Making Your Own Baby Food? - UPDATE Post 16, pg. 2

[RadioFanatic]

Wasn't sure whether to put this here or in budget. My 4 month old is getting ready to start eating solids this week and I'm interested in making my own food b/c it's healthier and less expensive. Anyone do this? Any recommendations - how did you proceed chronologically? I'm thinking to start with rice cereal, which I will buy, for a week or so and then starting to add sweet potatoes, pears, bananas and go from there. I would freeze in ice cube trays so I would have for a week (not the rice cereal but the other stuff). I would love to hear what people have found to work for them, tips, utensils used, etc. Thanks!

 

[Mickeys.friend]

Hi! I've done this twice and plan on doing it again with my 3rd (due Oct). Good for you for wanting to try! it saves tons of money.....and I think "my food" was much tastier and more appealing than jared food. You are on the right track with the ice cube trays, and buying not making your own cereals. it's simply not worth the effort or agravation to make your own infant cereals. I made my own food in a pot with a steamer and pureed in a regular old blender. I added the steam water or natural juices to puree. I also picked up a strainer for removing skins and pits/seeds. I froze the food in ice cube trays and then transfered to ziploc freezer bags and dated it. I started with pears and apples and went to sweet potatoes and carrots...then eventually added green beans etc. I also fed mashed fresh banana right from the peel. I also fed Yo-baby yogurt with the fruit I made. I used to defrost the food in the microwave or a heated baby food dish. I made batches of food every week or so. I never really used any fancy equipment, and I did not add any sugar,salt, spices to the food. When my kids reached 9-12 months, and had some teeth, I would make the food a little chunkier and mix potato with a bit of cheese or butter and pureed broccoli. The possabilities are endless. I found my frozen cubes to travel well with freezer packs for long trips and just by themselves on short trips. I even traveled to Florida on a plane with my own food! On short trips, the food was just defrosted when I needed it, and if not, I would add a couple teaspoons of hot water(like from a coffee machine in a restaurant) to speed it along. My kids did not need to have hot food...they found room temp or a bit cold to be just fine. As for traveling, I purchased those tiny tupperware type cups with lids from the dollar store and they worked great! Good Luck! Hope I helped some! I can't wait to start doing this again soon!!

LIZ

 

[RadioFanatic]

thanks Mickeys friend - I was planning on using my food processer but the blender sounds even easier! with riding on the plane - did you have issues with security? we're going to wdw in sept. and I should probably bring some stuff with me but am not sure how to package it for the plane - any advice in that area would be helpful too! thanks!

 

[RadioFanatic]

oh and congrats on the third baby on his/her way!

 

[lilybrooke14]

I made DD's baby food. It was so easy, and it didn't taste like feet. I really liked Annabel Karmel's baby food recipe books. I checked them out from the library and liked them so much I bought one. Good luck, and have fun with it.

DD's favorite was....
1 Apple (peeled and diced)
1 Pear (peeled and diced)
5 Dried Apricots (diced)
1 dash of vanilla

Simmer in 1C apple juice until tender. Puree and store. (I always put mine into ice cube trays and then popped out into ziplock bags). DD loved this served warm with vanilla yogurt.

 

[katied]

Very easy to do. We did it with DS - he's 14 months now. We used an immersion blender, which worked great. There's some baby foods cookbooks out there, but at the start, it's really easy-

Just cook carrots (or whatever) and then puree. Once done, put aside 1 - 2 days worth, and then put the rest in ice cube trays and freeze. Once frozen, dump into freezer bags, label and store. At the start, 1 cube is about 1 serving. We would then defrost in the microwave (but best to use glass or ceramic to microwave - don't want to microwave in plastic for baby).

We started a 5 months with baby rice cereal (bought) and then added pureed apples, pears, etc. Then introduced veggies - carrots, peas, green beans, etc... I did not add any salt, but I did add seasonings as DS got a bit older - cinnamon, garlic, peppers, onions, cilantro, parsley. One meal I made for him starting at about 7 months was sauteed spinach in garlic and olive oil with chopped chicken. He loves it still (just not pureed).

By about 9 - 10 months, he was more into finger foods, so he would eat more of our food than his cubes. We still do some advance prep though to make his meals quick and easy - like frozen chicken or burger potions his size, beef or chicken stew frozen into single serving containers for him, etc.

The nice thing about making your own - you can feed baby a huge variety of food, made the way you eat. DS at 14 months is very good with our food - he'll eat about any fruit, veggie, meat, fish, etc. Very little he won't eat, and in part it's because we've always served him good tasting food (vs the jars which just taste nasty). Plus, he's just to our seasoning, so we can serve him food with garlic or onions without any trouble.

