Info on Making Food for My Baby

Hi, J.;
I used to boil sweet potatoes and then skin them, and grind them in a food grinder (you can also use a blender or food processor) and freeze the result. I did not add anything to them, but this was my son's favorite.

I would set aside one night a week for making babyfood and then freeze in it ice cube trays (that makes defrosting reasonable portions quick and easy). My kids' favorites in the cook, and breast milk/formula and blend department were sweet potatoes, peas, broccoli, green beans, and potatoes. In the cook and blend department they loved apples and pears. (Apple-pear and sweet potato-apple were big hits too.) They also liked kiwi-strawberry and melon in the just blend department. I also would cruise the babyfood aisle at the grocery store for ideas. Good luck!

Hi J.. My Mom bought me the best thing ever. The bullet .. it's a little tiny blender like thing that comes with all kinds of tools. I would micro. veggies, let them cool down, blend them then throw them in the freezer in an ice cube tray, defrost when ready to use.. so easy!! I think you can buy them at Dept. stores now.. really neat and pretty cheap!!! Good luck!

Hi J.,

I made baby food for my daughter & am getting ready to start doing it for my son. I found this website: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com
I found this to be very helpful, because it even gives you menus for a week! So check it out!

Hi it is pretty easy to make and prepare baby food for a few weeks ahead of time, especially because they do not eat tons of food in the beginning. Buy 2 or 3 ice cube trays, I like the silicone ones b/c it is easy to push the frozen chunks out. I started with pears, and peas, and sweet potatos. use a blender or small cuisenart and steam the fruits or veggies first and blend with some water or some breast milk until the correct consistency- and spoon into ice cube trays and freeze. Once frozen I pop the cubes into freezer bags and label. you can do this for a few hours on a sat. and have enough food for 2 weeks, and maybe the following sat add a new fruit or veggie to keep rotating the foods and keeping a variety. I found a lot of help from Ruth Yaron's Super Baby Food book
it makes it easy, and is easy once you start
good luck

Hi J.!
I know that you have a lot of responses, but I also wanted to offer some advice. I have also made my son's food 'from the get-go.' It's super easy, much cheaper, and so much better for him. I steamed veggies (either fresh or frozen) and then put them into a small food processor. To thin out, I used apple juice, not water. I like the frozen varieties of veggies. I did the same with fruit (both fresh and frozen) but you shouldn't need any liquid to thin out. And with the frozen, you can have fruit year round! For storage though, you've got to try these: http://www.thebabysgallerie.com/show_details.asp?thisID=2...
They are the perfect size for a single feeding and SO easy to use when you are 'one the move!' Microwave for 30 seconds, pop open the lid and microwave for another 30 seconds. It couldn't be easier!
As my son got older, I mixed the fruit with yogurt or cottage cheese also. I made the food in big batches. (I bought 4 sets of 2 ea. of the food containers.) I also use them to make big batches of oatmeal to freeze.
Set aside a few hours one night and steam, puree and freeze! Best of luck. It's super easy and you will also feel great about giving your son healthy food from the start.

Hi J., I read someone told you to make carrots. I have read in several places, and had my pediatrician tell me that carrots are the one food that is safer to purchase than make yourself.

Good for you for making your own baby food! It tastes SO much better than the jar stuff. I would recommend getting the book "Top 100 Baby Purees" by Annabel Karmel. It has all the instructions, nutrition info, and recipes to get you through the whole baby food stage, from fruits & veggies to meats & cheese. You can cook a bunch of stuff on the weekends and freeze it in ice cube trays, so it's really easy to defrost just the right amount. Most things are pretty easy, you just steam or bake the veggies and puree them. The only hard thing is some recipes call for homemade chicken stock. Sometimes I made it if I had time, but if I didn't I just used organic low sodium chicken broth from the store. My son LOVED homemade baby food for about 2 months. Then he started eating off our plates and it was all over...I had to throw about a month's worth of food out that I had in the freezer for him. Oh well! Good luck & happy cooking!

