All three of my children have been breastfed exclusively up until around 5 months. At this point I started offering rice
Cubes of Pureed Food (Photo credit: dmhergert)
cereal, which was mostly breast-milk with a little rice cereal mixed in for texture. None of them were crazy about it and I only fed them a little here and there when I was in the mood. Rice cereal has very little nutritional value and I didn’t want to fill them up on empty calories so I found that I rarely felt like it was worth cleaning up the inevitable mess created when they spit out it anyway.
Once Lauren, our first who is now seven, was old enough to start trying fruits and vegetables, I decided that I wanted to try my hand at making my own baby food. While perusing a popular parenting magazine, I came across an article about preparing and freezing individual portions of homemade baby food in an ice cube tray and it looked easy. I bought fresh organic produce–apples, broccoli, spinach, pears, bananas or sweet potato and cooked and pureed them in my blender. Then I spooned the food into an ice cube tray, wrapped them in a plastic freezer bag to prevent freezer burn and then froze them. I loved that I could take the cubes of food out to thaw individually as I needed them.
I also loved feeding our children fresh organic food and that I knew exactly what was in it. Sure there was some work involved in the preparation but it was well worth the effort. I’m glad I did it and I recommend trying it if you have a baby who is ready to start eating solids. It’s so easy, it saves money and best of all, you don’t have any glass jars to recycle or tote around. You can easily thaw and bring the food in a plastic baby bowl with a lid.
At seven, four and almost two, my child have a wide variety of preferences for food. Lauren will eat broccoli but won’t eat a blueberry to save her life. She also likes things like spinach salad with goat cheese drizzled with vinaigrette. Kate loves fruit and veggies but won’t eat pasta. Cooper on the other hand, loves both fruit and pasta but won’t touch meat or vegetables. It’s tough to find one meal that will fill everyone’s belly. I often find myself longing for the days when breastmilk and pureed baby food were all they needed.
Do you make your own baby food and if so, how do you do it? Do you use your regular blender or one made especially for babyfood? Please share any recipes that your baby loves because if you are like me, you might sometimes get stuck in a “babyfood rut” and end up feeling like you are feeding your child the same favorites over and over. Happy Feeding!
Related articles
I was just talking about this today on my blog. So many choices in how to feed your baby now days and so many strong opinions. I make and freeze as cubes like you do, but I just skipped rice cereal altogether. Our firsts were avocado, then egg yolk, then bananas. We’re working from there…..
Babies do not need baby food for that long. Once they get the hang of getting it in their mouths and swallowing, you can give them small chunks of soft things like potatoes, bananas, green beans, peas, and cooked carrots. Just mash or chop whatever you made for the rest of the family that is soft enough for them to eat. It doesn’t have to be a lot of work.
I have been making baby food for my 8-month old daughter for a couple months now. I love how easy it is and I feel great knowing that she is eating the best I can give her. Unfortunately, she is not very interested in eating and most sessions end after only a few bites.
I’ve tried various methods and foods without much success. I am hoping that she soon learns to enjoy it more and I know I will then, too! Any advice on getting her to eat more would be appreciated! Thanks!!
I just started baby-led weaning with my six month old. She loves it! Purees lasted all of a week and she would barely eat a thing. She did like to put the spoon in her own mouth, but the food was rarely on the spoon by the time it got there. So, instead I cut an avocado into spears and she could not get enough of it. This weekend, she started on squash sticks – she loves them, too. Basically, if she can get it into her fist and then find a way to get it to her mouth, she’ll gobble it up.
I am doing baby-led weaning with my 7 1/2 month old. He wants to feed himself and he can’t get enough of it. Every time we sit down to eat he starts reaching for food. We do soft foods like bananas and avocados. He loves peas, carrots cooked to super soft, sweet potatoes etc. My little guy loves to chew on toasted bread crust, cucumbers and celery. Letting him feed himself is a fun but messy process. I fed my 2 year old the same way and she is a very adventurous eater. She’ll eat the dried seaweed grandma has in her cupboards and I’m not even sure I would eat that.
We made our most of our own baby food with my oldest who is now six. With the baby I’m so grateful to have discovered baby led weaning. It’s so much easier.
Not yet but plan too.
i have made all our baby food from the start! i just either steam or bake the food and then throw in the food processor. one thing i find helpful though is to leave the purees thick and then freeze them in ice cube trays. the reason i leave them thicker is that my daughter (who is 8 months now) quickly started liking much thicker foods, so i was happy that my frozen stash of food wasn’t all super thinned out
I’ve been making my own baby food for my almost-9-month-old since she was about 5 months old…I use the Baby Bullet and Steamer and LOVE it! I will blend meals we’re having, like BBQ chicken and rice, and sometimes I’ll unintentionally make a new creation (the first time I steamed blueberries, I steamed them too long and all their juices went into the water. so I mixed the pulp and steamer juice with yogurt, banana, and oatmeal to thicken it up and made a smoothie for her out of it!). Of course, she’s also able to eat some soft non-pureed foods now (like pancakes and waffles broken into bits, or mandarin orange slices). I probably still give her too much pureed food…I’m afraid of her choking!
