Making Baby Food - Killeen,TX

There is a great book called Baby's First Meals by Annabel Karmel. It gives instructions on making ones own baby food and also nutritious and appealing food for toddlers and preschoolers.

While there are MANY great recipes and websites (that I'm sure you'll get posted)... the best 2 pieces of advice I can give are this:

- Grind up (and add liquid to drier foods so it's mushy) to *everything* you eat. Yes, you'll need to add new foods slowly, but after a month or so of checking common allergens... if you're having Thai, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, S or MesoAmerican, pick ANYTHING from anywhere around the world and grind that up. Just order things, or make thing mild instead of super spicey. And DO follow the french and avoid mild cheeses for babies and stick with the ones that are super strong (bleu, hard, etc.)

- Don't forget spices and herbs.

The way the human brain works... nearly every food (that we're not allergic to) is "acceptable" to a child until right around age 2. Some earlier (like 18mo) some older (like 2.5)... but at right around age 2 a neurological thing happens where ANY chemical signature that hasn't been ingested at least a couple of times is labeled "poisonous", and gets a gag/spit it out response. This effect typically lasts until age 5 or 6. Then any new food that is introduced is FINE. The biggest problem is that any foods introduced between onset and when this thing turns "off" is that the yuck/gag/spit-it-out response lasts for 10-20 YEARS when a food has been labled as poisonous by our brains.

Commercial (BLAND) babyfood is the number one cause for "picky" eaters. (Although there are some rare sensory or developmental disorders like SPD or Autism, they actually are rare). Baby and "toddler" food are marketed to age 2. Then parents start trying to feed their children "real" food, and their kids won't eat it. Meals become battles. Toddlers become notoriously "picky".

I couldn't figure out WHY most of the members in our family, and our friends kids would happily eat just about anything as toddlers, and then I became a mum and was warned about the "picky toddler years". I happened to be in a neuropsych course at the time and asked my prof. Whereupon I got a MUCH longer lecture about the whole process. And again in various other psych (developmental, physiological, abnormal), nutrition, and nursing/premed classes. It's pretty cool on a scientific level, but one can see how parents trying to do the best by their kids get annoyed no end that their toddler will eat nothing but unseasoned, no herbed, ground up and baked chicken... it's the herbs and spices. MOST chicken has herbs and spices on it, whether it's in pasta, grilled on the BBQ, or tandoori chicken. But "toddler" chicken is nothing but plain, old, boring, chicken.

Of course, no one knows the reason why this happens... but the general theory is that for most of human history (aka for over 60,000 years), toddlers quit nursing exclusively and began exploring when their sib was born, typically 18mo after their birth. Those who ate the poisonous berry or dead bug on their adventures as the got more independent died, but those who had the gene that made them spit out new flavors lived. Then they'd pass the same gene onto their kids. Causing the gene to eventually get passed on to us.

But when baby food and toddler food only has 10 ingredients and 0 spices... it makes diet VERY boring for the next 3-4 years.

I used and loved the book Super Baby Food. This was 5yrs ago so there might be some websites that are just as good w/o having to buy anything. I liked that she gave lots of ideas and recipes and would tell you what ages to start your baby on certain fruits/veggies.

Awesome Decision.
We got the baby food mill and a little food processor. And we made all his food, and now he is an awesome eater. We got the baby steps products. The only thing we did not have at the time and now have is a steamer. I wish I had it before, but we will have it for the next one.

Books. We got the kidco baby steps guide andNaturally Healthy First foods for baby. Both books are awesome if you are only getting one I would Go with the Naturally Healthy First foods.

We got the separate cubs for freezing the food with (we cooked it all Sunday night and froze it for the week. We had the ice cub trays, but it was hard to get the food back out for the portions so I would go with the separate cubes.

Making the food is easy. I also did not know how to do the barley and rice, now I do and would do that for cereal as well.

Good luck.

I loved the book Mommy Made (and Daddy too) for easy advice when I was starting out. Wholesomebabyfood.com is also great. It really is simple and I think a major part of the reason why my 3 year old is a great eater. He never had any commercially produced baby food.

To fall in line with the others, Superbaby Food by Ruth Yaron is a great resource--i still use it and my boys are 2 and 3.