HI My name is A. I have an 18 month old daughter and another baby on hte way. I made all my daughters food, and it was so easy!! you should go and get the covered trays that they sell at Babies r us there like ice cube trays with lids!! you'll also need a blender or food processor. What I used to do was go to the farmers market on Sundays stock up on fresh fruit/veggies and come home and just spend a little time making it. Sweet potatoes are really easy you just bake them and them take the skin off and blend them for a minute or 2, Zuccine(sp?) is really easy too just peel it with a potatoe peelet and chop into chuncks and steam them till there really soft I used a steaming basket, them blem for a minute or 2. squash like acorn or butternut is really easy yo do also I just cut the squash in half long ways and then put it openside up on a foil lined baking sheet and bake till there supersoft, then take the skin off and blend. with all of these once your finished blending them put them into the trays each section is one serving for a baby, 2 sections when there a little older. then let it cool cover and freeze for a 3-4 hours then what I would do is pop them out into a freezer bag and make sure you label the bags the cubes all look the same after a while :) then you can just wash and reuse the treys. My daughter also loved when I made her apple sauce it's a lot easier to do then it sounds promise! I got a apple corer(sp?) and I would get a bunch of apples (red worked better for us) peel then and core them, then steam them like the zuccine once they were soft I would use a potato ricer and mush them super soft! it was so good them my hubby and I used ot eat it to. well that should get you started if you have any question please contact me I loved making my daughters food and cant wait to do it again. Also you save SOOO much $$ I would spend $10 at the market and have food for 2 weeks, instead of spending a $1 a jar for 3 jars a day on the jared stuff. Good luch and HAve fun!!

A.
P.S. sorry for the spelling errors

Hello,

Making baby food is so easy and I really enjoyed it. I steamed veggies and fruits and pureed them in the blender, adding some of the water from the pot until you get a good consistency. Then I froze them in ice cube trays. After they were frozen, I would put them in a freezer bag and label and date them. I would then thaw a couple of cubes for each meal. The best veggies were carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and almost anything except peas and green beans. It's very hard to puree peas and green beans without them becoming stringy because of the skin, so after a few attempts I decided I would buy jarred baby food for those two. I gave my daughter fresh avocados and bananas and just mashed them with a fork. Apples are great steamed with a little bit of cinnamon, I would cut slices, steam them, sprinkle cinnamon and freeze the slices.

I wouldn't microwave any of the foods because they really lose a lot of their nutrients when microwaved. Steaming is the best way to cook food.

Check out wholesomebabyfood.com for ideas and tips on making food. It even tells you how to puree chicken and meats. They also have some great recipes for when your son is ready for chunkier foods.

J.

I used the book Super Baby Foods. The woman who wrote it has great advice on making your own baby food and is all about doing it as cheaply and healthfully as possible. I didn't follow all her advice but I did what was easy and worked for us. I used to put one or two big yams in the oven on 350 for about an hour and then mash or puree them once they were cooked and cooled, (I added water to the blender when I blended them to make it thinner when my son was very little). Then you put the puree into clean ice cube trays and freeze. When frozen, take the cubes and store them in containers or Zip-Locs in your freezer. You can do the same with butternut squash, carrot, zucchini, broccoli or any veggies. I also used to cook dried lentils in water and when they were done I wold make ice cubes out of them since my son liked beans. I used to to take dried prunes and apricots and reconstitute them in a little boiling water, then throw them in the blender to make the fruit baby foods. Hope this is useful!

There is a WONDERFUL book called "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron. She details nutritional value, suggested serving size, freezing techniques, batch techniques, etc... It has recipes, what veggies/fruits to serve at what age, how often babies should eat, etc... It was a very good reference book for myself when I started feeding my daughter.

I have usually just steamed batched of veggies, pureed them in a food processor and then frozen them in ice cube trays. after the puree freezez break them out of the trays into bags and keep in the freezer, defrost for single servings!. Avocado is ready made for baby food, as is ripe banana, but you can still freeze those in ice cube trays. Happy feeding!

J., I would start with yams or avocado then move to apples and pears. Just peel, cut up and steam for about 10-20 minutes. Throw in a cuisinart and blend until smooth. (You don't cook the avocado, just put it in a cuisinart and freeze.)At first you will want to add lots of the cooking liquid to make sure it is soupy enough, then you can make it thicker as he masters swallowing and eating. After it has cooled, put it in ice cube trays and freeze. Label and store in ziplocks and defrost as needed. Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron goes into detail about when to do what foods and when. Good luck and have fun!

Check out Blender Baby Food, by Nicole Young. While I haven't tried any of the recipes yet (my girl isn't there yet), it has a lot of good information and easy foods, all of which can be frozen.

hi J.
I have three handsome boys and I made all of thier baby food from scratch. I started off with the peas, then the green beans, sweet potato, winter squash, apples, carrots, bananas, pears. I would steam all the veggies and fruits until fork tender. I purred them in a food processer. I found that it works beter with a blender. don't buy those baby food proccesser, they don't work that well. I would feeze the baby food in ice cube trays with plastic wrap over them.Then once frozen, i labled and put them in ziplock bags. i would thraw what i needed for the next day in the frig. I hope this helps.

