My daughter is four months old, which means I have two months to learn everything I can about making baby food before she needs it. When my son was a baby, I did such a poor job of making his baby food that he refused all of my vegetables and would only eat them out of a jar. He did like the fruit I prepared for him. This time, I want my daughter to eat my vegetables.
For vegetables, I know I should steam them (or bake if it's sweet potatoes). Then it seems that most people have said they have more success with an immersion blender. When I used a food processor, my son did not like the texture. Is there an affordable immersion blender you recommend? Is there one I should avoid.
Also, I want to make large quantities of food at once and freeze it. I now own a deep freezer, so I'm ready to stock it. I know many people recommend freezing the food in ice cube trays for nice one ounce portions; however, I have heard there are other products that are easier to use. Do you know of the other products that are easier? Or is it really simple enough to use the ice cube trays?
Is there anything about making baby food that I should know?
Thanks!
Thank you so much for the info! I think I can do a better job this time.
I know babies don't actually need any of this food until they are a year old, but my daughter has a really high palate from her tongue-tie. She needed so much therapy before she was able to nurse effectively. Now I want to start solids at six months to make sure she can physically handle a spoon in her mouth without gagging. I don't actually care if she eats much of it, but I need to know by the time she is nine months old if she's going to need more therapy.
I steamed all my veggies and then used a food processor and my daughter ate everything up. I used ice cube trays - but just temporarily. Once the cubes were frozen I'd pop them out, put into a labeled ziplock and there I'd have a dozen servings of sweet potatoes or whatever. I had no problem with any of it- loved it.
wholesomebabyfood.com
that site will give you any info you need to know. :) It has nutritional information for each individual type of food (info on avacado, banana, carrots, etc.) along with the easiest recipes for baby food (most are just steam and puree... but some work better if baked, etc.) . It also tells you the best age to introduce the foods, based on digestibility and anything you might need to know. Like, I didn't know that carrots have a lot of nitrates, so when making baby food you want to steam and use fresh water, as opposed to boiling and using the same water. It also has sample feeding schedules.. I love this site!
It reccomends ice cube trays... but I found these little containers at family dollar that worked better for me. They were the perfect size for individual servings, sold in packs of 8 for $1.00.
I made all of my daughter's food - actually roasting lends a lot more flavor than steaming...I roasted all of her veggies and fruits. For certain veggies like different squash varieties, you can add some dried organic cinnamon which is great for flavor. I also added it to roasted mango and apples. Also keep in your repertoire avocado and banana - just mash them fresh, no roasting needed! I didn't make baby food for my 1st baby - and it cracks me up that I used to buy bananas as baby food when you can just open a fresh one and mash it for your baby! I always just used a blender to puree and ice cube trays to freeze overnight - then transferred to bags in the freezer once they were frozen.
I totally agree with wholesomebabyfood.com. It's an awesome resource!! I don't have personal reviews on a blender, since we've always used a food processor. I have heard great things about this food blender http://www.amazon.com/Kid-Co-Inc-F900-Electric/dp/B000A6O... and the Beaba Babycook.
I used ice cube trays and removed the cubes of food once they were frozen and popped them into zip-lock bags.
www.weelicious.com has some really fun baby puree recipes!
I don't know anything about it, my kids are teens, but I just wanted to say that I think it is neat that you are doing this. About 5 years ago I started hearing people say they were making baby food, and after thinking about it, I wished I had done that. Have fun with it!! Hope your baby loves it!!
I made all my son's baby food. We got a beaba baby food maker (Williams and Sonoma about $150, but honestly worth every penny). It makes the baby food the perfect consistency and it steams the fruits / vegetables first all in the same machine. We got the beaba baby food trays which are kind of pricey but i've heard a lot of people freezing them in ice cube trays (with lids) or other containers about the same size. The one downfall with the beaba is that it's kind of small, so you can't do a huge batch at once. I used to make a week's worth in an hour every week.
There's not much else to know about making baby food - it's really super easy. We started with sweet potatoes (steamed and pureed), peas, squash and zucchini, carrots (we stayed away from gassy foods at first broccoli and cauliflower). We also did fruit - apples, peaches pears, plums, blueberries (what a mess!). I still use my beaba to finely chop spinach that I can hide in pretty much anything my son eats.
