Reasons to make your own baby food?

[megs193]

For those of you who make your own baby food, why did you decide to make it instead of buying it? How do you make it and how time consuming is it?

[6fsn]

It's much cheaper. I could control what consistency. With my oldest we were in a tiny town and the food options and combinations were incredibly limited. I also liked being able to use vegetables fresh from the garden. I tried the meats, but really they ROI was not worth it and it squicked me out.

www.wholesomebabyfood.com is an great resource for the how and when to feed what. For supplies I used a stick blender and 3 ice cube trays with lids. I'd bake/steam whatever I was wanting to make then puree and freeze in the trays. Pop 'em out and dump in a ziploc. Some stuff took longer (peaches were a PITA), but beans or peas were 30 mins and I could have a month's supply.

[geneg]

Aug 8, 2012 6:40:51 GMT -5 6fsn said:

It's much cheaper.

This.

We've done this twice. You just get fresh F&V in season (or frozen), cook as desired, then puree in a food processor, freeze in ice cube trays, then store in zip lock bags (snack size holds 4-5 cubes). Take a weekend and make a month's worth of food. Repeat for a total of 3 or MAYBE four times and by then your kiddo is eating table food. I loved being able to mix fun things like strawberry with broccoli and apples with peas.

[karinothing]

6Fsn - I am surprised you found peaches to be a pain? DH makes a chunky peach puree to give DS as dessert sometimes and it takes about 2 minutes? He just slices up peaches and throws them in the food processor peel and all. Are you steaming them or peeling them first?

Anyway - we only make purees on the rarity since DS doesn't usually eat them, but I like that once the baby gets a little older you can really make them a lot chunkier than the purees I have seen in the store. I feel like the store purees for the older babies are just thicker but not chunky if that makes sense?

[Deleted]

Ditto pp, it is cheaper :-)

[6fsn]

I hate cutting peaches and mangoes up. I always feel like I waste a lot of fruit getting the pits out. The peach pits cut my hands and I can never get that mango trick of turning the peel inside out. I'm not normally a dolt in the kitchen, but these confound me.

[karinothing]

ha ha. I can't cut mangos either. Don't worry! For peaches I just cut around the pit and put that in the processor. I think eat the remainder around the pit so it doesn't go to waste

[aspentosh]

It's cheaper.

I bought a bunch of peaches, nectarines, plums, sweet potatoes, carrots, apples, avocados and bananas for a good deal and got a couple months worth of food out of it. Plus I can make it the consistency I want and control ingredients.

[6fsn]

I never make applesauce either. I will put apples in things, but it's just as easy and cost effective to get the no sugar added stuff.

[wordtothewise]

I liked being able to control the consistency. Store bought baby food seems too smooth. Also, a lot of the organic store bought food had additives (which is strange because the reg Gerber food does not). I wanted to be able to do straight organic fruits and veggies. It was easy and not time consuming at all.

[ohgillian]

Ditto all the PPs -- it was cheaper than buying baby food. Also, DH and I make most of our own food, so I didn't see why we wouldn't do the same for DS. Finally, I liked not having so much container waste (packaging, etc - even when jars recycle, that's not as good as not using them to begin with). But the primary factor was cost, definitely.

[atouchofklasse]

I will be the dissenting opinion.

I love to cook and made all of his purées. He switched to finger food and then whatever we were eating pretty early and all the (frozen) organic local baby food I'd made went to waste.

Next time I won't bother and will just get Earths Best as needed.

[drloretta]

Because it was way cheaper and I could control what went into it. Oh, and I like to cook

Super easy. For purees you steam, blend, and freeze.

And I know a lot of people who do Baby-Led Weaning, which sounds even less labor-intensive

ETA: Applesauce was easy in the crock pot

[ohgillian]

Aug 8, 2012 9:13:15 GMT -5 drloretta said:

ETA: Applesauce was easy in the crock pot

This. I still make hugs vats of applesauce for DS. I just put chopped apples in the crockpot for 4 hours (nothing else; no water, sugar, etc). When they're done, I let it cool, then I run it thru the food processor and then freeze it in jars. I made a batch recently and we probably have 10 jars in the freezer.

