making baby food

kellywolf88

Did any of you make your own baby food? We are getting ready to hit that stage and I would really like to make all of LO's food. Is it worth buying one of those baby food makers? What types of tricks/suggestions/tips do you have? Thanks for your help!

iujess

I am obviously not there yet either, but I have been reading on www.wholesomebabyfood.com and have gotten a lot of great tips/ideas.   I am also interested in the responses to the questions you have asked.  I have a mini-food processor so I defintely plan on using that. 

TripleA2010

I use the www.wholesomebabyfood.com site a lot too.  It's very informative, tells you how to cook the food, and has great recipes. 

I use a mini food processor/chopper that we already had.  For more difficult things, I've used the blender, but the chopper does wonders.  I asked similiar questions awhile back about making homemade baby food, and most others said they'd recommend not buying special food makers because they're only in this stage for a short amount of time.  I use an ice cube tray with a lid to freeze purees and then store in labeled freezer bags.  Many moms told me to be careful of making too much, so I've only done an ice cube tray or two of each of the foods and it has been plenty.  We started purees at 6 months and she's almost 8 now.  We're still doing purees to introduce more variety, but also beginning finger foods.

amstep

J never had any storebought baby food, lol.  I think it was my guilt from not being able to BF.  I've done it all.

E, on the other hand, will probably have some of those organic fruit purees.  Some of them (hello, MANGOS, PEACHES) aren't all that easy to cook at home.

I had the Beaba BabyCook and it's ok, but ended up using my big food processor more, since I wanted to make it in volume. 

Basically it's Cook:  Steam, boil, roast, pressure cook (meats), etc

Then puree the heck out of it (high powered food processer was my best friend)

Then freeze (I used silicone bottomed ice cube trays that come with lids)

Then pop them out and into freezer bags, label with what they are and date,

Then heat (in pyrex or something without bpa) and serve.  Voila!

When we were traveling or out for meals, I chose to go to Panera (they have a microwave you can use), or I just ordered a cup of hot water and warmed up the frozen pellets with a little water and stirred before feeding.

Page me with questions, but that's it.  If you want my Beaba, make me an offer.  It's sitting in my basement, mostly pristine.  I used it maybe 6 times.

lemen99

I did for a while and just used a food processor.  The baby food makers are cool, but not necessary.

I ended up not sticking with it because Andrew refused so much I was throwing so much away.  It made me sad because not only was I continually throwing food away, I was throwing my time and energy away.  So I started buying store-bought.  

It is better for them though! I wish I stuck with it. 

blondbomber23

I made a little but mostly bought pre-made. DD started refusing purees right when we started offering her more table foods just before 8 months old (total of less than 2 months on purees). She always had done better with thick food to begin with (we went through stage 1's in less than a week and stage 2 and 3's still seemed too runny). One of the benefits of making your own is that you can control the thickness of the food.

We ended up using mainly Earth's Best and Plum (I think that's the name) babyfood which are both organic. They were easily available at the places I grocery shop (target/walmart) and most don't have preservatives or extra ingredients. I didn't think the prices were bad either.

I would just use a food processor/blender that you already have. I don't think it would be worth the extra cost for anything else.

mrs.melluvslogan

I made all of Ellie's food.  All the girls gave great tips already.  I used a regular food proccessor and ice cube trays to freeze.  It's so easy and actually fun.  I had a lot of fun coming up with new combos. 

BrendaK

We made all of Paige's food, and I'm really glad that we did.

I blogged about it the first time I did it, with lots of pictures.

We peeled, cut into chunks, steamed until tender, drained, blended, put into ice cube trays, froze, transferred to tupperware with a label/date. It's really that easy! 

Paige's favorites were apples, peaches, sweet potatoes and blueberries. Blueberries are the easiest to make, since you don't have to peel or cut them (but they're expensive and don't make very much), and sweet potatoes are great because one decent-sized sweet potato makes a TON of cubes.I think the rule of thumb is one cube equals one ounce.

We used this to puree, and it worked great. It's not very big, which has advantages (doesn't take up much room, easy to work with) and disadvantages (doesn't fit as much, takes longer because you can't puree as much at once). DH liked to use our blender to do it because it was bigger. 

Some people complain that they made too much and wasted it, but we never had that problem. Paige ate purees from about 5.5 months to about 8-10 months.

I had to buy store (Gerber) peas once and compared the color of them to the color of the peas that I made (used frozen peas). I was completely disgusted - they were almost grayish.

gizmo909

Ditto everything everyone else has said.  I have the Beabacook but it is definitely not a necessity.  It was kind of nice to not have to think about anything, but I wouldn't have gotten it on my own... it was a gift.  wholesomebabyfood is a great resource.  Have fun!

SusieDMB

I'm going to be starting soon--once we get the all clear at Josie's 6 month appt in early Feb!  I have a food steamer and a food processor and silicone trays.  I got a baby food cookbook that comes up w/different combos and suggestions--sure I could have found most of it on the website but I threw it on our registry for fun and got it.

 

When does your pedi start baby food?  Ours does cereal at 4 to 5 (recs 5) and fruits & veggies at 6.