Anyone going to/have made their own baby food?

luvtodanz · April 2012

I'm thinking about doing this (I know I'm alittle ahead of myself here), but do you have any suggestions for books and what to use for storage in the freezer. Thanks.

brideofscowboy · April 2012

I did with DS and plan to do it again with this kidlet.

I froze the baby food in ice cube trays and then just put them in ziploc freezer bags.

wholesomebabyfood.com was my favorite site. I have a few books by Annabel Karamal (sp?), but used the website more and did a lot on my own.

misthang_1 · April 2012

I did with DS and will probably again with DD too. It was actually really easy and a lot of fun. Although DS was starting solids in the spring which was perfect for buying fruit at the local fruit stand. Anyways, I used this book which I thought was pretty good: Top 100 Baby Purees.

ETA: I bought some silicone ice cube trays and froze the purees, popped them out and put them in a ziploc bag and stored them in the freezer.

Gismo123 · April 2012

Bump burp

Gismo123 · April 2012

We plan on making our own baby food...we bought a baby bullet really cheap....was on sale at Macy's for 59.99 then we had a 20% off coupon so we only paid $47.99. The system comes with some freezer storage but we also bought some cheap ones from buy buy baby so hopefully they work

hecallsmecat · April 2012

I did this for DD and loved it. It was so much cheaper than buying jarred food and really easy. I could make weeks worth of food in about an hour. Like PP I used ice cube trays and sometimes I used these cute little freezer pots with individual lids that someone bought me. Not sure of the brand, but ice cube trays work just as well.

I got Annabel Karmel's book "Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner." It has tons of tips on how to make particular foods, recipes, what is good for different stages of weaning, etc. I found it really helpful. Some of the recipes were so good DH would taste them as I was finished pureeing and he would end up eating half the food! I swear with some of the fruit puree blends I would make a batch for DD and a separate batch for DH to put over ice cream just so he wouldn't steal the baby's food.

LoveBug0516 · April 2012

Good question. Thank you PPs for the book suggestions. I might try this.

georgi611 · April 2012

Me! We registered for a baby bullet! So excited!!!

Babybear70 · April 2012

I am planning to make my own baby food as well. We registered for the Baby Bullet but if we don't get it we are going to go buy it. I bought the Baby Bullet Steamer as well and WOW is that baby ever cool!!! But that is besides the point. I plan to go to the store one day when I have nothing better to do (yeah right), and write down the food combinations that the bigger companies have come up with as well as use the wholesomefood website. Some of the new baby foods that are organic have some pretty interesting combinations in them (Apple and Carrot puree) so I'm going to go write them down and make some of them myself. I'm pretty crafty when it comes to the kitchen so I think I can pull it off.

sam19 · April 2012

I did a very small amount with my first. We had a magic bullet so I just used that. I was able to find recipes online. Although it was mostly just mix the stuff with water and throw it in the bullet. I freezed it in ice cube trays as well.

cchill01 · April 2012

brideofscowboy:

I did with DS and plan to do it again with this kidlet.

I froze the baby food in ice cube trays and then just put them in ziploc freezer bags.

wholesomebabyfood.com was my favorite site. I have a few books by Annabel Karamal (sp?), but used the website more and did a lot on my own.

This! I did not see any need to buy special tools. I made the food in bulk and did about 2 items a week. I used my normal food processor and blender. I would freeze in cubes and pull out 2-4 cubes to make my own mixes.

seansgirl2006 · April 2012

cchill01:
brideofscowboy:

I did with DS and plan to do it again with this kidlet.

I froze the baby food in ice cube trays and then just put them in ziploc freezer bags.

wholesomebabyfood.com was my favorite site. I have a few books by Annabel Karamal (sp?), but used the website more and did a lot on my own.

This! I did not see any need to buy special tools. I made the food in bulk and did about 2 items a week. I used my normal food processor and blender. I would freeze in cubes and pull out 2-4 cubes to make my own mixes.

Same here, freeze ziplock bags and ice cube trays. I just used either my big blender or a hand blender right in the pot that I cooked the puree in. I also don't really see the point of any of the baby food systems out there. The storage they offer is usually not going to hold that much and you would be doing it all the time. Plus the ones I have seen don't seem to blend that much at once. I would not have been able to keep up with it. I made tons of veggies all at once and they would last for a long time in the freezer. I would save a bit out to keep fresh in the fridge and use right away too. The freezer stuff was fine though and there really wasn't much of a difference.

I used www.wholesomebabyfood.com too. Awesome site.

mylittlesunshine · April 2012

cchill01:
brideofscowboy:

I did with DS and plan to do it again with this kidlet.

I froze the baby food in ice cube trays and then just put them in ziploc freezer bags.

wholesomebabyfood.com was my favorite site. I have a few books by Annabel Karamal (sp?), but used the website more and did a lot on my own.

This! I did not see any need to buy special tools. I made the food in bulk and did about 2 items a week. I used my normal food processor and blender. I would freeze in cubes and pull out 2-4 cubes to make my own mixes.

Yes

I just used our blender to make DD's food. It was real easy. Plus, we grew some of the things we fed her like green beans. I would get a lot of produce from our farmer's market which was nice. I can't wait to do it with this one as well! I would pour the food into ice cube trays and then pop them out into baggies and store in teh freezer.

LoveyFNR · April 2012

cchill01:
brideofscowboy:

I did with DS and plan to do it again with this kidlet.

I froze the baby food in ice cube trays and then just put them in ziploc freezer bags.

wholesomebabyfood.com was my favorite site. I have a few books by Annabel Karamal (sp?), but used the website more and did a lot on my own.

