Looking for Tips on Homemade Baby Food

Typically, I would put veggies through food processor, and place them in ice cube trays with plastic over them, just pop out and heat in baby food warmer - perfection!

Favorites of Joseph's squash and spinach with a tablespoon of applesauce. Broccoli, chicken and pasta splash of milk

Good luck

Hi M.,

I also used to cook whole meals, such as chicken stew with veggies and brown rice and then put it through the food processor, freeze it in ice cube trays and then put them in a plastic bag. At meal time, I just defrosted a couple of chicken stew cubes, and some cubes of frozen veggies and I had a complete meal ready within minutes. What a great feeling to give this to my son instead of the store bought stuff that full of salt, sugar and chemicals.

In case you've never heard this: children under one year of age should never be given honey that has not been cooked into another recipe because it can result in botulism.

Have fun,

V. S.

There is a great book out there called Super Baby Food.. lots of good ideas and information about making Baby Food.

M.,
I found some great ideas on teh following web sites:

http://www.homemade-baby-food-recipes.com/index.html
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

In addition het yourself a good mini food processor or use a blendsr and throw in things you are eating. We haven't done jar baby food, and I won't (yuck) my daughter now 9 months old has been eating "table" food since we started solids. Let your son explore, cook vegies and cub up small (carotts) and well cooked pasta and let him explore! It's so much fun to introduce solids!
Good Luck!

Get the book Super Baby Food - it's really helpful in terms of what foods you can introduce and when. I made food for my son and am now making food for my daughter (8 months old). I LOVE IT...it's really easy - just steam a ton of carrots, for instance, and stick them in the blender. Use some of the steaming water to help process. Put the puree in ice cube trays, freeze, bag and then you have easy single servings for all kinds of foods. I hope that helps - have fun!

There are a number of baby food books out there, but what I found really made it work was that we have a little hand held "Braun Turbo" mixer. It's has a stick with a little propeller blade at the bottom. You put your food in a bowl and the hand mixer purees it, as well as a food processor, without sending food flying. (Works on a whole pot of soup too.) I just quickly rinse off the mixer stick and clean-up is done. Creating the smallest amount of clean-up as possible made making baby food much easier, making a huge difference.

Making baby food is a lot easier than you would except. You will need a food processor (or blender), ice cube trays and a pressure cooker or something to steam things in, and a marker.

Organic Nectarines - peel and de-core when ripe and micro or boil with a little water for 4 mins. Puree in food processor until smooth than place in ice cube trays and freeze.

Organic Broccoli- Steam in a little water until soft. Puree with the water from the pan, puree and freeze in trays.

If you can't find organic vegs or fruit I sometimes buy the frozen ones that have nothing added - then it's even easier. Just cook according to directions and puree. Add water until it's the smooth texture you want.

Once the food has frozen in tray (about 6-8 hrs) I take it out and place in a freezer bag I label for easy grab. -I like to use them up within 3 weeks of making.

-note if you use frozen stuff to make the food, it CAN be refrozen once it was been cooked.

i agree with Liz...Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron is a fantastic book. That is also the book I am using with my daughter who is just about to turn 8 months. It tells you how to make all sorts of things at home, not just baby food, like wipes, bibs, hair detanglers and much more. I bought mine at Borders for $19.95 and it has been well worth the money!!

Hi M.,
Besides pureeing single veggies or fruits, you can also puree stews, soups, and fruit blends for a new flavour or "complete meal" for your baby. I used to make home-made beef stew or chicken soup and then puree the beef, carrots, and potatoes with the broth. Same goes for home-made chicken soup: some chicken, carrots, celery, broth and rice. Tons of nutrients and really delicious for your baby. With a pressure cooker these meals are done in half an hour and the rest of your family can eat them as well. For dessert I'd blend half a banana and an apple with a bit of orange juice. Have fun and good luck!

When my kids were little I had a baby food mill that I used ALOT. It's a little hand held thing with a crank on the top. You fill the hopper with whatever you want, turn the crank and VIOLA....baby food!!! I just took whatever I was making for the rest of the family (before I seasoned it) and made food for the baby for that meal. When there was something in abundance I would break out the blender and cook and blend it up, pour it into ice cube trays, freeze it and then put it it ziplock bags in the freezer for future use.

It makes me so happy to see moms that attempt to make their own baby food!! It's so much cheaper and better for your baby!!!! Good for you! :)

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

Check this website out. I plan on trying many once my daughter is ready for solid foods.

Hi M.,

I had four children and breast feed all of them. The best thing to use for homemade baby food is a BabyFood Grinder. You can get it at a health food store. When you make food for your family, just use the baby food grinder to mash the same food for the baby. It's portable and easy to use. Your 10-year old can even use it. Big sister helping. You can even take it to a restaurant. Good luck, B. S

Hi M.,

There is great advice below, but also try the As Seen On TV Magic Bullet to make preparing baby food a breeze.You can find it on the web.

Freeze pureed fruits and veggies in ice cube trays to maintain freshness-and so that you always have a supply on hand.

Try mashing potatoes (baby red and sweet- without skin) and avacado, as well as bananas.

And good for you - making your own baby food for your baby- it is so much healthier,and so much more tasty than even the best jar food !

