Baby's first taste of solid food is an exciting (and messy!) milestone. When baby is ready to start solids, at about six months of age, parents should consider the benefits of making their own baby food. Homemade baby food is a simple, nutritious, and cost-saving alternative to store-bought baby food.
Baby's First Foods
The first foods introduced are generally cereals and grains, including rice, oat, and barley. The next foods offered are easy to digest vegetables, including sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, green beans, and fruits, including bananas, pears, and apples.
Buying prepackaged baby foods is a convenient way to introduce these first foods, but it's surprisingly simple for parents to prepare, store, and serve their own at home. Plus, parents can save money and have total control over the foods their baby eats.
Choosing Baby's Food
When making homemade baby food, choosing the foods to serve becomes the key first step. Whether it's from a grocery store, a farmer's market, or their own backyard, parents can hand select the food, gaining total control over what goes into their baby's body and peace of mind that they are serving the best food needed for a healthy baby.
Other choices to make: fresh or frozen, organic or not. It doesn't matter which a parent chooses as long as they are happy with their choice and feel it's best for baby.
Steaming Veggies & Fruits
It's easy to steam or boil most veggies. Cut sweet potatoes and squash (zucchini and yellow squash are good choices) into thin slices, and use a vegetable steamer to cook until food is very soft. Carrots and green beans can be put into a steamer whole. Again, cook the vegetables thoroughly to soften.
Fruits can be steamed to make them soft enough to mash. Bananas and other soft fruits don't need to be cooked before moving to the next step. Apples and pears are good first food choices for steaming.
Other recipe ideas for homemade baby food are available online.
Blending Baby's Foods
Once cooked, take each group of foods and mash until creamy. A blender or food processor works well and can liquefy the fruits and veggies. Let food cool for approximately 15 minutes before using the blender to puree baby's foods. Add a few ounces of cool water before blending.
Make sure to keep each food separate as they are prepared. Each first food is meant to be fed to baby individually. As baby moves on to second stage foods, these first foods can be served together and prepared with a thicker consistency.
Freezing/Storing Homemade Baby Food
Ice cube trays aren't just for ice cubes anymore! They work perfectly for freezing homemade baby food. Simply pour the pureed fruits and vegetables into ice cube trays and freeze overnight. Once frozen, the food can be stored in the trays or the cubes can be stored in freezer bags.
Parents should be sure to mark each bag with the name of the food item and the date it was frozen. Baby food can be kept in the freezer for up to three months.
Feeding Baby
When baby is ready to eat, the homemade baby food is ready to go! Parents should remove a frozen cube (or two) and thaw to soften in the microwave. Each cube is approximately one ounce. Be sure to test the temperature once the cube is microwaved so that the food is not too hot for baby.
Once back into a liquid, the food can be served in this pureed form. For older babies, add rice, oat, or barley cereal to the fruit or veggie cube once thawed. Parents can add breastmilk, milk or water to get the right consistency. The cereal thickens the food for older taste buds ready to try thicker, second stage foods.
Other Key Tips on Making Food for Young Children
- Buy and store in bulk – set aside a time each week or month to prepare all the baby food needed for the following week or month. Food preparation time will be minimal once parents have a stash of food in the freezer.
- Label, label, label – make sure all of baby's frozen foods are labeled. It wouldn't do to have the babysitter mixing up the peaches and the carrots (that could produce a diaper disaster!).
- For more tips on introducing baby to solid foods, check out Starting Baby on Solid Food.
Homemade baby food is an easy and cost-effective way for parents to introduce nutritious and delicious first foods for baby. By following a few simple steps – from the selection of baby's first foods, steaming, blending, freezing and storing fruits and veggies – parents are quickly on their way to feeding baby homemade baby foods.
Jeannie Meagher Chapman - Jeannie's love of writing began in high school and developed in college, where she was writer, editor, and proofreader for her ...
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