Home made baby foods?

[nudespirit]

I wanted to ask if anyone else makes their own baby food? I pureed carrots and green beans for my baby, because they were fresh out of our garden, which is organic. But when I wanted to make other baby foods, I realized that buying organic ingredients to make her baby food with wasn't easy. In the fruit department I mean. I can buy organic vegetables, but finding organice peaches, nectarines, bananas, etc isn't easy. So we've found it easier to buy Earth's Best organic baby food. But it's expensive!
So, I was hoping to get ideas from other moms, maybe some suggestions, and maybe some baby food making recipes? I've got books, but we're also vegetarian and it seems to always include meat for some reason.

[Marlena]

We simply pureed what we were eating, with only a few exceptions (eg, no carrots or leafy green vegetables (due to concerns about nitrate poisoning), no cow's milk products until around 12 months of age, no nuts). Dd ate baby rice cereal about three times when we first gave her solid food around 6 months of age, till she decided enough was enough of that glop! For a while, her faves were dark chocolate flourless cake, broccoli soup, and garlic. It's worked out great, and she's still an adventurous eater at 16 months. I can't help re organic food, though, as it's often more expensive than we're willing to pay.

[nudespirit]

Marlena,

Thanks for the reply. Emma has had no meat, no artificial anything, so having organic food is very important, even if we have to spend. I want her to have the best optimal health possible. So many chemicals in todays world, it's scary. I even use non-toxic cleaners, some that I make myself, around the house to avoid causing her any problems ) Though, it is expensive in some areas.
I think I'm going to try your suggestion though, we eat organic foods mostly, so I'll just puree that up and see how she likes it ) Thanks!

[acystay]

i too make most of my own baby food. it's nice that i have whole foods near me which sells organic. i'll admit though i haven't all b/c it is hard to find.

i don't know if you have the super baby food book by ruth yaron? it's a really good book packed full of good info. w/ her help i've been brave to make dd grain cereal. it's really easy.

i also do these organic receipes-sweet potatoes, sweet potatoes w/ apples, apples, plums w/ apples, peaches, pears, pears w/ apples & bananas, bananas and apples, green beans w/ brown ice (she prefers the earth's best), and peas--still prefers the earth's best, oh mango! oh avocado too

for finger foods i've done bananas rolled in earth's best multi grain as well as mango. i also cooked apple chuncks and sweet potato to super soft. i've also frozen carrots for her to naw on. i'm doing tofu next to give more protein in her diet.

i freeze all the food i make. maybe you could by batches when you find what you want then freeze them after you puréed them. another great plce to find organic is farmer's markets.

hth,

stacy

[nudespirit]

Stacy,

Thanks so much! I hadn't even thought of farmer's markets, I could get some great veggies there. Thank you, completely spaced it for some reason.
And the ideas are great too, I have frozen carrots and green beans, we're out of the green beans now, but have some carrots left over.
Emma really likes the Earth's Best stuff, luckily I found it cheaper at Safeway, but it's still rather expensive.
I'm going to try out some of these recipes though! I don' t have that book, but I have four others, they're just a lot of meat and poultry, so I'll try the recipes just without the meat and see how it goes ) Thanks!
Oh, any thoughts on eggs? I read that egg yolk is okay, but it makes me a little nervous. Strawberries too, she's 7 months, but still, it makes me nervous.
Avacado is okay? At what age? I hadn't read on that one yet. I need something that says what foods are okay and not okay at certain ages. I have one, but it's REALLY outdated..

[Madame Ovary]

Avocados, peaches, and bananas were my kids' first foods. I made all of their baby foods, except when we were travelling. (I lugged a huge cooler-full of Earth's Best to Cabo San Lucas when ds was 9 months, only to find it for sale at the local store!) I puree'd everything and froze it in ice cube trays (not the avos or bananas!) and then popped them out and stored them in Ziplock freezer bags, labelled *with the date.* It was easy to warm up brown rice & peas, delicata squash (always a big favorite,) butternut squash mixed with pear. Green beans never seemed to mush up right, though. It's been quite a while, so I don't really remember... sweet potatos, carrots, all winter squashes. Things that are watery (carrots, green beans) are better mixed with pureed rice or something creamy like avocado. With avocado, make sure you don't get any brown part mixed in or it will have a bitter flavor. Taste everthing first-- homemade is always better than even the most expensive stuff in a jar. Sorry to ramble, it's late...

[serenetabbie]

hey Kimberly~
I would steer clear of eggs and strawberries entirely until Dd is a year, longer if there are allergies in your family. Avacado is on the list of the 25 least allergenic foods...and both of my kids loved it plain cubed, or mashed and spread on rice cakes as babies. For an older baby, we would make it into guacamole.
Of course since you sell tupperware, you know already that those covered ice cube tray things make great babyfood cubes in the freezer!
I forget the website I found, but I think it may have been linked to one of Dr Sear's sites. it had a list of the top 25 most allergenic and 25 least allergenic foods ; I printed out and of course have since given away. Did you know mustard is on the list and my Ds was allergic to it for 2 years!?!?! thank goodness he outgrew it, you would not even imagine the stuff they put mustard in.