To make my homemade baby food I found the website Wholesomebabyfood.com very helpful. They tell you how the rules about introducing new foods to your baby and what age is appropriated. Then they tell you the best ways to make the foods. I would recommend browsing the site, I have found a lot of the information very useful to answer many of my questions.

I also found that making baby food in bulk then freezing it in ice cube trays, then transferring it to a ziplock was helpful to make sure my daughter was getting a good meal everyday and helped me save time and money.

What I have found online is that steaming veggies is the best way to cook and soften them before puréeing. If you google search baby food recipe you'll find lots of info, and google starting solids for lists of recommended foods for 6, 8, 10 months. Peas, zucchini, sweet potato, banana (uncooked), avacado (uncooked), plum, and carrot are all fine for 6-8 months. That's what we've done so far. I always mix an ice-cube amount of a real food with a fortified cereal so the baby's getting all those vitamins, etc. each meal. Have fun!

I got started by making a baby food cooking playdate with my friend and we cooked for about 4 hours enough food for a month. We used a book she got at Whole Foods called:"a personalized guide to making baby food at home" by joan ahlers & cheryl tallman. It has a guide of which foods to introduce at which age and how to make them more interesting as the baby gets older.

Once we got through the first experience cooking, it was really easy.
I recommend buying a good stick mixer or small food processor (about 4 cup size) if you plan on making big batches at a time. For small batches, Babies R Us sells a hand cranked food mill that works very well but is not the easiest to clean.

Have fun,
A.

Mashed avocado is one of the best foods for a baby-- has good fat for brain development, very unlikely to cause allergy, etc. The book Super Baby Food (I got it used for $4.00) takes you through each month suggesting appropriate food, as well as tells you how to correctly and easily prepare it, so you don't have to spend a lot of time (or money) making nutritious foods for baby. The book makes things really easy. For a beginning eater, she suggests pureed bananas, avocado and sweet potato, along with rice cereal (which she tells you how to make yourself if you don't want to use boxed). Also, at 4 months, you don't have to worry if he's eating or not-- if he enjoys it, great! If not, he doesn't really need the nutrients/calories that come from food if he's nursing well or drinking enough formula. Good luck!

"Super baby Food". good ideas, good introduction chart etc. Food bible for me and my little one is a great eater.

I pureed pretty much anything that seemed baby appropriate. Carrots, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, peas, green beans, etc. I would then pour the puree in ice cube trays to freeze. When frozen pop out and put in a ziplock bag in the freezer. Try looking at wholesomebabyfood.com. It is a great site with lots of recipes and helpful info. Also, Williams Sonoma has a combo steamer/processer especially for baby food. I've seen it in the catalogue, but it's probably online too. Good Luck!

I made quite a bit of my own veggies and fruit for my son. For the veggies, I steamed them really well (and more than I would normally cook them for us to eat), then ran them through the blender with some water. If you don't add water, they just turn to paste.

As far as the fruit, mashed bananas were pretty easy. I had canned a bunch of applesauce earlier, but you can always chop up the apples and boil them with a bit of water, then grind them with a food mill to take out the cores and peels. Mangos and peaches I just ran through the blender with some water.

Have fun with it. I really enjoyed making his baby food for some reason.

J.

Freezing pureed veggies is easy to do, and I used to put them in the applesauce cups we used... recycle!

There is a kit with a cook book called FRESH BABY. The cook book explanins which foods are good for each age. Steaming is best. Be sure not to microwave in plastic. I always make a ton of food at once then freeze it in Fresh Baby trays. That way I have enough food for a week. Let me know if you need more help.

My mother in law taught me to puree and then freeze some in an ice cube tray. Then you can transfer the little cubes of food to another storage container of your choice, but you have little servings of ready made pureed food for your baby. If you already puree other foods for your family, just use part of it for the baby too.

good luck!

Hi M.,
I made my own babyfood for my kids also. What I did was one day a week I would cook up several different kinds of fruits and veggies, puree them, then freeze them in ice cube trays. Once frozen I would put them in freezer bags and take out a cube of whatever I needed for feeding, defrost it, then feed them. I used all kinds of foods-apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, etc. I just looked at the jarred food and made what they had. The way I did it was to cook the food in a pot of water-just enough to cover the food-until it was soft, then used a hand blender or my food proccessor to puree. Keep as much of the water in as you can since a lot of vitamins are cooked out and into the water.
Hope this helps!

Both my girls LOVED avacado and so did I. I could toss it in the blender with a little water to make it a consistency they could handle when they were 6 months old and just playing around and it was also perfect for a finger food because even though they could hold it, I also knew that it would mush right in their mouths. I've also been known to boil and blend carrots, apples, plums and nectarines, not to mention whatever we as a family were having for dinner (which I wouldn't recommend until they are big enough to be trying to use a spoon). I would pour said food into an ice cube tray until it was frozen and then move it to a freezer bag which I labelled with the type of food and the date. I kept nothing for more than a week, but my husband and daughter LOVED the frozen fruit cubes as a snack themselves. I was a little freaked out about microwaving baby food, so I would put a cube or two into a glass jar and place the glass jar into boiling water, continuously stirring and testing for temperature. I also only "tested" 1 new food/week in order to keep an eye out for any allergies. Have fun!