make your own baby food|How do you make your own baby food?

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make your own baby food–: How do you make your own baby food?
The main thing about making my own baby food is that I don’t know how to cook it first. Do I boil it or steam it? And what are some of the vegetables and fruits that I can make besides the normal carrots and sweat potatoes and bananas. Oh and with green beans and peas, how do I do that? I have no idea about fresh foods cause I’m more of a can eater. Can I find fresh green beans and peas in like Walmart? Or can I make canned ones for the baby food. Wow looks like I need a lot of help. Thanks everyone!

The answer in the following: (Hint: The correct answer provided by the users, does not guarantee the right.)

Answer by J Doe
boilfrozen veggies& smash em up. Do not add anything to them.

Answer by Ellie04
It’s not as complicated as you might think. Just cook your vegetables like normal (no salt or seasoning). You can boil them, steam them, or even microwave them. After that, just add a little water and puree in a blender, food processor or with a hand mixer.

You can use frozen veggies (so long as their isn’t salt or sauce added), but steer clear of anything canned. Most canned food is loaded with sodium which tiny tummies can not tolerate.

Answer by First L
i dont know. google it.

Answer by The Invisible Woman
Steaming allow more vitamins and minerals to stay in the veggies. Bananas just mash them with a fork.
Any fruits are good. Try squash, eggplant, fresh peas are a little hard because you have to peel them, I just bought bags of frozen peas, green beans, corn.

Answer by KS4E
Steaming veggies is best. It causes less vitamins and minerals to seep out. You can boil, but steaming is the better option. I also like to bake my fruits, like apples and pears.

After cooking them, you peel and puree or blend. Then put into ice cube trays. When frozen, put into ziploc bags.

Try to avoid canned foods as they are high in sodium. If you can, get them fresh or organic. If not, you can always get them frozen. Avoid carrots until at least 9 months unless organic because they have lots of nitrates.

For foods like peas, you might have to strain them after pureeing because of the litle chunks from the skins that are still on there.

For more info, go to www.wholesomebabyfood.com

Answer by cat
what ever veg you do get you can boil, once you boiled your veg, then pop it all into a blender.

Answer by amber s
You can bake boil or steam the food. If you boil you should use as little liquid as possible to keep the nutrients. Once the food is soft you just puree it in a blender. There is a great article that tells you step by step. Go to www.babycenter.com and type how to make your own baby food in the search.

Answer by mrslititia
Buy the fresh veggys. Wash well. Things like carrots and sweet potatoes you microwave until soft. I usually peeled, cubed and put in a Pyrex bowl with a tablespoon or so of water. Cook until soft. Depending on how old the baby is, either mash with a fork ( older ) or put them in a food processor ( those little ‘oscar’ ones , or something like the ‘magic bullet’ work great.) The younger the baby, the smoother you make it. Add a little water as needed (filtered or bottled is a good idea). Things like peas and green beans are best cooked in an inch or so of water and boiled until soft enough to put in the processor. When you make a batch, divide it up and use a plastic ice cube tray to freeze some . After it is frozen, empty into a zip top bag and thaw and use as needed. Never feed the baby out of homemade baby food and put it up for later, and only keep it (untouched) in the fridge about 2 days. There are no preservatives. But it is good for weeks in the freezer so no big deal. Only feed ripe fruit, so that it is soft, and process or microwave just a little if you must to soften. I never added anything to the food, no salt or sugar or anything. And DO NOT use honey before baby is one year old because it is dangerous, botulism is possible. It is for sure worth it, I never bought baby food. The stuff you make is healthier, cheaper and tastes better. Good for you for making homemade.

