Baby Food - Louisville,KY

I always made my own. I didn't usually start solids until they were about 6 months. Then I would use a food processor (you can use a blender, too) to puree fruits, steamed vegetables, boiled potatoes and carrots etc. By the time they were about 8-9 months old, I would often take whatever I was feeding the family and grind it up in a baby food grinder to feed them.

When I made babyfood, I usually made batches and froze it in an ice cube tray. The cubes were easy to store and a couple of cubes was a good portion.

It has been my experience that you change the stages of baby food according to how your child can chew it. What I mean is...you don't want to give your baby the food with chunks in it if he/she can't chew the chunks. As for making your own baby food..it's no different then what you already fix. For instance, if you fix green beans for supper, you would take a few and mash them up real well...thus green beans for baby. You really only have to watch the consistancy which has to be adjusted according to the ability to chew, and the spices. What you may like in your food, may be a little strong for baby. I suggest you keep whatever you cook, plain and simple. Take out what you want to mash up for baby, then procede in spicing up the remainder for your taste.

We make baby food by simply blending fruit or vegetable, adding water or iron-fortified baby cereal (rice, oatmeal, whole grain) or formula to thin or thicken. Your baby shouldn't need solid food until around 6 mos or when she starts reaching for it. We started with simple whole foods like banana, avocado, and sweet potato, introducing one at a time to make sure baby can handle the new food item. After a couple of months on solids, when our son had no allergies or reaction to each new thing, we added some egg yolk to the vegetable mixture for brain development. When we are traveling, we buy the Gerber organic variety baby food. Just remember that added salt or sugar is not good for baby. If your baby is breastfeeding, she is getting everything she needs nutritionally. We had to stop breastfeeding at about 4 mos, so organic Similac and nutritious whole foods are important to us.

I made my daughter's baby food. If you get the book Super Baby Food it has a time line for when you should introduce food and it has recipes and the proper way to store it and how it gives expiration dates. I would try it and would recommend it to anyone.

Del Monte brand's Web site has some good information on it. They even have a feeding guideline chart: http://www.naturesgoodness.com/feedingguideline.php

They also have a more detailed guide on how to know when your baby is ready to try the different stages: http://www.naturesgoodness.com/nutrition.php

Hope this helps!

Go to Gerber.com. They have a lot of information about the stage foods. Great site.