Making your own baby food

[KarenLud]

Can someone school me on this? Are there books you like? Certain equipment you use? DS is just starting solids and I have always wanted to make my own for him but kept thinking it was so far out until he was ready to start I never looked into it. So far he's only had apples..not what we wanted to start with necessarily but he got constipated and we only had apples on hand..so that's what it was!

Thanks!

[Nyfeara]

I would definitely recommend visiting www.wholesomebabyfood.com . They have a ton of good information there.

For us, it was easiest for me to do batches of fruits or veggies by steaming (we have a decent sized steamer) and then just using a food processor to puree. Then we used the ice cube tray method to freeze individual servings. Once they were frozen, we just labeled the bags and dumped the food cubes in & stored in the freezer.

It really worked well for us and saved a lot of $$. I hated breaking down things like peaches, so I bought bags of frozen peach slices, mango chunks, etc., steamed those, then pureed. I really enjoyed making his food this way.

Have fun with it!

[KarenLud]

Thanks for the info! So you have to steam fruits too? Or just some of them? Seems so confusing to me, I'm sure it's not really that difficult though once I get the hang of it.

[ncat]

I don't use any special equipment - early on I used a blender or food processor to puree, but depending on what you are making and the age of the baby you can just fork-mash. I freeze the baby food in ice cube trays, then store the frozen cubes in ziplock freezer bags.

We started DS at 6 months and DD at 4 months. Definitely this time around I have made fewer purees and introduced more things as finger foods. Pureeing peas and green beans is painful. Pureeing squash, peaches, yams, etc. works well.

The wholesomebabyfoods website is really helpful. When my daughter was little, I also checked out some books from our library, but nothing that was ultimately more helpful than that website.

Have fun!

[stinkyfeet]

I second wholesomebabyfood.com. It's great!! Yes, you do have to steam most of your fruits. Some that I know that you can "mash and serve" are avocado and banana. They have a details on most of the fruits you can serve to your baby on the website. Today I served apples and prunes--they were a hit! :wink2:

[KarenLud]

Thanks! I am getting myself lost in that website..so much great info and helpful!

[Katigre]

Like the pp said, Wholesomebabyfood.com is a super helpful website. There are also a few good books on making your own purees. Annabel Karmel's "First Meals" (http://www.amazon.com/First-Meals-Expanded-Annabel-Karmel/dp/075660365X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255290086&sr=8-1) and Top 100 Baby Purees (http://www.amazon.com/Top-100-Baby-Purees-Healthy/dp/0743289579/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b)has wonderful photos and recipes for making your own baby food. If you can get them from the library that would let you try before you bought them. I know Buy Buy Baby has a whole section of their store devoted to making your own baby food with books and equipment. Here it is (http://www.buybuybaby.com/stylePage.asp?order_num=-1&RN=7125&) on their website.

But as another idea...purees aren't necessary for babies learning to eat. DD has never had baby food or been spoon fed and she eats a huge variety of foods easily. You could still have the fun of planning and preparing meals for your baby without the spoonfeeding and purees. Steamed vegetables and fruits and regular food like fish and chicken for your baby in large pieces instead. That's what we're doing with DD (she's 8 months now and eating great!) and I love it so much more than the purees I did with DS. www.babyled.com is the website - click on 'photo gallery' for pictures of babies 6+ months eating all sorts of foods. It really inspired me. This page (http://www.rapleyweaning.com/assets/blw_guidelines.pdf) give an overview of the method, as does the WholesomeBabyFood website here (http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/babyledweaning.htm).

the book (http://www.amazon.com/Baby-led-Weaning-Helping-Your-Baby/dp/0091923808/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255290453&sr=8-1) is FANTASTIC, one of my top parenting resources for the first year of babyhood.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41vmc-1cNcL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

[Pepper]

I used the book, Super Baby Food (http://www.superbabyfood.com/). It's a little cumbersome to use because the information is not very well organized, but it's a great resource for what to introduce when. I mostly used the chapters that went according to baby's age (i.e. what they can eat at 8 months), and the nice long list of veggies and how to prepare them for baby.

One thing I didn't like about Super Baby Food is the author really pushes a vegetarian diet. Not that I have anything against vegetarians :-), but I'm an omnivore and I am raising my son to be one too. There's a chapter on meat in SBF, but she starts out by saying that she doesn't think babies should eat meat, she only added the chapter because people were asking for it... and then all of the recipes call for hamburger! Not a great texture for young babies, IMHO.

So I made something I called beef whip: get some good-quality beef stew meat (or cut up a roast yourself) and simmer it in water or broth until it falls apart, 1-1/2-2 hours. Then puree it in the blender or food processor, add some of the cooking liquid to make a smooth puree. Freeze in ice-cube trays as other posters have mentioned.

I also made chicken whip, with boneless chicken thighs. Same concept: simmer in broth or water until very tender, about 30 min, then puree with some of the cooking liquid. Chicken thighs have more flavor than breast meat, I think, and they don't get tough if they're cooked to death (as occasionally happened when I'd forget that something was on the stove...). I splurge on the organic meat and chicken for my son because a little meat went a long way.

I didn't steam most fruits - mangoes and peaches I just peeled and pureed. For red and green bell peppers, I roasted them: split in half, place on a foil-lined baking tray and broil until the skins are blackened (most of the surface should be charred). Let them cool and then slip off the charred skins (a teaspoon works well to slide under their skins) and puree them in the blender or food processor.

I love to cook anyway, and making baby food was totally fun for me. I hope you enjoy it as well!

[frgsnlzrds]

Blender Baby Food was my go to book.

http://www.amazon.com/Blender-Baby-Food-Recipes-Homemade/dp/0778801187/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255306331&sr=8-1

I did not use anything other than a blender/food processor/magic bullet, ice cube trays, and ziploc baggies.

[MmeSunny]

Blender Baby Food was my go to book.

http://www.amazon.com/Blender-Baby-Food-Recipes-Homemade/dp/0778801187/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255306331&sr=8-1

I did not use anything other than a blender/food processor/magic bullet, ice cube trays, and ziploc baggies.



:yeahthat:

I bought several books. Blender Baby Food, Anabel Karmel and Super Baby Food. The Blender one was the best for me by far. Nice selection of recipes, none with ridiculous ingredients and all made at least 6 servings, so all of the labor wasn't just for ONE meal.

I just used a steamer and stick blender that I got at the thrift store along with ice cube trays. It was super easy. Every Saturday nap time was food making for the week.

[Momit]

I bought the KidCo baby food mill, which I LOVE. I found it to be so much smaller and easier to clean than my Cuisinart. I still use it all the time. I also bought the So Easy baby food book and trays (I liked the trays because they were BPA free and came with lids, the book is pretty good also, never watched the DVD it came with).

Totally agree with the wholesomebabyfood.com recommendation. It's so helpful, especially if you want to try things beyond the standard peaches, sweet potatoes etc.

I cooked everything except bananas, avocado and kiwi. Now that DS is 14 months and has 8 teeth, I give him more things raw but still cook a lot of it so it's easier to chew.