Preparing Homemade Baby Food

Yes pears need to be steamed. Try Wholesomebabyfood.com this is a great site with lots of info on homemade baby food. I've been making baby food for a few months now and it is a lot cheaper than commercial baby food.

Steaming or boiling pears, apples, etc.. is a good idea because it gives it an apple sauce consistency, especially if you are feeding it to your younger one. Puree raw fruits like pears and apples can leave little hard junks that some kids find hard to swallow at a young age.

Good luck.

Y.

I'm not sure about the fruits, but what about doing the organic baby food if this is cheaper & saves time for you. This way it's allready cleaned, no chemicals & allready pureed? just a thought,since i've never steamed anything.maybe i'll go buy a steamer and give it a try some time. for now i just purchase (some/little) organic meats & fruits & veggies. Whole foods market is expensive especially for a fam of 7. Hope this helped,not hurt. S. mommy of 5

Hi R.!
Although I've not yet started my 5 1/2 month old on solids yet, the moms in our play group absolutely swear by the book, Super Baby Foods by (I think) Ruth Yaron. Most libraries have it if you want to "try before you buy". I did, and then purchased a copy. One thing - the author definitely has some strong opinions about certain things (ex.vegetarianism) but if you use it for what you need and disregard what you don't, I think you'll find this is a good resource for making home made baby food. Good luck!! H.

Hi there!
My baby girl is 10 months old and I made her baby food the day she started eating solids (around 5 months of age). In the beginning, I steamed everything (except for sweet potatoes - those I boiled) before blending them down to mush. Bananas can just be crushed by hand because they are so soft and watery. You would just dirty your blender by blending those guys.
Your princess won't need her food blended to a pulp for long. At age 8 months, my baby girl lost interest in mush. So, I would give her the cooled off steamed or boiled food in cubes for her to mash herself.
Lemme know if you have any other questions. I loved making her food for her, but it sure didn't last long.

I am a mom of 3 little girls 3 and under (twins and a 3 yr old) i barely have time each day to brush my teeth but i wanted to at least be able to make some foods for my twins. i don't steam any fruits i just let them sit on the counter until they get really really ripe and then i put them in my mini chopper and blend away. works wonderfully. now that they are 7 months old i am getting creative and mixing more than one fruit together. they love it!

Yes, steam them first to get a smoother texture. My "babies" are teenagers, and my first will be 20 years old soon. I made all of my own baby food simply because we were too poor to be able to afford the little jars. My grandmother told me what she did for her children which was really before jarred baby food was available. Pretty much whatever we ate, I put in the food processor and gave to my children. (Grandmom was jealous because she had to grind everything by hand in her day.) I'm Italian, and grew up on a Mediterranean diet, so once my children had all sorts of single foods introduced, I'd puree whole meals at once. They loved lasagna! Bracciole was a favorite, which is just a very delicious stuffed and rolled round steak full of all sorts of goodies. It looked strange all pureed together, but the boys loved the stuff!
I don't know if there is any official research to back it up, but from what I've seen, babies who eat home-made foods tend to be less picky. My kids ate all sorts of things that most American parents think kids just won't like. They enjoyed fish, swiss chard, roasted peppers. I don't know why Americans think that babies can only have bland foods, and accept that kids will only like thinks like mac and cheese, hot dogs, and pizza. It all has to do with what they are introduced to as "normal" when they are growing up. I mean, human beings are all the same physically, right? So why do Asian children like fish and seaweed in their diet, but we think those flavors are too strong for kids? When I was growing up, every little Italian kid jumped up and down with excitement when fresh figs were around. I loved pungent olives, and tomatoes in any form were my favorite. Yet, Americans think all of this is "too much" for a child. Not true! It's just that there is a lack of exposure to variety and too much processed food in the typical American diet. As long as you start out with simple foods and build, children will learn to try and like new foods.
OK. That's my rant over and done with! :)