Feeding Baby Homemade Food After Giving Jarred Baby Food

Hi J.,

i made homemade baby food for a while... here's a few thoughts... try them yourself before you give it to your son. carrots especially seem to have a very strong flavor when made homemade. i'm not sure why this is..

i would steam baby carrots (they're not actually younger carrots - they are regular carrots that are processed thru a machine to make them small - i didn't know this) to the point where they almost turned to mush in the steamer. add more water than seems necessary to process them to a thin consistency, then i add rice cereal to thicken them up a bit once i thawed the cubes. you could also try mixing these two veggies (carrots and sweet potatoes) with apple (pick a sweet apple (Jazz, pink lady - no red delicious or any of the green apples - they seem a bit more bitter - our household favorite is honey crisp but it's only available for a short time in the fall), and steam it to cook through, but not very mushy - the blender can do the rest of the work for you to get it the right consistency). this adds a bit of sweetness to the veggie and takes away from their strong flavors.

also, my son LOVED canned pumpkin... get the one that is pure pumpkin though.

check out this website if you haven't already http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

there is something very satisfying about making baby food for your babies... have fun!

1 mom found this helpful

I made baby food for my boys as well, and if they didn't like the flavor, I'd add pureed pear or applesauce. They would even eat a combination of peas and applesauce.

Also don't be afraid to throw in some spice. Add a little cinnamon to the sweet potatoes or even nutmeg. This may help!!

How are you preparing the food? Do you think it's possible that you've cooked out the flavor? When I made food for my twins, I used the ziploc steam bags because you don't have to add any water to steam veggies, chicken, or fish and it seemed like the food always retained flavor better. (With veggies, if you aren't familiar with the bags, you just steam them in the bag and when the bag is cool enough to handle, you can mash it in the bag by hand. Then blend it if it's still too thick!) When my kids weren't responding well to a food they formerly loved, I tried to "spice it up" just a bit by adding a tiny bit of sea salt or a little bit of broth. It's also possible that it's too thing, and maybe he's ready for more texture. When you make your own food, it's very easy to add texture by mixing in some well-cooked pasta or brown rice. You can even combine foods or add chicken puree. My twins loved carrots and sweet potatoes mixed with natural applesauce.

Hi! I've just started feeding my 6-month old veggies, so not a lot of experience...but I recall that my pediatrician said not to make homemade carrots because of the (I think) nitrates they have from the soil. These are removed in the jarred varieties.

Hey J.,
When I was little I gaged when my mom cooked me squishy foods. I remember trying sweet potatoes and gaging, too. I just couldn't deal with the texture. Perhaps your son has similar issues. No worries though. Maybe intead of cooking and mushing them, try cutting and baking them and making them into sweet potato french fries. I like those alot and what child is going to refuse a french fry of any kind? As for the carrots, just give him raw baby carrots- cut into small sticks of course. Those are nice and crunchy and even if he doesn't have teeth just yet he can knaw them. I hope that helps. :)
Blessings,
J.

It will probably just take a while for him to get used to
REAL food. The jarred baby food tastes nothing like the real stuff. I would just keep offering and maybe try a little fruit on the spoon with the thing he doesn't like. Or sometimes they just won't eat certain things. My dd would not eat certain fruit or veggies. In fact if I remember right she didn't like carrots! Just keep at it mama! It is so much better for them and cheap and easy. I loved it! And now at 13 months my dd eats all table food :)

When my 10month old refuses a food I mix either apples or pears with it... it works like a charm! :D
Good luck!

Hi J.,
I make my sons food as well. We are also going through a tough time with the carrots. I have mixed the carrots with sweeter veggies and he seems to eat them without any problem that way. I also use and refer to the web site www.wholesomebabyfood.com a lot! It's a great web site. They talk about the nitrate issue with the carrots. You can make your own carrots without any issue, just read the directions they provide, if you haven't already.
Good luck and keep it up!
M.

I fed and am feeding both my boys homemade baby food. They both went through seasons where they wouldn't like something I was giving them. I found the easiest way to cope was to give them something else and wait for them to like the food again. If they never came around to liking that food, I would find alternatives that provided the same sort of nutrition. I would also feed them a food they liked, but then every other bite or so, I would put just a little of the food they didn't like on the spoon, followed by the food they did like. Some times this helped ease them into the food I wanted them to eat. I'd also tempt them by putting a cheerio or raisin on top of the spoon full of carrots (or whatever). Don't stress over it though; just give him the grace to get through this stage.