My mom made my baby food & I thought that I would do the same for our daughter (ice cube trays and all) until I discovered Baby Led Feeding/Weaning.You may want to look into Baby Led Weaning. It is a great option for baby & you, it is what generations before us did before Gerber decided what was best for babies (mush). We watched friends with their daughter and it really opened our eyes to how simple feeding baby should be. We have had great success with it, our daughter has yet to refuse a food (loves everything & has NEVER choked/gagged), now uses a fork & spoon at 12mo, has amazing eye hand coordination & the best part is she eats what we eat so no extra fuss, stress or mess. It is a dream!
Happy to answer any questions you might have about this, as it can seem daunting at first because it is against what is familiar and considered the norm. Here are some great resources:
http://www.rapleyweaning.com/index.php
http://www.baby-led.com/
http://www.babyledweaning.com/forum/
http://babyledweaning.blogware.com/

Great advice so far. I have the Beaba Babycook and love it. It steams, blends and defrosts all in one. One appliance instead of two or three. I'm still using it at 2 years to steam veggies for my daughter. It comes with a little receipe book to get you started but really I never used a cookbook just made it up as I went along.

I don't know of any web sites, but it's easy enough. I did it with my 15 year old and my triplets who turning 6.

Start with buying tiny freezer containers. Even some bigger ones for when they get older, but no bigger than about a sandwich size.

You can use a blender if it has a smaller container to put on top, but I just used mixing bowls and a hand blender. Some of the hand blenders do have attachments to mix and with one baby that may work for you at first.

Always use a clean cutting board for each different food. Use a clean knife for each different food. You do not want cross contamination so every time you work with a different food make sure everything is clean, including your hands and counters.

Start with fruits:
apples (bake until soft, cool, peel, blend. make it more chunky as she gets older)
bananas (mash and eat right away, or freeze for later. it may brown but it's ok. you can freeze whole in freezer bags and mash after it thaws)
pears (same as apples)
*do not add other fruits until they're older as the chance of allergies are higher
*after she's tried each one with no problems, you can then mix them.
*later, try canned fruit cocktail. they're bite size and finger size.

Veggies:
sweet potatoes (bake until just soft in the middle, cool, peel, mash/blend. chunkier when she's older)
squash (cut in half, gut seeds, bake on sheet skin down, little water in pan, bake until just soft in the middle, cool, scoopy up using spoon or ice cream scoop, blend well as these can be stringy depending on style)
green beans (cut small, boil/steam until soft, blend very well as they can be stringy, pull out any unblended parts)
peas (boil/steam until soft, blend very well as skins can be tough)
potato (bake/steam/boil, cool, skin, mash/blend, thin with formula)
instant potatoes (mix with formula for better flavor)
*wait on carrots, tomatoes and such, as these can cause allergies like rashes too early on.

Introduce one food at a time for three days before trying another new one. If one food has passed, you can keep giving that with the new food you're trying.

Don't worry about meats until nearing a year. Formula with give baby all the iron they need. Any meats will just be practice period, readying them for when they get off formula. When she's 8-10 months old, you can start trying table food that you are eating, as long as it's bland as the spices and seasonings can cause stomach upset and even allergies to a young system. Remember to keep 24oz of formula a day with juice/water for snacks inbetween if they meet their formula intake.

Good luck and have fun!

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

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http://wondertwinadventures.blogspot.com/2010/01/puree-an...

Most everyone in our first time moms group loved the book Superbaby Food. Avocados is a great first food and so easy, just mash.

Good luck!

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron Second Editions. Great book for getting your little one off to a healthy start.

Honestly, I didn't get all fancy or use recipes. I used my blender and some steam bags in the microwave. DOn't make it h*** o* yourself. I don't think you even need a food milll as long as you have a good blender or food processor. I steamed the veggies, let them cool, put them in the blender with water, blended...put in ice cube trays and froze. Done.

Add water until it is the consistency you like and use the ice cube trays for easy portioning. Sometimes I did combine fruits and veggies in one batch, but I just did it according to what I liked or what sounded good.

I do think you should offer your baby all kinds of different foods, but you don't have to blend them up. Around 7-9 months start introducing bits of what you're eating for dinner to the baby at each meal. It's really that easy. Babies shouldn't really get meat until about 9 months and by that time they should be pretty good at finger food eating, so just cut it up really small. I peronally think pureed meat is one the grossest things ever.

I used the website www.wholesomebabyfood.com a lot and I think it's really helpful!

Oh I also wanted to add that you shouldn't start making purees too early b/c you don't want them to get freezer burned!

first off, congratulations on your baby, and congrats on wanting to make your own baby food; I'm amazed how many moms settle for 2nd best jarred food. I don't have any amazing cook books to offer, though I browsed some at whole foods that sounded great. Big hits with my kids were raw avocado blended up with raw apple (so yummy you'll be sneaking bites yourself) sweet potato baked and pureed with a dab of butter, zucchini steamed then pureed with butter and thickened with rice cereal, fresh mango just pureed (if you buy it in the jar of baby food it's cooked and has way less vitamins and nutrients available then when it's fresh) Most of all just enjoy the wonderful introduction to the fabulous world of food!