Anyone Make Their Own Baby Food?

Another fan of Super Baby Food. Along with what has already been said, it gives a ton of good info as far as how to buy and when. It maps out which organics to buy and which to skip. Also talks about what foods to feed baby when because certain foods aren't easily digested even though they are marketed as first foods. (For example, I guess peas shouldn't be introduced until like 8 months!) Also gives foods that wouldn't even be found in baby food. Gives prep instructions as well.

Besides making it at home with a blender, a convenient item to have along in the diaper bag is a manual grinder. You can get them atToysRUs. Only $12.99.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2585711

It comes with a carrying case. You can put almost anything in it, and when you're eating out, you can grind up some veggies, meat or pasta from your plate and voila, you have baby's meal too. If you have fresh fruit in your diaper bag, you can grind it up. It doubles as a feeding dish. It's really cool and allows you not to worry about pre-packing fresh made food when you're on the go. I actually used it pretty exclusively at home as well. It was just so easy and didn't require batteries or a plug in.

Best Wishes.

I got the book Super Baby Food and used that. The stuff in it was basic and I could use it and still make a regular dinner for the other kids. One thing I loved was that you would put the food in an ice cube tray and freeze it (the leftovers you didn't use) and then you could just pull a cube out of the freezer! It's amazing how many cubes a sweet potato will make! That's a GREAT food for your little one and so easy to make!

We bought a Magic Bullet food processor and pureed all of our son's fruits and vegetables. (We would cook them first) If it was too thick, we would just add a little water to thin it out. You could freeze them after a batch, but we just put them into tiny Glad containers and put them in the fridge. They should last up to 3 days in the fridge. Good luck!

Keep it really simple at first. At 5 1/2 months, she's probably not ready for many combos or anything ground in a grinder. At that age, I gave my kids a lot of sweet potato puree and avocado (used my blender or a fork). Both blend very well. You have to add a lot of water to the potato so it is smooth enough. I remember you shouldn't make your own carrot puree because they can be harmful. I hate that I can't remember why. I'm pretty sure it was carrots and spinach. I did make them myself several times before reading not to.

The website that helped me is www.wholesomebabyfood.com. It gives you lots of info and recipes. Hope that helps you.

I second Michelle, www.wholesomebabyfood.com. They tell you the proper stages foods can be given as well as foods that should not be given until later such as honey and strawberries. Not only that but they tell you why and some things that may happen if you do. You can look up the article on nitrates and carrots there as well. It gives recipes and also tells how to cook the baby food and which foods should be bought organic. Check it out it's easy to find stuff there, not frustrating at all. Not to mention, so very informative.
Have fun experiencing babies first tastes of food that doesn't taste like a can!

Hi D.:

We used the book Super Baby Food for all of our children. Our oldest is now 5 and then we used for our 14 month old twins too. We really liked that book and liked using "real" food. I always felt it was healthier too.

Take care!
J.