Our baby will be 4 months soon and we have started thinking about solids (probably won't start until around 6 months). Thinking about purchasing a Babycook or something similar. I know the benefits of making your own but I wonder if I'll have enough energy at the end of the day to add in making baby food - I feel like I run thin as is. Curious what others think/do...
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I worried about that, too, but as your baby gets a little bit older (my LO is 5.5 months old), he/she becomes more fun and not *as* tiring as they are right now. That being said, I am now super excited to be making LO's food...I can't wait! No matter how tired I feel, the thought of dicing, steaming, and pureeing LO's food gives me something to look forward to. I got the Baby Brezza, which is really easy to use.
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I certainly run thin with her, SO, the house and work but I make all of it on one day on the weekend for the week,.
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I made solids and it's really easy! I would make batches of it and freeze it in the Beaba silicone trays. Whenever it was time to feed, I would pop one out and defrost it (steam it or when LO gets a little older, microwave). Super easy. I would trays of different foods and mix and match. Like I would make 1 tray each of broccoli, cauliflower and carrot. And I would mix broccoli/carrots for one meal and broccoli/cauliflower for another meal. I used the Beaba babycook and it was really easy. But if I had to do it again, I would just use a regular steam basket and blender.
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I agree with Banana. Making your own really isn't that bad. I had the same system she described and also used the Beaba. However, I don't think the Beaba is necessary if you already have a food processor or blender. The small size of it was kind of a pain when you wanted to make big batches.
Home made baby food tastes so much better than the jar stuff and is worth a little extra effort. Plus it will save you money.
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If you have an easy to clean food processor it shouldnt take too long to make your own baby food. Plus you could always make it in batches and store it in the fridge or freezer so you wouldnt have to make new baby food every single day unless you want to
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My plan now is to make my lo's food, but we still have a couple of weeks so I don't have much advice. My plan is to make a lot and freeze it. I think for me it's important because I still carry guilt from not being able to breastfeed, so I want to be able to put healthy things in her body now.
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I would like to make my baby food when I have a LO. Lately I've been interested in reading about baby led weaning.
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I make food most of the time, but I also buy stage 1 pears for my LO since she gets constipated often.
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Maybe you can try and then decide? If it makes you feel any better, it's actually pretty easy and fast to do!
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I plan on making LO's baby food once that time comes (still waiting for her to come out...). Instead of the baby food makers, I had on my xmas wishlist and received the Cuisinart CSB-76 stick blender. It's an immersion blender, so you can use it to blend anything inside any container you have. I read somewhere it's easier to use, especially for baby foods, since you can just puree right inside the pot you cooked/steamed/boiled the foods in!
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Baby food is not really that much of a chore. My LO is 8.5 months now and I probably make 90% of the food.
I just steam or microwave up extra of whatever veggies we are having.
So if we are having stir fry then I chop up some extra carrot and broccoli and cook it separately. As LO is a little older I can just fork mash all the food. For meat I just cut off a small part of ours, finely chop it and add some liquid when I serve it to LO. We are going to start to introduce some seasonings to expand LOs tastebuds. -
Meant to add. LO has meat and veggies at lunch time, breakfast is cereal and early evening is fruit. For the fruit I use store bought baby food.
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I make it in batches and it's really easy. Now I jut grab what I want out of the freezer and it's ready to go
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Good to hear so many positives about making your own. Thinking about purchasing a beaba to make the process go a little faster. Are they easy to clean?
@artbee - don't feel guilty - millions of babies are formula feed and are smart and healthy (including myself). A mom just has to do the best they can!
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We buy food for now (he's 4 months) but will start baby led weaning at about 6 months so he'll be eating what we are.
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I make it fresh at almost every feeding (I stay at home) but I do supplement with store bought for some things, like when we're out and about. I use the Beaba Babycook and it's one of the best purchases we made. We have very limited freezer space (our freezer is smaller than most people's microwaves) so it's not so easy to make big batches and store it! Sometimes I steam veggies in it for my husband and I. I also buy partially cooked butternut squash in a pouch and use it for soup!
Re: cleaning the Beaba...you have to be careful not to overfill it when cleaning the processing cup, it has a slit in the handle to let steam in and it could get water in it, which I don't know how it would dry. I'd also suggest ordering a few extra blades and gasket. We're on our third blade in about 6 months of daily usage.
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@theknest: I know I shouldn't feel guilty. I tried my hardest, it didn't work for us, and my baby is still very healthy and well fed. But I can't help it.... stupid breast is best always gets to me!
Good luck with baby food making! I actually just bought a cookbook for baby food. It teaches you how to make very simple things, then tells you how to freeze them.
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Making your own baby food is super easy. I agree with others that the Beaba isn't necessary. What I do is...
1) Cut up veggies into smaller chunks then steam (carrots, green beans, squash, pumpkin, etc.
2) Blend in blender. Add water/breastmilk/formula to thin it out... or add some rice cereal to thicken it.
3) I freeze everything in ice cube trays with lids. Each little cube = 1 ounce. So it's easy to portion out and mix and match (like carrots + pumpkin in one).You really only have to make a bigger batch once a week and freeze. Then whenever you feed your LO you can just defrost in microwave. Not as time consuming as it seems!
I quickly transitioned from purees to Baby Led Weaning when LO was 7-8 months.
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We make our own baby food too. I mean a lot of times it's just squishing up a piece of banana or scrapping off pieces of avocado so there's no prep. But for stuff I have to prep I make around 20 servings at a time and freeze it so it's not too bad since it's done in bulk.
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Best, affordable storage trays?
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I really liked the Beaba silicone storage trays. Kind of expensive though (around $20 each?) I tried other plastic ice-cube style trays and they were just too hard to pop the food out of and the lids would always pop open. Maybe you can find something less expensive but for me, I really liked the Beaba trays and I'd buy them again in a heart beat.
If you end up finding one that you really like, please share!
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I just made my very first batch of baby food (sweet potato) and it was so fun! And easy!
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