Food Grinders

Hi E.!
I just use a $30 food processor I got from Target and it works great, I haven't had any problems. My daugther is now 7 months, and the processor works good because I can leave it a little bit chunkier for her. A food grater is also handy when they start on finger foods because you can just grate things like carrots, apples, cheese, etc instead of having to chop it all up. There is a book called Super Baby Foods that has EVERYTHING you could ever want to know about making food for you baby- toddler, it's really helpful. The women who wrote it says no meat at all the first year, and I disagree with that part for my kids, and she is really hard-core health nut, but as with anything take what works for you, and leave the rest! She gives lots of great advice on extras you an add to the food to boost the nutritional volume, etc.

Hello!
I have an 8 month old & we use the KidCo Baby Food Mill
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2585659
We really like it. Just make sure to have something to store the food in the freezer once you make it. They also sell containers, they are like ice cube trays with a lid...
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2585710
We got ours at Babies R Us...I think Target carries it too...check online.
By making your own baby food, you can save a ton of money, not to mention you know exactly what your baby is eating:)
Hope this helps!
H.

I made most of my own baby food for my twins while they were eating puree's. I found it easiest to use my blender. That way I could make larger amounts and freeze them in covered cube trays. A food grinder is good for making small portions and if you're going to be serving immediately. For me, it made more sense to steam, puree and freeze once or twice a week- I'd make big batches of things like applesauce, pears, sweet potatoes, carrots, and peas. Then I would supplement with jarred foods- usually Earth's Best Organic. I liked knowing exactly what my boys were eating and they seemed to enjoy the fresh/frozen food even more than the jarred. There is a great book called the Everything Baby & Toddle Cookbook that has super easy prep and recipes for making your own baby food. Good luck!!

Babys R Us has one that I used--it's a hand crank one that worked well--I honestly don't remember the brand name, but it wasn't expensive at all.
You will probably want to start out though with baby cereal and pureed items. You can puree food in a blender or food processor which will make it more smooth than a grinder (you can add water to about anything to puree it). A grinder was kind of our next step after pureed food since food from it will have more texture, kind of in between pureed and small chunks.
As far as a difference? Well, you have more control and variety if you use a grinder/processor and make your own food, but jarred food can be very convenient too--we did both. You may also find that your baby will eat jarred peas but not the ones you make or vice versa. My son loved the jarred bananas but would spit out the fresh ones for quite awhile.
oh and I found stage 3 useless--its the big ones with the "meals" in them. First my son hated them, second, by that time he had many foods introduced and if he can eat those, he can eat regular food that was just slight prepped different, if that makes sense--
Here are two books that are great when it comes to feeding babies (and kids). The first one which I found to be the most valuable is called Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and good Sense by Ellyn Satter. So much good info on when to introduce stuff, how to make stuff, and a approaches to take when feeding your baby.
Another one to check out if you plan on going the completely homemade baby food route is called Super Baby Foods by Ruth Yaron. Both have some similar info, and I found the first to be better overall, but the second one has a great appendix of foods and a lot more recipes (since she advocates just feeding them homemade stuff).

Hi. I am a mother of 3 girls and a grandmother of 3. When my girls were little my husband was in the Air Force and money was tight. So I went to Wall Mart and got a small grinder. This was much better as I could control how much salt that went in there food. I would Freeze it into ice cube trays so at dinner time I could just pop it out and heat is up. Or I would put them in to freezer bag and label them until I needed them. I used what ever we had for the dinner the night before. Go on e-bay and get the book Feed Me I’m Yours and they will give you all kinds of recipes. It goes through what kind of bullion cube you should use and so on. I hope this has helped you. Good luck and love that baby because they grow up so fast.

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

thats all you need. it gives full instructions, recepies and general guidelines as to what to feed at certain times (i.e. how soon can they eat milk or oranges, etc). i made evey bite of food my daughter ate until she started eating solids and then i still made most of it from scratch. it is very easy and you don't need to buy anything. certainly feel free to purchase a food mill or something if you like but you really don't need to. i simply steamed everything and then mashed it to death with a fork. and a food processor would work just as well with less work. i also bought ice cube trays and froze perfect little portions of everything. then you make your own "recepies" like 1 ice cube apple and 1 pumpkin. or 1 pear and 1 apricot. i made BIG batches, they froze very well, and i never had any trouble getting her to eat. 2 notes: #1 grean beans are horrible steamed and smashed if gerber makes them or if you do it yourself. they just don't taste good that way for some reason. it was the only thing she didn't like as much. #2 i used dried apricots and prunes (because the fresh fruit wasn't in season at the time) and they make WONDEFUL babyfood but the prune puree was VERY hard to get out of the ice cube tray because it stayed a little sticky even when frozen. Other than that, it is so easy a baby could do it. :)

Hi E.!