My first is an awesome eater and she can put away more than myself. My second is really picky and it’s difficult to get her eat anything. I fed them both jarred baby food. We are expecting our third girl this spring and I’m going to give making my own baby food a try.
They really only eat purees for a little while so I won’t be upset if it doesn’t work out. I really want to give it a try though considering store baby food has a shelf life of two years. Ick!
I love doing dirty diaper laundry so far since there is nothing really gross since the baby only eats breast milk. However when baby starts on baby food, it won’t be the same story. Lol! Time to buy a diaper sprayer!
My daughter is only 3 months, but I plan on making food when the time comes . I’ve heard great things about the Baby Bullet. Also, for Christmas I got the book The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet. My sister-in-law is an editor and recommended it. It does look really cool! There are a lot of tips and yummy looking recipes.
We’re almost to the food (other than mommy’s) stage. I’m torn between doing my own purees, baby led weaning, and just smashing up whatever my husband & I are eating with a fork & letting her try those. Like most things, we’ll probably end up doing a little of each & seeing what works best…for us.
By my third and last child, I was making homemade baby food exclusively. I loved knowing that I was providing fresh, organic food for my baby that tasted good. It was so much less expensive, and easy! I made it fresh at each meal so I never tried to freeze it. As far as picky eaters, I heard that a baby/child has to try something 9 times in order to know if they like it or not.
We were given a BabyBullet, and have been turned onto the Little Green Pouch by some friends in preparation for our first child. We do a lot of home-cooking with fresh local produce, so our plan is to utilize both the ice-tray method, as well as the Little Green Pouch (w/ spoon accessory, eventually).
I used a small processor & it worked great. I also did the ice cube tray method. If we were eating out, I’d just put a cube in a teeny canning jar & it would be thawed by the time I needed it!
We’ll be starting this very soon. Baby girl is giving us lots of clues that she’s ready for more food!
We have been making baby food since my youngest could eat. We do the freeze method and it is so easy and saves so much time. It makes it so much easier to make it homemade and I love knowing what they are eating.
we never fed rice cereal, we just offered bits of our food (or other fresh foods) from 6 months on
I am obsessed with making my own baby food. I use the BabyBullet system and love love love it! We do both fresh and frozen (its nice to have a stash). My 10 month old son’s favorite blend is chunky avocados with brown rice & carrots. My 4 year old daughter also steals bites of brother’s food because its tasty!
Not yet, but I’m planning to!
I had planned on skipping baby food. We ended up doing a little homemade babyfood, but mostly just started a bit later and gave soft enough bits he could eat.
I make our little guy’s food, but more and more he’s sharing what we eat. For those out there who think they need special gadgets to make food, don’t waste your money! I use a regular steam basket, a mini food processor, and a mini muffin pan — all of which we already owned — so easy!
After breastfeeding exclusively for six months, I wanted to prepare every bite my baby ate. At fourteen months, I can honestly say preparing and freezing fresh produce, and even meats and starches is not difficult, but the pouches that contain nothing but puréed organic produce are easier!
I made babyfood for both my kids and plan to continue when I have my third (due in July). I tried feeding my daughter store-bought babyfood, and I tasted it first and thought, “Why would she even eat this? It’s disgusting, plus it doesn’t taste anything like the real thing.” I found if I planned about an hour a week to cook it, puree it (we used a food processor) and then freeze it (we also did the ice cube trays, but once it was frozen I’d pop the cubes out and stick them in a freezer bag) then we were set to go. I’d also make sure I kept things like banana, avocado, and homemade applesauce and pearsauce on hand so that if I needed a quick meal and didn’t have time to thaw something, it was all ready to go. I would highly recommend making your own babyfood. It was worth it for me.
I made my own baby food for my second daughter, and will do so again for my third, who is on the way. We mostly used a regular blender, except for bananas and avacadoes, which we just mashed with a fork.
I would steam cubes of chopped up fruits and veggies, put them in the blender with the water left over from the steaming and puree them, then I would freeze them in ice cube trays sealed with plastic wrap. I loved being able to make “unconventional” baby food! L’s favorite was nectarines!
We do a mix of home-made baby food and baby-led weening. Most of the time I just throw a bit of what ever we are eating on her tray and call it a day
it’s so cute watching her try to eat!!!
We make our own baby food and it’s always so great for the kids because they never get sick of it. Our recipes are always changing and evolving to pretty much whatever we have in stock. We use a food processor and love to mix up bananas and rolled oats for when they are older. Or we make soup for dinner and i’ll add some to a blender and mix it up with a thickening agent (oats, whole wheat noodles, etc) I love that there are so many different options and my number one ‘keep stress free’ rule is to let them eat what we are eating that night. Pretty much anything can be blended up into a smooth texture (gag!)
ha.
By submitting a comment you grant Thirsties Baby a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution. Inappropriate and irrelevant comments will be removed at an admin’s discretion. Your email is used for verification purposes only, it will never be shared.