There are some things that you cannot freeze - like melons or bannanas, but most stuff is fine. You can even use frozen veggies (or fruit) cook into baby food, and then freeze.

 

[Ariel8676]

I made my own baby food and its so great that you want to give it a shot...
I would always make up a bunch every Sunday, then put in in ice cube trays and freeze then transfer to a freezer bag.
I think for my youngest i started with apples and pears, and then sweet potatoes, carrots , peas,and green beans. Then i would do melon and Mango..which was her favorite. Steam everything and use the water to thin it out as much as needed. As the baby gets older it is great because you can start making things like chicken and veggies, beef and veggies..etc.
I used a Magic bullet to puree everything, and that worked great.
I loved the fact that not only did the food taste really good, it was good for them..and i knew everything that went into it
You can use fresh or frozen..never out of a can. Frozen organic peas were really yummy and one bag goes a long way......

 

[Mrs D]

Hi! I made all my own baby food for DS (almost 3) and DD (11.5 mo). I followed this book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. It gives you a list of foods to introduce by month.
I found blender to work best for grinding grains (brown rice, rolled oats, barley) and the food processor for fruits and veggies. I froze in the ice cub trays (covered with tin foil) then dumped into a gallon freezer bag, date and label what food is in it. It will last in a standard freezer for 3 months. I used Stonefield organic Whole Milk plain yogurt to mix most of the time. I used silken tofu as well.

 

[RadioFanatic]

thanks for all the great info! dumb question - how do you steam and do you steam both fruits and veggies?

 

[Mrs D]

I use a stock pot with a steamer insert. Add about 1/2" of water, place peeled & Cubes veggies in the steamer basket and steam for recommended time (Super Baby Food tells you various ways for cooking foods and how long). All fruits for under 6 months must be cooked (steamed) and strained through a fine sieve before feeding.

I know you didn't ask for an opinion on this, but after feeding 2 children I found that waiting until close to 6 months was better. They have an easier time digesting. I realize infants CAN start at 4 months, but even the American Pediatric Association suggests waiting until 6 months. I started DS at 5.5 mo and DD at 6.25 mo. Plus, you get a few extra months before the foul smelling poops!

 

[moparop]

thanks for all the great info! dumb question - how do you steam and do you steam both fruits and veggies?

I used my 8 cup measuring cup in the microwave with a touch of water. It has a lid that attaches that I put on most of the way. I'd cook for 3-4 minutes. Afterwards, I'd use my blending stick in the measuring cup, adding water to get the consistency I like. Then I could just pour it into the ice cube tray.

One of the things my boys liked the best was raw avacado, just mash and serve!

A great webiste for more info is http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

They have great serving suggestions and portions!

Also, there is no real nutrional value to rice cereal or baby oatmeal, so many people jump right into fruits and veggies.

 

[RadioFanatic]

I use a stock pot with a steamer insert. Add about 1/2" of water, place peeled & Cubes veggies in the steamer basket and steam for recommended time (Super Baby Food tells you various ways for cooking foods and how long). All fruits for under 6 months must be cooked (steamed) and strained through a fine sieve before feeding.

I know you didn't ask for an opinion on this, but after feeding 2 children I found that waiting until close to 6 months was better. They have an easier time digesting. I realize infants CAN start at 4 months, but even the American Pediatric Association suggests waiting until 6 months. I started DS at 5.5 mo and DD at 6.25 mo. Plus, you get a few extra months before the foul smelling poops!

I do appreciate it - pediatrician thinks we should b/c my big thug of a kid (16 lbs, 12.5 oz) is eating ALL of the time with formula/breast milk - about 40 oz. a day.

 

[amarberry]

Another thumbs up here for the Super Baby Food book. It's great! I made a lot of my DD's babyfood, but I've been a little lazy so far with DS. I'm really into organic food and it was so much cheaper (and healthier, if you ask me) to make my own. However, I did usually use Earth's Best or Gerber Tender Harvest (organic line) if we were out.

About the cereal...I believe that Super Baby Food mentions this and I know that my pediatrician is big on this too...commercial baby cereal is fortified with iron which is suppose to be important for brain development. Because of that, I never made my own. I suppose you could just put iron drops in the homemade cereal it if you wanted your child to have the extra iron. With my DD, I always used the Earth's Best cereal, but with DS I have been using the Happy Baby brand cereal (I think it's called Happy Bellies) because, in addition to being organic, it also contains probiotics.

My little guy (who is now 8 months) is a beast as well. At four months he was a couple of ounces under 20 pounds! He was probably nursing 8-10 times a day at that point. We did wait until he was 6 months old to start any solids because my DD has food allergies. If it makes you feel any better about his size, my little guy's grown has really slowed down since then and he is only a little over 23 pounds now!

