Confession #6: Homemade baby food isn't as tough as it sounds.

Some people love to make baby food. I am not one of those people. That said, I have done a lot of roasting, steaming, pureeing, and freezing over the past couple weeks, in preparation for W to start solids. Why the extra work? I have my reasons.

1 - It's healthy. Looking at labels, you'll find that some baby food actually contains salt or other preservatives! Commercial baby foods generally contain more water too, making the veggies and fruits very thin. I can control the consistency (and texture for an older baby) by preparing the food myself, and I can be sure my son is not eating unnecessary additives.

2 - It's SO much cheaper. Using 3 sweet potatoes, I made 32 servings of food. My average cost per serving was 8 cents, as opposed to 39 cents for a single container of Gerber. 30 cents isn't a fortune, but if your child eats like E did, that quickly becomes $1.50 a meal, and $30 a week. When you consider that you add less water to homemade baby food, you're getting even more bang for your buck. I don't know about you, but I'd rather spend that $30 on something else.

3 - It's easy. It really is. Cook the food (most veggies have little to no prep work), let it cool, puree it in the food processor, spoon it into ice cube trays, and freeze. Notice that most of those steps are unattended! I keep the frozen 2 tbs cubes in Ziploc bags, then defrost as I need them. Some foods, like bananas and avocados, are even easier because you just mash them up with a fork right before feeding your baby!

4 - It's environmentally friendly. I'm pretty sure that most baby food packaging is recyclable, but I think this is a case of less is more. We reuse the ice cube trays, storage bags, bowls, and spoons, so there is virtually no waste.


As this is my second time around the baby food block, I thought I'd also share a few tips and tricks I learned along the way.

1 - http://www.wholesomebabyfoods.com/ is a fantastic website. There are tables that show the foods your baby can have at different ages. They also give recipes for cooking everything from the simplest first foods to multi-ingredient meals for older babies.

2 - Don't put too many cubes in one Ziploc bag. By the time you get to the end, they will have frozen together in one big clump and/or be freezer burnt. Make sure to reuse the Ziploc bag for the next batch!

3 - When making a "new" food, don't make a ton, just in case your baby doesn't like it or has an allergic reaction to it. That said, if your baby refuses a food, keep trying. E would only eat green beans when I mixed them with squash or sweet potatoes, but in the end, I still got him to eat them! (Remember to wait 3 days between introducing new foods.)

4 - Be careful when adding water. Squashes, pears, and apples don't usually need extra water. They have plenty naturally. Green beans and peas don't need much water added, but carrots* and sweet potatoes do. If in doubt, it's better to freeze a thicker food. You can always add water, breast milk, or formula to thin it before serving, if necessary. (*Don't add the reserve water from steaming your carrots. It contains nitrates, which are harmful to your baby.)

5 - Buy bags of frozen green beans and peas. Check the package to make sure there is no salt or other preservatives added. These are two of the cheapest and easiest baby foods to make. Remember, the goal is to provide healthy meals for your baby, not work yourself to death!

6 - Don't bother making peaches. You will work yourself to death. It took forever to peel and slice the peaches, and didn't provide many servings. I feel like the same would be true for apricots and plums. Once your baby is older, these fresh fruits are wonderful, but preparing them as baby food is just not worth the effort for me.

7 - Homemade applesauce is delicious, but I will admit that it does take awhile to peel, core, and cut the apples. If you don't have that time, buy jars of natural applesauce (check the label to make sure there is NO salt and NO corn syrup) on the fruit aisle. It is much cheaper than buying applesauce in the baby food section! Gerber applesauce is smoother, but if your baby isn't ready for the texture of regular applesauce, he's probably not ready for baby food.

8 - Another time and budget-saving tip is to buy canned pumpkin (not canned pumpkin pie), rather than roasting your own - something I have never done! You can get it year-round in the pie making aisle. E used to love pumpkin mixed with his oatmeal, pasta, or other veggies.

9 - Plan ahead for heating food on road trips. We always kept E's food in a cooler, but restaurants don't allow you to heat your food in their kitchens. Since E didn't like anything cold, we had to improvise. The best method we found was to put the covered bowls on the dashboard as we drove down the road, letting the sun do the work. But that is when we planned ahead. The rest of the time we went with the method my husband developed - heating them on our car's engine block. Nothing like standing in the parking lot waiting for your son's food to be ready! I'm sure no one watching thought it was strange when we lifted the hood and put the tiny bowls in our bag...

10 - Don't feel like you have to do it all. I did, and I realized I can't. (And as I learned with the peaches, sometimes I shouldn't.) Do what you can, when you can, and don't feel guilty about the rest. That goes for everything else that comes with being a Super Mommy too.