Hi
You can process any kind of foods that you decided to feed your child in a food processor and packing them in ice cube trays, cover and keet in the freezer with dates & labels. This way you can popping off whatever amount you needed for the child to eat (microwave it) just be careful because food can be too hot for the child and prevent him/her from burning and to save the rest instead of wasting the whole entire food bowl. I did this for all my 3 children and not buying food jars from the store except for traveling then I do. You save $$ too.

Hi J.,
Good for you for wanting to make your own food!! It's a little extra effort, but SO worth it and you really feel like you're doing the best for your little one. You are feeding him exactly what you want, organic or whatever, no processed junk.
With my first I didn't, because I thought I didn't have the time. With my 2nd I did, after I realized how easy it really was. I would use my large Cuisinart. [Some people I know used the smaller, single serving one for baby food...but to me that was a waste of time since you had to prepare it for each meal; however, that size IS good to have around (or the hand-held small blender for smoothies) for quick single meals when you need it.] Each week (or 5 days) I would steam various veggies a long time until they were very soft, then just throw them into the Cuisinart, then put into old baby jars & into the fridge & freezer. (the great thing about steaming them too, if you have the kind where you boil a little water underneath and catch all the steam inside, is the water afterward is usually colored and filled with the nutrients that escaped the veggies during steaming...I would use some of this water back into the Cuisinart to make it a smoother/looser consistency when it needed it) The variety and combinations are endless, and your choice. At first of course, it would only be one veggie at a time, (squash, broccoli, carrot, green beans, etc) to make sure they agreed with your son and he liked them. But after awhile when my daughter was older, I absolutely loved it because I would put all kinds of combinations in there...including wheat pasta, a little meat or tofu, olive oil, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli...anything. I could basically make the perfectly proportioned (protein-carb-fat) meal in every batch, and it gave me enormous satisfaction feeding her every time. =) Don't need to add salt or anything that you would think you may like w/ it yourself, because you are training their tastes and if they get used to eating them w/out salt, they will always eat them this way. Sometimes she wouldn't like the particular combination, but most of the time she loved it...and she also got used to lots of different tastes early so she has a really wide pallet now. One little warning, though...I fed her this for so long that she didn't get used to the "plain" taste of veggies (meaning, by themselves w/ no other flavors in there) early enough, so when I did start to realize this it took a little while to get her to eat just plain veggies...but she did get there after about a week because she was used to these tastes.
For fruits, I would usually use my hand-held blender (but you could also use the big one & freeze). I just thought it was so easy because it only took 20 seconds to throw whatever into the cup & blend. My favorites were using organic applesauce (trader joe's is great, and not too much $$), then throwing in some frozen organic blueberries or strawberries, cut up melon, or whatever fruit you like. It was so quick & the attachment went straight into the dishwasher.
Sorry for the novel! Hope this helps, & good luck...keep it up! =)

Everyone has already given you great advise. Don't forget bananas and avocados. They don't require anything but a fork (I guess you need a knife to slice open the avocado). As long as they are very ripe you can simply mash and serve. These are our favorite on the go snacks as I can pack them in their whole form and don't have to worry much about spoilage. Also our for our 7 month old we give her shaved apples and pears. I simply cut in half and take a spoon and scrape some of the fruit off for her and then eat the rest of the fruit myself. I also uses breastmilk to thin any food that is too thick.

I made my son's baby food and it was so easy and much cheaper! All I did was cook the veggies, throw them in the blender add a small amount of water and blend to the point of puree. Then put them in an ice cube tray and freeze. Once they are frozen you can put them in ziplocks in the meal size you want. They thaw out pretty quick so just pull them out a few hours before eating time!

Fruit is pretty easy too - I never did bananas (I figured I could mash them enough for him to eat) or applesauce (because it's so cheap!) But I did peaches, strawberrys and any fruit you can buy frozen. If I could get it fresh I would of course, but the winter months don't have very many exciting fruits!

Good luck and have fun!

Check out wholesomebabyfood.com

It will give you everything you need to know!

Have fun!

Hi J.,

I too work 40hrs per week but I've gotten into a pretty good grove for making baby food. I make one maybe two batches per week and store them in the freezer in ice cube trays (I'll probably have to start making more since my little girl has a growing appetite.) For the most part I use frozen fruits and veggies and I do this for several reasons. First off they tend to have more nutrients in them than fresh veggies b/c they are picked when fully ripe and packed within hours rather than being picked when they’re green and allowed to “ripen” in the store. Also the prices tend to be better and some of your prep work has been done for you (cleaning, chopping peeling etc.). However you do have to check the packaging b/c some of them have added salt. The stuff I buy fresh tends to be bananas, pears, avocado and sweet potatoes. To cook I either boil on the stove in just enough water to cover or steam them in the microwave (I mostly just do this with peas and frozen fruit b/c peas are easy to over cook on a stove and high sugar fruits like peaches cook super fast in a microwave.) Then when it’s done cooking I puree it with my hand blender. I would use my food processor but I’m lazy and my hand blender is more convenient. When I puree the stuff that was boiled in water I try to use as much of that water as possible when thinning it to help keep some more nutrients.

