Homemade Baby Food

I must admit, that when Noah was a baby and our pediatrician suggested I make my own baby food, I blew it off and thought she was nuttier than squirrel poop for suggesting it.  I was comfortable with feeding him jarred baby food, and didn't even give it a second thought when I had Ammon.  When I had McKenna, I started doing some research into it, however, and felt it might be well worth it to give it a try, but my friends all thought I was nuttier than squirrel poop for attempting it with 3 kids.  Even being a busy mom with 3 kids ages 5 and under, I have found that making my own baby food has been easy, doesn't really take that much time, and is well worth it! Not only is it WAY cheaper than buying commercial baby food, I have the comfort of knowing EXACTLY what McKenna is eating, she gets no added salt, processed sugar, preservatives, additives, or food coloring, plus it gives me the personal satisfaction that I am making everything she eats.

You don't need any special gadgets (ie a baby bullet,etc) to make the food.  I use a steamer basket (which I already had) that fits into one of our pots to steam most of the food, (some of it I bake in the oven in a glass baking dish) I puree it using my blender, (which I already had) and pour it into ice cube trays which I freeze and then transfer to Ziploc freezer bags.  I make the food in pretty large batches so I have quite the freezer stash, and I don't have to make the food all that often.  The only gadget I really wish I had for making applesauce is one of these: http://foodstorageandsurvival.com/apple-peelercorerslicer/ It would make peeling and coring and cutting up the apples so much less time consuming, but it really isn't a necessity.

So far Miss McKenna has tried carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, apples, bananas, peaches, pears and avocado.  Her absolute favorite has been pureed bananas and avocado together.  Mike thought I was crazy, that bananas and avocado couldn't possible be good together, but McKenna eats it at record breaking pace then cries for more every time.  I think next we are going to try plums or pumpkin.

I have been using the website www.wholesomebabyfood.com for most of my research and recipes, and have learned a lot about what foods are good and bad for babies at certain ages, and why.  For example; we have decided to hold off on broccoli because it is known to cause bad gas in young babies, and spinach because it contains, and can build up a lot of nitrates over time.

The only food I decided I was not going to make was baby cereal.  Breastfed babies at 6+months start needing iron from another source, and since I cannot fortify my own baby cereal with iron, I thought buying it was probably better, and our pediatrician agrees with me.

I had my heart set on waiting until McKenna was 6 months old to start her on solids (a) because she was nursing so well and b) because that is what the current recommendation is) but little Miss McKenna is a very stubborn girl, she knows what she likes and what she doesn't, she refused (and still refuses) to take a bottle of expressed milk and weaned herself off the binky at 2 months.  It is because of this stubbornness our pediatrician suggested we start her on solids sooner rather than later, so we started her at about 5 months old.  The first couple weeks were tough, she wouldn't eat more than a couple of spoon fulls at a time, and would make these horrible faces like we were feeding her the most disgusting thing in the world, but now she LOVES to eat the only food she doesn't really like to eat plain by itself are green beans, but she will eat them if they are mixed with something else.


I would recommend that everyone make their own baby food, or at least try it out and see if it works for their family.  I find time to make it while my kids are napping, distracted by another activity, eatcing lunch, etc, and it doesn't take as much time, effort, or equipment as most people think.  Plus I think you would be plesantly surprised to find how much cheaper it is too.