Is it safe to make carrots at home?

[mamainflorida]

Hi,

I think either I read something somewhere or somebody told me that we shouldn't make our own carrot baby food and that was the one thing (well, that and spinach) that you should buy jarred, even if you usually make baby food from organic veggies.

Has anyone heard this, too? What do you all do?

Thanks!

[maydaymommy]

That's right - don't make your own carrot baby food, even with organic carrots. It has to do with the content of nitrates or sulphates - sorry, I forget which. Apparently the commercial companies are able to source their carrots from safer soil.

[mamainflorida]

That's what I heard, yes! Thank you for reminding me of the explanation!

[Katigre]

Here is more information: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/nitratearticle.htm

If your baby is old enough for solids (6 months old) then nitrates in food are not a concern. :)

[cestkaren]

I've heard the people think babyfood companies can fix the nitrate level of carrots, but they can't. Check out wholesomebabyfood.com. I made carrots for my DS from 8 months on (I didn't introduce carrots until 8 months).

[Kestrel]

I steam the (organic) carrots, ___ throw out the cooking water__,
then use fresh water to puree. Lessens nitrates; but nothing can eliminate them..

[JBaxter]

I steam the (organic) carrots, ___ throw out the cooking water__,
then use fresh water to puree. Lessens nitrates; but nothing can eliminate them..

Pretty much what we do. I trust my local organic carrots WAY over anything processed in a jar even if its a organic company.

[AnnieW625]

Never heard that before. Carrots were the first baby food we tried with DD at 4 or 5 mos. and I made them at home. I just steamed baby carrots and put them in my mini cuisinart with some water (most likely fresh) and they were okay. DD didn't care for them much, but she was just learning then.

[crazye]

Honestly I never worried about it but I also didn't introduce carrots until 6/7 months out of sheer laziness. I started solids at 4 months and it took until 5.5 months for me to move past cereals (they were just so darn easy!). But once we were on veggies I also went slow (again lazy) so we did a new item every 1.5 weeks or so. I made everything (minus cereals) at home as well.

[itsagirl]

i asked my daughter's ped about this. she said no homemade carrots (or beets, spinach, collard greens) for 9 months (due to level of nitrates because you cannot know nitrate level from the farms that grew them but baby food companies do). if you must do so, never store the vegetables. i.e., prepare immediately after buying, and serve immediately after preparing (i.e., no freezing or saving for next couple days).

i think this is very over-cautious advice based on what i read on wholesomebabyfood.com but i'm going to wait anyway.