Homemade Baby Food Storage

I used ice cube strays and then put them in canning jars. I didn't have any problems with going from freezer to microwave. You can buy small (1/2 size) jars.

I froze the food in ice cube trays (the silicone ones worked best for me - easiest removal), moved them to ziplock bags for easy storage, then defrosted overnight in glass prep bowls with lids (from Pampered Chef). Anything that needed to be warmed got 15 seconds in the microwave at meal times. I only use glass in the microwave.

Hey L.,

I am a mother of my first child and I am making his baby food. I use icecube trays to freeze them. Then I store them in freeze ziplock bags. When it is time to send it to daycare I just take the amount I want to send and put them in the old baby food jars or a glad plastic container and have them warm them up in warm water just like they do his bottles. I hope this helps. Good Luck!

B.

why not freeze it using the ice cube trays and store in the freezer baggies- then when you're packing for daycare, take the right amount out of the baggies and put it in the glass baby food jars (or other microwave safe container)? That's what we did for short outings where we'd need food with us.

I made my own baby food too and I used the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron as a guide. Once my copy fell in the bathtub :( and I got a used copy off craigslist for $5, I put a wanted ad out and got a response the same day. Good luck!

You certainly could use ice cube trays, and then dump the frozen cubes in freezer bags and have your daycare provider keep the bags in her freezer. I think it would be easier to give her 1-2 weeks worth of food at a time (if you decide to go frozen), versus transporting food back and forth each day. You could give her one or two glass, microwave-safe bowls with lids to keep at her house, to do the heating and storing of leftovers.

I made my son's baby food and I didn't do anything complicated or fancy at all. On the weekend, I would take canned fruits and veggies and puree them in the blender. Some foods need the juice/water they come in (peas), while others do not (peaches).

I then put the food in covered bowls in the fridge and was good to go for 3-4 days. I would do up another batch of food midweek, when things started to run low. I never froze anything, and I never spent more than 10 minutes at a time preparing anything. Between that, foods that I could mash on my own (avocados, bananas), and oatmeal, we were set until he could eat table food.

I also just fed him the baby food straight out of the fridge--we don't even own a microwave. He got his bottles and food cold. He didn't know any different, and never complained. :-)

Don't freeze it in glass! Freeze in ice cube trays.

I was just thinking about this and I associated it with the way I prepare my deviled eggs. I put everything into a baggie and mash it up in there and then snip the end of the bag to make a "pastry bag" to squeeze the egg mixture into the hard boiled egg. There is ZERO clean up this way...
so... what about freezing the baby food in ice cube trays, and then storing them the freezer bags or snack size bags and then they can just warm it up by "soaking" in warm/hot water, then when it is ready to use snip the end and squeeze into a serving cup to feed baby.

This isn't something that I've done, but just started thinking that it would work. Good Luck

I can't answer your question, but I wanted to tell you our experience. We did a food mill, and basically just food milled everything we ate for our son. We did rice cereal and then oat cereal for the iron, and food milled bananas and other mushy things to add to it. We also cut our food into very small bites. Our daycare, to my knowledge, never did baby food with the children. They simply cut up what they were eating very small for our boys. They also adhered to our feeding guidelines (we were not super-strict, but they didn't give the kid spaghetti at 6 months) for introduction of new foods. To us, this was very easy. It meant we never had to prepare food (freezer etc) or worry about whether we had things on hand. Our children both ate single-foods (JUST peas, JUST carrots, etc) for about 3 months and then we were on to mixtures and then we were, within a month, by 10 months or so, feeding them what we ate with a few notable exceptions. Our boys are very good, healthy eaters and neither is particularly picky. Anyway--our boys ARE both good eaters--and chewers--so that might not work as well for a child who's less inclined to eat. But it was super-easy, so I thought I'd share.

I did ice cube trays and it worked well. I wouldn't recommend using the microwave for anything....just wanted to let you know you may want to do some research around what microwaves do to food. It's pretty easy to reheat in a pan. In health, M.

I have made baby food for many children and the easiest thing to do is make it in ice cube trays. When it is frozen put it in baby food jars or else plastic storage containers to use later. I have been doing daycare for 15 years and I have fed about 25 children this way and never had a problem

I used these Avent milk storage containers for freezing baby food and they worked great. Perfect portion size and stack nicely in the freezer. It was before the bpa scare, so I'm not sure what the content is, but I'm guessing you can find it on the web or on the label.
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-Avent-Breast-Milk-Storage/d...

