I've made my baby's food for the past 5 months...I think it's healthier, fresher, and more nutritious than food out of a jar. This is a really good website which tells you when a baby is generally ready for a type of food, as well as how to prepare each one:
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/index.htm
This article stresses why it's important to make your own:
http://www.hpakids.org/holistic-health/articles/86/1/Introducing-Solid-Foods
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D) All of the above
We made most of our own baby food for our boys, but did still use store bought items. The Wholesome Baby Food site you listed was my biggest, most valuable resource. I recommend the site to anyone even thinking about making their own baby food. My advice on homemade babyfood: If you are thinking about it, just do it! It is not as hard as you might think. You don't need fancy food processors, storage containers, etc. Be creative with food combinations. Your baby is an blank canvas when it comes to taste. Experiment with different combinations and introduce your little one to a variety of tastes.
something to remember is not to make your own carrot baby food (as there are nitrates in some carrots, and the babyfood companies know which are safe and which are not).
Energygirl Feel great and take control of your health! www.shaklee.net/safeshopper
As long as you buy organic carrots and your baby is at least 6 months of age then they will be ok. Just don't use the water used for steaming the carrots in the puree. Baby food companies aren't able to remove the nitrates either. They can just screen for them and choose the carrots from a country that has lower nitrate levels.
Quoting energygirl:
something to remember is not to make your own carrot baby food (as there are nitrates in some carrots, and the babyfood companies know which are safe and which are not).
at my mom's insistence i fed my son only homemade baby food. she would never allow store bought food in the house. not only was it fun to cook and experiment with the fresh foods i wanted to introduce to my baby, but my son appears to be far taller, bigger and healthier than babys his age and he eats everything.
i managed to get all sorts of valuable information from lorddumpling.com
I plan on making our son's food, but I refuse to offer him any solids until breastmilk is no longer filling to him. I plan on letting him show interest in solids before offering him any. He's already 6 months old and breastmilk alone is still doing the trick.
I am a working Mom and I made all of my DD's baby food (She is a year now and eating regular food for the most part) I agree with PP, it's not has hard as you'd think! I'd just buy whatever fruits or veg were on sale that week, and do up a big batch of whatever it was on Sunday afternoons
Two things that were key to my success:
- Containers: I used 6 or 8 oz gladware or take and toss containers and put them in the freezer. The ice cube tray thing was a pain to me, and it was hard to defrost the cubes on an as-needed basis without making them too hot. As her appetitie increased, I'd increase the amount in the container so that it would be 2-3 days worth.
- Food mill: it's true you don't need any kind of fancy tools, but I had a hand-me-down that was awesome! The bowl is a LOT easier to clean than a blender, and it was a lot easier to check and remove the food. That made a big difference to me, especially when I was doing up large batches of multiple foods. Retails for about $30, and well worth it in my opinion. (I still use it for soups for the family in fact!)
Does any one make more of the finger/toddler foods in advance and freeze? If so can you send some ideas my way??
We just started our little one on solids...He will be 5 months on the 17th...of course we are doing the 3 day rule for allergy purposes. So far we've had organic papaya, and today we tried some organic avacado. Both I hear is good on the tummy (hopefully helping his GERD) Any suggestions on how much to give him and a good time to give him these foods. Ive been giving his formula routinely and following the "new solids" about 30 min - 1hr after. Any suggestions and comments would be greatly appreciated.
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- Kari78
on Dec. 29, 2008 at 5:22 PM