Homemade Baby Food - Haverhill,MA

Hi! I've never been much of a cook but I have been successfully making my son's (9 months) babyfoods since he started solids. I use the following book and website as my only references. Good luck! If I can do it, anyone can.

wholesomebabyfood.com

Supper Baby Foods for Babies and Children, by Annabel Karmel

The BEST book I have found for making baby food is Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. Not only does it have baby food suggestions for each age group, it also has fun suggestions and recipes for homeade playdough and the first birthday cake.

Enjoy!

Hi J.,

I used the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. It is a fantastic book which has all of the details on what foods to feed and when, how much, how to prepare, etc. It doesn't miss a thing. It also gives great tips on how to save money and have a "green" household (homemade recipes for cleaning solutions, etc.).

One thing to note on this book is that it basically vegetarian, as she does not recommend feeding children meat. I used her suggestions as far as replacing meats with soy, beans and other proteins - and then when my children were toddlers they had meat. I still use this book for the healthy recipes even though the kids are 3 and 6!

Hope this helps, have fun with it - it really makes you feel like you're making such a healthy choice for the little ones.

Jen

This is so easy! Contrary to popular thought, your baby can eat just about anything that your family does. I am the mom of 4 and always made my own baby food. I started with sweet potatoes and carrots and then tried other things over time. Peel, steam until soft and then food process until smooth. Mix with cereal, if desired, or serve plain. I put it into ice cube trays and froze little portions that I could easily take with me in a Tupperware. They defrost so quickly and are instant and delicious! Never had any food sensitivites of allergies and my kids are all very adventurous and nutritious eaters.

Hi Jen,
I have a 12 month old son & have been making his food for 6 months. Start now. First foods to start would be bananas( just cut a bunch in 1/2 & freeze, take the next days food out the night before), avocados(Just through them in the blender/food processor, then spoon into ice cube trays-make a bunch at one time & you will have enough for a long time. I mix his avocado with rice cereal, my son's favorite is cantaloupe( again just put in blender then ice cube trays), another is sweet potatoes( cook-mash-ice cube tray)I mix this with yogurt. The book i have is called super baby food. I find making his food is cheeper then bought & I know what he is eating. Good luck. M.

J.,

If you can cook for yourself, you can make baby food easily. I was not a great cook at the time, but I made baby food for my sons (now 3yo and 5yo) from the time they started eating. It is as simple as mashing certain foods and thinning them to the correct consistency (or sometimes cooking/cooling/mashing.) I relied on a book called "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron - it was my bible. I did not follow her program per se, but it gave wonderful directions on how to make and store the food safely and what foods were appropriate for what ages. I suggest getting it from the library to see if it appeals to you before buying it. I got lots of suggestions that I ran out and bought and then decided were not for me. Also, I started with avocado thinned with breast milk as their first non-cereal food (bland, super easy to make and store, and since it was a veggie made me feel better about starting with that). Good luck. In terms of supplies, I had a Foley food mill (not necessary but nice to have) that I borrowed from my MIL, a blender (or food processor - but I didn't have one and didn't miss it much) and ice cube trays for freezing good useable portion sizes. There are commecial systems for freezing food, but the trays are cheap (I have a bunch if you need them) and easy to clean in the dishwasher and easy to use. Finally, I would make large batches of food (recommended by the book) and freeze it so I did not have to make food daily. Otherwise it could become a pain. Write if you have any other questions. Glad to help if I can.

L. - ____@____.com

In a few months your daughter will be on table food and you won't have to worry about making baby food! In the meantime they have little food grinders you can buy. They are a pain, though and I thought not worth the effort. I found Earth's Best food which, 18 years ago, was a great company and it looks like it still is. They have a wider variety now. It would be a nice "organic" and healthful food for her. Good Luck!

An oldie but goodie- Feed Me I'm Yours. Great book. I'm sure there are many new and improved, fancier books but this was probably the first book written with recipes and suggestions for making home made baby food and other kid recipes like play dough, ooblek etc. I used it a lot. Good luck

What fun! I did this with my daughter and really enjoyed the whole experience - and so did she! I did use a couple books, and a few simple tools that made things easier. In particular, First Meals by Annabel Karmel, and Mommy Made by Martha and David Kimmel. These are great books, they really take you through the process step by step, and make the whole process much simpler. First Meals has nice photos, and Mommy Made has the FANTASTIC feature of listing at what age (how many months old) a baby should be before introducing particular foods; this is really essential. It also talks about what foods to combine to get a complete protein, and generally contains very useful nutritional information. There are probably other great books on the market now, too, but these are tried and true for me.