Answer by Chelsea
I use this thing called Beaba Babycook. It steams, blends and reheats. Steaming is the most nutritious coz it retains nutrients. I’m a meat eater so I do the same for my baby – usually her meal will consist of 1 meat (chicken, beef or fish), 1 root veg (potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots) + legumes (beans, sugar snaps, peas). This ensures she gets all the necessary vitamins from the food group. Don’t use canned beans. I think they are usually salted and salt can accumulate in a baby’s delicate digestive system, leading to liver problems. Fruits can also be steamed then served – this is called compote. You can serve with yoghurt. Lately I’ve thrown in a few baby biscuits in the Babycook with the steamed fruits and blend the mix – yummy!!

Answer by mystic_eye_cda
Don’t use canned, its way to high in salt.

Otherwise cook the food as you would cook it for yourself. Do not over cook food.

Some sources suggest cooking fruit that contains pectin, however that depends on the amount you are feeding and the age of the baby. If you are going to feed nothing but that fruit for 3-7 days then maybe cooking is advisable.

Also I’d skip carrots, they are incredibly hard to digest even for adults.

You can use frozen or fresh fruit or vegetables. There is no difference. When using fresh it is advisable to wash them before preparing. When using frozen they are already lightly cooked no more cooking is necessary.

There is also no need to puree the food.

NOW is the time to learn healthy eating habits for yourself so you can set a proper example for your child. You should be eating foods that you would offer your child. If the food isn’t healthy enough for you to offer your child you shouldn’t really be eating it in front of them (of course I’m not saying you can’t ever have chocolate or sweets but if you make a habit of it so will your child). Even if you go the traditional baby-food route rather than baby-led weaning your toddler will be joining family meals sooner than you think.

NOW is the time to learn how to buy fruit and veg, and how to prepare them. An excellent resource is farmer’s markets. I have yet to find a farmer that doesn’t enjoy educating people on how to pick the best of the bunch. And even how to prepare foods.

Also check out government resources. Marketing boards often have free cookbooks and buying info if you just write to them.

Meal planning books are also helpful. Try Sandi Richard’s books they are great for non-cooks.

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Pureed baby food is ‘unnatural’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6762795.stm
She said children should be fed only with breast or formula milk for six months, then weaned onto solids to improve control over how much they ate.

This could prevent babies becoming picky about food.

[...]

Solids best

After six months, Mrs Rapley said babies were capable of taking food into their mouths and chewing it.

Therefore, feeding them pureed food at this time could delay the development of chewing skills.

Instead, she said, they should be given milk and solid pieces of food which they could chew.

Mrs Rapley argued that babies fed pureed food had little control over how much food they ate, thus rendering them vulnerable to constipation, and running a risk that they would react by becoming fussy eaters later in life.

She blamed the food industry for convincing parents that they should give children pureed food.

She said: “Sound scientific research and government advice now agree that there is no longer any window of a baby’s development in which they need something more than milk and less than solids.”

http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html#early
The babies who participated in the research were allowed to begin at four months. But they were not able to feed themselves before six months. Some of the younger babies picked food up and took it to their mouths; some even chewed it, but none swallowed it. Their own development decided for them when the time was right. Part of the reason for this study was to show (based on a theory of self-feeding) that babies are not ready for solid food before six months. It seems that we have spent all these years working out that six months is the right age and babies have known it all along!

It seems reasonable to predict that if parents choose to provide babies with the opportunity to pick up and eat solid food from birth they will still not be able to do it until around six months. The principle is the same as putting a newborn baby on the floor to play: he is being provided with the opportunity to walk but will not do so until about one year – because his own development stops him. But: everything depends on the baby being in control. Food must not be put into his mouth for him. Since it is very tempting to do this, it is probably safer to recommend that babies should not be given the opportunity to eat solid food before six months.

http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html#choke
Many parents worry about babies choking. However, there is good reason to believe that babies are at less risk of choking if they are in control of what goes into their mouth than if they are spoon fed. This is because babies are not capable of intentionally moving food to the back of their throats until after they have learnt to chew. And they do not develop the ability to chew until after they have developed the ability to reach out and grab things. Thus, a very young baby cannot easily put himself at risk because he cannot get the food into his mouth in the first place. On the other hand, the action used to suck food off a spoon tends to take the food straight to the back of the mouth, causing the baby to gag. This means that spoon feeding has its own potential to lead to choking – and makes one wonder about the safety of giving lumpy foods off a spoon.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9646449/
Ditch the rice cereal and mashed peas, and make way for enchiladas, curry and even — gasp! — hot peppers. It’s time to discard everything you think you know about feeding babies. It turns out most advice parents get about weaning infants onto solid foods — even from pediatricians — is more myth than science.