I wouldn't use one of the old hand crank food grinders, if that's what you mean. I am BIG on cooking, so I already had a Cuisinart, but if you don't have a food processor I would suggest a small one so that it's less to manage and clean up. The best one is the Cuisinart Mini-prep, which is about $30 at Best Buy:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=5528137&amp...

You DO NOT want to go cheap on these things, because when you use them a lot it's really easy to burn out the motor. Cuisinarts are high quality, but also have a good warranty if something screwy happens!

As for references, I used the book Mommy Made (and Daddy too!), which I still use for my toddler as well as my second son:

http://www.amazon.com/Mommy-Made-Daddy-Too-Revised/dp/055...

I found this an invaluable reference with my first son, especially because it covers how and when to introduce each food. With all the childhood allergies around, you can't be too careful! While there's a lot of information you might already know, I for one certainly didn't have a clue on pureeing meats or making my own rice cereal. There is other good information as well, such as a discussion about root vegetables and nitrates. I make a bunch of purees on Saturday during nap time and freeze them in ice cube trays. Then I just pop out a couple of cubes and defrost them in the microwave... super simple! There are also toddler recipes, which we now use with my older son.

We also have Jessica Seinfeld's book (Deceptively Delicious), which is geared towards toddlers and older, but all revolves around pureed veggies. So, you can just feed the baby straight purees for a while and then you have a book for when the baby gets older. Even though Seinfeld's book involves "hiding" veggies, you should still always offer fresh veggies!!

As far as pros and cons, the only real con is portability and we solved that by getting good sealable bowls for when we're out and about and jarred (Earth's Best) or frozen (happybaby is the best!! http://www.happybabyfood.com/OurMenu.html) when we go far from home. The pros are many and most have already been mentioned by other moms, but I will say that watching my toddler eat with other kids has really driven home how important this stuff is. He eats every fruit in existence, lots of raw veggies, LOVES grilled veggies with nothing but salt/pepper and olive oil on them, and eats stuff like grilled salmon that toddlers supposedly don't like! Also I know what he's eating because I made it myself!

Hi E.!

I am obsessed with making food for my baby, who is 7 months old today. It's so much healthier (I try to use all organic produce) and so easy and fun. As for a food grinder, are you referring to a food mill? I have one from Kidco that I plan to use when she starts eating the same food that we eat. Then I can just run the food through the mill and it purees it and removes anything she can't eat, like peels and pits. But for now, she's eating purees, and it's easier for me to make them and freeze them in ice cube trays from Fresh Baby. I use my Cuisinart Food Processor to puree them. I love the black plastic microwave steamers from Pampered Chef. I have them in the large and small sizes, and they are perfect for steaming veggies and fruits in the microwave. Then you just put them in the food processor and freeze them. After I pop them out of the freezer trays, I put them in ziploc bags that are labeled with the type of food. I did this with my first baby, who's now 2, and she is still a great eater because I tried to introduce her to lots of fruits and veggies early. Good luck and have fun!

Hi E.! I used a baby food processor for the first few months when my son started eating fruits and veggies and it was a little bit of a pain because it was so small. I found it was much easier to use my blender on the puree setting. I liked making his food because I knew exactly what he was getting and I used organic only for a little while. Homemade baby food vs. the bottled stuff looks brighter and healthier to me. Good luck!

I bought a majic bullet it was great, I could puree or anyfoods I made for my family. I then stored the food in icecube trays made by tupperware because it had a lid. After the cubes of food were frozen, I would place them in ziploc bags and label it with a sharpee. It worked out so well, I could custom thaw what I thought my baby would eat from meal to meal. We could take one chicken cube and mix it with a swet potatoe cube or whatever.