I make my baby's food, too. She doesn't like her rice plain (and it's usually too hot), so I mix in her frozen sweet potato cubes. She loves it that way.

Hi, J.,

I fed both my boys table food, not even pureed or anything, from about the age of your son and they did fine. I still tell them about when I took the older one for his 6-month check-up and the doctor said to give him whatever we were having for dinner that night and it was pizza! I found they did want to have what Mom and Dad were having! I gave them baby cereal for awhile, just so there was something I knew for sure they would eat, but maybe only for a couple of months till they were really used to table food. That said, they were both as picky as any kid and would go on and off various foods. As long as they were getting something from the important food groups, I didn't make a big deal of that. I breastfed them till about 18 mos. an then younger one till almost age 3, so there was still some nutrition there for awhile. I just think you should continue with table food, and don't worry about specific foods too much as long as you are giving him some vitamins. It was a huge money-saver and even though some people thought it was nuts, I thought it was the most natural thing in the world and today they are terrific, healthy 22- and 18-year-old guys!

Good luck,
S.
mom to 2!

Hi J.~
I do not have much to add, I just wanted to say congrats on deciding to make your own baby food. I did with both my son and daughter (now 5 and 3) and they are fantastic eaters. I truly believe that starting them out on homemade foods contributes to their good eating habits. I agree that you just need to keep offering foods that they may not be fond of, eventually your child will probably aquire the taste for it(after all, there are some days some foods just don't appeal to me, but I might crave the next day). My daughter would not eat green beans (I think because of texture, doesn't puree well)but loves them now. Also, offer as much variety as you can. Now that summer is just around the corner, there are a lot more fresh fruit and veggie options available.
GOOD LUCK!

Try mixing the two for a while. Maybe start with half and half, then gradually pull the jarred food out. Homemade baby food tastes vastly different from jarred food, the texture is also very different. I made baby food at home for both my babies, and neither would eat the jarred stuff, even if I really needed them to for lack of planning ahead.

Are you using a food processor or a blender to make your food? Food processors get the food much smoother than a blender, and you don't have to add as much liquid to the food if you are pureeing it in a food processor. I always used a blender because I already had a good one. My babies didn't know any different, but your baby is used to a very smooth texture, which you will not be able to come close to using a blender.

Try mixing the food with something he really likes--even if it does not sound appealing to you. If you think it is texture, try adding some rice cereal to it to thicken it up. You can do this when you feed him, you don't have to store it this way.

I could never get my babies to eat white potatoes because of the texture--3 of them. However, the texture didn't bother them with sweet potatoes because the taste was more appealing--figure that out? I am getting ready to work on feeding my twins. I will see if they are the same way?

Bottom line, my best suggestion is experiment. Their tastes will surprise you. I advocate for making your own food for the reasons you have suggested and it really is quite easy. You're doin' great. Good luck!

At 7 mos., I don't think the food should be chunky at all. I had a little chopper that we used to make food for our kids. (About $15 at Target.) We gave them our dinner (as long as it was not spicy). Just cut into small bits and add a little water to make a puree for the baby. A great use of leftovers and a way to give fresh fruits and veggies. Try sweet peas if the potatoes aren't working. Squash is also a favorite with mine.

Congrats to you for making your baby food - it can be time consuming but just knowing they are getting food that is natural and preservative free is such a gift you are giving him! I also made my son's baby food (he's 14 months) - that's not to say he never had a jar of baby food, but for the most part he ate homemade. it's funny, for about a week or two he would LOVE one kind of fruit/veggy, then not. I basically started something else then and a week or two later reintroduced the things he was sick of. That worked pretty well. Good luck!

K.

I heard that you're not supposed to make your own carrots. Only serve them commercially prepared, because if you buy them yourself and cook them, they may have a dangerous level of nitrites.

Just keep offering it. Try a few other kinds of food also. He just may be tired of orange veggies for a while. Try something else like broccoli [all 3 of mine loved and still love it!], cauliflower, apricots, mangoe, etc. I made 95% of the food all of my kids ate - so let me know if you need specific recipes or ideas! GOOD LUCK!