That’s right, rice cereal may not be the best first food. Peanut butter doesn’t have to wait until after the first birthday. Offering fruits before vegetables won’t breed a sweet tooth. And strong spices? Bring ‘em on.

“There’s a bunch of mythology out there about this,” says Dr. David Bergman, a Stanford University pediatrics professor. “There’s not much evidence to support any particular way of doing things.”

Why not cereal?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9646449/page/2/
Take rice cereal, for example. Under conventional American wisdom, it’s the best first food. But Butte says iron-rich meat — often one of the last foods American parents introduce — would be a better choice.

Dr. David Ludwig of Children’s Hospital Boston, a specialist in pediatric nutrition, says some studies suggest rice and other highly processed grain cereals actually could be among the worst foods for infants.

“These foods are in a certain sense no different from adding sugar to formula. They digest very rapidly in the body into sugar, raising blood sugar and insulin levels” and could contribute to later health problems, including obesity, he says.

The lack of variety in the American approach also could be a problem. Exposing infants to more foods may help them adapt to different foods later, which Ludwig says may be key to getting older children to eat healthier.

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/first-foods.html
Cereal is not at all necessary, particularly the baby cereals. Regular (whole grain) oatmeal is more nutritious for your baby.

http://www.askdrsears.com/faq/ci2.asp
The truth is, there is nothing special about these foods that makes them better to start out with. Babies don’t actually even need rice cereal

http://www.llli.org/llleaderweb/LV/LVDec99Jan00p130.html
Meat provides additional protein, zinc, B-vitamins, and other nutrients which may be in short supply when the decrease in breast milk occurs. A recent study from Sweden suggests that when infants are given substantial amounts of cereal, it may lead to low concentrations of zinc and reduced calcium absorption (Persson 1998). Dr. Nancy Krebs has shared preliminary results from a large infant growth study suggesting that breastfed infants who received pureed or strained meat as a primary weaning food beginning at four to five months, grow at a slightly faster rate. Dr. Krebs’ premise is that inadequate protein or zinc from complementary foods may limit the growth of some breastfed infants during the weaning period. Both protein and zinc levels were consistently higher in the diets of the infants who received meat (Krebs 1998). Thus the custom of providing large amounts of cereal products and excluding meat products before seven months of age may not meet the nutritional needs of all breastfed infants.
Meat has also been recommended as an excellent source of iron in infancy. Heme iron (the form of iron found in meat) is better absorbed than iron from plant sources. In addition, the protein in meat helps the baby more easily absorb the iron from other foods. Two recent studies (Makrides 1998; Engelmann 1998) have examined iron status in breastfed infants who received meat earlier in the weaning period. These studies indicate that while there is not a measurable change in breastfed babies’ iron stores when they receive an increased amount of meat (or iron), the levels of hemoglobin circulating in the blood stream do increase when babies receive meat as one of their first foods.

http://www.westonaprice.org/children/nourish-baby.html
Finally, respect the tiny, still-developing digestive system of your infant. Babies have limited enzyme production, which is necessary for the digestion of foods. In fact, it takes up to 28 months, just around the time when molar teeth are fully developed, for the big-gun carbohydrate enzymes (namely amylase) to fully kick into gear. Foods like cereals, grains and breads are very challenging for little ones to digest. Thus, these foods should be some of the last to be introduced. (One carbohydrate enzyme a baby’s small intestine does produce is lactase, for the digestion of lactose in milk.1)

[...]

