Home made babyfood

[autumnmom]

Hello,

I am just entering the world of baby food. My daughter is 6 mos. old and I would like to start introducing some tastes to her (she just cut her first teeth, so she is ready). I don't know much about preparing/cooking baby food so I thought I would start a thread for suggestions. I of course want to stay as natural as possible. I thought apple sauce, cooked carrots, and mashed bananas would be a good start. Anyonw know the best way to makeapple sauce and should I bake the carrots? what keeps the most nutritional value.

Thanks!
Amara

[merpk]

Forgive me for being simplistic, but plain old boiling & mashing works. Nutritionally if you're BF'g that's where it's at, the other stuff is sort of more for fun & practice, so boiling works.

Also over-baking yams made ours happy, just make sure it's cooled off before feeding & any of the stringy stuff isn't in what you give the baby.

[almost40mama]

There's a book by Ruth Yarron called Super Baby Food. It was my bible when making all of dd's baby food. Here's a link to her website:
http://www.superbabyfood.com/
It's a great resource to let you know what foods are safe to start at each stage of your baby's development.

We mashed up avocado...dd loved it.

We also used an old-fashioned, manual baby food grinder. Whatever we were eating would go into the tube, a few cranks and wa-la...baby food.

I highly recommend this book.

Marilee

[jenoline]

I recommend the book Whole Foods for Babies & Toddlers, by Margaret Kenda (published by LLL). It's a great book if you're interested in making your own baby food.

Just a note about carrots - they are high in nitrates and you should wait until baby is at least 8 mos before giving them.

Some good starter foods: sweet potatoes (my DDs favorite), bananas, applesauce, oatmeal, avacado, regular potato

Applesauce: peel & core, steam for about 5 min or until soft, put in blender with very small amount water...voila! applesauce

Oatmeal: grind it up in blender, to make the grains small enough for baby to eat. One part oatmeal to three parts water. Cook on stove or in microwave (watch carefully in microwave, though)

Most things either steam or bake, then mash or put in blender with a little water. You can freeze it in ice cube trays, and have individual servings that you just take out when you need them.

I love making our own baby food. It tastes good, and I really like knowing exactly what my baby is eating and when it was made! Have fun!

[jasnjakesmama]

I'll second the Super Baby Food book, it had lots of great tips and recipes.

[Millie Ivy]

Tell you the truth, I never really made "baby food". I mushed with a fork anything that was on my plate (mild vegs first then fruits and so on...) Addie didn't really start eating much until she was 7 months old and I got preg again. I think my milk was not as filling since then, but I digress. She went pretty much straight into soft food she could hold. cooled cooked veg, whole grain bread. She eats some meat and cheese now too. I never really thought that she had to have all the texture taken out of food to make it ok for her.

[VikingKvinna]

My DS loves millet cereal with bananas and EBM. Preparation of millet (and other grains) for cereal is described in detail in Super Baby Food, but basically you whiz it in a coffee mill until it's powder, then sprinkle over water and cook until it's cereal.

When he was smaller I would then whiz the cereal, banana and milk together with a hand blender to eliminate all the lumps, but these days I don't usually bother.

I also second the rec for avocado, mixed with EBM if necessary, and sweet potato.

HTH.
~nick

[CarrieMF]

Steaming veggies holds more nutrients in then boiling. If you are boiling use the water you boiled them in to blend it with.

[Kana's Mama]

are food processors necessary?

I'm new to babyfood making too, and wondering what to purchase for making it. I don't have a blender, coffee mill, or hand grinder thingy. I was considering purchasing a food processor. Any recommendations?
Thanks

[ckhagen]

I also second Super Baby Foods!

It's got pretty much everything you need to know in there.

I can make a months worth of food for my little guy in no time. I usually bake organic sweet potatoes for about an hour on 400 degrees. I scoop out the good stuff and put it in my mini food processor. I fill ice cube trays with it, cover, and freeze. He loves it. We also do the avocado, he likes that too. He's eaten butternut squash and pears as well. I steam the pears and the skin falls right off!

The one mistake I made at first was I wasn't making it thin enough. It looked super thin to me, but DS was refusing to eat it. I figured out that if I watered it down until it basically dripped off the spoon he liked it much better. We've gradually thickened it so it's not so messy and he's adjusted well.

[membari]

vedgies first then fruites

I would start with vedgies then go to fruites. Fruites are harder to handle and also kids will always crave the sugars and deny the vedgies if you go with the fruites first.

we made all our baby food for the first child. Just got a stick blender and blended them up after they are cooked (boiled usually).

Also- if you want a ready supply, just put them in the ice-cube tray and freeze it. Then you can microwave it when you want it. One cube equals about one ounce. I usually added a little breast milk or formula to make sure it was thin enough.

Hope this helps!

The book I used was

Feed Me I'm Yours by Vicki Lansky,

-Jenni