecipes.htm

http://www.homemadebaby.com/

If you have any questions feel free to ask: ____@____.com (R. mom of a beautiful 17 month old boy).

R. C

When baby is old enough to eat baby foods all you have to do put your food in a processer & purea the food, if you can don't add any salt or spices, you can process any food/fruit or veggi's, its quick & easy...
M.

I just started by smashing the foods that I made for myself. I stayed with one vegetable for a couple of days,then added another, then added fruits. I did not make food up and freeze it. After about a month, I just served my baby the meal I was having but smashed or riced. As she got older I just chunked the food. By 11 months, she just needed the food cut into small pieces. I always gave her a spoon to hold when we started solids. I tried to stay away from really spicy foods at first. You can mix any vegetable or fruit with the rice cereal. I liked to have her have a variety early on in her eating.

Hi R.,

I love the books "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron. It has everything you can think of about feeding your baby. Which foods to introduce at what stage, recipes, preparation ideas, nutrition info, etc. etc. etc. This has been an excellent resource for me and my little girl who is now 15 months.

Try www.wholesomebabyfood.com they have tips on preparation and storage and some great recipes. Good luck!

Super Baby Food book has everything including monthly lists to be introduced, very healthy minded, a ton of info but easy to navigate resource. I love it!

Babycenter.com is a very useful and helpful website. I use this for my kids all the way up to teenage issues,hope this helps! It also provides a plethora of information on how new mom's experience (or those of us who forget...) and how they "feel" at the stages from birth to teen years regarding their children.

I don't know of a website either, but I've been using Super Baby Foods by Ruth Yaron (or something like that). I've made all his food and I love it. She gives great guidelines on when to introduce certain foods and the amount different age babies should be eating. My little guy is going on 10 months and he is thriving! She's pretty hardcore, but I still use her suggestions as a basic rule of thumb. You should be able to get a used copy of the book (I got mine for $2.00!)

The best books I found were First Meals by Annabel Karmel and The Healthy Baby Meal Planner also by Annabel Karmel. They gave pretty good guide lines for when to start what foods. Just remember if there is allergies or asthma in the family history you may have to tweek them and introduce certian things a little later. I have not used alot of the cutie techniques of presenting the foods but I have prepared some of the older kid recipes, and even my hubby and I enjoy them! Good luck.

Hi R.,
When my boys were little, I always made their baby food. I had a food grinder (one that you did by hand) and I would put everything we (my husband & I) ate through it. I started with dark squashes and sweet potatoes, then moved on to the dark green veggies.
The only things you should be careful with are egg whites, nuts, milk & fish. My dr. told me that I could give the boys hard-boiled egg yolks, so I would mix those in with their cereal or other stuff.
The basic idea is to go slow as you introduce new foods. Always keep a good eye on them when you introduce things that they could be allergic to like strawberries or tomatoes, etc.
It's usually good to just feed them what you eat, because you end up with less picky eaters later.
Hope this helps,
S.

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

It's an awesome resource.

I love the website, wholesomebabyfood.com

It has recipe ideas, charts for guidelines for different ages, things kids shouldn't have at certain ages, etc. Tons of good info.

They also have a toddler site, for when the kids get older, which I've enjoyed, too!!

I agree with your follow-up comment, that many books give differing lists of what to try when. I see that many people recommended the purple Super Baby Food book, and I have that one. And I'm sure it's great. I will use it for some things. But I find it hard to read and use, personally. I actually use more the So Easy Baby Food book/package (I think that's the name) that came with two "ice cube trays" for freezing the foods, and basically gives you step-by-step instructions for preparing batches of things like sweet potatoes, squash, apples, pears, etc. I find it easy to use and follow. I hope you found something that you liked to use. I'm not big into cooking, but I find myself very much enjoying making my own organic baby food for my daughter--and it's cheaper than buying the jars! I still buy the jars to try the new foods, then figure out what she likes and make bigger batches to freeze. Then pull out a cube or two for a meal and let it defrost in the fridge for a few hours or pop into a glass bowl to microwave for a few seconds. :) Good luck! Enjoy the journey!

