Making Your Own Baby Food

Feel free to message me personally about this. I was very confused in the beginning and it doesn't have to be confusing! It is easy when you get the hang of it...but I know there are a lot of individual questions that cannot be fully addressed properly here and I wish someone was there to answer my questions... so feel free to contact me!

I went to this website for all my homemade baby food making needs: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/
It told me everything I needed to know! Hope it helps :)

I made most of my own for my son who is now 20 months. I don't remember the direct link, but it was on the www.pregnancyweekly.com website. They have a board on there for homemade babyfood. In the mean time I will look for the link to how to make it.
A.

D.,
Whatever you do DON'T use the microwave. Not if you want to preserve nutrients! That'll sap anything. And you really don't need to steam.

I have a juicer and I put raw veggies and fruits through it so I can get the juice of everything. Can't eat a carrot if you put it in front of me. Just cannot get past it. So I drink my veggies. And what is caught in the catcher? The flesh of the veggie. It can be used to flavor something, tossed, or hey! it can probably even be used as baby food. The fresher, the better. Ask someone at like Whole Foods or Better Health if it's a doable way of making fresh baby food. Organic preferably, then you aren't putting pesticides in. Some things like carrots or beets might need a quick rinsing. Or organic spinach. Dirt catches on during harvesting.
Good luck!

I'd check the LaLeche League website for ideas. It's www.llli.org then click on Resources then on Answers. They also have books that are helpful. Keep it simple and introduce foods slowly, saving the ones that are common allergens till later. Keep mealtime fun and relaxed.

Hi D.. When I made baby food for my son I used a mini-cuisinart. It worked very well for my veggies. I started my son at about 5 months old, and added one new food per week (to check for allergies). By the time he was 9 months old he had been introduced to peas, green beans, broccoli, carrots, corn ... All kinds of good stuff. Sometimes I'd mix a combination, for variety. I didn't use salt, and he didn't know the difference. I would also bake potatoes (white or sweet) and mash them w/ a little milk. These did not require the food processor at all. His favorite was the home made applesauce. Easy to make, and I never added sugar. Just peel and slice apples and cook in a minimal amound of water. Sometimes I would add pears, cinammon, or nutmeg. Because I work, I would do all of this on Sunday night and freeze some (in canning jars) for later in the week. Hope this helps.

Hi D. -

Sorry if this is repetitive....

I made my son's baby food (he is now 18 months), so I can offer the tips I have!

I used a small Cuisinart or you can use something bigger for very large batches. The amount of liquid I added depended on the stage he was at. If you are just introducing, I would make it more watery and then thicken it up as he gets used to the texture. I used my son as a guide on thickens. I would steams veggies and fruit until soft, but not mushy and then I would use the water from the steamer to add to the food to capture some of the nutrients lost from steaming. Steaming loses the fewest nutrients. Make sure to blend out all chunks initially and then you can do less and less blending.

Avocadoes are great for them. Lots of good fats. My son would not eat them alone, so I added pears or bananas. Then you can try adding less and less of the pears or bananas in hopes they acquire the taste (mine never did, so I still add them!).

I found making large batches, freezing and dating worked great. I froze them ice cube trays and them stored them in Bisphenol A free plastic bags in the freezer. I only used the plastic when I had to. Then, I just thawed them (as many cubes as were fitting for the feeding) in a saucepan over med heat, let it cool and served! I never kept any food frozen longer than 2 months...I think i read you can store it up to 3 though.

Hope this helps! Happy food making :-)

I make my baby's food and this website gave me receipes and a chart of what the baby can eat at different stages. The site is awesome. Check it out!

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

I use a mini cuisinart and it works wonderfully! You really only need to steam the foods that are not soft - such as raw veggies and harder fruits. I made strawberries for my daughter and didn't use a strainer though she doesn't seem to mind the seeds. Fresh blueberries work well also, but the skins do not grind so you have to strain them in a mesh colander for the first food introduction. Mostly, it is about getting the foods to the proper consistency. I bought a roasted chicken from Costco and peeled it from the bone and ground it up for my daughter - I did not add any liquid until I had ground it fully, then you add it a little at a time until you get to the consistency you want it. The problem with all of the "recipe books" is that you are so set on doing what the recipe says that you forget to use common sense and use your own judgement - then you could end up straining foods through cheesecloth so you haven't wasted it. Good luck and have fun with it!

Dear D. G.,

Fruits you would want to, leave raw, but wash them thoroughly with cold water (and your hands being clean first). Peel those that you would eat yourself peeled (like mango). Place in blender and blend, texture depends on the age of the child. Five months old or 6 months you want quite runny. Pour into ice cube tray and freeze in the freezer. When frozen solid, pop out of tray and into a zip-lock bag and put back into the freezer until a while before you want the child to eat it. You only take out as many cubes of frozen fruit as your child will eat at one sitting. You generally don't want to save left overs.

