Advice on Pureeing Son's Food

Check out wholesomebabyfood.com. They have a month by month list of what foods to introduce when and also have the best recipes. It also tells you how to best prepare foods in order to puree them. Mostly what you have to do is cook the fruit or veggie in some water til soft then mash to the texture you want. If you don't have some, purchase some ice cube trays because it is the most convenient way to freeze them. Once frozen you just dump the cubes into a ziploc bag, label with name of food and date. It's so easy and you can experiment with so many different foods. My little one Phoebe loved eating this way. Check out that website, it's the best one that I found.

The AAP guideline is now 6 months for solid food. The baby should be able to sit up unassisted and no longer have tongue thrust reflex.

After six months, sweet potato, banana, avocado, and other vegetables cooked soft and mashed are your best bet. Cereal is pretty much empty of nutrition and not necessary.

I really liked the book Super Baby Foods for the first few months of eating solids; it has a lot of advice and tips. I know you can get it at the library, so might be worth it to check it out as a resource. I particularly liked the schedule she proposes for introducing new foods--helpful for a first-timer like me.

Anyway, I had the best luck with butternut squash and sweet potatoes to start. I just baked them, scooped out the meat, and pureed them in my food processor with a little water until they reached the right consistency. You could also prepare and steam the veggies before pureeing. I then put the cooled mixture into ice cube trays and froze them, transferring the cubes to freezer bag when done. Label the freezer bag with the date that you prepared the food and use it within an appropriate time (the book details the length of time different veggies last in the freezer).

Once my son moved on to other veggies, I steamed and pureed asparagus, zucchini, and carrots (because of nitrates that can be present in carrots, wait to make your own until he's about 7 months). If you steam, you can use the cooking water to thin the puree to add back some nutrients. Fruit is also great for pureeing and freezing in cubes. I peel and puree pears (no water needed) for cubes that I add to yogurt throughout the week.

You can't thaw frozen veggies (like peas) and then refreeze, so just keep that in mind. I always bought my pureed peas!

You'll save a bundle doing this. After you see how much your first batch of butternut squash or sweet potatoes makes, you won't believe you didn't do this before.

Good luck!

It has been awhile since i have done this but the process was very simple. I found the best way was to use what we were eating, a small food processor works well, a few ice cube trays and some freezer bags is all you need. After you have pureed the food place it in the ice cube trays, pop it in the freezer, after it is frozen pop it into the zip lock bag and label it...When you need to feed your baby just pull out one cube to start with (you will know when your baby appetite has grown and needs 2-3) Defrost in the microwave and enjoy feeding your baby fresh unprocessed food!

Introduce only one food at a time after you know he/she is not allergic you can combine foods like sweet potatoes and chicken..look at the combination's on the baby food jars in the grocery store for flavor ideas!

Hi, K.,
I just wanted to add that I pretty much pureed everything for my daughters. Whatever I was cooking as my side dish, I would take out a small portion before I seasoned it, and cooked it longer for the baby. Sometimes with a little added water for consistency. That way, it was easier to puree. I did this including meats, when she was old enough. They do need water added, but can definitely be done. Similar to if I was feeding jarred foods, I progressed, adding one new food at a time.
I did buy commercial baby cereal, though, for the cost it was worth the convenience.
I would buy fruits/veggies that are in season, and ripe when you buy. Since you will begin during the winter months, you can certainly include some frozen foods, but I'd stay away from canned due to the sodium content.
BTW, I also took my homemade foods with me when I knew I would be away from home.....I used one of the warmer dishes, and put a few frozen cubes in the refrigerator in the AM. At feeding time, I'd add very hot water to the bottom of the dish, and was ready to go.
Wish you luck, and congratulations on the healthy eating decision.

Er, P.S., you may want to wait until he's six months old to give him solids to avoid food allergies, no matter what your pediatrician says. Young babies digestive systems aren't mature enough to handle solids at 1 month.

Wow, it's so easy! Don't be intimidated. At six months, buying the pureed food was feasible because my son didn't eat much solids, but after he started crawling, his appetite increased ten-fold. $20 a month soon started to turn into $120 a month for store-bought pureed. And I HAD to get the organic kind. So, I had to figure something out. I looked up some recipes online and just came up with my own.

