How to Make Homemade Baby Food

Back in the seventies when I was born it was common place to make your own baby food. Many women found it far more economical to purchase ingredients to make food for their babies rather than pay by the jar. My mother was a house wife at the time and managed to make baby food for all five of her children. As the decades passed and we eased more into living for convenience mothers who took the time to make their own baby food became more rare. However, making your own baby food is easier now than ever before. With todays modern appliances you can have your child's meal whipped up in no time at all.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. What could be better than knowing exactly what is going into your babies mouth? When you make your own baby food you are in total control over the contents of their meals. Homemade baby food is less complex and purer than that of it's store bought counter parts. All that is required to quickly and easily prepare your babies meals is a blender or food processor for pureeing chopped foods. Organic foods are best, after all what is the point of homemade food if you are still using chemically processed ingredients.
2. When starting your baby on solid foods you should always introduce one food at a time, spacing a few days in between each new food. Doing this gives you the ability to take note of any adverse reactions to certain foods. Starting off simple is best in phase one of food introduction. Fruits you can try would be apples, pears, bananas and papayas. Some basic vegetables to try would be carrots, potatoes, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, rutabaga and parsnips. Typically, you will either cook your ingredients by either steaming or baking to soften them before pureeing. Obviously ripened bananas and papayas don't require cooking as they are soft enough to begin with. When you have pureed your ingredient, you should add water to give it a better consistency for eating. An example of food to water ratio would be four apples to a half cup water. You may also consider mixing ingredients with either breast milk or formula as the taste is most familiar to your baby at this point. Adding rice cereal to any of these ingredients is also an option you may want to try.
3. When your baby is ready to move on to more complex dishes, you are ready for phase two. Adding, meats makes this phase somewhat complicated, because many babies do not like meats. The best way to introduce meats is to make a mixed meal. Try dishes like chicken and sweet potato, chicken and apples, beef and carrots or beef and peas. Combining the meats with familiar tastes with make them more palatable to your baby. You will still want to stick with a slow introduction to all new ingredients, as will in all phases. In this phase you can add in new fruits and veggies as well. Try peach, cranberry, blueberry, cantaloupe, broccoli and peas. As with phase one you will puree ingredients and add desired amount of water for consistency. Food should be slightly thicker in consistency during phase two.
4. Steaming food is the best option for cooking your ingredients because it maintains the nutrients of the food better than boiling or baking. When making homemade baby food many people feel it is easiest to make large quantities and freeze portions. Freezing your homemade creations is certainly acceptable. Most people who make homemade baby food prefer to freeze in portion sizes. To do this they use ice cube trays. Simply fill they ice cube trays with puree and allow them to freeze. After they are frozen place them in labeled bags for storing. The frozen cubes can be stored for up to eight weeks. Do not refreeze defrosted foods and never reheat a meal more than once. When you have taken cubes out of the freezer, only leave them in the refrigerator for forty eight hours then dispose of left overs. Additionally, you should never freeze bananas. If you choose not to freeze puree, stored in the refrigerator it must be used within seventy two hours.
5. Given that homemade baby food is intended to be basic, recipes are essentially optional. However, if recipes interest you there are many resources at your disposal. A simple Internet search will yield dozens of results that will assist you in your preparation. Additionally, many books can be purchased with helpful recipes and tips as well.