Other foods you will cook all the way done and cool before you put into blender to liquify. After allowing to completely cool, put into blender with a little water or milk, depending on the food. In cooked potatoes you would use milk. In peas, peas/carrots you would use water. Don't put any spices into the food when you cook it because young stomachs can't usually tolerate any spices at all. After blending into liquid pour into clean ice cube trays and freeze. After frozen solid pop out of trays and place into zip lock bag. You can do a separate bag for each different food. Much cheaper than buying baby food even if you have to use unsalted vegetables out of the can to make it. If you can grow your own in the garden and it works out with the baby's age and needing it now, that is even better. Anything you can grow in your own garden is often lower cost than what you have to buy but you can buy fresh fruits/vegetables at a farmer's market in your local area. I did it years ago and it saved me money and gave me healthier foods to feed my kids. More flavor, too, because it was fresher than what I could buy as baby food.

If you don't cook the foods all the way done, the baby's digestive tract may not be able to handle foods that fresh, especially vegetables with a lot of fiber.

You will learn how much moisture to insert by trial and error. It is something you learn by your baby's likes, as well. Breastmilk is the best to use as the liquid.

I would give your baby a little runny rice cereal at night when you are exhausted and need some more sleep. Make your cereal extremely runny with the breastmilk and spoon feed to the baby. The baby lets a lot run out at first, but gets better with practice and the food eating will be done the same way as the cereal eating. Keeping in mind that the more food/cereal eaten by baby usually means the less milk produced.

Fruits and vegetables with the least other things added in are the best. Until you know if you baby has allergies to any particular foods and its likes, you don't want to make up too much of any certain food until you learn if it even will eat it. Only fix a small portion of each thing you choose so you don't waste a lot of time, energy, and money on things it may not like.

L. C.

L. C.

Hi D.,

I made baby food for both of my children. It really is not that hard. I would take a Saturday and do batches of food. Then I would do this only once a month. I bought a book that I highly recommend. It is called "Mommy Made" by Martha and David Kimmel. It teaches you everything about items you may need, to how to cook the foods, when to introduce each vegetable or fruit, how to store the foods, and also home made recipes for toddlers as well (muffins, smoothies, cookies, pasta dishes, meatloaf, etc...). The main items that I needed (and had) were a food steamer, cuisinart, ice cube trays and freezer bags. You can get ice cube trays at the dollar store - 4 for a dollar. You will need a lot of these. I tried avocado - my kids were not fans of it, but I managed to get them to eat it mixed with the applesauce puree - barely. I also did squash and sweet potato which the kids loved! I hope this helps you out - if you have questions, please feel free to ask! Best of luck!!!

I recommend the book "Super Baby Food." It has all the details for you to get started as well as which foods to introduce which months. My second baby is now five months old and I plan on using this book as a resource again. I usually start with banana, avacado, and sweet potatoes. I use a good blender because I don't have a food processer, however I've found that I have to add water to make it blend smoothly. You don't have to mix with milk. Use your best judgement about the consistency. There is no magic formula. I don't cook the bananas or avocados. The sweet potatoes I cook in the microwave and then scoop out the insides. I freeze a batch of food in ice cube trays. Once completely frozen, I put the cubes in a ziplock bag. Then it is easy to grab a cube of food to thaw in a glass bowl in the microwave at meal time. As your baby's appetite increases, you could offer two cubes instead of one, or you could mix a cube of vege/fruit with rice cereal. Please let me know if you have any other questions. Good luck. Not only will you provide nutritional food for your baby, but you will also save a lot of money.

I made my own baby food and it was super easy. I used a book called Blender Baby Food. (Don't know the author as I lent it out to someone). It tells you how much veggie, liquid, etc. I used a food processor, but am sure a blender would be fine. Definately steam your veggies. Good luck!

When I first started out I got a great deal of use from The Petit Appetit Cookbook by Lisa Barnes. It was so easy honestly! And it tastes better too. :o) Now that my daughter is older I use a number of sources one of them being http://weelicious.com/index.php. They have great ideas.

On a side note, make sure to still give your baby jar food here or there. My friend who inspired me to even make my own food didn't and her kids wouldn't even touch the jar stuff. So when she went on a trip she had to make it ALL ahead of time. Something I wouldn't have thought of! It makes traveling a bit easier too.

Have fun!

I have a 8 month old daughter and I have made all her food. I use First Meals by Annabel Karmel. It is wonderful. It goes step by step through what tools you need all the way through recipes. The recipes are divided up by monthly stages. All of the recipes are very quick and simple. I would highly recommend this book. It is great to have all the information in one place right at your fingertips.

Hi D.
I made quite a bit of my own baby food, too. I would get a bag of split peas and cook them. Then, I would use a mini food processor to add formula or breast milk until it looked ike a good consistancy. I guess I never measured much. I also found that the frozen boxes of cooked squash at the rocery store didn't have any added sugar or salt. For apples I just used organic, unsweetened apple sauce.

I do know that you are not supposed to make your own carrots, spinach, and a few other things because of possible evevated levels of nitrates that the baby food companies screen for. You should prabably look up the rest, I only remember those 2 in particular.

I used to make large batches of everything and then freeze them in icecube trays and sotre in freezer bags. THen I could take out a small amount to defrost the night before.

