Who makes/has made their own baby food?

[Truscifi]

How do you store it? Freezer? Do you can it? :bigear:

[Melissa in Australia]

I made my own baby food. It was bits of whatever we were eating, Like if we had meat and veg for dinner, I would give the baby mashed potato with a little gravy to make it the right consistency. Or perhaps mash up the pumpkin and broccoli together.

for breakfast I used rice cereal with some pure fruit.

It was pretty easy with no need to store anything.

[Joanne]

I skipped baby food altogether. When my kids were ready for solids, I gave them solids. Real solids, real food. It was just small pieces of what we ate.

 

Melon, cheese (dairy was not a problem for my kids), green beans, steamed broccolli, ww pasta, ww bread cubes, cooked carrots, avocado, sweet potato, peaches, pears, soft chicken, beef, and I eventually moved into mixed foods.

[Mrs Mungo]

Annabel Karmel has some good books on feeding babies and toddlers.

[Lucy in Australia]

Yes, I did for all 3 of mine. I would could sweet potato, soup or whatever and freeze it in ice cube trays when they were really little. As they got older I did what Joanne did- they just ate what we did, just more mushed up :D

[raceNzanesmom]

I made my own. Super easy. I steamed fruit and/or veggies, pureed with a quick blend in the food processor, toss in some ice cube trays. When frozen you can pop them out of the tray and place in baggies. I didn't thin the food until preparing to eat, then I used a little filtered water or breastmilk if needed. Doing it this way I was able to feed my ds all organic baby food. My day care provider liked it so much she did it for her son born a year and a half after mine.

 

Once he was past fruits and veggies we went straight to table food.

 

My oldest refused food until closer to 10 months. He went straight to table food.

 

This is a great web site- http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

I did it. I used the water I cooked the fruits and vegetables in to get it to the right consistency, without losing the nutrients. I put it in small mason jars in the freezer. I've heard of people freezing the food in ice cube trays and popping them out and putting them in a freezer bag and you can grab how many you need for the meal. It was easy, didn't take to much time, and the kids looked the fresher taste. When I was transitioning them to meat I mixed hamburger with yams and chicken with butternut squash.

[*Lulu*]

I did the purée and freeze routine pp mentioned. I also had a hand turned grinder at I used when we were at home. baby got whatever we were getting, ground up. My youngest didn't have any interest in eating table food until almost 11 months, so he went straight to toddler-ish stuff and had hardly any purees.

[Dustybug]

I made my own. Super easy. I steamed fruit and/or veggies, pureed with a quick blend in the food processor, toss in some ice cube trays. When frozen you can pop them out of the tray and place in baggies. I didn't thin the food until preparing to eat, then I used a little filtered water or breastmilk if needed. Doing it this way I was able to feed my ds all organic baby food. My day care provider liked it so much she did it for her son born a year and a half after mine.

 

Once he was past fruits and veggies we went straight to table food.

 

My oldest refused food until closer to 10 months. He went straight to table food.

 

This is a great web site- http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/

 

I did this as well and I love that website. :)

[amsunshine]

Annabel Karmel has some good books on feeding babies and toddlers.

:iagree: I used one of her books as a guide when my dds were babies. I usually froze batches of food in ice cube trays so we had individual portions ready at any time we needed.

[Kareni]

I did the purée and freeze routine pp mentioned. I also had a hand turned grinder at I used when we were at home.

 

Likewise here. I froze the purée in ice cube trays and then stored the cubes in zip style freezer bags.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Tap]

Pureed and frozen in ice cube trays here too. Back in the mid-90s, my friends thought I was a bit nuts. LOL

 

I had a mini Cuisinart food processor that I used for the first few months and then moved on to fork mashed food.

 

 

I also used 4 ounce mason jars.

[Carrie12345]

With my last few kids, I mostly just took whatever we were eating and chopped, squished, or pureed it (depending on what it was). No need for freezing, because I knew I'd be making another meal in a few short hours! ;)

 

If I did feel a need to freeze something, I would usually flash freeze a few spoonfuls on a cookie sheet then throw them in a ziplock bag.

[Truscifi]

Ok, so freezing it is!

 

I suppose it will depend on the baby whether we will need to do it at all. Ds8 nursed well until he was about a year old, but he started wanting other food around 5 months. I put it off for a bit, but the ped said if he was nursing well and still hungry to go ahead and feed him the baby food. Based on that I was assuming the new baby will want the same, but maybe not.

