Any Advice on Making Homemade Baby Food, and Recommendations on Food Processor?

The only baby food that both of my children ever ate was home made and today they are wonderful eaters! It does take a lot of work and commitment to do it, but just remember that it is honestly only for about 6 months...then they can chew larger pieces on their own. As someone else mentioned, www.wholesomebabyfood.com is an excellent resource for making your own food. I used my Magic Bullet to puree and it worked wonderfully. I would just make up a large batch, then spoon it in to ice cube trays. I'd freeze over night then bag up the frozen cubes (label food type and date). Baking your food is the way to go for so many things! All squashes and sweet potatoes are so easy because you don't even need to peel them! One squash can make quite a large batch of cubes! For my first child I set aside one day where I would make all of the baby food for the week. I feel that this way made it seem like more of a chore. For my second child I would just throw a squash in the oven one day while I was cooking dinner, then I would puree it after our meal was done. I did a food a day or so and I liked that way a lot better. As for serving the food, I always mixed foods together. Sometimes it would seem quite gross to think of, but my son loved it. Good luckkk!!!!!!!1

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I used a KidCo baby food mill/grinder to grind up a lot of my son's food. The rest I just used a blender because we had moved and had all our stuff in storage. I also froze cubes of lots of things in regular ice cube trays (though I made sure they were BPA-free). You can buy special trays for freezing cubes of baby food, but I didn't find that necessary. Things like bananas and avocadoes can be mashed with just a fork. And sweet potatoes can be mashed with a regular old potato masher. My second son is 13 months old, and he really only would eat the really thin purees for maybe six weeks. When you can only introduce a new food every 3-5 days, then the number of foods I had to get completely pureed was low. So I just used the food mill after that. I found this website really helpful www.wholesomebabyfood.com . It has lots of information and recipes for making baby food. I checked it every time we started a new food to get recipes and see what we could mix in with the new food.

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I used a regular blender to blend steamed vegetables as well as fruits. I bought the little plastic storages used to store breast milk and used them. Of course you can also use the ice cube holders. Use BPA free ones either way. I also love the www.wholesomebabyfood.com. As far as organic vs regular, I did all organic.

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Definitely go to www.wholesomebabyfood.com You will get all your questions answered there on how to make baby food. I just used a cuisinart food processor, but you'll find alot of things you can just mash with a fork. I wouldn't spend a ton on whatever you choose to get though, it doesn't take anything fancy and even a blender works great.

As far as organics I think that's just a personal decision. After watching the documentary, Food Inc., I made all my daughter's food with organic ingredients as well as most of me and my husband's. If it's something you'd like to look into I highly suggest watching it. Good luck, I'm sure you will really enjoy making all of his food. :)

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I second wholesomebabyfood.com and Super Baby Food. Both are great. As for rice cereal, I just bought organic brown rice and pureed it, making my own. Cheaper, and you know exactly what it is there. I used a small baby food processor, but wish I had bought a blender or something bigger instead. My food processor it so small, it really isn't useful in daily life. Also, making food is super easy, and well worth it.

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I LOVE, LOVE my Vitamix!!!!! It is an expensive investment but we bought ours when my daughter was 1 and she's now 14! We use it for everything. Making baby food for both kid's when they were younger, and making smoothies everyday now. We make healthy sorbets and ice cream in it as well! I made all my kid's baby food organic just because I could and didn't want to take any chances w/ pesticides. When we traveled, for my son who is now 11, I stocked up on Good Earth baby food and brought that with us. This was before Organic baby food choices were in regular stores.

Good Luck!
S.

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Just remember there are certain foods you shouldn't make yourself unless you are growing them yourself and are aware of the nitrate level in the soil...these include the root vegetables like carrots. For those, you might want to check into the jarred organic foods.

Have fun!
-M

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Good for you for wanting to take the time to make your little guy's food. You will be able to have fun introducing him to spices and flavors. My son is now 12 months old and I have been making his food from the beginning. I have used my Magic Bullet and an old-fashioned, inexpensive vegetable steamer (the metal kind that you put in a pot with some water under it) and it has worked really well. I LOVE the Magic Bullet--it is perfect for finely pureeing baby food. It also grinds coffee, spices, parmesan cheese, and it makes great smoothies. Plus, my son now loves playing with the plastic mugs in the tub (they have handles so he can easily hold them, and they even come with steam lids that create a "shower" effect when you fill them with water--so much fun for him!). I don't microwave in them because you shouldn't microwave in plastic. I buy as much organic produce as possible and I gave him organic rice cereal--I really liked the Earth's Best brand, seemed to not make him as constipated as Gerber. If you make it yourself you can more easily afford to feed your child organically, and that has always been important to me. I also really like the wholesomebabyfood.com website.

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I personally like the mini prep food processor. It's around $30 and you can use it for years beyond others.
If you have the choice, I would buy the organic rice cereal b/c the rice is grown with out pesticides. In my opinion, when you can buy organic food (if it's not too expensive, it's worth it, especially for babies and kids.) www.weelicious.com

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I used the Beaba Babycook and loved it. It steams, purees and will defrost and reheat as well. I loved it because it was all in one and I didn't need several different appliances. I still use it to steam veggies for my 21 month old. I also love the containers for the freezer. Perfect serving sizes. I found the Kidco containers to be too small. A bit pricey but very much worth the money. It's small and hides away easily in a cabinet. Love it!