Good luck!

I made baby food for both of my children and plan to do it again with #3 who will be arriving in the fall.
It's super easy; I never followed any recipes except one I found in a book and they hated it! Just add enough water to the desired consistency, spoon it into ice cubes trays to freeze and you're done.
For peaches and plums, you can drop them into boiling water for a minute or two and when you take them out, the skin falls right off.
Some foods, especially fruits, won't need much water added, if any at all so be sure to add water slowly. I had a Magic bullet I used and it worked fine.Don't worry about buying anything special to do it, stuff you already have works fine. I even reused baby food jars to store the food from the couple of times I had to buy store bought food.
God speed! Good for you for doing this; you will save a ton of money!

Here's a good website you can check for baby food making. www.myfreshbaby.com
Good luck

i always cut up the veggies and steamed them for about 10-12 minutes, and i just used the steam water to add to the mixture, but you don't have to use liquid in all of them. fruit i didn't steam i would just but in the blender or i just mashed it up... i used a blender for big stuff and a smaller one if i just needed something right then. hope this helps, and good for you!!! enjoy!!!!

You already have so many great responses! It really is easy once you get started - just mush up food! I would eat 2/3 a banana every morning and mush up the other 1/3 for my baby with a fork. My kids both still eat a banana every day with breakfast (ages 4 &6). My babies also loved canaloupe. I had a super small, like 2 cup mini processor - really cheep, that I made everything in. For the melon, I just thru in raw chunks and pureed it. It was very watery and very healthy and you can also make melon pops for the summer!! Easiest was carrots, sw pot, cauliflower, gr beans, . Peas are tricky because of the little skins add texture and broccoli can be kinda mealy texture too, but try everything. Most fruits can be done raw if ripe enough or blanched for just a couple of minutes to soften. Congrats to you for being health and money savey to do this. It also made me eat healthier too, because there was always lots of fresh fruit and veggies in the house!

I have not tried this yet, but I am getting prepared as my son is four months now. I will be using my mini Cuisinart and buying organic fruits and vegatbles. I'm going to use ice cube trays to freeze them and introduce one at a time. I'm thinking of very ripe bannanas and sweet potato to start. I too also heard avocado is great too. I'll be honest and tell you I have not thought about cooking them though! lol I also have never of mixing it with breast milk! I'll be interested in what you find out as well =)

I made all my little guys stuff too. I have a book called super baby foods. Gives you all the ins and outs of making your own food. You can have it if you like. It's a little beat up but still fine to use. LMK - if intersted.

I am making my own baby food and I use the book "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron as my only resource. It has the best reference information about nutrition, what to feed at what ages and how to prepare and store it.... and lots of helpful hints.
I am about 2 months into feeding solids and making my own food, and it is much less work than I thought it would be... I am pleasantly surprised. Feel free to contact me personally if you have questions. I love making baby food and talking about it.

Hi-- I made all of the babyfood for my twins. It was soooo much easier than I thought it would be, and much more cost effective. Also-it gives your child the full expierence of food. (all 5 senses)My kids eat just about anything now, I think because they were exposed from the start.

I used a cuisinart for most of it - just steam until soft and the processor can puree the pieces. i blended applesauce with most of the veggies - like applesauce and sweet potatoes. I have a sheet of "how to tips" and "first foods" I used if anyone is interested. I can email it.

there are a few items that baby cant have if you are making your own - Beets and spinach have high concentrations of naturally-occurring nitrates which can reduce the ability of the baby's hemoglobin to transport oxygen. Do not Use these foods until the baby reaches his or her first birthday.

hope this helps.

Not sure on what advice to give but I am interested to know what others have to say.

just a note (I make all my kids food from organic product and freeze in cube trays as well)

if you micro (and we try hard not too) dont micro in plastic - we only use glass to micro - a friend of ours with an autistic child is convinced that the plastic when it heats can hurt the baby... better safe than sorry!

You will need: a. something to mash or grind the food such as food grinder, blender, potato masher, or fork. b. Quality food without added sugar, salt, or fat. c. Containers for storage like clean, dry jars, plastic storage containers, or ice cube trays. What to do: 1. Wash handa and equipment well with hot, soapy water and dry. 2. Wah fruits and vegetables and remove sikin and seeds. Remove bones and all visible fat from meat. 3. Bake, boil, or steam food until tender. 4. Use food grinder, blener, potato masher, or fork to mash until smooth. Throw away any lumps or hard pieces. 5. If necessary, add liquid (water, formula, or breast milk) to thin-out thick foods. 6. Pour into labeled and dated containers, and store in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to use. Storage times for fruits and vegetables; 2-3 days in the refrigerator, 6-8 months in freezer. Meats or Egg Yolks, in the refrigerator 1 day, in freezer, 1-2 months. Meat & Vegetable combinations; 1/2 days in the refrigerator; 3-4 months in the freezer. Contact your local Extension office for more information.

I checked out a few books from the library for good ideas, currently Im reading baby and toddler meals for dummies and toddler cafe, I cant remember the first book I read I think it was called super babyfood or something like that.
Good luck