Homemade Baby Food Questions

I use the same method as below. I use the door of my freezer for his stuff. Right now I have, mangos, peaches, papaya, pineapple, apples, pears, berries, coconut milk, tofu, butternut squash, broccolli, zucchini, peas, green beans, yams, carrots, & corn. The key is to only make a few ice cube trays of each so that you have one quart size ziploc bag of each. I use the one ounce tray and my son is almost a year now and eating about 6-7 ounces at each time. If you have the time to grind what you are eating then that would probably be the simpilist way. I work so I choose to make his food for day care. I have no choice but to do it ahead of time. I would be more than happy to speak with you if you would like some support. I am a huge advocate for fresh baby food.

you can start by give him home made soup..make a week-menu-planer so you know what food your going to use and how many of it.
you can go to the organic market near you (WHOLE FOOD is the one a go) and buy some deferent kind of veggies and meat. almost all the cooked boil food you can put it in the freezer. giving you lil one home-made food its nothing to be stressful about. im going to give you some pages that you can search what kind of food give and how mix them.

http://www.homemade-baby-food-recipes.com/

http://blog.superhealthykids.com/2010/03/baby-food-menu-m...

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

you search for more in google.

my baby girl start eating homemade food at 9 months and i started with soup...here what i did.

put in a small pot like 3 fingers of water, add a lil piece of butternut squash with a whole small malanga root, a half small red tomato skinless, slice an onion and put 2 slide inside of it, put a couple of spinach leaf, broccoli, 2 baby carrots and a chicken skinless breast. (you can add any veggies you like) and let it boil till the chicken is soft....taste it to make sure everything taste good let it refresh and put in the mixer (i use magic bullet) as many as your baby will eat ...the rest put it in the freezer.

good luck

The ice cube tray really does work best, that way you can fit more of a variety in the freezer and give more variety at each meal. Plus, mine would eat more sometimes and less sometimes, there was less waste with the cubes. I found the 1 oz to be too small, I just got regular ice cube trays and used those (2 oz) and then switched to a freezer ziplock when they were done. (yours doesn't eat abnormally large portions, that sounds about right.) I got several small glass pyrex bowls (4 oz size with lids) and would thaw everything in those. Pull a cube out, thaw it covered in the bowl in the fridge, or thaw it in the microwave and then feed it to baby. I try to never use plastic in the microwave.

One thing to remember is that baby is still getting most of it's nutrition from formula/breastmilk at this age. So if you give applesauce 3 days in a row, it isn't such a big deal. After a year, you will want to have a bigger variety. But at that point they look at a child's nutrition for a whole week, not each day. One day can be nothing but chicken, with fruits and veggies and variety the rest of the week, and that is just fine.

Food is good for about 6 mos on average, just FYI.

I would just make a small variety of things to start if you are limited on space. One yellow/orange veggie, one fruit, on green veggie. If you make some babyfood once or twice a week and use up what you make before you do more, you should be good. Soon he will be eating everything you are and you wont have to worry about making and freezing everything. I did still use cubes until about 19-20 mos with mine, they are just so easy. But I started introducing table food at about 10 mos and at about a year he was eating mostly the same as us, just softer, smaller versions.

I agree about storebought applesauce. Way easier and cheaper. You can even get organic for what it costs to make it yourself. I started with small portion cups and he would take about 2 days to eat one, then moved on to the jar and never have a problem using it.

One thing i found that worked great was freezing little cubes of fresh apples. If just peel them, cut them up, freeze and then thaw them in the fridge, they are a perfect consistency for baby that can gum but needs to learn to chew. (tried it with pears too, but mine were way to mushy.) I use a lot of frozen fruit that you buy at the store to give to my son. Lots of them are softer consistency. Just pull some of the bag and thaw in the fridge for a snack. If they are big chunks, cutting them smaller while still frozen works great. Anything that didn't seem soft enough after defrosting, I would microwave for a few seconds then cool it and give it to mine.

I also did this to give my son yogurt. I skipped the yobaby and other store-sweetened yogurts. They have a ton of sugar. Even the baby organic "healthy" kind. So I buy the big container of plain yogurt, pull some frozen fruit out every morning, microwave it for a few seconds, mash it (or cut it/chop it) and mix it with plain yogurt. I still do this for my 2 yr old breakfast most days. Its a lot cheaper to buy that big container. I started that at about 10 mos, and did it everyday to be able to use the container up before it went bad.