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The book Super Baby Food was my main source and I LOVE it. I still use it. It does not only give you recipes, it gives you nutrition advice and loads of information. I made all of my child's food and this was an amazing aid. I used a small food processor, but a Vita-Mix or hand blender could work as well. I also use a coffee grinder for seeds and nuts. Eventually you will move into super porridge. There may be some advice you will choose to pass on, but the recipes and much of the info is priceless! So nutritious! The best book ever!

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To make baby food, I used a 'stick blender' - about $30 with cups and lids, a chopper attachment, and dishwasher-safe components. Mine happens to be a Braun, but I know there are other good brands out these days.

you already have great comments below about recipes and such. I roasted/baked sweet potatoes & regular potatoes, steamed most other foods, and used a tiny bit of formula or water to thin purees that seemed too thick. I bought very inexpensive tiny lidded 'tupperware' containers at a discount store and used those in concert with baby food jars that I ran in the dishwasher.

Brown rice and lentils are another good protein combo, by the way.
one note - I used a small amount of the herbs I normally use in cooking to introduce the flavors of our household to our daughter. No salt or pepper, though. Just a teeny bit of oregano or thyme or basil to complement the puree (if it was appropriate). I don't know if it was that or luck, but she has eaten a wide array of foods since the beginning.

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I use a hand blender (KitchenAid) to make my son's food. I find it very easy and less work to clean than my food processor. I also use BabyCubes to store my food, that way I can have a stash in the freezer and take out only what I need.
Hope that helps!!

E.

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Check our www.freshbaby.com they have a ton of resources and also a kit for making homemade baby food. The owner Cheryl is a friend of mine.

Warmly,

A.
Mother of two/Founder of Nature's Baby Organics

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Making your own baby food is so incredibly easy and your baby will LOVE it. My little guy sits with his mouth open like a baby bird making this pitiful whining noise until that next spoonful gets into his mouth. Certainly makes me feel good about my cooking skills. :)
There are some great recipe books out there, but it's not really necessary since it's primarily steaming (or baking) veggies and pureeing them. One great website I'd recommend is: www.wholesomebabyfood.com I used this as my primary resource when I started this process about a month ago.
You can use a blender to puree the veggies, but I think a food processor seems to be more able to handle the load, especially with the thick/dense veggies such as sweet potatoes. Some other supplies you may want to consider are ice cube trays. There are some BPA free cube trays with lids to keep other air-born pathogens out of your baby's food while it's freezing. I believe they are called "Fresh Baby" and they can be purchased at Babies R' Us or Diapers.com.
Basically you steam or bake the veggie according to directions, and then add some water or breast milk, and puree it until it's a nice creamy texture. Then allow it to cool a bit then pour the mixture into the cube trays and freeze. I make a new veggie batch every other day and this provides me a large quantity that lasts about a week and a half. I usually try to rotate the colors of my veggies to be sure he gets optimum nutrition (green, orange,white or yellow). Up to this point he has had: butternut squash, acorn squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, spinach, avocado, and we'll be making carrots and parsnips this week.
As for choosing organic, I think it's the best way to go. There are no added chemicals on your baby's veggies/cereals, so they are less likely to get nitrate poisoning (which happens with non-organic veggies and fruits). My little guy loves the Tasty Baby organic brown rice cereal. It's super light and fluffy and very easy to mix.
Hopefully this proves helpful to you. If you have any further questions don't hesitate to ask away. :)

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I recommend getting the book "Super Baby Food" by Yaron. She's a little bit over the top in places I think (like making your own yogurt, etc) but I think it's a good resource for making all kinds of baby food yourself and how to store it. I am proud to say that I have never bought my 13 month old store bought babyfood with the exception of rice cereal. I think it's so much healthier to make it yourself, you know what goes into it, and it really takes no time at all. Best of luck.

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all the websites mentioned are great. If you already have a blender or a hand immersion blender, stick with those. they're pretty inexpensive and you can use it for years afterwards. We already had one before I had a baby (for soups, etc), and it was perfect. No need to go and buy more equipment

Updated

all the websites mentioned are great. If you already have a blender or a hand immersion blender, stick with those. they're pretty inexpensive and you can use it for years afterwards. We already had one before I had a baby (for soups, etc), and it was perfect. No need to go and buy more equipment

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wholesomebabyfood.com & the Magic Bullet. Go! =)

Hi J.
I use a Cuisinart but a blender works well too. If a blender needs a liquid you can add a little breast milk to make it blend easier.
Check out our 'Baby Food Recipes & Tips' to get some great ideas at: http://www.virtualbreastfeedinghelp.com/Baby-Food-Recipes...
We also have great Baby Food Recipe books at our NEW aSTORE!

Have fun creating!
BEST FED BABIES

wholesomebabyfoods.com has been a great resource. Just lately I have been adding in things like leeks, apples, spinach and parsley for added flavor and nutrience to my potatoes/carrots etc and my little guy has loved it!

We used an immersion blender, which worked well, and is easier to clean. As far as organic vs regular, absolutely go with the organic. You can buy organic rice and finely grind it with your blender to make rice cereal - it's cheaper and fresher that way.

It is better for your little one to start off on mild fruits and veggies. Avocado, sweet potato, bananas, applesauce, etc. Babies cannot digest grains properly till 7 or 8 months of age.

Good for you, making food for your baby rather than using the inferior jarred/packaged stuff!