Anyone make their own babyfood?

RhianaW14 · 01-14-2010, 09:39 PM

My dd is 5 mos old and I just begun making purees for her of veggies. I have 25 cubes of organic peas and 25 cubes of organic carrots in the freezer already

Tomorrow I am going to begin broccoli and cauliflower.

The pediatrician said that I should begin w/ the "yucky" veggies 1st so that she doesn't get accustomed to the sweeter veggies and cereal.

She tried carrots today and liked them OK I guess.

So, anyone else here make their own?

RockABuyReen · 01-14-2010, 09:50 PM

I used to make it much more than I do now that my son can eat 'real food'. His favorite was sweet potatoes.

We have apples with cinnamon, sweet potatoes, carrots, corn and pears in the freezer now.

I'm going to make chicken and dumplings for him tonight or tomorrow. I make them how I normally do just with no salt, and freeze it in serving size jars. It might be his favorite food now.

mamakaty · 01-14-2010, 09:57 PM

Yes!!! Well, I did with the younger one, and I will again with the new baby.

I found this website to be very helpful!! It has some great information; charts on when to start what foods, recipes, preparation tips, etc. http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

I actually started with sweet potatoes. Personally, I would hold off on broccoli and cauliflower for a couple of months. It's harder to digest. Avocado is great for a first food, and so are bananas. Homemade applesauce and pearsauce. I don't buy the whole start with "yucky" foods approach, lol. But that's just me.

If you want to run to the library and check out a book, I found Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron to be pretty good. But honestly I used that website a lot.

Good luck and have fun with it!!

sasmama · 01-14-2010, 09:58 PM

At this point about half of DS's food is homemade. It was more when he was on purees only. His first food was mashed avocado. He has always loves orange and yellow veggies like carrots, sweet potatoes and squash, and he's not so into greens even though that's what we started with. Making your own baby food is fun!

RhianaW14 · 01-14-2010, 09:58 PM

Reen-
Did you buy jars or did you use babyfood jars? The babyfood jars aren't strong enough to withstand the heat or cold (microwave or freezer), which is why I'm freezing in ice cube trays and then popping them out into freezer baggies.

If there are small jars that are freezer safe, I think that would be awesome!

RhianaW14 · 01-14-2010, 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mamakaty

Yes!!! Well, I did with the younger one, and I will again with the new baby.

I found this website to be very helpful!! It has some great information; charts on when to start what foods, recipes, preparation tips, etc. http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

I actually started with sweet potatoes. Personally, I would hold off on broccoli and cauliflower for a couple of months. It's harder to digest. Avocado is great for a first food, and so are bananas. Homemade applesauce and pearsauce. I don't buy the whole start with "yucky" foods approach, lol. But that's just me.

If you want to run to the library and check out a book, I found Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron to be pretty good. But honestly I used that website a lot.

Good luck and have fun with it!!

I think the main reason to start w/ the yuckier ones is so that when they are say, 3 yrs old, they will still have a taste for it. I have 4 kids and my oldest (10) will not touch a fruit or veggie to save his life and he's UBER constipated because of it. My 2nd and 3rd pretty much eat everything but we are careful w/ #3 because he has a peanut and tree nut allergy. He is almost 6.

I would LOVE for my #4 to eat everything that we do. I have to get a food mill, but right now I am steaming the veggies and pureeing in the blender. I want to invest in that Beaba Babycook. That thing looks neat!

mamakaty · 01-14-2010, 10:07 PM

See, my experience is the opposite. with my oldest, I started with the "yucky" veggies, etc, and he's the worst fruit and veggie eater ever. With the youngest, I pretty much did the opposite, and he's practically a vegetarian, lol. I know that it has a lot to do with the individual child though -- my kids are sort of the opposites on everything!!

I used a mini food processor to puree most of what I made, and it seemed to work well.

Oh, and Ball and other canning companies make smaller freezer safe jars, but those are the only ones I know of.

RhianaW14 · 01-14-2010, 10:17 PM

thank you for the jar advice! i think their smallest is 4 oz but i can use that later.

how long did you find the frozen food kept? i'm doing small batches since she still nurses a lot and doesnt eat much food yet. I read 6 weeks but can last 3 mos tops??

bookgirl83 · 01-14-2010, 10:57 PM

My husband got me a food processor for Christmas, so I will definitely be making baby food when the newest edition is ready.
With my first two we basically skipped purees and waited until they were ready for small pieces of whatever we were eating. That seemed to work well, so I'll have to see with this one if we need purees or just small bites.

mamakaty · 01-14-2010, 11:03 PM

I made small batches as well. I don't remember anything really lasting more than three months. After that it seemed to get too much freezer burn and didn't look right.

One other thing that he loved was frozen mango and peaches. I would buy the bags of those already frozen, and stick a piece in one of those mesh baby feeders, and he would gnaw the heck out of it. Esp great when teething!

Be warned, often results in a sticky messy baby, lol.