Did you know making your own baby food is actually really easy and it can save you a lot of money?

On a related side note, have you ever tasted jarred baby food?  I see a lot of crinkled up noses and looks of disgust when I see parents taste testing for temperature and I think, why are you feeding that to your baby then?!?!

 Some other advantages of making your baby’s food yourself are: 

• it gives you control over what’s put into your baby’s food
• it’s free of additives, it ensures that no foods that are allergenic are hidden
• only high quality foods are selected for your baby
• your baby is exposed to a greater variety of tastes and textures which makes the transition to table foods less stressful
• you feed your baby according to his/her needs and cues
• you know what foods are best suited for your baby
• healthy eating habits develop earlier as your involvement is dedicated to making only high quality, healthy baby foods and snacks

 I was sold on making food for the savings.  You can find a lot of cost comparisons online but what I found was 1-16 oz. bag of frozen vegetables that I can get for $1.00 would make about 18-1 oz. servings using the ice cube tray which works out to be $0.06 per ounce whereas a commercially jarred vegetable would work out to be $0.23 per ounce, almost 4X as more.  Beyond, just the monetary reward, I found it very satisfying to be making my own food.  I mean, it’s what we used to do all the time anyway, we just gave into the convenience of commercially prepared things but then we have to sacrifice the content. 

Making baby food can be just using a food mill or even a fork to mash up whatever food you are eating yourself but you then need to watch for spices or extra ingredients that the baby has not been introduced to yet.  I found the ice cube tray method in which you puree the steamed fruit or vegetable and put it into an ice cube tray covered with plastic wrap, freeze and then transfer to labeled freezer bags for the perfect 1 ounce portion to be so easy and it worked great.  You spend an hour a two at a time preparing different varieties ahead of time and then just take out the food (and defrost for 4 hours in the fridge or use the microwave) when you want to give it to baby.

So, what do you need to make your own baby food?  A food processor or blender, fork or potato masher, food mill, fine-meshed strainer, hand-cranked baby-food grinder, vegetable brush and peeler, vegetable steamer, sharp paring knife, ice-cube trays, freezer bags, plastic wrap, marking pen and cutting board.  You probably have all the equipment already in your kitchen but even if you need to get some tools or gadgets, the savings from jarred baby food will offset that.  Also, any good kitchen guru can improvise with what they already have.

Now, there are some ”disadvantages” too, to preparing your own baby food.  Cleanliness should be a high priority to avoid contamination.  Since there are no preservatives, the food can spoil faster.  You need to be knowledgeable in nitrates in food(risk of poisoning is very, very low).  It’s not as convenient as commercially jarred baby food.  There are no vitamin and mineral enrichment like in commercially made baby cereals.

There are a lot of baby cookbooks out there to refer to but in my opinion, they aren’t worth the time or money.  I felt the recipes were not likely something anyone else in my family would eat and they take a lot of time to prepare.  I was also in the mindset of simple foods to give my babies the pure taste of the food.  I always get comments on how good my kids eat and I attribute that to the variety of foods they were introduced to and to the purity of the foods.  The first time my son had a frosted cookie at a party, he didn’t eat it – it was too sweet!

I primarily used two resources when making my baby food.  The first was Fresh Start Cworkbook by Joan Ahlers and Cheryl Tallman.  It is more like a workbook that provides an easy-to-follow, personalized guide to making baby food at home.   It has “recipes” for over 40 fruits, vegetables and protein sources and is organized by age of introduction.  There are also tips on selecting fresh produce, cooking with herbs and spices, and making tasty meals and the information is consistent with the American Academy of Pediatrics.  The second was an e-book called The Book of Infant Solid Foods & Making Homemade Baby Food from wholesomebabyfood.com.  It is packed full of useful information like: solid foods & your baby, food allergies, first foods for babies, baby’s digestion, cost benefit of homemade baby food, preparing homemade baby food, homemade baby food recipe collection, FAQ on preparing foods for baby,fruits, vegetables, meats, grains and baby food instructions.  It was $4.95 to download and well worth it.  I printed it out and put it into a 3-ring binder for easy reference.  Their website also has a lot of helpful information and other downloads for free.  I guess I will throw one more resource out there.  It’s Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron.  I like this one because it breaks things down month by month and then there are a lot of kitchen tips in it and even play dough recipes!