Babies do produce functional enzymes (pepsin and proteolytic enzymes) and digestive juices (hydrochloric acid

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make your own baby food
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Q&A–: Those that make your own baby food…?
I am considering making my own baby food. My goal is to buy fruits/veggies this week, spend a few hours making food, freezing it, then offering it in a month when my daughter is 6 months old.

I plan to mix EBM with the food rather than water or the drain off of the foods after cooked.

How many of you found making your baby’s own food more convenient and cost efficient?

I think it will be fun lol. Plus I wish to keep breast milk in her diet as much as possible and this is a great way. I only have an old blender with a bunch of settings so my plan is to not buy a baby food maker dealio. Then I’ll buy ice cube trays to place the food portions in. What type of trays do you use? I hear the kind with lids are best. Do they sell these at Wal-Mart/Target?

Finally, what foods did you offer first? I plan to buy bananas “If your baby is used to the sweet taste of human milk, start with mashed bananas.” kellymom also suggests avocado, yam, or sweet potatoes because they are sweet like breast milk. What else did you try?

The answer in the following: (Hint: The correct answer provided by the users, does not guarantee the right.)

Answer by in love with my baby!
I started with jar and then made my own when she went on to 2nd foods. i found it was cheaper and i could ad more variety to her diet. My daughter had a hard time with veggies (gave her gas) so we started with apple sacue. she loved it! i never used trays with covers. just regualr ice cube trays and covered with plastic wrap. go to wholesomefoods.com. great website

Answer by Tracy M
I really didn’t make anything in advance. I just bought an avocado and a bunch of bananas, and when she was ready, just mashed it up. I’d also take any veggies or potatoes left over from dinner, and feed them to her the next night. The only time I had something in the freezer was sweet potato because the rest of the family didn’t eat it, and it was easier to cook up the whole sweet potato then freeze it.
I just used the littlest Rubbermaid containers. I found with ice cube trays, sometimes I’d spill one flavour into another, or it’d be hard to get one cube out by itself. I had a hand held blender only. I did buy green beans cause I just couldn’t get them pureed smoothly, and also meats. But before long, she was just eating dinner with us

Answer by Heather R
I started with avocado, sweet potato and peas. Some other early stuff was pear, carrot, pumpkin, squash, bananas, apples and peaches.

It was definitely cheaper in my case. We tend to eat seasonally (except for avocado and bananas which I do buy year round) so it was cheaper because of that. I didn’t freeze bananas or avocado, just used them fresh and mashed them up with breastmilk. It was convenient to have them all frozen and portioned. I had some cubes in freezer bags that I took out when we went somewhere.

Honestly though, I’ve noticed that a lot of babies (especially breastfed ones) are never crazy about pureed foods. My son didn’t really like solids until we started offering him steamed, chopped foods.

Answer by Elyse’s Mommy ♥
I thought I would do the same as you and then I discovered baby led weaning. You offer table foods starting at 6 months, no purees, no spoon feeding. It allows your breastfed baby to continue to regulate how much they are eating instead of shoveling food into their mouth. Check out this question – I listed all of the foods Elyse has tried in the past month and a half.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081202140525AA3VVPl

Either way, homemade is best, whether whole or pureed.

Good luck!

EDIT: forgot to add: Elyse is breastfed and hates banana’s and sweet potatoes – one of her favorites is whole steamed broccoli – go figure!

Answer by mystic_eye_cda
I take banana and hand it to baby. No boiling, pureeing, freezing, reheating, or effort required.

I usually start with semi-soft fruit like peaches, ripe pears, plums. Then I usually introduce meats. My younger son love venison, its kind of nuts.

——
Edited to add:

I meant to say really soft foods like banana and avocado can be too frustrating for babie at first. And you want big pieces, not tiny ones, unless your baby has a very advanced pincer grasp:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6762795.stm
Solids best

After six months, Mrs Rapley said babies were capable of taking food into their mouths and chewing it.

Therefore, feeding them pureed food at this time could delay the development of chewing skills.

