HAVE YOUR EVER THOUGHT ABOUT MAKING YOUR OWN BABY FOOD???

You know, I had never really thought about making my own baby food before.  The thought just never really crossed my mind to tell you the truth.  Sure, I had heard of people doing it, but never really knew anyone who had done it.  But after I had this last baby (she was born Sept. 10th of 2009), I was talking to a friend of mine, who had a baby just the month before me.  She was making her own baby food as well, for the very first time.  And as we started talking about it, I decided I would give it a try.  It is much simpler than I thought it was, probably much better for your baby, and soooooo much cheaper than buying the already prepared jar foods.

The very first food I did for Mary (my 7 month old) was sweet potatoes.  Now, I don't eat sweet potatoes myself, so I didn't know the first thing about how to cook one.  But I learned it is no different than cooking a regular potato.  I bought a couple of organic sweet potatoes.  I put them in the microwave and then scooped out the insides.  I put it in my food processor with a little bit of water.  (I recommend a food processor rather than a blender because the blender may not get the strings out) The sweet potato might be a little bit pasty, but if you just add a little bit of water, it is fine.  Once you have it at your desired consistency, you put it in ice trays and freeze it.  Once it is frozen, you put into ziploc snack bags and voila!  You have baby food!!!  You simply defrost when you are ready to serve.  You can do that just by setting the food out or putting it in hot water; depending on how quickly you plan on feeding your baby.  I ended up making 16 servings for $1 my first go round.  Yes, I said a dollar!!!  Sixteen servings in the regular small jars would have cost approximately $5.00; actually probably a little bit more.  Those jars run about $.33 a piece.

How to make:

You certainly can just feed your baby the food just as it is.  But I chose to start Mary out by mixing a little bit of organic baby cereal along with some of my breast milk.  I gave that to her for a couple of weeks.  Once I knew she could tolerate that okay, I then mixed the sweet potatoes with that and fed it all to her. 

Bananas-  Of course, there isn't any cooking involved with bananas.  You simply peel, puree and freeze in the ice trays, etc.  I did add just a touch of lemon juice to it to keep them from getting too brown.

Avacado-  You just buy them really ripe and again put them in the food processor and repeat the above process.  (I also added a touch of lemon juice to this as I did to the bananas)

Apples and Pears-  For those, you would peel them first.  I use a special apple cutter that slices the apple and then also takes out the core.  You can use this tool with the pears as well.  You then boil them.  (I boiled them separately but you don't have to).  Once they are fork tender, I puree them in the food processor.  These fruits hold a lot of water just from the boiling process, but if it seems a bit thick, I just add a little bit of the water I boiled the fruit in until I get the desired consistency.

Tips:

• If you are unsure about a fruit or vegetable, simply look at the first foods that are in jars down the baby food isle.  That is where I got my ideas from as far as what to prepare for Mary's age.
• Use a food processor instead of a blender (if you have one).  I think the food processor does a better job of pureeing the food.
• Only introduce one fruit or vegetable per week.  The reason for this, is so that if your baby has an allergic reaction to something you have fed him/her, you can pin point exactly which fruit/vegetable it was.

Making your own baby food is so much better for your baby and so much more cost effective.  You can make tons of baby food in advance also.  So, this isn't something you have to do every day.  The more ice trays you have, the more food you can prepare at once.  I only have to make food about once a month!  I never dreamed it would be this easy and it has been said that making your own food and exposing them to more foods, will help your child to not be such a picky eater; as many children often are.  There are lots of benefits to both mom and baby!