Making Your Own Baby Food - Allen,TX

We didn't buy anything. We already owned a blender and simply processed whatever we were having. In addition I did process fruit for snacks (just cut up and throw in the blender with some water).
I never froze ahead either, I just made what she ate for the day and refrigerated it.
Some things like banana or avocado don't even need to be processed - you just mash it with a fork.

Go for it! I made all of my son's food when he was at the baby food stage. We just bought a regular food processor and some ice cube trays. It really wasn't that much work and it was worth it knowing exactly what I was feeding my baby and feeling good about it. I never did the math on how much it saved, but I'm sure it did. We did not use a cookbook, don't know why you would need to! I just copied ideas from the baby food jars. For example, sweet potatoes is a stage 1 food in gerber jars, so just bake some sweet potatoes and process them up. With a lot of foods, you will need to add some water to reach your desired consistency. Freeze ice cube compartments with your processed foods and bag and label/date them. Over the course of a weekend, I could get quite the variety and stock of foods in my freezer. Then, when it was a meal time, I could pull out a cube of apple and a cube of pear, microwave and mix! It worked so well for our family, I didn't find it an inconvenience.

I often used this site when looking for new ideas or when wondering how to cook a certain food for him (we started eating a lot of new fruits and veggies around our house that I had no idea how to cook :p) http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/index.htm

We did always have some jar foods on hand for travel, going out, etc.

We didn't buy any special system, but we already did have a Cuisinart mini prep that I used quite a lot since it was just the right size. (And it's still pretty inexpensive to buy.) I used the website wholesomebabyfood.com quite a lot and also Annabel Karmel's book Top 100 Baby Purees. But once baby starts eating more textures, we also served small mushy pieces from whatever we were eating. At the start when it was all purees, I made baby food maybe twice a week, saving the leftovers in the fridge. I spent maybe an hour and a half a week. I think it's so worth shaping your babies' tastes. Both my children eat so much better than my friends' kids who were raised on jarred food.

I wouldnt waste the money on a baby food system. They only have baby food for such a short time. Just get a hand blender/mixer.

I made my own, and saved it in tupperware ice cube trays that come with the cover. After it froze, I popped it in a ziplock bag and kept it in the freezer. it was nice because you could use just one or two cubes at a time.

I think its definitely cheaper, especially if you want to do organic. Cost the price of an organic sweet potato vs. jars of it.

I also saved my baby food jars, and put my homemade stuff in those.

My favorite combo was steamed spinach and pears, pureed. Yummy (really) and a great way to get baby to eat spinach.

Also, you can mix some of the stronger food with a little baby cereal.

Congrats!

I agree with the wholesomebabyfood.com They really try hard to answer all of your questions. We do save a lot of money, especially on sweet potatoes which are my son's fave! When you get food on sale, stock up. You can freeze it for later! I also use frozen veggies as opposed to fresh for green beans, peas, carrots and mixed veggies. Making your own baby food is a great way to introduce your twins to foods that are not typically found in jars. My son absolutely loves asparagus! I never would have known and probably would not have given it to him as a toddler thinking that it would be beyond his pallet. Avocado is also a great food not found in jars. Also, my son screams if I try to give him jarred bananas . . . they are just mot the same as fresh! I use the baby bullet because it is BPA free, but you could easily use the magic bullet or even just a regular blender. If you typically use your blender or food processor for strong foods like garlic or chili peppers, I would recommend getting a new one just for baby foods, just in case the flavors are still lingering. I think it is worth it, and I usually spend one Sunday afternoon a month making food. I don't count the time that it takes for the food to cook, just the time for me to puree it. Baking sweet potatoes is probably the longest though just because you have to poke hole in them before you bake. Another plus to making your own food is that you can determine how much you want to serve without wasting the rest of a jar. I freeze my food using ice cube trays, and I am able to give my son a variety of food because while he may only have an appetite for 4 oz of baby food, I can have each ounce be a different fruit or veggie. I do keep some jarred food in my pantry and in the emergency kit just in case. And I would recommend NOT making cereal because the boxed cereal is fortified with iron.

I wouldn't think there would be a big monetary savings, especially when you factor in time. For me, the benefit is good tasting food with varying textures and flavors as well as food that doesn't have chemicals and preservatives. Also - have you tried gerber vegetables? They just taste disgusting. I won't give my baby something I wouldn't eat myself.

As for equipment - I use a ninja food processor. I was baking/steaming everything to get it soft and then using a kitchenaid food processor. But with the ninja, I can remove the baking/steaming step and just throw it in. That thing seems to puree anything so far.

I made baby food for my son and more than saving money, I think these are the best things about it:
1. Portion control. I made mine and stored it in ice trays. So, if it was a snack, I could use 1 cube. If it was a meal, I could use 2-3 cubes.
2. The taste is obviously more like real food and so the transition to real/table food was a lot easier.
3. home made baby food is not quite as smooth as jar food and I think that is good - that also makes the transition to table food easier (no texture issues).
Also, I just scanned the other posters and I did not anyone mention the book "Super Baby Foods". It helps guide you with what types of foods are good to introduce at what time and which ones are the best in terms of nutrients, etc.