Super Baby Foods by Ruth Yaron is an amazing reference book!

Hi R.,
I was looking for a good website, one that would tell me what kinds of food when and that kind of thing. I found www.wholesomebabyfood.com and I love it! Not only does it give a sample schedule/menu, it gives recipes and explains each item of food, nutrition, why it's good for baby etc. I refer to it all the time.

I made all my own baby food as well and the book that I found, that absolutely rocks, is Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. It has everything you need to know about what you can feed your baby month by month, portion sizes, consistencies, recipes, money saving tips, time saving tips. It has everything. This book guided me through it all and I highly recommend it to everyone who is willing to give it a try. Even my pediatrican said it was the best baby food book she'd ever seen. I hope it will help you as much as it helped me.

Check out this site: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/foodsbytypeandage.htm

It has great information regarding when to introduce certain foods. And great recipes and tips.
Good luck.
I make all my baby food. It is so simple and does not take that much time.

R.-

Good for you! I have made baby food for both my boys. Super easy and CHEAP! I love "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron, its $19.95. It has a month by month on what your child should eat, plus recipes and all kinds of info.

J.

Hi R.,
I believe that this is hands-down the best book out there for baby food. There is a website you can visit: www.superbabyfood.com.
I bought this book when my first son was born, and I've been using it ever since (he's 3 1/2 now). Not only are there great guidelines for what foods are appropriate for their age, but it has a bunch of cool homemade ideas in the back (like playdough, etc...).
I hope this helps you.

after 4 babies...and knowing that there are no food allergies of any sort anywhere in my extended family.... I always just mashed up, pureed or grinded whatever we are eating for the most part... there is really nothing to hold back on....unless you know that there is a risk of food allergy....

Hi I used a booked called Baby Eats by Lois Smith. I bought that when my first son was born...5 years ago. With my second son..who's now 1 1/2....I just used my mini food processor that I got at Walmart for I think about $9 or so and just blended anything we were having to eat. I was limited on freezer storage and I wanted him to have a fresh of food as possible. This seemed to work great for us. I diid keep on hand some organic baby food just for really busy days. Good luck...you are one the right track with healthy eating habits!!!!

I made my own baby food too and I know it was the right decision and worth the effort because it was a totally different color than the jarred stuff! I used the book "Feed Me, I'm Yours". It takes you from newborn to toddler finger food on to good lunches for your grade schooler.

I have a lot of friends that used the book Super Baby Food, which you might want to check out. I, for one, found it overwhelming and a bit fanatical. Also had some weird/possibly unsafe suggestions like nuts before age 1. I found great tips and simple ideas on this website www.wholesomebabyfood.com

I made a lot of my kids baby foods, especially my first born. My best tips: for most items that need cooking (bananas and avocados are two exceptions) steam until super soft, then blend in a blender, or with a handheld blender (a GREAT investment) in a pourable bowl, adding some of the cooking water until smooth consistency. Pour into and freeze in ice cube trays - once frozen, transfer to freezer bags and label with what it is and the date. I did all kinds of things this way, from single fruits/veg, to fruit or veg combinations, to chicken. As I went along I got more creative, adding tofu, ww pasta, brown rice, soft beans, wheat germ, flax oil, etc for balanced meals, and as baby was able to tolerate texture, started to leave little soft chunks so they could learn to gum those. One thing I loved was using bags of frozen mixed fruit or veg, that takes your prep to nothing(just dump in steamer, puree and freeze), and saves a lot of time.

As my babies got older and I was making "meal" combos, I also froze in larger portions, similar to what a jar of babyfood would be. I bought a bunch of the small (2 oz) disposable ziploc containers with lids and used those - they were also easy to transport when we went out for a meal, or were going to be at someone else's house. Just run under hot water to soften, the pop into a microwaveable container to thaw. Microwave VERY minimally, just enough to thaw. It's too easy to overheat such small amounts of food.

Things I found to use out of the baby food aisle that make great (cheap) babyfood: large jars of unsweetened applesauce, cans of pureed pumpkin, frozen boxes of pureed winter sqash, frozen or refrigerated premade mashed potatoes. Check the labels to be sure, but none of the ones I bought had ANY extra ingredients beyond the main fruit or veg and water. That is the key.