Not everything needs to be cooked. Bananas, pears and avocados are all great raw. All of them will discolor slightly when exposed to air but this doesn’t change their nutrition. You can use lemon juice to keep them from turning color but the acid isn’t so great for the baby’s stomach so my daughter gets tan pear puree. She still loves it too. Some people also make their own baby cereals but here again I’m lazy. Supper Baby Food is a great book. It goes into a lot of detail about how and when to feed your baby different fruits and veggies. The second edition talks a little about making meat but the author is a vegetarian so she’s a tad biased against meat eating. I did some of my own research and found that when you do introduce meat chicken thighs are great b/c they’re low cost and contain more iron than chicken breasts (at 6 mo breast fed babies start to need some extra iron but if you’re feeding commercial baby cereal .)

Ok I’ve given you a ton of info, probably more than you want, but if you ever have any questions feel free to send me a message. Oh and a great first food is sweet potatoes or avocado and the constancy should be fairly thin (easily poor off a spoon.)

Good luck, and shower curtains make for great drop cloths under the high chair.

I almost forgot. There are some veggies that can be very high in nitrates (unfortunately buying organic does not solve this problem) . Baby food manufacturers have to test these foods to keep the levels low but there’s no way for the home chef to do that. Therefore you should hold off feeding homemade carrots, spinach and beets until your baby is at least 7 mo old (preferably 9 mo) when their liver function is good enough to handle these waste products.

Hi J.. I make my son's food and boy is it better for him. Here's a few of my tips that I found beneficial and time saving:
1. Carrots first (after the cereal), leave the skin on them, dice them up, put a little water w/them and microwave them for a few minutes, until soft, tender. Put everything, water & all into the food processor and puree very well. Run the mixture through a collendar to ensure there are not lumps. Put mixture into icecube tray, freeze, pop out and and back into freezer proof back. I cube = 1 meal.

This is how I do all my good for my son. Hope this gives you an idea.

T.

Hi J.,

I make my daughters food usually every two weeks. Get a decent size steamer. (You can also steam on the stove. Put a little water in a pot cut up the food, put on a lid and simmer for about 20 minutes.) You want to steam bacause it preserves the vitamins and minerals better. If you boil the food, all the good stuff goes into the water so it defeats the purpose. I got a small food processor from babysrus for making baby food, but you can use a regular one also. When you steam there is going to be a little bit of water left over. Put the food in the processor and add a little of the water...push the button and WALA..baby food. I have had great success with nectarines, pears, carrots, green beans, chicken, plums, (yams and sweet potatoes are baked not steamed), avocado (raw), peaches and blue berries. Pretty much anything you can steam or cook and puree to make the food. Our Dr. said meats were a good starter food. I stay away from apples and banannas due to constipation. After I puree a bunch of food i put it into ice cube trays, when it's all frozen I put all the cubes into large tupperware, put a piece of scotch tape on the top to lable to food and thats it! I go to the farmers market or the produce market to get organic veggies. I usually load up, and when I make the food I make about 11 ice cube trays of all different kinds of stuff. It takes some practice to buy the right amount on fruits and veggies to make the amount of food you want. When i feed her, i give her three cubes of whatever!! Sometimes different some times all three the same. I also mix it with single grain oatmeal, (rice cereal also causes constipation). I also work 40 hrs a week and have two older girls, (8 and 9) so I usually have to take about three hours out of my saturday or sunday every other weekend just dedicated to making baby food, but it can be done!!! Now that she is ready for semi-solids, I steam the food, cut it into small squares, and still freeze in ice cube trays.

Hope this was helpfull!! Good luck!

D.

Yams and sweet potatoes were a big hit with both my kids. I peeled and steamed them then put them through the food processor, then froze it in ice cube trays. Once the food cubes are frozen you can put them in a ziplock or pre-load lidded serving bowls. You can do this with carrots and pears too. Acorn squash is another good one. Just cut them in half, bake until soft, then scoop out the insides and puree. Just don't be alarmed by the bright new colors of poop.