[definitelyO]

I made all DS's food. he had a lot of allergies and I wanted to make sure that everything was in a more controlled environment. plus I liked the lack of processing and just knowing that I was able to do this for DS.

[nonsenseabound]

lots of ppl make it in the crockpot. Super easy.

I did it with my first, but my 2nd I've been more lazy. But he is willing to eat finger food much earlier than my other child. So he gets finger foods and then some purees afterwards (he's 8 months)

[Deleted]

My DS would NOT eat homemade baby food. Only store bought. He is a non mm baby!

[starlily]

I liked doing it do that I could offer a wider variety of fruits & vegetables.

[oregonpachey]

Aug 8, 2012 10:12:57 GMT -5 @savestheday said:

My DS would NOT eat homemade baby food. Only store bought. He is a non mm baby!

Same with mine! I did give him some homemade yams mixed with brown rice yesterday and he did eat it. Maybe I just need to trick him.

[iheartbanjos]

It's cheaper and I know exactly what's going into it. After the first initial foods, I always did fruit and veggie combos. My kid got some spinach at pretty much every meal, but I always mixed it with mangoes or blueberries. I liked making my own blends.

[Deleted]

I made a bit, and then ended up doing baby-led weaning which was even easier. DS hated being spoon fed, so it didn't make sense to push purees. Moral of the story: don't make it in advance.

[hannamaren]

Aug 8, 2012 10:55:24 GMT -5 oregonpachey said:

Aug 8, 2012 10:12:57 GMT -5 @savestheday said:

My DS would NOT eat homemade baby food. Only store bought. He is a non mm baby!

Same with mine! I did give him some homemade yams mixed with brown rice yesterday and he did eat it. Maybe I just need to trick him.

My kid hates the store bought stuff. I have to mix it with yogourt or something.
I have made 80% of her food. It didnt take long and seemed nicer. Whenever I taste the jarred stuff vs the homemade, I feel bad for taking a lazy day.

[Deleted]

way cheaper and it was really easy. Also DD had a lot of allergies as a baby.

[nannersp]

Same as Farmvillelover -- I just wanted to try it. And being cheaper was a nice bonus, although I used a Beaba Babycook that I found for cheap on Craigslist, so that made things super easy. I also used a lot of the precut bagged veggies, like squash, that they sell at Trader Joe's, so it was even easier.

We used the premade stuff when we were traveling/eating out or when it was the more complicated flavor combinations/foods I didn't want to try to make myself.

[curbsideprophet]

We did BLW, so there was no need for store bought baby food.

[anna7602]

We did it, but there are some things that didn't seem worth it to me. Peas were a total PITA, for example. I was never able to get them as smooth as the kind in the store-bought jars. And certain fruits were not MM if they weren't in season. (DD started on table food in the late fall/early winter.) Guava, for example, and most other tropical fruits except for mango, were impossible for me. I ended up buying baby-food jars of these in the Hispanic foods section of the grocery store (maybe just a NY thing, but they were near the Goya items).

On the other hand, there were certain foods that DD wouldn't have been able to try early on at all if I hadn't made them- pureed lentils, black beans & rice (put them through the blender once cooked), etc.

If you don't feel like dealing with steaming, trays, pureeing, etc., there are certain foods that are super easy to mash on the spot, like bananas and baked sweet potatoes. ETA: and avocados! DD loved avocados as a baby.

[bunch]

Aug 8, 2012 8:42:32 GMT -5 atouchofklasse said:

I will be the dissenting opinion.

I love to cook and made all of his purées. He switched to finger food and then whatever we were eating pretty early and all the (frozen) organic local baby food I'd made went to waste.

Next time I won't bother and will just get Earths Best as needed.

I had a similar experience. We only used a fraction of the cubes I made because we switched to BLW. That said, if I go the purée route at all next time, I'll make them again. I just won't make so much,