My first batch consisted of butternut squash, chicken, and rice with a little bit of onion, no salt. I made a big pot of it, like chicken and rice soup but a thicker and chunkier. Then, I used a hand-held blender, like the ones used to make smoothies, to blend it all in a big tall container until it got to the consistency desired. The blending took all of 60 seconds. After it cooled down, I scooped the puree into 24 Glad 4 oz containers (with the blue lids, comes in an 8 pack at Target). Threw some in the fridge, and threw about 20 of them in the freezer. Took a handful out to thaw every other day. Each batch would cost me about $10 and last about 2 weeks. I loved that I could use all organic ingredients.

You can use different recipes to change it up. I also would puree bananas and blueberries and broccoli, pasta,and chicken. I tried black beans and rice with red bell peppers and onions because it seemed really healthy but my son hated it so we just used it for black bean dip. It was pretty yummy! I only did it for a couple of months before my little one went on a permanent puree strike and would only eat fingerfoods.

Anyway, good luck and happy cooking!

Steam your vegi's don't boil them! Mixer, food processor or blender will get them puree'd.
I did peas with a little bit of yogurt to help with consistency when my last was little...I didn't do as much as I'd have liked. I did do sweet potatoes, reg potatoes when he was older-finger food style, squash-yellow and zuchini- green beans. Fruits were easier, bananas, canteloupe, other melons (minus all seeds), peaches, plums, necterines, apricots...peel them and puree them.
Ditto the ice cube trays!! Easiest is the world for measuring the food out.
Good luck!

Get a Hamilton Beach hand mixer/puree/whipper - best thing I purchased early on. You can puree things right in their dish. Comes with a case and three attachments. Can get it on line. Money very well spent!

Hi K., I made our children's food and pureed them and put them in ice cube trays. I would do it on the weekend usually and do 2 veggies/fruits a day or more, depending on the time.

I would buy fresh or fresh frozen and cook them and puree them with a simple hand mixer I had in the pot. I reserved some of the liquid in a separate bowl, just in case I needed to add more to it. I bought peas, green beans, butternut squash (which was expensive sometimes at 1.98 a pound, but it lasted a while), sweet potatoes, broccoli, carrots, etc. You can use some of your left over veggies and puree them (and as they get older, cook them, but chop in chunks/bits instead and still put them in an ice cube tray) like mashed potatoes or corn. You can add some rice to their veggies too.

Fruits, I just bought some unsweetened (which is all we buy anyway) applesauce and then you can get some canned fruits in it's own juice and puree them or do that with some fresh fruits that is easily pureed and no need to cook. You could make your own applesauce, but I never bothered with it..I have friends that did for storage for the whole family.

Just spoon or pour the items in the ice cube trays (I'd get at least 6 trays) and if you do this in the morning, it should be ready enough by afternoon or evening to put into gallon size ziploc bags. Label them if you need to. When you take them out, just take a couple of cubes out (or however many he'll need) and put in the microwave (if you use one) and would be done in a minute or less..depending on how many cubes you have.

I have found that I needed to add more water back to the peas, they are very thick. Carrots and Green beans, I've NEVER needed to add water back to those two. They are both the same consistency pretty much. Butternut squash, I just cut in half lengthwise and put face down in a cookie sheet in about an inch or less of water and just left it there a while. When your fork can go through it easily, it's done. Just scoop out...it's nearly puree already, so it doesn't take a second to mix it up. This is the most simple one to make because you don't have to stand over a stove. And even if you forget about it in the oven (whihc I've done many many times), it's no big deal, it's fine.

If you have some avocado, that too is easy to feed the baby. That is the first food that I give. Plus, I like the leftovers for guacamole. LOL

And you can do your own oatmeal. Just blend up some dry oats and add some milk and warm it up. Or just make some oatmeal as he get's older and is able to handle it.

Good luck! It's fun to feed them yourself. You'll have quite a collection of fruits and veggies in the freezer. (Oh, I typically bought 2 bags of frozen veggies of one kind and cooked both bags...that way I didn't feel like I was cooking all the time) But for starters, you may want to do one bag of each kind, until he is ready to really eat. You've got about 5 months, so I'd look for some sales on those items. (Oh, i had gotten butternut squash from Publix before in a frozen box...of course it's already pureed..don't know if they still have that.

Mother of 4

The DR said it was ok to give a 1 month old pureed table food???

WIC give baby food now on but not till a certain age when it is appropriate for a baby to eat fruits and veggies. Something to worth seeing if you qualify for so you can get it when the time comes.