Hi,
Buy a food mill -- they are cheap and easy to use and clean. Then you can steam up veggies and puree them in the food mill. Best ones to start with are sweet potatoes/yams. Bananas are good too, but you can mix those with a fork if they are ripe enough. I've also done/do broccoli, carrots, zuccini, yellow squash, califlower. If the veggies look a little dry, then add some of the water that you steamed with. For protein, I relied on breast milk and oatmeal until my daughter had teeth, then I added in tofu and cheese and finally meat. If you are using formula, I'd take some of the water you steamed the veggies in and use that to mix in with the formula. You'll notice that the water has a slight color/tint to it, and that is from some of the nutrients, I believe. I worked full time with my first daughter and would steam up some veggies at night to last for a few days, but I don't see why you can't freeze them too. hope this helps. J.

Hi J.. I'm the mom of six kids who are homeschooled so I don't have a lot of time either. One of my little ones decided to come at 34 weeks and understand your desire to give him what's best. This is how I did it. I would set aside time once or twice a month (depending on how much the little one ate). I would bake squash while I was boiling up a fruit and vegetable. To bake the squash, cut it in half and scoop out the seeds. Oil or spray a cookie sheet and put the squash cut side down. Put it in the oven at 375 until you can stick a forth through the skin of the thickest part of the squash. Cool until it can be handled and skin it. Throw it in the blender or food processor and add water as needed. While that's baking and cooling you can have two pans going on the stove with whatever you want - carrots, apples, pears, peaches, peas, beans or sweet potatoes. Be careful with green beans because there can be a string along the side that doesn't always blend well. I prefered to get fresh or frozen veggies and fruits whenever I could. After each item is cooked soft (and peeled if necessary) then put it in the blender and add water as needed. Put them into ice cube trays and cover them (I used Press'n'Seal) and write on it with permanent marker what it is. Once they are frozen all of the white, orange or green things look the same. Once they are frozen you can either leave them in the ice cube tray or move them to a freezer bag and label the bag. There's less chance of freezer burn in the bag.

Hope this helps.

I have been making all my little guy's food and it is not as hard as some might think. I spend 1-2 hours, ONE day a week (if that), and end up with food for weeks at a time. All I do is steam or bake the veggies, pour them into pre-measured cube trays (I get them at BabiesRUs), and freeze them. They can stay in the freezer for up to 2 months. Each cube is a serving size, so when it comes time for meals...I take out one cube of each food he will be eating for that meal, nuke it in the microwave and he's ready to go. Then, you can mix in rice, oatmeal, juice, water, etc.
Some of the easiest are butternut squash, yams, sweet potatoes, (they make a TON of food at a time), mangos, bananas, carrots, etc.
A really good book to help with steam/bake times is "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld. It is actually for toddlers and up, but everything is based off of purees....so it gives a lot of helpful info on getting the purees. Hope this helps to get you started!

I see you received a lot of responses, but wanted to quickly say that purchasing a baby food book is a great tool that I used as it has everything from what is safe and recommended on starting your child with and to how to make healthy baby food. I've used it for my 3 children and it was a great reference tool, as well, when I needed a reminder of what to give them and when it was safe (like honey and peanut butter). Congratulations on what will probably be your best experience ever!!

Hi J. - I make my son's baby food but sometimes it's nice to have some jar food...so I thought I'd tell you about Earth's Best Organic baby food. I find it's handy to have this food to take w/ us when we go out for the day because I don't have to worry about putting it in a cooler to keep it safe (like I have to do w/ the home-made foods). You can find Earth's Best at Target for the least expensive price. You can also find it at Baby's R Us, SaveMart, Raley's and I'm sure other stores. The Super Baby Food book is great! My son enjoys his all organic brown rice, millet, barley and oatmeal cereal w/ spinach every morning :). Good Luck.

Hi there! Good for you making your own food. I am doing the same thing. I bought cheap ice cube trays (not recommended, the food stick to them and can be difficult to get out). Oxo makes trays with lids. I also bought the Gladware small containers since my son is starting to eat a lot more. I use the book "The Everything Baby Food Cookbook" and absolutely love it. It starts from 4-6 months and then 6-9 and then up. It has little exerpts for each of the foods and has a lot of great advise.

I bought the food puree attachment for my Kitchen Aid; however, found that my blender works better and faster. I started with veggies as I didn't want my son being to dependent on sweet foods. He loves peas, sweet potatoes, squash, mango, pears, and carrots. I am going to start with green beans soon.

I found that Mangos are too much work as the pit in the middle is hard to get around. I will purchase these pre-made in the future. My son is still having a hard time with apples, I think they are too tart for him, maybe in the future he will like them. He liked avocados to begin with, until I put lemon juice on them to keep them from turning brown (bad idea, he threw up everywhere). I pureed them and froze them and he now likes them again.

I think it takes me about a couple hours to steam and puree 5-6 different veggies/fruits.

