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Monday, February 25, 2008

Making Your Own Baby Food!

I recently posted on this topic and thought it might be worth exploring again in more detail!

I have found myself at all different types of stores perusing the baby food sections looking for just the right tasty treat for my children. Something healthy (yes, even baby food can be unhealthy), hopefully organic, something they'll actually eat...you know the story.

My son would, almost literally, eat anything! I was lucky...my daughter is another story. Now that I am home with them both it seems easier for me to try to make purees for her and I only wish I had tried it when I was working because I discovered it's not really that difficult or time consuming!


There are two great resources I use...the first is Jessica Seinfeld's new cookbook "Deceptively Delicious". This is NOT a baby food cookbook but does have great tips for making and storing purees and includes the recipes that your WHOLE family will eat; so you don't feel like you are pureeing just for the baby! The second is a website with some great baby food recipes and tips, http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/ .

There are some things I just can't get pureed well enough to get my daughter to eat (yet)! Peas and carrots for some reason give me trouble. I'm not sure what I'm doing incorrectly. I have discovered though that I can puree almost any family meal once it's cooked and give it to her. I think this is a great way to start introducing her to new tastes and textures. As long as you aren't cooking with a lot of artificial sweeteners, added fats or oils you should be fine. I'm not a doctor (obviously!) but I started broadening my baby's palate with these new foods at about 7 mos.

Of course, the basic stuff will still be your primary diet. We do a lot of homemade pears, applesauce, all varieties of squash (her favorite) and some sweet and plain potatoes. I still buy carrots, peas and green beans (although it's a struggle to get her to eat these!) from the store.

I store all of my pureed food in those great plastic containers that Gerber uses (you can get them from friends if you don't buy Gerber) or in sandwich baggies. I then bag them in freezer storage bags and put them in the freezer. You can just keep reusing the same stuff over and over. I do this once a month or every 3 weeks after the kids go to bed! It takes me a couple of hours to cook and puree several pounds of food and portion it out.

Try just one fruit or vegetable if you are new to this or unsure it's for you. Add one each time until you are providing most of your baby's food rather than buying it! I think you'll see it's not as complicated as it may seem at first!

Good luck and let us know how it goes or if you are doing this already...share your tips!!!

2 comments:

Jenn said...

I do this and it's SUPER easy. And my baby girl loves it! No chemicals for little one, less cost for me!!

Baby Care said...

When baby is ready to eat, it’s so convenient to moms just pull a jar of baby food out of the cabinet, pop the top, and serve it to baby. But the question arises the store-bought baby food are best for you or your baby? Why would your baby just want to eat the bland ready made foods available in jars with no spice, no exciting tastes, no peppers. It is not dangerous to introduce more exciting foods, but key point is to introduce it slowly, and just one new meal per week.