Homemade Baby Food

Like all parents I want the very best for my children. Like most people I want my paycheck to stretch as far as possible.

Adding cereal and basic baby food to a baby's routine seemed to creep up on me with my first born. We had just gotten really efficient at nursing and now we were supposed to add something new.

My sister invited me to a class about homemade baby food taught by the cooperative extension office. As the baby boomer distributed recipes, reviewed preparation techniques, and touted the financial savings - I vowed to feed my child homemade baby food exclusively.

Making homemade baby food is relatively simple and offers your baby the opportunity to sample foods not offered in commercial baby foods.  At best I was able to identify 8-10 different first foods for babies in the commercial variety.  By making my own baby food, my children were able to try 20-30 various fruits and vegetables - including Bok Choy, Spinach, Spaghetti Squash, Mango just to name a few - before 12 months of age.

Because I was not 100% confident in my ability to select and prepare fruits and vegetables for my first born, I purchased Blender Baby Food.  With a few additional supplies (a blender and several ice cube trays) I embarked on the extraordinary journey of homemade baby food.

By utilizing a couple of hours each weekend to steam and blend fruits and vegetables, I was able to provide homemade baby food for my oldest.  Once I got a system down, I found that making my own baby food was more convenient than purchasing jars. 

Here's what I did:

1. Purchased in season fresh vegetables and fruits from a local Farmer's Market (substituted frozen when fresh was not an option)
2. Steamed the vegetables and/or fruits
3. Once steamed, let them cool
4. Placed the vegetable and/or fruit in the blender (I recommend the Magic Bullet but have used my blender)
5. Add enough water from the water used to steam the food to make the food the consistency you desire
6. Place blended baby food in ice cube trays, cover with plastic wrap and freeze
7. Once frozen (after approximately 24 hours) remove cubes from tray and place in labeled freezer bags

Here are a couple of pitfalls to avoid:

• Frozen Peas often contain salt (Birds Eye frozen peas are the only brand of frozen peas that do not have salt added to them)
•  If you make your own rice cereal, you can use baby formula samples to add iron to the rice (since that is the stated benefit to utilizing instant baby cereals)

It would have easy to buy baby food and utilize the time I dedicated to that venture somewhere else.  But when my 2 year old enthusiastically requests peas for dinner, I am grateful I took the time to offer variety in his first year - I think that contributes to his healthy choices now!