Good Luck to you, I really enjoy doing this for my son and he actually prefers it over the jarred food.

I worked and thought that it took too much time to make baby food. With my second son, I decdied to try it and it wasn't that bad. I take a two or three hour time slot every week (more or less) and I steam all the veggies in the micro or steamer (or both if I am combining many veggies). At the same time I baked chicken (I know tyour son won't start out with meat). I put everything in the processor and mixed until it was as lumpy or smooth as I wanted. I used organic, low sodium broth to thin, but I left most of the meals thicker. When I served them, I mixed them with organic fruit purees (Gerber and Earth's Best) to thin out them out and add a little bit of sweetness. My son loved them!

J.,

I'm sure you will get a lot of feedback and great ideas on this one. i will tell you my top three but the number one easiest baby food and most enjoyed by most babies are sweet potatoes. You throw a few in the oven for an hour and then take the skin off and cube them, then put them in the blender or food proceesor with some water and there ya go. i usually freeze all the jars in a tupperware. you can also put them in ice cube trays and then bag them in the freezer. the other great easy food is avocado, no prep needed. my last and favorite is rice cereal with mashed up banana and applesauce. these are all great "starter" foods. once your baby gets a little older you can start to add little pieces of meat (if you choose) or pasta noodles etc. things they can start to mash up with their gums. good luck and have fun with it...

I'll jump in here with the lazy mommy's answer to this question. I have two children who are now 14 and 17 and I never bought a single jar of baby food. I also never prepared fancy stuff for them. They ate whatever we ate. I made a point to toss a sweet potato in the oven on a regular basis and served a variety of veggies and healthy meats.

I'd just mash the food with the back of my fork and pop it in their mouth at mealtimes. I did purchase a food mill, but rarely used it because I found mashing foods was easier for me. The exeption to that was when we had meat like chicken or pork. It was easier to grind in the food mill. I'd put some chicken, rice, and vegetables in the mill, grind it, and spoon it directly from the mill into my sweet baby's mouth.

I did keep really soft foods around all the time, though. Oatmeal, bananas, applesauce, etc. for those times when I wasn't comfortable feeding what we were eating to our child (ie spicy foods).

I found a food mill at the Target website. Sorry for the super-long URL, but I wanted to show you what a food mill looks like.

http://www.target.com/Food-Mill-with-Carrying-Case/dp/B00...

Take Care,

S., the lazy mommy

Hi J.. I absolutely recommend you do make your own baby food. It is super easy, super affordable and definitely manageable on your tight schedule. I also work full time and have a 35 & 8 month old. I guarantee you if I can do it, so can you. I still recommend you buy jar food, because it is convenient for times you go out to dinner or travel.

The easiest way I found is every time I cook something for the family, I also cook for the baby. This is how you work it into your schedule. Otherwise, you can do it all on the weekend.

I chop chicken breast in bite size pieces and cook them in chicken broth. Beef I cut thinly and cook the same way. Actually, I cook all protein and veggies in no fat, low-sodium chicken broth because it gives the food some flavor. Sometimes I choose to also steam some of the veggies. Anyway once you have you protein and veggies cooked, you want to puree them with the same broth you cooked them in because the vitamins for the veggies will seep into the liquid, and because a little liquid helps the puree process.

After pureeing your protein/veggies I portion it into Ice Cube trays (I bought the ones that come with a cover from "OXO"). I freeze the food and it is perfect portion control because each food cube is about a tablespoon.

Fruit is a little different because you don't need liquid to puree. Only I found that watermelon really doesn't work well for this method, but I still do puree watermelon and serve it to my baby in a net teether, so he can suck on it.

Veggies that work great are any squash, zucchini, broccoli, egg plant, corn, peas, but potatoes you want to bake in the oven until they fall apart. Great fruits are pears, strawberries, blueberries, mango, apples, bananas. Best of all, you can mix and match to come up with different combinations to serve your baby.

I hear people use blenders, mixers, etc. I have one of those "Magic Bullet" nock-offs call the "Mrs. Kitchen". It is perfect because it is small and takes almost no space on my counter.

Best of luck!

Hi J.,
There's a great book called Super Baby Food by Ruth Yarrow that will answer all your questions. It teaches you how to make baby food, how to store it, and how to feed your baby and avoid food allergies. It goes beyond infant hood into making great healthy snacks and lunches for toddlers as well. My kids are 9 and 4 and I still use it. It's a great investment.
The first easiest foods to prepare for me were mashed bananas (beware the gas factor), mashed avocados, and mashed sweet potatoes.
I hope this helps, and good luck

MM J.,

My daughter had allergies to the additives in baby food, so I had to make everything from scratch, rice, veggies, meats, I steamed the veggies then used a hand held, blender/processor(looks like a wand with cutting blades in the end, maybe braun made it, was 22 yrs ago) the veggies lasted a week. Meat, I either baked or boiled then used the same blender, as she got older I could not grind it as fine.