[Madame Ovary]

p.s. to nudespirit:

eggs are allergenic-- if I ever have another baby, I'm going to hold off on potential allergens until age 2. My ds is very allergic to eggs and soy. I fed him soy starting 10 or 11 months, eggs at 12 months. It's really awful... I feel like I did something really terrible to him, but the same diet didn't hurt my dd.

[nudespirit]

Thanks so much for the suggestions! I'm so excited )
As for the soy, Emma has no allergic reaction, but then again, I'm half Asian, we tend not to have a problem with soy products, not sure why that makes a difference, but apparently it does.
I thought avocado would be more of a problem, but since it is not, I'm going to get some! I LOVE avocado )

Thanks again, I can't wait to get cooking! )

[tara]

Hey, Kimberly! I highly recommend Pioneer Organics for home delivery of organic produce! They are Seattle based, but they do deliver in your area. We've been doing it for a couple of months, and it's really great - they use as much local produce as possible, but also use California produce, etc, so there is lots of fruit (last week we got melon, peaches, grapes, banana). It's just so nice to have it show up on your doorstep, and we definitely eat better because of it. They email you a few days before your delivery letting you know what will be in the box so you have time to switch out stuff you don't want.

So, we make all our own babyfood from the produce we get from Pioneer. Usually, we just steam up veggies for everyone and puree or mash his (though some things he eats in big chunks at this point). Leftovers get frozen. Easy as pie! Jackson is also very fond of oatmeal, which is easy and cheap to get organic.

[acystay]

Egg scares me too. Yaron's book suggests the yolk for now but I can't seem to get the guts to do it. I feel that she could have a problem and I don't want to do that. I'm gonna wait on the yolk for a bit. I figure that she's getting iron from bm and I'm doing tofu today so she'll then be getting more protein.

Wow! I hadn't even thought of doing pears w/ winter squash! thanks! I just got both the other day and need to make it up soon. I'm gonna do that.

Last night I gave Grace (7.5m) the sofest bits of avocado as finger food. She devored them. It was a bit difficult to pick up, but she got them as best she could. Dh helped her out w/ them.

Stacy

[nudespirit]

Tara,

How expensive is this group? Do you think it's comparable or less expensive than buying Earth's Best baby food?
Also, and I know I'm getting off topic, but Emma is getting her first tooth, and she's been throwing up the last few days, stomach acid and all, I can smell it. Plus she's had crusty's in her nose for the last week... no fever however that I can discern, and the thermometer isn't picking up a fever.
Any suggestions?

[tara]

We get Pioneer's small box every other week, and it costs $30 per delivery. It's a lot of food, and plenty for us (my partner, the babe and me). We have to supplement a wee bit in the second week to make it through to the next delivery, but not much. Here's what we'll get in our box this week:

3 Gala Apples*
1 bunch Red Chard*
1 bunch Carrots*
1 bunch Banana
4 Bartlett Pears*
1 lb Green Grapes
1 head Green Leaf Lettuce*
1 Red Pepper*
1 bunch Broccoli
1 Cucumber*
1.5 lbs Red Potatoes*
1 lb Roma Tomato *
1 Leek*
3 Peaches*
(the * signifies WA state produce)

So, I think it's a pretty decent deal, especially since we don't live near a grocery store with decent organic produce. And, having it delivered to us forces us to eat it! But, I can't really compare to buying baby food, since I haven't ever bought baby food and the produce from Pioneer feeds us all, not just the baby. Maybe you should just try it and see?

And, sorry to hear Emma's feeling a little under the weather! Hope she gets better soon!

[nudespirit]

Tara,

thanks so much for the information, I think we are going to try it out, and I noticed that we can give you credit for referring us to get a free box, I'd love to do that for you, just pm me with your address and phone and I'll write it up while I sign up and they say they'll get it right out to you!
I can't hardly wait, Brian isn't big on vegetables, but I sure am, and I would love to have that for Emma. )

How's your family doing? I just found out that some community centers offer playgroups for like a $1 or $2, so we're going to look into that and see if we can't get involved. Have you found anything else community related?
I haven't seen a playgroup gathering our direction in awhile...

[bananasmom]

How about using frozen organic vegies? Frozen foods are often higher in nutrients because they are frozen right after harvesting.

Our local grocery sells a 16 oz bag of green beans for around $2, which sounds like a pretty good deal. I haven't bought fresh from the store lately, though, so I don't know for sure.

Also - I couldn't find anything about using commercially frozen food for babies in my babyfood cookbook. I'd assume it's OK, though.

[nudespirit]

Thanks! I think I will look into that as well. Before I was just using veggies out of my mom's garden, but the season is over. So I've got to look elsewhere. I'm trying that pioneer organics that Tara mentioned, get my first box tomorrow! Woohoo! )
Also need to look into frozen veggies however, just to get a more of a variety as well. I hadn't seen any organic frozen veggies, but I don't think I ever bothered to look either. So I'm definitely going to now! )