In terms of tools, the following are important to have on hand:

- a baby food mill (a little plastic white thing that smooshes up just about anything you put in it, very fun and easy, that can be taken apart for cleaning) or regular adult-sized food mill, if you have one already (cuisinart or blender is nice to have)

- steamer (for steaming veggies, you probably already have one)

- ice cube trays (to freeze baby-sized portions of home-made food)

- baby spoons and bowls for feedings

- sippy cup: once babies start eating food, they need to start regularly drinking water

- bibs, bibs, bibs!

That's pretty much all you need. A sense of fun helps, too! Your baby will probably indicate which foods she likes, and now that she is 8 months old, it is safer to start introducing new foods. Good for you for not hurrying her to start eating too early!

Good luck!

I used the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yarow. It was very easy! My baby, (who is now turning 8 yrs old!) loved the sweet potatoes. I also made broccolli and she loved avacado's! Good luck! You'll need a food processor. I used a 1 cup one, so it doesn't have to be anything fancy.

K.

HI J.,
Baby food is really simple to prepare. Pretty much just think of most food as fair game except for dairy(cow), eggs, nuts, citrus, honey,wheat etc. (allergenic foods). I like to take fresh fruit,peel it, slice it, steam it gently(except for bananas and avocados) ( tender but not mushy). Puree it in food processor, freeze in ice cube trays, store in containers in freezer.
I've got plums and bananas, pears, fuji apples, organic roast chicken w/ rice, spinach, potatoes w/ goat cheese, lentils and rice w/ a little garlic, pot roast w/ carrots, carrots and a little ginger, sweet potatoes w/ rice; you get the idea. You'll find out what your baby likes and dislikes. Give her a few chances if she doesn't like it the first time. Also, goat's milk products are OK after 7 mo., they're closer to breastmilk than cow's milk. I feed my son goat yogurt with a touch of maple syrup. Normally I don't add sweeteners or salt, but yogurt is a little sour by itself, you could mix it w/ mashed bananas, too. Yogurt is good for babies because it adds probiotics to their digestive tract that help with digestion and absorption of nutrients, as well as healthy excretion.
Good Luck, have fun!
Regards, Jess

I made my own for both of my children. I used Earths best when I needed convenience. I highly reccomend getting a book called "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron. http://www.superbabyfood.com/ This was my bible. Good luck.

Hi! Homeade baby food making is fun and you get to do a very healthy thing for your baby. Plus it makes you realize how expensive those little jars of babyfood are. There is a great book called First Meals by Anabel Karmel. It starts with baby food and works up to toddler and children stages. It has a range of basic foods up to creative meal ideas. i use it all the time!

there is a really good book called 'super baby food' that tells you the how and when to introrduce each type of food as well as the nutritional value

making your own baby food is so easy---just put it in a food processor or blender and your done. references that i used were Super Baby Foods by Ruth Yaron (just remember, you don't have to follow it to a T; it's a good reference). My husband and I also used the book "Baby Bites" by Bridget Swinney that was recommended to us by a nutritionist. Good Luck---it's alot of fun!!!

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron is excellent and covers lots of food prep for infants and toddlers. Two things you should know, though: First, as this book is a bit older, some of the suggestions for foods to introduce in infancy now go against the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines (such as for eggs and peanut butter). Second, although she covers meat prep in a separate chapter, the author is vegetarian to the point where she is pretty anti-meat, which can be off-putting. We used this book for all three of my daughters mainly for the timing of introducing foods and for the basic advice about how to prepare it. It may seem a bit strict and overwhelming if you are not interested in the vegetarin approach Yaron suggests (nutritional yeast, dessicated liver powder, etc.) My kids have been given meat, but we intriduced legumes, beans, tofu and other proteins first. I do not mean to sound negative about this book, though. I have found it very useful.

Another book that I have not used but that I have heard is great and really straight forward is Top 100 Baby Purees: 100 Quick and Easy Meals for a Healthy and Happy Baby by Annabel Karmel. She has other books, too. Check out descriptions on Amazon.com.

In the end, preparing baby food is really easy and affordable. Cook, use a blender or Cuisinart to puree (adding water as needed), freeze in ice cube trays, store the cubes in freezer bags. We defrosted in the microwave (be careful not to overheat!) or in the fridge over night.

