My 5 month old has started eating cereal and we are ready to move on to more. I was wondering if anyone makes there own baby food and if you could give me some tips on that. It seems like it's hard to get to smooth enough. And what veggies do you suggest starting with.
Thanks, V.
We made all of ours! A good food mill or grinder is necessary (or a great blender!)... I started with the yellow/orange veggies then moved to greens, then fruits. We froze alot of ours in ice trays and that made each cube of food 2oz each!
This site is WONDERFUL for baby food ideas:
www.wholesomebabyfood.com
And when he/she is a toddler - this one is great:
www.wholesometoddlerfood.com
good luck!
Hi V.,
Cook the food very well. Then puree it with a salsa grinder and add liquid from the cooked veggies until is the consistency that your baby likes. (I think my electric salsa grinder was a Black and Decker and I got it at Kohl's). I cooked everything he would eat... squash, zucchini, apples, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc. Good luck!
Hi V.! I make baby food and I love it! I always feel like Martha Stewart after I make a big batch of veggie mush!
I have a book called SUPER BABY FOOD, by Ruth Yaron, and I highly recommend it. It's really easy for quick reference -you can look up any food and it will tell you what age is appropriate for your baby to start eating it and all the nutritional benefits of it. It also has a lot of information on how many servings of different foods your baby should be eating in a day and how much food is considered a serving. Serving sizes change as they get older.
You can start your baby out with mashed up avocados in his cereal. After a few days, introduce bananas. It's recommended that you wait 3-4 days before introducing a new food so that if your baby has an allergic reaction you can easily figure out what it was to. I use one of those hand held smoothie/blender thingies. Avocados and bananas are the only foods you can feed your baby raw, at this age.
Here's how you make baby food...
1) A lot of fruits and veggies have to be peeled first - like apples (cut the core out), squash and sweet potatoes.
2) Cut it up into cubes and toss it into a pot. I would do a lot at one time, like 5 apples or a butternut squash.
3) Cover with water and put a lid on it. Bring it to a boil and then turn it down to simmer until it is soft enough to mash. *Keep the liquid that's left over because you'll need it to thin out your baby food. Also, it has lots of vitamins from whatever you cooked in it.
4) Puree in a food processor or a blender, adding water until it's the consistency you want. It should be slightly thicker than breast milk/formula for a beginner and gradually thicker as your baby gets older.
5) Strain it. I used a large strainer with tiny openings and pushed the baby food through with a spatula. It doesn't take long if it's pureed enough.
6) Store it in the freezer. I filled ice cube trays and then once it's frozen put the cubes in a large freezer bag and marked it "Beans" or "Applesauce". This is really convenient because you can pull out one or more cubes at a time and let them set in the fridge overnight to thaw or put them in the microwave for a few seconds.
You can also mix different things together, like peas and carrots, or apples and squash. Babies don't care. They think it all tastes great!
For oatmeal, barley or rice (I prefer brown rice), I put 1/4 of it (dry) in the blender for 5 minutes, until it's powdery. While this is happening, I boil 1 cup of water. Add the grain to the water and turn it down to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. This will make more than enough for one meal - so put the leftover in the fridge for the next day.
Sorry this is so long. I hope these tips help you!
I make all my baby's food, and did for my 5 year old when she was a baby. She eats everything now!
Start with the easy on the stomach, low allergens choices like banana, avocado, sweet potato, carrot, then move on.
This book could be your bible--it's great, and I refer to it three times per week.
http://www.amazon.com/Superfoods-Babies-Children-Annabel-...
Good luck, and don't let others make fun of you. Making your own baby food is cheaper, easy, and has less of the preservatives, sugars, salts and processing than good old food from your heart and kitchen.
Keep jars on hand when travelling, though.
Hi, I'd start with carrots. Peel them and chop into big chunks. Boil in a small amount of filtered water. on a low heat. It should take a couple of hours. When carrots are soft, place them in a food processor ( I have a really small one) I think a blender would work just as well. Use the water that you boiled the carrots in as needed to make it soft. When it's as creamy as you want, pour into ice cube tray. When you need them pop one or two out and defrost on a pan over stovetop. the next i would try is sweet potatoes. If you wash them off first you can actually boil them with skin on an it almost falls off when it's finished cooking!
I've made "baby food" for my grown daughters and they in turn have done it with their children. It's not hard, so much more cost effective, and you know exactly what your babies are getting!!
Some of the foods I started with were carrots, green beans, bananas, and potatoes. Any can be fixed ahead and frozen, so you have them on hand. Once they get used to those, you can gradually add other foods to try, such as peas, pears, apples, squash, spinach, eggs, etc.
Have fun and make mealtime enjoyable and healthy.
My youngest daughter got so she would REFUSE canned/store bought baby food as young as 9 months old---she wanted the same thing WE were eating!! LOL
D.
Its very hard to get them smooth enough, any vegtable is fine, just start with one and do it for about 1 week, to make sure she doen't have a reaction to it, also if she did you would know what she is allergic too. I made the mistake of starting with fruits and my son hated vegtables, I am a peds nurse, I should know better. anyway good luck. J.