My biggest piece of advice is, don't overcomplicate it, and have fun!

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/
Great website, with advice about preparation and when to introduce what, etc.
I did this, and it's really not so much work at all. Spend about half an hour a day for 2 or 3 days, and you'll build up a store to use for the next several weeks, then just add maybe one more ingredient each week. You use an ice cube tray to freeze purees into neat little portions. Once frozen you pop them out into a freezer bag and label it and just heat in the microwave what you need when you need it. It's very rewarding, beautiful looking food, saves you money, and seems so much fresher than canned.
Good luck!

We started w/mashed green veggies first so that our girls wouldn't eat just the fruit. I would cook potatoes & broccoli or peas and use a ricer to mash them together then freeze in an ice cube tray so that the food was in small portions all ready to heat up when needed.

I love my blender. I often whizz up whatever vegetable we are having for dinner. Now that he's older I put in meat and starches too. I just save leftovers in the fridge or freezer.

Hello.

I will second the wholesome baby food website. I've found it to be a great resource and go back to it regularly.

I also picked up the book 'The Petit Appetit Cookbook: Easy, Organic Recipes to Nurture Your Baby and Toddler' by Lisa Barnes, which I like pretty well. There are a couple of contradictory messages (for example, in the intro says no milk or honey for <12 months, but then includes milk or honey in some of the suggested recipes for that age group), but otherwise I have gotten a lot of use out of it and would recommend it to others.

Hi R., When my children were babies we had a baby food grinder. This is a small plastic item you can get at most department stores (Target, etc) You can put food from your own plate in the "sleeve", turn the little handle while pushing down on the little sleeve and voila your food is ground up small enough for baby food from whatever you are eating. This is easy to take to a restaurant and baby can learn to eat whatever you are eating. It was fabulous, we knew what our babies were eating because it was what we were eating and it was way cheaper than buying baby food which our babies refused to eat anyway. This little contraption makes feeding baby cheap, easy and healthy. Our babies are now 26 and 24 and have healthy eating habits. I believe it's because they ate regular foods from the beginning. Good Luck. J.

Ok, I know you've had a million and one responses, but I thought I should share my journey with you. I went to my local library and looked at a ton of books and found Annabel Karmel to have very helpful material in her books. You can look at them on Amazon to see if you would be interested or just go straight to the library like I did. She talks about using mild things and tons of different ways to mix and match and freeze (which is what I really wanted to do...cook a big batch and freeze it in ice cube trays to use for a while). My daughter had an allergy to strawberries so I've tried to steer clear of that and any really acidic fruit which can cause terrible diaper rash. Pretty much all the veggies are good, just cook them, blend them and serve them or freeze them. Her book, "First Meals" tells you about food that freeze well and foods that don't. It talks about allergies as well. It is also a recipe book and has fun ideas to use all the way up through children's ages. I didn't make any baby food for my daughter, but pretty much made everything for my son and he especially likes avocado. I would recommend that book to everyone. I'm sure your local library has more, you just have to find one that works for you.

"Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron is a great book. She has guidelines for when to start different foods, how to prepare and make your own baby food and recipes. I have used it for both of my children. Also, www.onestepahead.com has some great food cubes to store and freeze the food.

I found a lot of good ideas online. But, a book I enjoy is The Healthy Baby Meal Planner. It's great because it give ideas starting at about 6 months up to about 2 years old.

Hi R.. I'm Nickie. I also have children ( 7 and 11). As far as I know, you can feed your baby just about anything you eat, as long as you stay away from honey and cow's milk until your baby is 1. You can use a blender and puree fresh or cooked fruits and cooked vegetables, meat, etc. Just make sure not to give your baby foods you think might give him a belly ache. These are the same ones that might give you gas such as beans,cabbage, etc. You can even puree what you have fixed for the rest of your family if you find the ingredients suitable and not too spicy. Salt will not hurt your baby but use it sparingly. Hope this helps!