[Heidi]

Yes, I did for all 3 of mine. I would could sweet potato, soup or whatever and freeze it in ice cube trays when they were really little. As they got older I did what Joanne did- they just ate what we did, just more mushed up :D

 

Yep, this. I just froze pureed brown rice. Last night I put what we were eating in a blender and fed it to her. Cooked, pureed whole grains like brown rice or oatmeal are good bases to mix other food in, like applesauce, avacado, banana, eggs, cooked veges. Plain yogurt is another good base food I mix stuff in. I used Super Baby Food as a guide a long time ago.

Edited March 23, 2012 by hmsmith

[AngieW in Texas]

I froze mine in ice cube trays and then popped them out to put in labeled ziplock freezer bags.

[Heather in Neverland]

We used small Rubbermaid containers to freeze individual meals. Ours consisted mostly of rice, chicken, and veggies... Boiled then puréed then frozen. We would typically do one week at a time.

[Pretty in Pink]

I just feed my babes whatever we are eating as we eat it. I don't prepare batches or freeze foods.

[Amy loves Bud]

I'm with the others who just gave them the food we were eating. I'd just mash up whatever we were having and give it to them. I didn't mess with ice cube trays and all that.

[dirty ethel rackham]

With my oldest and middle child, I made my own baby food. About once a week, while I was cooking dinner, I would make up a batch of something for baby food. Due to a family history of food allergies, I was pretty meticulous about how I introduced foods, so I only did a new food once a week. I would lightly cook, puree, then freeze in ice cube trays, then keep them in a ziplock freezer bag. Easy-peasy. As they got older, I would just use a food grinder on our own dinner and feed them that until they were ready for bigger chunks. With dd, I mainly used the food grinder until about a year - never did the baby food route. she was eating table food about about 7-8 months.

[2_girls_mommy]

I always fed my kids real food too. When I did prepare anything extra (when they were first starting out) I did it in the blender and put a little in ice cube trays in the freezer.

 

But like others, I mostly just gave soft real foods: avacodoes, sweet potatoes, frozen baby peas, bananas, unsweetened natural applesauce, whole yogurt with no sweeteners, mashed potatoes with a little bit of meat that we were eating, and cooked veggies. I did give baby oatmeal and cheerios with breakfast and for snacks too. Graham crackers for snacks starting pretty young, because they melt so easily.

 

I only bought a few jars of baby food ever and that was for my youngest when we traveled and I wasn't sure what kind of restaurants we would find. But mostly she nursed and snacked on what we had.

[Melinda S in TX]

I made my own. Just smushed up some of whatever we were eating. Depending on how old baby is, you can also just give them thawed petite peas, wild blueberries, pieces of baked sweet potato, very ripe avocado cut in small cubes, etc and let them feed themselves.

[Truscifi]

I made my own. Just smushed up some of whatever we were eating. Depending on how old baby is, you can also just give them thawed petite peas, wild blueberries, pieces of baked sweet potato, very ripe avocado cut in small cubes, etc and let them feed themselves.

 

Baby isn't even born yet, lol. I'm a planner. :tongue_smilie:

[StephanieZ]

I always made our own baby food. Easiest thing in the world.

 

1) Buy an organic vegetable or legume. Sweet potatoes, butternut squash, peas, beans, carrots, lentils, etc., etc. . .

 

2) Wash, peel, slice vegetable.

 

3) Cook until tender in a small amount of water either baking, or steaming or boiling on the stove top, or microwaved.

 

4) Blend/mash/process the vegetable with a bit of the cooking water (or other water) as needed for consistency. (I used the food processor.)

 

5) Spoon the puree into plastic ice cube trays. Cover trays with plastic wrap. Freeze. When frozen, pop food into freezer ziploc bags.

 

* The frozen food keeps for at least 3 months.

 

* Since you need to introduce foods gradually anyway, just make one batch of a new item each week or so. Each week you can introduce a new food, and keep feeding the prior week's foods, and, of course, resupply favorites. It takes just a few minutes to whip up a big organic batch of something each week.

 

* Ice cube sizes can be varied as the baby gets bigger. When my babies were first eating foods and had small appetities, or for items such as green beans or lentils that I couldn't make my babies love, I'd just fill the ice cubes half way -- for a smaller serving size. For favorites such as sweet potatoes, and for bigger eaters, I'd fill the trays to the tippy top.

 

* I love ice cube size portions b/c you can thaw 2 or 3 for each meal for a nice variety.