I've seen similar freezer containers with the canning supplies, which may be cheaper option. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_ba?url=search-alias%3Db...

Either product is made for freezing, which is what you want. Remember to leave headroom in the container for expansion in the freezer. Ice cube trays and muffin tins work great as well. Once frozen you can transfer to ziploc bags for storage/transport. My understanding is that the bpa option is only a worry when microwaving, so even if the plastic freezer jars have bpa, you can just run water over the outside and pop out the food and heat it in a glass or microwave-safe dish. I really like the Pyrex food storage containers for microwave use. Plus they can go in the oven and fridge too.

Good luck with making the baby food! It's really not hard nor does it take very long. Do a big batch and you won't have to do it very often. :)

Please do not use glass jars in the freezer, in any form-the temperature changes will definitely crack them. I agree with your friends-ice cube trays & baggies are a good option. Remember, you can defrost them in other containers. I think there is a book "Deceptively Delicious" by Jerry Seinfields wife that uses the ice-cube tray/baggie system to work veggies into picky eaters foods-there may be some pointers there. Kudos to you for being ambitious-Congrats on your baby boy-and good luck w/the organic baby food!

Glass can crack, but gerber also has plastic food holders. I used the Ice cube tray method which was wonderful because then you only thaw out the amt. you need and you can also make larger batches. You dont need to warm the food in plastic. The safest way to prepare frozen food is to take out what cubes you want and thaw it out a day before, then warm it in ceramic or glass dish. "Super Baby Food Diet", was my BIBLE when I was making my own food, I would highly suggest it! Good Luck!!

Hi there. Freezing in glass isn't a good idea because of the risk it will break. Also want to avoid feezer burn. I always made large batches and froze into ice cube trays. Once frozen, I transfered into freezer bags. It was very convenient b/c then I could take out as many as I needed at a time. Put them in micro safe dish and heat accordingly careful not to overheat and stir well to distribute any hot spots.

The simplist way I know is to use ice cube trays. It's the perfect serving size for the little ones. When the ood is frozen you can pop them out into a bag. You then take one chunk out at a time as the baby eats or two as he gets bigger.

i think the concern with glass jars IS the cracking/breaking.
to prevent that, you could simply leave the top off the jar when freezing and remember to leave space for expansion. freezing always equals an expansion of some sort.

the ice cube trays are a good option, and then you could just put the food in a tupperware container in the mornings for day care! im sure that tupperware is bpa free, and they are simply to wash and use. :D otherwise, you can just send soft foods as a whole or something - if you buy some of those little netting things for feeding baby - ive used those in my in home child care, and babies LOVE them!

remember though, it could be a while, babies dont need solids even until a year, though we do give it to them before that for texture, and getting used to the idea, though plenty of parents wait the full year! imagine that! LOL. the longer you can delay solids, the better baby's body will be ready for them. i would say try stuff around 5 months, and actually start regularly feeding around 6 months... ive not yet met a baby who was ready for solids at 4 months.... chances are if they are spitting out more then they are eating, they arent ready, even if they are interested.... so keep that in mind. :D baby should be sitting on their own, and steady, and they should want it! LOL. even with my son, he was so ready for it when we started, that he NEVER spit any out LOL. he was 5.5 months. :D
good luck!

I would assume the Gerber jars may not be tempered glass and then you would have to be careful using them in the freezer. You can get small canning jars to use. They sell ones that are 1/2 the size of a jelly jar, just right for one serving in my opinion. Just make sure you sterilize the jars before you put food in them each time. And I'd thaw the contents before microwaving them just in case cause it's glass. Good luck!! I actually found that freezing food in ice cube trays and putting them in baggies worked great. I just took out a cube at a time and heated it in a ceramic bowl.

Having done this w/two kids now: freeze in ice cube trays, store in freezer in large tupperwares or baggies (I like the tupperwares better: reusable) - and then reheat in glass bowls. You can get four small (2/3 cup?) glass bowls w/lids at target for about $8 - they're pyrex, so they're fine getting hot. Plastics are an issue in heating much more than freezing. Each day, you can put one cube (that's all you'll need at first) in each bowl, put on the lid, and send it to day care. (They should at least keep it in the fridge until it's time to eat.) The other disadvantage to gerber jars (other than the glass breaking, which is real) is that at first you're not going to be using a full jar all at once, and with fresh baby food, you really want to keep it frozen until right before you use it - you'd end up having to throw out tons of your hard work unused. "Mommy Made (and Daddy, to)" is a great make-your-own-baby-food cookbook - sound advice, and even some toddler recipes. Good luck!