Good luck!

There is a very good book called "Feed Me! I'M Yours" by Vicki Lansky. The book has all kinds of receipes for babies and as your child grows. I have used this book a lot when my children were small.

I would recommend Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. We have used it with both of our boys. It has great recipes and tables that tell you when to introduce different foods.
K.

Get Super Baby Food - I made food for my son (now 2 1/2) and plan to for my daughter (now 16 weeks). Have fun with it - it's a little time consuming, but ###-###-####% worth it!

It is very simple you steam all vegetable,crucial important!
put in a plate and smash with a fork,sweet baked potato,
i will give you another ideia when the baby gets bigger.
Good Luck!
Marcia Ouellet

I highly recommend - Mommy Made and Daddy Too! : Home Cooking for a Healthy Baby & Toddler

S.

Papoose is a baby store in Norwich, they will have a babyfood making workshop on April 22!!! There is a great book, "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron. Making your own babyfood is so easy and so much better for baby. I always made babyfood for my little ones- after all, I wanted my children to eat the foods that we eat as a family- so of course, they should get used to our flavors, herbs, spices.... Not to mention the freshness and good tastes of homemade foods compared to those in jars. Going out was easy too with home made foods. Have fun!!!

Hi J., When my son and daughter were babies, I made all their food. They are both happy, healthy children! I made their food the same way I make mine. I start with fresh, organic (if possible) ingredients and cook as directed. Say for example, you want to cook butternut squash, prepare as you normally would and then when cooled, fill an ice cub tray with the squash and freeze it. The ice cube size is a perfect serving size. You can do that with any vegetable. For his fresh fruit I would use the blender. You can take bananas and blueberries or strawberries and blend.

Your children depend on you for their nourishment-I always believed that I can help them be healthy children without turning to prepared foods in the market. They certainly don't need all the added salts and sugars and preservatives that are added to prepared foods!

Enjoy your baby! S.

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/ is an awesome site! I found that it provided all of the information I needed and answered all of my Qs about making food for my daughter. It is fun, cheap, and not as time consuming as I thought at all! I used my food processor/blender and ice cube trays. In my opinion, there is no need to spend money on special blenders and trays. I covered the ice cube trays with plastic wrap, and when they were frozen, I dumped them into labeled Ziplock bags. Have fun!

Hi J.. I made a lot of my son's food and loved the website wholesomebabyfood.com. I also found the book Super Baby Food to be really helpful. Kidco makes a good food mill that is small enough to take with you when you want to puree food outside your home. I used a mini food processor for "bigger" jobs and the food mill when I just wanted to puree a small amount for an individual meal. Good luck and I hope it goes well!!

I've used "Le Petit Appetit" for wholesome, organic recipes for various age groups from 4 mo to preschool age and directions on how to puree your own foods. The recipes I've tried aren't great, but I haven't tried that many. If you can find it used or borrow it, that would be ideal. Its not hard to make your own purees and you won't need to do so for very long.
I also like "Deceptively Delicious" now that my daughter is older. It helps get her to actually eat those veggies I would usually put in front of her in vain.

Good luck!

The book Super Baby Food is great. It is a little over the top but it gives great directions on when to introduce new foods and how to prepare them for your baby. We loved it. Good luck!

Annabel Karmel's Baby and Toddler Meal Planner is all you will need. Fantastic and easy. Make large batches, freeze in an ice cube tray. When frozen, knock cubes in a freezer bag and label. Your baby will go from one cube and build up to three of four by one year. Defrost in microwave and in less than a minute homemade baby food on the table!Start now. I used this book form 6 months of age onwards. It gives them a good start. Both my girls are great eaters.

HI, I made all of my daughters food and found the website wholesomebabyfood.com very helpful. It had great recipes and a nice list of what foods are safe and which months they can eat them! Have fun! M.

I made many veggies for my little ones using the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. All you really need is a blender, fresh or frozen fruits and veggies, and water to thin it out. At 8 months old, she's going to be able to try lots of yummy new foods this spring and summer. You'd be surprised how quickly you might be able to get off of the "purees" and into lumpier and chunkier food. The book has suggestions for toddler friendly, healthy foods as well. I liked that it was broken down by month, so you could try a little at a time. I still make purees and keep them in the fridge or freezer to add to things like meatloaf, mac and cheese, pizza, etc that I'm making for my kids (now 4 and 19 months). Good luck and have fun with it. There are lots of possibilities.