I have a friend who started a "super club" of sorts for her baby. She got a 1/2 dozed moms or so from her mother's group and they each make a big batch of one type of vegetable or fruit. Then they all gather and hand out the divided up batched so each one leaves with a variety for their babies. This is a huge time saver! She then freezes each kind in ice cube trays and defrosts whatever she needs for each meal.

Hi J.,

When I had my first daughter I was given a book called, Super Baby Food written by Ruth Yaron. It can be a little wordy and an overwhelming bounty of information but take parts of it you need and leave the rest you don't. I love this book and am using it for my second daughter.

Have fun,

A.

Hi J.,

I am a mom to three children, a 4.5 year old daughter and twin 20 month old boys. I think it is great that you have decided to make your sons' baby food, it will taste much better than any jar food on the market! I used the cookbook First Meals by Annabel Karmel for all three kids. The recipes are easy and she notes which ones can be frozen for future meals. For the fruits and veggies, I used frozen food in the recipes whenever I could, it cut down on prep time and is more cost effective. Also, you could buy a few extra ice cube trays and use them to freeze single serving size food cubes. I kept mine in labeled plastic bags and customized the children's meals with different combinations of food. Also, if there are any fruit puree cubes left over, they make a great fruit smoothie for you. One other tip, triple the amount of ingredients in the recipes and you can make two weeks worth of food in an afternoon. Have fun cooking!

J.

You got a lot of advice, so I won't say much more, other than to echo the Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron recommendation. Our pediatrician said it was a good diet too.

There's a great book called Super Baby Food, by Ruth ???. It's a great book with all sorts of ideas and nutritional facts. It was my bible for the first year of feeding my son solids. Good Luck!

J.,

It is so much easier than you think! Just wait & see. . .
A great book to buy is First Meals by Annabel Karmel. It gives you great recipes beginning with first purees on up to family meals. Great ideas, great illustrations, easy to use.
Good luck, have fun!

This site is great:
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

When starting out, a lot goes a long way! I made my son's baby food and I'd make a bunch of one thing then freeze individuals portions in ice cube trays. Once frozen I would simply pop out and store in zip lock bags that were marked with the date and what it was. I steamed or boiled the veggies and then included a tiny bit of water in with them when I pureed them and that's it. Good luck! You can do it! It really does not take much time, you just have to do it so it's ready when you are in a rush. Just set a pot of veggies boiling while making dinner and you're well on your way to fresh baby food!

Hi, try Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. You can always check it out at the library first to see if you'd like to purchase it. It has all the tips you could ever need for making your own, healthy baby food, and it's primarily vegetarian-based. Good luck to you!

This is a big topic I cover when I do my home visits. I'm not quite sure how old your son is, but recently pediatricians have found that babies should exclusively breast/bottle feed until they are 6 mo. old. 4 mo. (like they use to say) is a little too young, because at that age, chances are the reflex they are born with (the one where the tongue pushes everything out of the mouth that is not a nipple), making first time feedings frustrating, since they won't accept the food. But I know how exciting of a time this is, so I usually tell moms that at 5 mo. they can start practicing. Making sure that baby is full from nursing/bottle, then an hour later introduce baby cereal. That is usually the best 1st food, since it can be made pretty liquidy. After 6 mo. start by intoducing one new food at a time, for 3 or 4 days, in order to see if there are any alergic reaction. I did make my own food, doing sweet potatoes and yams (easiest to make). Once steamed, put them in blender and instead of water i would put either breast milk or formula (for added nutrients). Then I would freeze them in ice cube trays, put them in ziplock bags, making it perfect 1oz sizes. Carrots should not be home made for babies less than 7 mo. because they are high in nitrates (can cause anemia). Jared food process out the nitrates, that's why you see them for stage 1 foods. On an ending note, since your baby was 7 wks early, he might need a little more time to get the hang of it. Hope this helps.

I'm trying to make my own food as well. So far I've just been following my mom's vitamix recipe book for pureed food. It gives me the ratio of food to water to use. One thing she used to do is freeze the food in ice cube trays. Once they were frozen she would store them in a container and then thaw the "food cubes" as needed. The best thing is probably to try and find a cookbook that has pureed food recipes. Hope this helps :).

