Anyone making their own baby food?

[TLC1994]

Just wondering if anyone out there is making their own baby food. It seems like a great idea to me if you have the time.

Also, does anyone recommend any baby food cookbooks?

Thanks! :9

[egoldber]

A great book on feeding is "Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense" by Ellyn Satter. She is a registered pediatric dietitian and does extensive training of other dietitians etc. I discovered her through a class I took through my local hospital system. The class was all about introducing solids. She talks about the kinds of foods to use at what age and how to prepare them. Her work is wonderfully balanced and scientifically based which MANY baby books, including feeding books are not! She is also very practical.

NOTE: this is not a "baby food cookbook" per se. There almost no recipes, because she is not a huge advocate of "taking time" to make your own baby food. She believes that a baby should eat what you are eating at your own meals (prepared appropriately to your baby's development level of course). She says to take the time you would have spent making baby food and use that time to make a good nutritious meal for yourself!

I recommended this book to the other moms in my Mommy Group and they all also like it.

Not exactly what you asked for but hope this helps,

[holland2]

I make my own food. Even though it takes a bit of time, I know what my little one is getting. As organic and sterile commercial food may be- it can be stored up to two years- so I do not see it as too fresh. I recommend the "SUper Baby Food" . It gives you recipes and guidelines. I have commercial jars as backup or for some foods which are hard to puree.

Good luck.

[jenlyn]

I've been making my son's food since he started at 5mo..now he's almost 8 and eats a ton. I like the Book "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron. Some far-out ideas, but for the most part this book tells you when to intro each food and instructions on preparing. I put in about an hour of prep time every other week, then I freezer bag the food in ice cube batches. It's so convenient to just pull a couple of cubes out of the freezer, heat on the stove or microwave and the meal's ready. My cutie-pie loves his sweet potatoes, squash, and pureed bananas! I also try to buy organic produce whenever possible. I found a great mouli/food mill by Martha Stewart at Kmart for $15 and use this more than my cuisinart or blender. Good luck and have fun! :)

[neuhofer]

Hi,

I agree with the point egoldber made in the first reply, talking about that book. I don't make my own baby food and I don't buy jars of prepared baby food, either. My daughter just eats little pieces of adult food.

When she was a newborn, I thought it would be great to prepare batches of veggies in the blender and freeze in ice cube trays. Sometimes laziness pays; it would have been a huge waste of my time. . .

I nursed exclusively for a full five months before I thought Olivia showed a bit of interest in food. Bought a several jars of baby food to see what she liked and how it went. Because she started by eating only miniscule amounts and you can refigerate open jars for a couple of days, the ones I had initially bought lasted several weeks (many days it was a real crapshoot as she was completely back into nursing). By the time she was actually making any sort of progress with eating (and it was a SMALL amount of progress!) she quickly became bored with the strained textures and refused to eat the jarred food.

I now have 6-10 jars in the cupboard that will never get used. I try to reintroduce them occasionally, but she is wise to that plan! Good thing I had bought them on sale and don't have more.

Olivia is 10 months old and in the past 2 months her food interest was grown immensely. A LARGE part of this has to do with the varied textures of cheese, fruits, crackers and bread, noodles, soups, potatoes and so on. If I want to give her a nutritious cooked food between meals, I simply steam a few of those diced frozen assorted vegetables (or frozen peas) on a saucer in the microwave. It's a super-easy way to a tiny portion of warm food.

Hope the info helps,
Shannon

[ubermom]

hey, shannon
i have been making my own baby food since my first in 97. it is easy and fun too. the time period they eat "baby food" is so short it is really no trouble. but the BEST baby food book is definately "Mommy Made and Daddy too! Home cooking for a healthy baby and toddler" by martha and david kimmel
I have read all the others posted and this tops them all for easy to understand guidelines, easy prep, and general knowledge about feeding your baby. i can't recommend it enough. hope you see this and give it a look..you can get it at barnes and noble. really, the best book ever. (aside from baby bargains - my 2 main resources!)good luck

[dominodong]

Thanks for the recommendation on the "Mommy Made" book. Based on a lot of recommendations, I bought "Super Baby Food" and can't stand it. It's just too over-the-top for me. I'm all for natural food, but her homemade baby cereal recipe includes kelp, desicated liver, and brewer's yeast! (She also suggests rubbing vanilla behind your ears as a fragrance. Please!) Thanks for your tip!

[EKWalsh]

I've been making my son's baby food for the past 3 1/2 months and it hasn't been nearly as time consuming as I thought it might be. I have Super Baby Food, and have enjoyed it...it was especially helpful for getting started. It gives guidelines on preparing purees for different fruits & vegies, along with a schedule of when to introduce which foods. I have also found her discussion of baby cereal really helpful. My son would never eat the instant kind, but I make my own from rice, oatmeal, barley or millet. She discusses mixing grains with legumes and other healthy additions. Downside: she doesn't talk about meat/poultry at all.

I thought about raising my son as a vegetarian, but he's allergic to soy and I became worried about whether he'd get enough protein & iron. On a suggestion, I bought First Meals, by Annabel Karmel. This book has more complex recipes...mixing fish & chicken with different vegetables, cheese sauces, etc. The book is organized by age, and the recipes become more complex, the foods more textured, as the child gets older. She has a lot on finger foods, as well as fun and nutritious meals you can make to hopefull tempt you toddler to eat. She's a big proponent of making a dish for the family. I've made several recipes for my husband and I (pureeing my son's portion) and we really enjoyed them.

I'd also recommend Child of Mine...great overview and something I, personally, needed to read given my own obsessions about food, weight etc. Very helpful discussion of development, healthy attitudes toward food and the importance of family meals.

[kgdolan]

I have been making my own baby food for a three months now. I haven't really done anything exciting, though. I just make the veggies and blend them in the blender to the right consistency. It doesn't take hardly any time. I make a veggie every 2-3 days and put enough in the fridge for the next 2-3 days. We're still on the single veggie at a time stage.

Our pediatrician doesn't recommend meat or dairy until after 1 year of age. By that time Jack should have some teeth (and eye-hand coordination!) so he can eat small pieces of what we're eating.

Good luck!
Gail