Instead, she said, they should be given milk and solid pieces of food which they could chew.

Also letting the baby feed themselves prevents over eating and starting solids too soon which can interfere with breastfeeding.
Mrs Rapley argued that babies fed pureed food had little control over how much food they ate, thus rendering them vulnerable to constipation, and running a risk that they would react by becoming fussy eaters later in life.

She blamed the food industry for convincing parents that they should give children pureed food.

She said: “Sound scientific research and government advice now agree that there is no longer any window of a baby’s development in which they need something more than milk and less than solids.”

Guidelines for implementing a baby-led approach to the introduction of solid food
http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/blw/engels.html

Answer by Taryn M
I make all my babies food because I like to know what my family is consuming, this and bottles babies food has a lot of preservatives. They eat barely any food to begin with, 2 teaspoons at breakfast and dinner for the first month, then progressing to 4 so ice cube treys should be perfect to begin with. You can buy little bowls with lids that are awesome for this purpose. I believe they have them at Wal-Mart.

Bananas are alright, but they are a lot harder for a baby new to solids to digest. I would suggest starting with Pears, they’re very easy to digest and babies like them. Then move on to sweet potatoes and squash. Its important when you first start introducing a baby to foods that you start with one kind and feed it to them for one week straight. This way you can tell if the child is allergic or having any adverse reactions to the foods. After a month of solid foods you can start to encorporate oatmeal and rice cereals. The order I’ve been told is best is Pears, squash, sweet potato, Peaches, (for the first month) , then adding oatmeal , and a combination of the above for the second month, Then finally adding bananas, carrots, peas, and lastly apples and beans.

Answer by Artie Lange Fan
Yeah I made all my son’s food!

Honestly though if you are not starting for another month you might as well wait a few weeks to make it but that’s your business (it will just be a bit more fresh if you wait)

It doesn’t take long, it’s super easy.

I made food for him probably on a weekly basis and froze it (so I didn’t have to make large amounts. But really, just a few apples and pears make a lot of meals!

Sweet potatoes are great to start so are bananas and avocado. Squash and pumpkin are great too. Also apples and pears!

(Then you can start mixing them, like squash and pumpkin or apples and pears together).

I bought little snack cups and froze portions in those, they were these:

http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=3179654&locale=en_CA

but ice cube trays work also.

I started with a cheap blender that drove me nuts (but worked as long as I had enough liquid in it) and ended up getting a food processor which I use now for cooking other things so for me it was worth the investment, plus I could make it more chunky later with the food processor.

Good luck it is super easy. I pureed food from 5 months to about 6.5 or 7 moths then started just giving him chunks of cooked veggies ad fruits (and meat like fish)

Answer by rainwriterm
We didn’t technically make or own baby food, but we did. We decided to skip past purees and give finger foods when he was ready to self feed. The idea is that if a baby can reach for a piece of food, pick it up, put it in her mouth, gum/chew, and swallow, there is no need for purees. Most babies can self feed around 6 months, but some take a bit longer. I figured, since I’m delaying solids until 6 months, I might as well wait another couple of weeks and just let him feed himself.

I definitely believe following a baby led weaning approach rather than a parent led weaning approach is the most convenient, as well as cost effective.

We started with bananas, carrots, corn, rice, peaches, pears, and grilled chicken. These are big “staples” in our diet, so we eat a lot of them.

Answer by Landon’s Momma
i just started making my sons food, ands honestly, i dfont think its any cheaper. for example, when i made squash, i bought 2 acorn sqaush for 7 bucks and it made about 8 stage 2 size portions, its about what, a buck or 2 cheaper. but i will continue to make it because its fun!

Answer by cathleen_02
I bought canned veggies with no salt added. I tried the carrots, green beans, and peas. I froze the food in the tubes that some baby food comes in since that have lids. I also tried doing the bananas but my daughter didn’t like them. I also put them in the blender and it worked out just fine. I them realized that it took to much time to prepare the food so I went back to buying it in the jars.

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