Baby sweet peas (frozen) will be good to introduce soon, after you have done a few things with texture. If you get the baby sweet ones and cook them til soft, he can just eat them like a finger food.

You can do whatever you like for him as far as combos. The websites I gave you last time have great combo ideas. Just look up the individual fruit or veggie in the search feature, and they will tell you how to prepare it and what it is yummy to mix it with. And you can definitely start mashing up what the rest of you are eating, as long as they are things you already introduced to him to check for allergy reactions. It took me until my son was 12 mos to get through all the fruits and veggies I could make myself. Gerber has a much more limited selection than if you make it yourself. But if we were having broccoli for dinner, I just made some softer for him and mashed it up.

You don't HAVE to let things cool in the fridge before putting in the freezer but you should. If you put a large container of hot food in the freezer it can start to defrost things and that is not good. But an ice cube tray shouldn't do that. BUT, if you cool it first, it is less likely to get freezer burn from "sweating" and it will stay tastier. If something goes inthe freezer hot, it will sweat moisture while it is cooling, and then that moisture will freeze on it.

Sorry so long, but there is a lot of info about making your own! Everyone has recipes and tricks. And making your own will make it so much easier to feed your toddler well. I have found that it is much easier to know what to feed mine now, because I just make the same stuff but don't puree it. Hope all that helps!

1. The 1 - 2 oz. size works great because you can put two or three different foods together to make your baby's 4 oz serving. (veggies and fruits together)
2. To keep yourself from using all of your ice trays during the whole time, take the frozen cubes out and put them in a ziploc bag that you have marked the date and what is in the bag. It only take about 12 - 24 hours for the food to become completely frozen.

You decide what you want to make and how much. Most food will last for 6 months which is well past the point you will need it. Your baby should start eating some table foods now...but mostly by the time he/she is 1 year old.

I found that nonsweetened applesauce in a jar was much cheaper than buying baby applesauce or making it myself. I used the adult portion cups and ate any my daughter didn't finish. They are great to carry in the diaper bag.

I also bought cans of nonsweetened pears and peaches and pureed them and froze them. It took needing to precook the fruit before serving it out of the picture. VERY QUICK, VERY CHEAP, As good as baby food.

3. It depends on your child's preference. Keep trying to go thicker and chunkier, but you can't force them to eat anything if they don't like it or the texture. My daughter liked everything on the pureed side for a long time. You can also puree what everyone else is eating as long as baby has been exposed to the foods previously. You will want to know if the baby has an adverse side affect to a certain food.

I also mixed a scoop of formula for iron (she was breastfed until a year) and a scoop of cereal to make the food a little bit more thicker and fulfilling.

I recommend www.wholesomebabyfood.com as a great resource. Hope this helps!

Just give your child small portions of what the rest of the family is eating. At 10 months my daughter was totally on table foods. Just make sure you cut everything up tiny so that if your baby swallows the bite whole, he/she doesn't choke. Also, stay away from canned vegetables, there's a TON of sodium in them. Not good for babies (or mommies and daddies either). There's no need to stress out! Your baby will do fine with table foods.

Another suggestion...put an old sheet down on the floor under the high chair. Just shake it out after each meal and throw it in the wash every few days.

And finally...get the camera ready! Your child will make a MESS, but it is adorable and makes for GREAT pictures :D

I've been making my 7.5 month old's baby food for about a month or two now. I do not do it all the time so he still gets jarred baby food from time to time.

The simplest thing I try to do is just cook/puree what we are having for dinner. If we're having green beans, cantaloupe, etc, I cut it up (separately) and then use my immersion blender to blend it up. If it's more than 1 jar worth, I put it into a glass baby food jar in the fridge and label it to take to daycare the next day. I have often found that by just trying to make him 1 'meal', I often end up with 2 meals instead.

Then if/when I have free time, I puree up things like bananas and fresh (or canned pears). I have also steamed sweet potatoes and done this as well. What I do instead of the ice cube trays is re-use glass baby food jars. I keep about 5 of them and only make that much baby food at a time. Therefore, my son gets homemade babyfood probably 1 meal a day if not more. I use the glass jars because I am recycling, we do not have ice cube trays (just have an icemaker) and honestly I wasn't sure how it would work out when I thawed them out in the fridge in a plastic bag...cut a hole and squeeze it out? I just imagine a mess, even though I know a lot of people who do this!

As far as letting food cool before you freeze it, I let everything cool slightly on the counter before freezing it so I'm not sure if it has to 'cool' in the fridge first.