Good luck!
I'm also a lover of wholesomebabyfood.com! I did use ice cube trays as well and also popped them out and put them in ziplocks. I probably kept them in the bags for a month or so. They did tend to get a bit freezer burned by the end of the month, but maybe if you're keeping extras in a deep freeze it won't be an issue. Plus I felt it was easy to have more variety at the meals b/c I could add a cube of peas, a cube of carrots, etc. I steamed everything, even potatoes, I just peeled them first. I actually never though of roasting them, but I could see how that would add more flavor. Personally, I'd go with steaming and then when they get older and can tolerate more go to roasting and add some spices if you like.
We have a Breville blender and although it's expensive, it ROCKS! We got it partially b/c I wanted to make baby food and it has worked out so well. I bascially use it as a food processor but it really is a blender so it can do all that too.
Here's how I got beautiful consistency/texture in my food using what I already owned: After putting it in the blender, I then put it in my large mesh strainer-pushed it through w/ a spatula. (Isn't that what those things are called? I am having a brain fart...the thing you use to get the last bit of cake batter out of the bowl and into the pan. ;) )
Oh and as mentioned don't skimp on the water! You know how runny commercial baby food is-it must be 75% water! Use your steamed veggie water-it has nutrients in it!
I used ice cube trays-they work great.
And to reheat I use a (homemade) double broiler.
My DS ate puree's for a much shorter time than my DD...I'm glad I didn't invest in anything fancy to make it w/.
GL and have fun!
For my first child I pureed all kinds of lovely recipies from First Meals by Annabel Carmel - also great recipies that arent pureed too. My second liked food more in chunks - so no puree for her! My son started solids at 6 months ... but my daughter - wasnt really ready until 8 months ... and she wanted to chew it!
Thanks for this question, it helped me out too. My DD is 6 months and I am starting her on food tomorrow. Avacado first, but I am cooking green beans, squash, sweet potato and carrots for the freezer in the morning. I am so excited!
Here is the most important thing to know about baby food -- it's completely unnecessary! If you want to buy/make it and use it, that's fine, it's your choice, but it is *not* necessary... we just *think* it is because everybody does it. But what did mothers do for the millennia before Gerber? We all survived quite well without Gerber and blenders and strained peas. :-)
What I did with my kids was to just start giving them bits of food from the table -- things that weren't too hard or too spicy. They learned to pick up pieces of food with their fingers, or I would spoon-feed them some. But babies that age don't get much nourishment from table food anyway - most of it goes straight through. Most of their nourishment is still from breastmilk (or formula); it's not until they're around 1 y/o that their digestive system matures enough to *really* benefit from table food anyway.
I cannot speak about the immersion blenders....I used a simple food processor and mini-chopper for all of my foods for the kids. I did however used the ice cube trays. They are really that easy to use. I had the plastic ones, I just let the food cool a bit, dropped it into the cube wells, froze it, popped them out and put them into freezer ziplocks that were labeled. Easy as pie:)
Good luck! You will find what your child likes and doesn't like (my kids would NEVER eat green beans as a baby...but they ate the peas all the time...NOW they won't touch green peas, but eat green beans nonstop)
T.
D.- All babies are different. My DD didn't start on solids until 6 months and offered her a mix of jars and fresh foods, but I never did more than mash fresh items with a fork or mince with a knife. She LOVED a little texture from an early age and tended to shy from puree. My only advice would be to let your daughter lead you where you need to go in this area!
Good luck!
I have both a food processor and an immersion blender. They both give the same results. I wonder if putting more liquid into the processor will help the texture.
Also, start feeding vegetables before fruit, if you didn't do that with the first one. Allow your daughter to get used to the vegetables before adding fruit. Fruit is sweet which causes the vegetables to seem less tasteful.
I used a food processor some, but mostly used a blender (I love the book Blender Baby Food by Nicole Young and Nadine Ray). My husband used a food mill. We both occasionally strained the food. The ice cub trays worked great when they were younger, but were kind of small as they got older and we had to thaw a lot (although they make thawing easy). Good luck.
