Making your own baby food is a great way to save money. On top of that, you’ll be in no doubt about what is in the baby food when you make it yourself.
Here are some top tips for making your own baby food.
1. Choose the freshest fruits and vegetables you can find. Some good beginner fruits are apples, pears and bananas, and some good vegetables are carrots, peas and green beans.
2. Wash the fruit or vegetables really well to remove any pesticides. Even better, start with organic produce, and wash to remove any dirt or contaminants.
3. Peel and then steam or boil the fruit or vegetables until soft. It is not necessary to cook bananas.
4. Puree the fruit or vegetable in a blender or food mill until the fruit or vegetable is the desired consistency. Baby food prepared for babies who are beginning their eating journey should be completely smooth.
You might need to add water or fruit juice to the blender for the fruit or vegetable to blend properly and to be thin enough.
5. Pour or spoon the blended baby food into storage pots or trays and cover with Glad wrap. Put into the freezer.
6. Once the baby food is frozen, remove the cubes from the storage trays and place the cubes of frozen baby food into zip lock plastic bags or plastic containers. Keep the baby food in the freezer until time to serve to baby.
7. When you are ready to feed your baby, remove from the freezer. Then microwave until it thaws and is piping hot to kill off any bacteria. Then allow to cool down before serving your baby. Be sure to check the food’s temperature, so you don’t accidentally feed the baby food that is too hot. Mix thoroughly to avoid hot spots from the microwave as well.
If you don’t have a microwave, you can simply remove the food a bit earlier and allow it to thaw in the refrigerator. It is only safe to allow the food to thaw outside of the refrigerator if you are going to serve the food within the next hour, so you don’t give bacteria a chance to multiply.
Here are some additional things to consider when making your own baby food:
1. You can also use canned or frozen fruits or vegetables when making your own baby food. If you are using canned or frozen fruit and vegetables, be sure to purchase ones that do not have any additives.
2. Try to introduce one new food to your baby at a time. Feed your baby the same food for about 3 days so you can detect any type of food allergies. When you are confident your baby is not allergic to any of the foods, you can mix lots fruits or vegetables together.
3. In the beginning you could try mixing your bay’s first foods whether they be rice cereal, fruits or vegetables, with a bit of their regular milk, so the taste is slightly familiar to them.
Preparing your own baby food is so easy and will definitely save you a lot of money as well as giving you peace of mind as you can hand pick the ingredients. Plus, since homemade baby food can be frozen, you only need to make baby food once a week or even once a month, which makes preparing your own baby food super convenient as well.