I've never tried this, but your question got me thinking...what if you used breast milk storage bags after you did the ice-cube freexing method? It's probably costly (and maybe not very environmentally friendly unless they're recyclable), but, they are meant to be frozen, seal airtight to minimize freezer burn, and are probably just the right size for a portion or two to send to daycare. If you chose to freeze them in there directly, you could make them flat so they store conveniently and are easier to transport and thaw. I can't remember, but maybe you could even heat the food in there since it's not going to be made that hot. Like I said, I have no idea if this would work, but if you're into experimenting, it might be worth a shot. :)

One Step Ahead makes individual 2 oz stackable containers with lids, specifically for this purpose http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId.... There are others out there too, but surprisingly, they had the best deal I found. I heard the same thing about glass when I was considering it. I used ice cube trays and warmed them up in the Glad disposable containers that are microwave safe, but I don't want to think about the toxins I probably released in doing that! I agree with the others about www.wholesomebabyfood.com - excellent resource!

You can go online and buy baby food trays. These worked very well for me. However, my son did not like baby food so it was short lived. He went from formula to people food. Best of luck to you. They also have these containers at Baby's R Us.
Thanks
T.

L.,
I also make my own baby food and I have found a great website with lots of information. It is www.wholesomebabyfood.com. It is a great resource to refer to. I found some baby food storage containers that I will also attach the link to. They are BPA free, microwave and freezer safe.

http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId...

Hope that helps!

L., I always used the ice cube tray method and then, once frozen, popped them out and put them into baggies. It worked great. You just have to remind your day care provider to pop it into a glass bowl to heat. Or, You could pop the frozen cubes into the room temperature gerber jar just before you bring them to daycare or before you need to heat them. They could thaw in the frige in the jars. If you don't want to use the ice cube trays, you can now also find things similar but meant just for freezing baby food on www.onestepahead.com
Have fun with it!

Snack size baggies in the freezer. With your son being so young the ice cube tray would work better for now. However, after that, I would freeze them in the snack size bags. So easy to prepare.

Good for you that you are taking the time to make healthy organic food for your son!

Check out this website:
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/
It is awesome. I prepared baby food until my son was eating table foods and this site has lots of information on what foods to give at what age, how to store foods, how long certain foods will keep in the freezer, nutritional facts, allergy info, lots of recipes, etc. It was probably the most helpful tool I had.
Also, for $10 at Target, you can get a "mini chopper" which is a very small food processor. That made things a lot easier too!!

you could do a combo of both ice cube trays (and then zip lock bags) for storing in the freezer, but then drop a cube or two into a Gerber baby food jar in the morning or night before for day care. It worked great for me. The food would be melted and ready to eat by the time they needed it.
hope this helps!
A.

do you know what happens to glass in a freezer??.....they now make plastic containers exactly for that reason....

L.,
How about using the ice cube tray method, and sending the cubes each day in a glass container so you know they are not being heated in plastic? When you pick up your little one, get the glass container back. We did organic and the cube method, but I am a stay at home Mom, so I didn't have to worry about transporting the food. Good luck.

L.,
The only website (and "cookbook") you'll ever need: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/ It is amazing and will give you all sorts of information, ideas, storage solutions, etc. My advice on storage - don't use Gerber jars because they are not supposed to be frozen, and I don't believe they are really supposed to be microwaved either. DO use ice cube trays, then pop the food out and place in a labeled freezer bag. When ready to pack for day care, put a couple of cubes (or however much he's eating at the time) in a small Pyrex glass bowl with a lid. You can find these bowls in Target or Walmart or purchase off Amazon.com. This way, they can be microwaved as necessary with no fears about BPA.

Good luck making your own food. Also, if you haven't invested in a decent LARGE food processor, do so immediately. This will make your life so much easier, and you'll really be able to make LOTS of deliciously healthy baby food in no time. I made my own food as well, and it's absolutely amazing how easy it is. I kept thinking, "Why doesn't everyone do this? It's so much cheaper and so much healthier for the babe!!!"

All the best,
Amy K

When my daughter was little I made her own food and I went out and bought small canning jars - like probably less than a cups worth of food can fit in them. That way I would have 2-3 of them out at a time with different fruits/veggies and they're still small enough so the food won't go bad. Start with the smallest canning jars, they are glass and meant to freeze but you don't have to go through the process of sealing the jars like you're canning. Just put the tops on. I plan on doing this same thing with baby #2 that's due in 4 days when she gets old enough to eat solids. Good luck and feel free to email me with any questions.