J....there is a great book called baby superfood by yarrow with recipes, feeding schedule etc. good luck

Go to your local farmers market and buy loads of veggies and fruit. Sunday am wake up at the crack and starting roasting and boiling and steaming everything. Then get a food processor and throw it in. I seperated mine out in bags and put them in the freezer. Took entire weekend. It is a lot of work and Im not sure if I will keep doing it. Dont do califlower, kids hate it. Avocados and bannans you dont have to purree. Good luck.

Hi there. All you need is one book, Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. It will answer all your questions and then some. It is my bible. Its about $20 and you can find it almost anywhere. It breaks down what babies can digest month by month and tells you how to make big batches once a month and freeze them and also tells about food allergies its awesome. It sounds like just what you need. Hope this works for you its still working for me and my son.

I can't remember the author right now, but see if you can find the book Super Baby Food. That book will tell you everything you need to know.

Hi J.: I am sure you will get lots of great ideas - mine will be short and simple. I too was a working mom and my solution was to use leftovers from dinner, toss in the blender with a little bit of water if necessary and then pour into ice cube trays which I would then freeze. Once frozen, I would pop out cubes, place in the appropriate freezer protection (most often freezer bags since you will be opening and using quickly) and pop into freezer. I always used it within a week or two so it wouldnt get old. Very cheap and simple. Pasta dishes, chicken and rice, vegies, almost anything. I even used this method with pepperoni and black olive pizza (without the end crust) and my girls loved it. Good luck.

Hi J.,
My sister-in-law just gave me a great book -- Homemade Baby Food Pure & Simple by Connie Linardakis. I haven't used it yet but she swears by it.
Good luck,
C.

Super Baby Food (a big purple paperback) is a great resource for preparing fruits/vegetables and freezing them. I worked full time and was able to do this for my daughter. First Meals is also a really good cookbook and offers recipes throughout the different age ranges.
Good luck,
C.

The easiest thing would be to check out the book "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron. My pediatrician recommended it, and I found it helpful. There is a lot of extra stuff in there that you don't need, but it has lists of vegetables with ways to cook them up. She basically cooks organic vegetables, purees them (I used a mini food processor, but you might want a bigger one if you want to do huge batches), then you freeze the puree into 1-2 Tbsp portions in an ice cube tray. You can store the "food cubes" in labeled freezer bags and microwave the ones you want to make a quick meal.

I did broccoli, carrots, peas... I'm trying to remember what else. I'm getting ready to go through this again with my second. You could either check out the book from the library, or just glance at it in a book store to get an idea of what you want to do.

Good luck!

I would reccomend the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. She has great ideas and tells you what is appropriate for your aged child. She has tips for freezing and ideas for parents who work full time outside the home. I am a stay at home mom and I love the book.It allowed me to give my child the types of food I feel are best for a child's developoment. She gives you ideas for healthy food for each stage. Pureed mango, avocado, tofu chunks and homemade brown rice cereal were some of our favorites. Some of the recipes were a bit work intensive, or my child did not enjoy them. For the most part I love this book and found it to be an amazing resource. I hope my suggestion helps you.

C. Vaughn, mother to almost 3 year old girl

Check out a product called Juice Plus. 17 fruits and veggies in a gummy. It's cheap and an easy way to enhance their immune system. It's backed by research. Any q's, call ###-###-####.

If you dont have a food processor, get one if its financially possible. Otherwise, get a "food mill" they are like $10 @ babies r us or target. easy veggies are sweet potato, carrots, peas, pretty much anything. boil or steam the veggies until they are soft. put them in the food processor with a few tsp. water and puree it. then you can put the puree into ice cube trays. if you make it in bulk then you'll have lots stored and only have to do this once a month or so :) same thing with fruits. hope that helps :)

Thank you for posting this question! I am going to be doing this myself soon too

Hi J.. I too had little 33 weekers, twins. As for easy food to make...I steamed the veges, blended it a little and froze it in tiny tupperware containers, I've heard that icecube trays work good too. I would do a big pot and freeze and it lasted a while. Sweet potatoes, carrots,zucchini, I think anything cooked well and blended would work. I never figured out or really wanted to do meat products, I just bought those from the store.

Good luck! It is a lot of trial and error as to what they will eat. Be patient and hopefully you have a good eater!

It's been about 2 years since I made my own baby food, but at that time you could get ice cube trays with lids on them at Target. Then you don't have to worry so much about freezer burn or stray bread crumbs! Enjoy all the yummy fruits of summertime! My kids favorite foods as babies were plums and avocadoes. To this day, my youngest (now 3 1/2) LOVES eating avocado...just now it's big chunks instead of pureed. Have fun! You're doing a great thing for your baby!

Use ice cube trays to freeze the food. Pop out the cubes and store it in plastic bags or contaners in the freezer. They work out to be perfect size.