So, I've followed the advice of our pediatrician in knowing when to start Anna on cereal, veggies and fruits. After a friend convinced me that making baby food was easy and WAY cheaper and healthier, I thought "Why not?" And so began my baby food making adventures. I checked out several library books and read some good internet sites, which I will include later.
Anna started cereal around 4 months.
She started veggies & fruits around 6 months.
We started with carrots, avocados, and sweet potatoes. It took a little while for her to warm up, but all of these foods were a hit. Here's how I prepared them:
Carrots (can use for Peas, Sweet Potatoes, etc): Before I invested in a rice cooker/steamer, I boiled the carrots in a little water. Here are the steps*:
1.Peel the carrots first, especially if you don't buy organic, because carrot skins can contain a lot of nitrates, which are not good for little babies.
2.Chop the carrots into uniform pieces.
3.Using 1 or 2 cups of water, bring to a boil and then let carrots cook until they will fall apart easily with a fork.
4.Test several pieces to make sure they are all tender.
5.Drain and let cool. This step really helps when mashing.
6. Add about 1 Tablespoon water (I use tap water now, but started with filtered) and puree with food processor, hand blender, stand up blender, or fork. Add more water as needed - Anna really liked it more runny at first.
Note: I used a blender in the beginning, but found it didn't work well. I use a little single blade chopper now.
Here is a similar one. It works great, as long as you cook the veggies long enough.
7. Serve to hungry baby!
* I have found that using a 1 lb pound bag from walmart will last us 4-5 feedings these days.
Sweet Potatoes*: Lately, I've been steaming sweet potatoes in our rice cooker, steamer.
This is the one we have and I LOVE it. But I also like to bake sweet potatoes, so here are the steps for that:
1. Scrub& wash the skins with vegetable brush.
2. Dry skins and poke holes in skins with a fork - VERY IMPORTANT!
3. Wrap potatoes in foil and bake at 350 for an hour.
Here is an alternative way to bake them.
4. Take potatoes out and check if they are soft (unwrap them and check with fork). If not soft enough, bake 20 more minutes.
5. Cut them length wise and let them cool. Scoop out the flesh and leave the skins aside (or feed them to a husband).
6. Mash the flesh of potato well, but you shouldn't need to do too much if cooked well.
7. Serve to hungry baby :). Watch out for strings, as sweet potato flesh can be a bit stringy when baked. Anna did fine with them though.
* 1 sweet potato usually makes 2-3 servings for Anna.
Avocados*: No cooking involved! Just follow these steps!
1. Make sure the avocado is ripe! It should feel soft to the touch on the outside and when you cut into it, it should be green along the skin and yellow inside - with hardly any brown (but some brown is ok!).
2. I always cut width wise, remove the pit and use a spoon to dig out the fruit.
3. Mash with a fork or spoon.
4. Serve to hungry baby! **
*Bananas are super easy too, but can cause constipation.
** 1 avocado usually makes 2 servings for Anna. Maybe 3 servings for smaller babies.
A few general tips:
- Don't feed the baby from the same container that you store the food in. Baby's saliva can cause the food to become contaminated with bacteria and spoil the whole lot. Just take out a serving from the container and use a different one.
- Don't become discouraged if baby doesn't seem excited about the food at first. Anna always makes a bad face on the first few bites, but if I'm patient, she will usually eat a whole serving of the food.
- Always have some easy foods on hand for when you run out of baby food. I always try to have bananas and avocados around.
- Teach baby a sign to say "All done" or "More" to communicate instead of crying.
- Make several batches of baby food and freeze them to save time.
Here's an
awesome website where I get most of my info!
