I Made My Own Baby Food and It Was Easy
Today was my first attempt to make my own baby food. I followed the instructions in the article McKenna wrote about how to make your own baby food in five easy steps. I also read parts of the book, “Super Baby Food” by Ruth Yaron.
I had the choice of starting Ace with avocado or sweet potato. She is half Hispanic and I craved refried beans when I was pregnant, so I went with the avocado. I tried using the food processor attachment on my blender to purify the avocado, but I had to keep stirring it to get it all mixed. I tried my mortar and pestle and that worked well. I may get something else in the future to make it easier. I added some water to the avocado puree to make the food pour from the spoon.
After pureeing the two avocados and adding water to the green goop, I poured the remainder into an ice cube tray. Tomorrow after the cubes are frozen, I will distribute two cubes per freezer bag and date each bag. Two avocados gave me seven servings of baby food.
I fed Ace some of the fresh baby food and she liked avocado! I could tell, because she would open her mouth for more. I followed the book’s instructions to feed my baby early in the day and right after partially breastfeeding her. I only gave her one side, then put her in the high chair. After she was all done with the avocado, I finished breastfeeding her on the other side. It worked. Although, I don’t want to have to partially breastfeed her before eating all the time, because it is an extra time-consuming step in the process.
I am surprised by how easy the whole process was. I know other vegetables may be more time consuming to cook, but it is not much more time than making a meal for myself. I really like knowing exactly what is in my baby’s food. It also makes me feel good that my daughter is eating fresh vegetables. What could be better than that?
Do you make your own baby food? Have you tried? What has been your experience with home made baby food?
Share the fun: Email + Del.icio.us + Digg + Technorati
I made all the boys baby food when they were little. Once I got into the habit of making the food it was pretty easy. I discovered that they actually got more variety in their diets because the Gerber baby foods only serve pretty basic vegetables and fruits (peas, green beans) but my boys got used to spinach, kale, broccoli, avacado, zucchini and all sorts of other goodies.
I even ground all my grains and cooked them for their cereals. They got a variety of lentils, beans, and split peas too for extra protein. Again, more variety. The boxed cereals always felt too processed to me–even the whole grain ones. I used “the ultimate chopper” food processor for the grinding of all the grains and legumes. But I loved that they ate millet, oats, barley, brown rice all non processed. Grinding the grains was loud and the food processor worked great. You have to have a good powered food processor to do it though.
I really enjoyed the whole process and when Graham starts eating solids I will do it all over again!
great topic. try replacing the water with breast milk or formula.
I have made all of Brielle’s food as well. She gets so much more out of my food than she would with store bought. All of the food is so easy to prepare and serve. I hope she will be just as good an eater when we venture into bigger foods as a toddler.
[...] Karmel. I also like http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com. In addition, you can check out Amanda’s post on making baby [...]