A lot of moms I know like the book "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron though I think her food introduction sequence is different than people commonly use ( eg. introduces nuts earlier than advised now). There are probably updated versions. A pediatric naturopathic office in Seattle has a list of when to introduce certain foods to decrease the likelihood of food allergies. You can find the list on www.emeraldcityclinic.com -- use the link to "Educational" and will find the food list in the handouts that are offered. Bastyr University has a list, too (which is very similar), but I think you need to make an appointment at their clinic to get the list.

Have fun!

It is more a matter of what can they NOT eat. Until age one, no honey unless it is cooked in something like graham crackers. Until about 3 (depending on your pediatrician and family history), no nuts or nut oils. Keep spices, salt, and sugar to a bare minimum. Babies do better with bland foods. No shell fish.

For six month old babies, try to stick with fruits and veggies. Fruits do well pureed with formula or breast milk to make it thinner. Veggies do well with water. Costco seasonally sells a 5 lb bag of sweet potato fries in the veggie cooler for like $2. They have no extra junk, but are just cut up sweet potatoes. Just freeze them and use them as needed. Boil the veggies and firm fruits before you puree them to make them soft. Add a banana to tangy fruits to tone it down. Freeze in ice cube trays and then transfer to zip top breast milk storage bags with 2-3 cubes each. Now they are ready to place in warm water to warm and serve.

Once he is about 9 months, he can have anything your family eats. Gradually over the months, puree it less and less so he can explore the textures.

The June 2007 mommies group on thebabycenter.com has a whole thread for this with some really great advice on it.
Good luck!

R.,

I bought this great book called "Wholesome Meals for Babies and Toddlers" published by Parragon Publishing Company at Barnes and Noble for $6. The ISBN is 1-40546-845-9. It gives you an introduction on which foods are the best to give first and has recipes for each stage of your child's life, up to 4 years and up. It is easy to use, has yummy recipes your whole family can enjoy, has great pictures, and gives good wholesome food ideas. I highly recommend it!

I have two recommendations for books on making your own baby food:

Feed Me, I'm Yours by Vicki Lansky [see http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780684028620-0 for more info]

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron
[see http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780965260312-1]

Good luck!

I really like http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/ and have followed their recipes for making baby food. The key is to have a food processor!

I make my sons food, and have used the book: Super Baby Food (2nd Edition Revised) By: Ruth Yaron. It's a nice guideline, easy to use-each month it has suggested foods to introduce and it also advises how to prepare, and store the food (length of time it holds it's freshness, safety, serving sizes, etc...) I have been using the book since my son was 6 months (he is 10 months now) and have really liked it. I have been surprised just how easy it is to make his food, and he likes it a lot!

Hi R.,
I took a "class" when I was pregnant with my first (of three) by a wonderful chef/mom, Jennifer DeRosa. She compiled a booklet that we bought--$10 I think. Of course, we lived clear across the country at the time, but I've found her info if you're wanting to order. It's actually a newspaper article, but has her info at the bottom. Here's the link:
http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2007/08/31//features/food...

One thing to keep in mind is that she's a chef, not a nutritionist. So when she tells you that you can add cream, your baby will be ready to eat dairy but you may not want to use CREAM!! (I use the book as a guideline now that I've gone through it three times.)

Hope this helps!

Super Baby Food is a really good book. You can find out more information on the book by going to Amazon.com.

A terrific Website (and all I used for the first couple of months of getting my girl on solids) is www.wholesomebabyfood.com

An amazing book that I wished I would have started reading while she was still in the womb is Super Baby Food by Ruth Varon. This follows the same lines as the wholesomebabyfood website, but is far more extensive with information on nutrition.

Hope that helps!

Super Baby food by Ruth Yarrow is great!! there are a few things i don't agree with but for the most part it offers lots of recipes and tips for making and storing your own baby food!