Good luck!

For both my kids, I typically make the chicken stock from chicken, drain to make sure no bones left in the soup, add then add chicken meat, celery, asparagus, and carrots (broccoli too to sometimes), cook until tender, and put in blender. I did freeze using ice tray and store them in the formula container (since I had so many by the time they are on baby food) and store in freezer. Each meal, I will put 4 cubes in a ceramic bowl, heat up in microwave, and mix with cheese and rice cereal to serve.

Other than this, I have also made sweet potato puree. My kids loved them. Only bought baby food in jar to put in my diaper bag, just in case. By the time they are on my home made food for 2 months, they usually will not like the taste of baby food in jar anymore. That's the only draw back.

I usually make 2 weeks worth of food. If your baby is older than 10 months, add little bit salt to make food taste better.

Good luck!

At ten months you can start introducing soft foods. Shredded cheese is a favorite. Plain yogurt mixed with vegetables is a great way to help them enjoy vegetables and a lot less sugar than the fruit flavored yogurt. I also suggest looking at wholesome baby food website suggested below.

Your baby can eat anything that dissolves easily in the mouth, for example, Cheerios, rice chex, teething biscuits, nilla wafer cookies, and toast. But take it a step at a time. Offer it and stay with you child while you introduce it. They have to learn how to chew. Some babies learn faster than others.

Also mashed potatoes and rice are also easy for them to eat. To get your baby ready for thicker things like mashed potaoes thicken up food with rice cereal a little at a time and your baby will get there. Also as long as you have introduced it previously you can give them any table food that is ground up, blended, or chopped small. Some people at this point will even grate carrots and give them to there kids although I have not tried that till they are chewwing better. Each kid and mommy is different and you need to follow their cues as well as doing what you feel comfortable with.

As far as cooling things down it is suggested to allow things to cool on the counter first because cooling it in the fridge while hot can encourage bacteria growth. I am not sure I understand the logic but that is what the studies suggest. Then once cooled on the counter you can freeze it.

Good luck and this is a fun time. Watching them eat so many fun new foods and learning how to eat real food. Once your baby gets regular food they may not want anything pureed again. At least that was the experience with my son.

When I had my first daughter, now 3 & 1/2, a friend gave me "The Baby's Table" Bradshaw and Brambley. I made all her baby food.This is a great resource, one which I have recently resurrected as I'm now feeding my 8 month old. It is available on Amazon in Canada, if you can find it you won't be disappointed!
There is great advise on feeding baby's and toddlers as well as recipes.
I think you're on the right track though with grinding or mashing what the rest of the family is eating. I made special meals for my first daughter well into her first year, but I won't repeat that with my second.
At 10 months fruit no longer needs to be cooked, just mashing ripe fruit. If he's chewing, introduce finger foods...baby's love to feed themselves. Try grating peeled apples, cut grapes and cherry tomatoes lengthwise into 4 or 6 pieces. If dairy isn't an issue in your family, you can introduce him to plain yogurt, cheese and cottage cheese. I mash the cottage cheese a bit more and add fruit....she loves it!
The book goes into detail regarding meat, grains, dairy, beans, finger foods...and a whole lot more.
I hope that helps
happy meals:)

H.

The ice cube trays are a really cheap and easy way to freeze your homemade baby food. I don't think your baby is eating a huge amount of food.

My little one typically will eat 2 cubes pumpkin, 1 cube sweet potato, 1 cube broccoli, 1 cube cauliflower, 1 cube avocado. Then for dessert he has 4 cubes, could be pear, apple, banana, plums or a combination. The single cube serving size comes in handy so you can vary the combinations.

If I cook and puree meat, I don't keep it longer than a month in the freezer. It got to be such a pain with the meat that I would mix my homemade veggies with 1/2 a jar of baby food that contains meat (lamb & veggies for example).

If you find a way to NOT completely fill up your freezer let me know! Mine is full of baby food, otherwise I am making it every single weekend.

I have about 30 ice cube trays and fill them all, cover in cling film and freeze over night. Then I pop them out, put them in a ziplock baggie, label and date it.

I think it's great to make your own baby food. My baby food has so much more taste than the jarred stuff. I don't blame my little one for not liking the jars!

I havent started making babyfood yet but I plan to...my friend told me she freezes and dumps into ziploc bags once its frozen to free up ice cube trays....sorry I cant be more help but just thought Id share :)