 

[RadioFanatic]

wow - 20 lbs - you go kid! thanks again everyone, I really find this fascinating - and my pediatrician agrees about the store bought cereal so I will be doing that.

 

[3goofyboys]

Hi! I made all my own baby food for DS (almost 3) and DD (11.5 mo). I followed this book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron.

Another vote for Super Baby Food! It has really great information about what age to feed your baby different foods and how to prepare the food. I would suggest chatting with your ped about the age guidelines she gives, because some of the guidelines in my edition were a bit outdated, for example, she suggests giving nut butters before 1 year of age, which isn't recommended anymore.
I made all the baby food for both of my kids and both of them will now eat ANYTHING! I think that making your own baby food allows you to expose them to a larger variety of tastes at a young age, so they are more willing to experiment with different flavors (or else I just got super lucky!). Good luck!

 

[RadioFanatic]

Well, I did it this weekend. I spent the last week giving DS just rice cereal mixed with formula. He ate it, but didn't seem to enjoy it that much. This weekend, I bought sweet potatoes, pears and applesauce. The store brand applesauce which was just apples, water, and citric acid was $1.99 for a big jar which is good.

I bought 3 big sweet potatoes and baked them (after wrapping with reynold's wrap) for 45 minutes at 400. I unwrapped them and cut them in 1/2 to cool. The skin slid right off. I put them in a blender with four ounces of formula and it mixed really easy. I made enough to freeze 2 ice trays and have enough for him for 3-4 days this week. He loved it!

I will next try the pears after four days and then the applesauce four days after that!

The sweet potatoes cost me $2.36 and the formula about $1 so not bad for a couple of weeks of food, right?

The best part is, that as a working mother, it took so little effort to make too! It will be my Sunday project. I'm really getting into this. Thanks for all of your suggestions and to those of you waffling about doing this, pls know, from a non-crafty, crazy busy mom (well aren't we all?), it is very easy to do and cheap too! And best of all, I know what is going into my child!

 

[buckeyebill1995]

My DD was a premie and I did a lot of research into jarred baby food and how few nutrients are left after the pasturization process (not to mention it tastes terrible!). So it was an easy decision to make my own food for her. She got a much wider variety of food, much healthier meals, and caught up her 'premie lag' in less than half the time they anticipated! It was really easy to do -- just measure out portions in ice cube trays (1 cube = 1 ounce). Then when you warm them up, mix and match however you choose. I would keep track of which variations were her favorite in a little notebook.

 

[Jenvenza]

I was just about to post a link to wholesomebabyfoods.com, but I see someone else already did! That is a great website, and when I started making DD's baby food, I went to that website for help. It is super easy and cheap to make their own food, and it tastes a lot better! Good luck! Carrots were my DD's favorite.

 

[Ariel8676]

Well, I did it this weekend. I spent the last week giving DS just rice cereal mixed with formula. He ate it, but didn't seem to enjoy it that much. This weekend, I bought sweet potatoes, pears and applesauce. The store brand applesauce which was just apples, water, and citric acid was $1.99 for a big jar which is good.

I bought 3 big sweet potatoes and baked them (after wrapping with reynold's wrap) for 45 minutes at 400. I unwrapped them and cut them in 1/2 to cool. The skin slid right off. I put them in a blender with four ounces of formula and it mixed really easy. I made enough to freeze 2 ice trays and have enough for him for 3-4 days this week. He loved it!

I will next try the pears after four days and then the applesauce four days after that!

The sweet potatoes cost me $2.36 and the formula about $1 so not bad for a couple of weeks of food, right?

The best part is, that as a working mother, it took so little effort to make too! It will be my Sunday project. I'm really getting into this. Thanks for all of your suggestions and to those of you waffling about doing this, pls know, from a non-crafty, crazy busy mom (well aren't we all?), it is very easy to do and cheap too! And best of all, I know what is going into my child!

YAY!!! Thats so great..its amazing how fun and easy it is!!!

 

[Princess Roo]

Another easy way to freeze, especially if your child goes to daycare, is in the 4oz 'Gladware'. Once they're a little older, that's the correct portion size. So, I bought 2 8-packs of those and would just freeze some in those and the rest in ice cube trays. The ones that went to daycare were then all set to go and I didn't need to find quite as much space in the freezer to get all the ice cube trays flat. (Do make sure you don't fill them to the brim, or they'll pop open when they expand in the freezer.)

Radiofanatic - A note on the store applesauce. My guess is that it is too thick for a 4.5 month old. It's almost the texture of the Stage 3 foods. We used it when DS was older (and will for DD, too), but maybe you can food process it a little more right now? Not sure. It might be good to take a look at a stage 1 jar of food to see what texture you should be aiming for, as thicker things are harder to digest.