Hi R.,

I think that it is wonderful that you are interested in making your baby food for your little blessing. I did for my son and I think it was the best thing ever. A book that I really like for guidelines is Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair. It has a section on starting solids, a section on safety tips for making homemade baby food, not so good food for babies, foods babies often choke on, and expanding the diet of the older baby. Then it has ideas for finger foods. Then it has a chapter on attracting your children to healthy eating. Anyway it is an all around fantastic book. Definitely worth having. Hope this was helpful. What a lucky little boy to have a mom who cares enough to make his food.

M.

Super Baby Foods is a great resource as is Blender Baby Foods...not sure of the authors on either of these, but I am sure you can find them on Amazon. Have fun!

A.

The book "Coping with Food Intolerances" by Dr. Dick Thom is a great book with information about introducing foods at different ages and why. We used it as a guide for our son and made our own food (just steamed or baked foods, pureed in the blender and put in ice cube trays when we made in bulk).

The book "Super Baby Food" with a purple cover is great! Author is Ruth Yaron.

Hi R.,
I did the same for my 2 older kids and will for my new one too. I got my ideas as to what to make by looking at jars of baby foods and what was in them, and always remember to one, have a good grinder on hand, and that most everything can just stay fresh. They mainly eat fruits and veggies, the grinder just needs to be able to grind the stuff, it really is easy.
~A.

SuperBaby Foods is the best book around! I got mine on Amazon. The author is Ruth Yaron. Good Luck!

www.wholesomebabyfood.com

I visit this site frequently for recipes. They have a lot of good information plus links to stores that sell the supplies they reccomend,

I HIGHLY recommend Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron (I think that's her last name) She can be a bit over-the-top with a few things (you'll discover what I mean when you read it) but I used it for my son and am using if with my daughter. It's PACKED with ideas, recipes, and very detailed break-down of what foods, when and how. I would be surprised if this book doesn't give you exactly what you're looking for. Congratulations on your baby. Enjoy!

I made all my own baby food for all 3 of my kids, including rice and grain cereals. The book that I used, which my husband called my new Bible, is called "The Super Baby Food Diet or Book". It is a wealth of information on so many things for both babies and young kids. If you would like further information on this book I would be more than happy to dig it out. It's the best thing you can give your young children and once you get the hang of it there really isn't much to it. Have fun with it and know that your giving your kids the best of the best!

Hi, R.!
I could not function without the Super Baby Food book. Here's a website about it: http://www.superbabyfood.com/
It's an awesome book about EVERYTHING you need to know about feeding infants, toddlers and kids with great ideas, recipes and nutrition info. Not much info online, but the book is SO worth it!~
good luck,
T.

I really like the website www.wholesomebabyfood.com
You don't have to purchase anything and they have tons of recipes that are age specific. They also cover topics such as food allergies and nitrate warnings that puts lots of myths to rest. I have a 9 mo old daughter and she hasn't eaten anything out of a jar yet!

Try:
http://www.healthy-baby-food.com/
or
http://www.homemade-baby-food-recipes.com/

Hi R.!
I made my own baby food for my son, who is now 13 months old and I found the "So Easy Baby Food" cookbook was great! It is by Joan Ahlers & Cheryl Tallman. It is wonderful, explaining when to introduce each different kind of food, how to pick the produce, prepare it and store it and then it gives additional ways to prepare and make mixed medley's when the child is old enough for it. It teaches you to make your baby food in just 30 minutes per week and I have to tell you, it really is just that easy!

First foods for 6 months up include Acorn Squash, Apples, Bananas, Butternut Squash, Green Peas, Pears and Sweet Potatoes.

6-8 months include Apricots, Avocados, Nectarines, Peaches, Plums, Pumpkin, Tofu, Yellow Squash and Zucchini

The book is really great! Happy baby food making!!!

A terrific book - short and practical - is "Feed Me, I'm Yours!" I had 3 kids and highly recommend it.

I'm putting in my two cents. We didn't buy baby food unless we used it for outings (for the most part). We pureed everything in the blender and attempted to stick to introducing one food at a time with a few days in between to check for reactions. I believe it was 4 months for rice cereal (but I thought that was a little early), 6 months to start introducing mild fruits and vegetables, and 8 months for meats. My guy ate a lot of carrots, brocolli, and apples. Citrus fruits gave him a rash.

He's nearly 3.