This! I did not see any need to buy special tools. I made the food in bulk and did about 2 items a week. I used my normal food processor and blender. I would freeze in cubes and pull out 2-4 cubes to make my own mixes.

Yup, this. I just used a regular food processor (about a 6th of the cost of a Baby Bullet) and froze in ice cube trays. It's much cheaper than buying bulk jar food. I did have several jars though so I could pop one in the diaper bag and it would be fine sitting there for weeks if I needed baby food at the last minute.

The wholesomebabyfoods website was a lifesaver. I suggest it to anyone and everyone.

dragossoul84 · April 2012

DH and I bought the baby brezza from babies r us. It steams and purees. It wasnt to expensive and I cannot wait to use it

mobiz · April 2012

ditto to what everyone else said. and i just used my regular blender too. it's seriously so easy to do i would recommend everyone try it. it feels really good feeding your baby homemade food from the start--even organic jarred food is missing nutrition because they have to heat it to levels to make it shelf stable.

and it gets really fun to experiment!

weelicious.com is also a great site - baby purees and beyond. we still eat lots of family meals from there that are very kid friendly.

jc0n15 · April 2012

Thanks for the website...now I am very excited to make baby food. I was planning on having DH make all the food because he is my cook but this looks like it could be fun!!

SugarhillHnA · April 2012

I read Baby Led Weaning and my SIL got me a book of baby food recipes for my first Mother's Day and a couple freezer trays. You can just use regular ice cube trays with covers, freeze, and then put ice cubes of baby food in labeled freezer storage bags. That's what we did. You don't need any special equipment like a baby bullet- just use a regular blender or food processor. Steam veggies or bake them (like sweet potatoes, squash, pumpkin) and puree with either water, BM, or Formula. I used water because if you use BM, you have to go by the expiration of the milk and not the food- the food frozen pureed with water lasts longer.

mkflower3000 · April 2012

I'm a FTM but I absolutely want to make my own! I went on Amazon and researched some books that had good ratings -

The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet: Know What Goes Into Every Bite with More Than 200 of the Most Deliciously Nutritious Homemade Baby Food ... More Than 60 Purees Your Baby Will Love

The Baby and Toddler Cookbook: Fresh, Homemade Foods for a Healthy Start

I put those as well as a baby food maker on my registry.

LMBESQ · April 2012

I made my daughter's food using a Beaba babycook. Ditto the previous posters who used wholesomebabyfood.com, it is a great resource!

cchill01 · April 2012

SugarhillHnA:
Steam veggies or bake them (like sweet potatoes, squash, pumpkin) and puree with either water, BM, or Formula. I used water because if you use BM, you have to go by the expiration of the milk and not the food- the food frozen pureed with water lasts longer.

I would use just enough water, so the food processor could do it's thing. Then I would add the BM or whole organic yogurt once it was defrosted and ready to eat. Worked great and increased the protein, calcium and calorie content.

kdjudd · April 2012

I want to make my own. I feel like it'll save us a lot of money and it will also be healthier for my LO.

mylittlesunshine · April 2012

I had a little $20 steamer from walmart I used before putting them in the blender. Then to get the consistency I wanted when blending, I would use the water drippings from the steamer. I don't think I used breastmilk as I needed every drop I could get for her bottles for daycare.

3giraffes · April 2012

mylittlesunshine:
cchill01:
brideofscowboy:

I did with DS and plan to do it again with this kidlet.

I froze the baby food in ice cube trays and then just put them in ziploc freezer bags.

wholesomebabyfood.com was my favorite site. I have a few books by Annabel Karamal (sp?), but used the website more and did a lot on my own.

This! I did not see any need to buy special tools. I made the food in bulk and did about 2 items a week. I used my normal food processor and blender. I would freeze in cubes and pull out 2-4 cubes to make my own mixes.

I just used our blender to make DD's food. It was real easy. Plus, we grew some of the things we fed her like green beans. I would get a lot of produce from our farmer's market which was nice. I can't wait to do it with this one as well! I would pour the food into ice cube trays and then pop them out into baggies and store in teh freezer.

This is what I did with DS. I just used the blender I had (from the 70's) and ice cube trays from the $1 store. I was on a tight budget. I loved making my own and will do it again this time! I used the book Super Baby Food.

claudiaudia · April 2012

I would save the money and just look online. There are tons of free resources available online on what makes suitable stage 1-2-3 foods for babies (for example, you don't give a brand-new eater a bunch of meat...things like that).

Regular old ice cube trays make the perfect sized feeding portions for littles when they get going. They don't actually eat that much to feel satisfied and a cube or two is perfect sized.

I also had these half-sized Tupperware snack cups that were a really good size too for when my son got a little bit older. I don't even know if they are available anymore, but they're this big around, but only half as tall.

AshleyR711 · April 2012

cchill01:

SugarhillHnA:
Steam veggies or bake them (like sweet potatoes, squash, pumpkin) and puree with either water, BM, or Formula. I used water because if you use BM, you have to go by the expiration of the milk and not the food- the food frozen pureed with water lasts longer.

I would use just enough water, so the food processor could do it's thing. Then I would add the BM or whole organic yogurt once it was defrosted and ready to eat. Worked great and increased the protein, calcium and calorie content.

Ohhh smart!

I bought this book The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet it goes over great recipes for freezing and keeping in the fridge and when to introduce what foods etc...

AshleyR711 · April 2012

bump burp

Stefaniepr · April 2012

brideofscowboy:

I did with DS and plan to do it again with this kidlet.

I froze the baby food in ice cube trays and then just put them in ziploc freezer bags.

This. Super easy, and very cost effective.

cdbrown19 · April 2012

Thanks for posting/asking this! All of the answers have been super helpful to me too.

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