I dont have any advice on a grinder but I can tell you that our first son hated baby food from the start. I started feeding him whatever I made us for dinner, I just pureed it. Then moved on to just smushing it up as he got older. I am so glad I started doing this and will do it with our newest addition once he starts solid foods. Canned food tastes horrible, you dont know what is in it and it is soooo expensive!
T.

Great idea! I think it is wonderful when Moms are hands on with their babies food prep. Especially in this time of recalls... There are some nasty things ending up in our food these days. My daughter has feeding issues and has since her first latch on, until now - it's been more than 3 years. The reason I include that info is because I have had to puree her food since the beginning, and still do. Let me tell you, I have tried them all. If you really want something that will last through your everyday baby food needs alone, much less regular kitchen use, go ahead with KitchenAid. It may be a little more than you want to invest right up front and you may think a processor is a processor, right? Wrong... I have wasted more money than you want to know. I have burned up machine after machine and had to throw them away. I kept trying to find a bargain in the beginning and then I went mid-range price and then a little higher. Every one ended up in the garbage. So, KitchenAid is the way to go. They have different sizes, depending on your needs. And you can even get cute colors in most appliances. Not to mentioned a great guarantee... Also, if you keep an eye out on places like Kohl's, Target, or other retailers, you can find them on sale - scour the net, but make sure you're getting the real thing. Happy hunting.

Hi E.,
Check out the Vita-Mix whole food processor. It is rated #1 by Consumer Reports and has been around for 80 years. I purchased one 2 yrs ago and wish I had it when my children were growing up. So I gave one to my daughter so my grandchildren would have the benefits. Website address: getvitamix.com/VIP They are a little pricey but worth every penny and will last for years!
Good Luck

I would have to reccomend the Magic Bullet.....thats what I used with my kids and loved it....

Depending on what you are preparing a blender or two forks are the easiest and cheapest way out. My daughter got a lot of home prepared meals that way as a baby and she loved it. The best thing is if you make a lot just put the leftovers in an icetray and freeze it, then pop them out and into a zip bag or a freezer safe container and you have a meal in a snap for your baby. Those cubes are also amazing in a great mesh feeder bag from Sassy. I used them for both of my kids and it's great for teething or giving your baby the opportunity to feed themselves. Have fun with your baby this goes by so fast. XOXO

You can just get a blender but if youhave the money get a vita mix................the food value is much better with your own food and not canned foods of any kind.........
Ihave read in health food magazines if you have to use canned baby food get beachnut...always read your ingrediants and if it has things you cant read donet get it..........and beech nut is just food... I told my daughter in law this when her son was going to start foods and she told her whole baby group and everyone bought beech nut after reading the lables.
Even better if you have the money get organic baby food from a heath food store.

I can’t really suggest a good grinder to get. I just used an attachment to my blender ( I think its for grinding coffee-works great for baby food though:) and my friend just used an immersion blender. So if you have that aruond thats probably all you need. As far as pros-in general fresh food, where you know the ingredients and haven’t added anything else to it seems to me like a huge PRO. The jarred food is supposed to last two years or something-I dont know that sounds gross to me. Dont get me wrong, I have given my baby a few jars here and there but for the most part not really. It may seem like a lot of work but it really isnt. I am horrible in the kitchen and if I can do it, so can you. I just did big batches and froze cubes of it in icetrays-worked like a charm. I also used organic fruit and veggies which I also suggest as the best option. Hope that helps. feel free to contact me if you have any questions. oh yeah, I really liked Annabell Karmels (sp??) cook book. Super easy and tells you basics like how to prep carroot (in a steamer-how long and on the stove how long..etc) Enjoy having your baby try new foods.

YAH for you! I did this with my 2nd and plan to do it with my 3rd. The pros, in my opinion, outway the cons. You're not making waste be buying the jars, your saving money, you don't have to worry about running out of baby food or forgetting a jar when you go out, and you're saving LOTS of energy. It takes LOTS and LOTS of energy to make those class jars they come in.
The cons are you may not be giving the child enough of what she needs if you don't eat the right kind of foods (but doing this could be good for the adults also, encouraging you to eat better) and cleaning the grinder is no fun, but like I said, I feel it's well worth it. For our enviroment and for your pocketbook!!
I have a kidco food mill that works good!