I did use jar food with my second child and by the time we got around to introducing table food, I regretted not having made the food myself

Good luck!
L.

We didn't buy a system or a cookbook. We saved a ton of money. I don't remember the exact prices, but a bag of organic carrots cost about $4. We would peel and cook the carrots. Process them in the food processor and put them in ice cube trays to freeze, then transfer to freezer bags. We'd have about 40 -1 oz cubes. We bought the big bag of frozen peas for about $2 and do the same thing. Again we'd have about 40 - 1 oz cubes.We did a lot of vegetables that you can't find in baby food like spinach and broccoli. My son still loves broccoli. (not so much the spinach though).It doesn't take as much work as you would think. We would do a batch of one thing Saturday and another one on Sunday for the first month, then we had a large enough supply we just needed to do it when we ran out.

We just started solids, so I have only done a couple of things but using the regular blender has worked really well. I have a magic bullet, but I don't think it works quite as well. I have just been cooking either on the stove or in the oven until the food is soft and then putting it in the blender and adding water if needed. After that I pour it into ice cube trays to freeze and then pop out the food cubes and put into baggies until time to use. I have done carrots and squash so far and bananas I just broke off and mashed small pieces at feeding time. Carrots I just peeled and cooked on the stove in water until soft before throwing in the blender. The squash I cut in half and put cut side down in a bowl with about a 1/2" of water and put in the oven on 350 until soft and then just scooped out the flesh.

http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/
Wholesome baby food is a website that has been recommended on here a lot and I have used a little for reference. It has charts for which foods at which age, etc and also some recipes.

I do this and it is so easy! At 6 mo, when DD was ready for food, I steamed, pureed and froze several veggies/fruits in ice cube trays. Now that she is 9 mo, I still steam and freeze but instead of pureeing, I just rough chop them and then freeze on cookie sheets. Anytime she needs a meal, I pick out something from the freezer or a fresh banana or avocado.

Here are some tips I learned along the way:
- you don't need a new baby food processor. I have used both my regular food processor and also my blender and both have worked just fine to puree things
- use the ice cube trays to freeze things and then dump the frozen cubes into labeled ziplocks
- don't make too much of anything because they only eat the pureed food for such a short amount of time (2-3 months max)
- the fruits are a pain b/c you have to peel them first which I hate. When possible, I buy frozen fruit chunks, thaw, puree or chop, then refreeze. That way no peeling for me.
- I saw no need to grind my own cereal although many do. I use Earth's Grain organic from target instead
- anytime you don't have time to peel, prepare or wash the fresh fruit and veggies to steam, simply grab a bag of frozen or fresh steam veggies and microwave (or steam), then puree and freeze.
- Central Market has these things called Deli Pops that are like a small natural rice cake - DD loves them!
- Fage greek yogurt is a good base (once kids are 8-9 mo) instead of cereal
- A great reference book is Ruth Yaron's Superbaby Book. About 1/2 the book was too much for me (making own cleaning solutions, making own yogurt, grinding cereal, etc). But the fruit and veggie prep instructions were just what I needed and I constantly refer back to it.

Good luck and congrats!

I would just check online and your baby magazines, new parents can get a lot of free subscriptions. It's more about interesting combinations than recipes. I think the most recent one I found was pea, edamame (spelling?) and apple, not something I would eat, but healthy and it was a big hit.

want to second the blender works great, as do ice cube trays, I bought extra, cause I actually use mine for ice as well. Be sure to put a date and what it is on your freezer bag, just so you know later. Don't mix batches made on different days in the same baggies either, cause they will go bad at different times. I cover my ice cube trays with plastic wrap as well. IDK, just in case i guess.

not all foods need cooked, a lot of fruits just need to be really ripe. And you can mix with water, juice, breast milk or formula to get the proper consistency for your baby.

I thaw what I want the night before, in the fridge. just put it in a covered container and leave it till mealtimes, and i microwave in 15 second intervals till it reaches the right temp. for my little guy it's room temp, he doesn't like anything hot, and won't even drink water or juice cold, everything has to be room temp.

as for savings, eh, i spend a lot more on storage bags now, and I really think I need to buy containers to use in my freezer since we are expecting again. but baby food selections are very limited at the store, and the organic stuff is expensive per serving.

Chances are you already have most of what you need. You don't have to buy a system, a blender works just fine, and ice cube trays are great for storage. Also, save your money and skip the cookbook, just cook (bake or steam) veggies or fruits and puree with as much water as needed to get the desired consistency. If you steam, use the cooking water to thin the puree. Later you can just puree whatever you are eating for your baby, no special recipes required.
I made almost all my first sons food and will make it for my second as well. It is easy, quick and cheaper than commercial baby food, but I liked it because I knew exactly what was in the food, and where it came from. Good luck!