Make Your Own...

Baby Food!

Why?

• You know exactly what you are feeing your baby
• You provide your baby with more fresh and nutrient-dense produce
• It will save you money
• You can change the texture, allowing your baby to learn how to chew and move his tongue properly
• It's fun

Mrs. K had me over last week to make fresh baby food. Her son L is almost 6 months old and has been eating rice cereal for over a month now. He has done really well with rice cereal even as his mom has been increasing the thickness. L has shown all the signs that he is ready to start solid food and progressed to vegetables and fruit.

Making sure that your baby is ready to start solids is the first step. I believe as a mother, you can tell when your baby is ready. Typically, between 5 and 6 months is about the right time to start solids. Your baby should be able to sit and support himself. Maybe they can't sit alone, but can hold themselves up in a chair or bumbo.

Ellyn Satter, an RD is my FAVORITE child nutrition specialist. She has several AMAZING books that really help to guide a mother through any feeding issue. She said in her book, How to Get Your Kid to Eat, but Not too Much, "The semi-reclining baby will have very little control over the spoon feeding process. The sitting baby can look at the spoon, feel the food with his fingers, get his fingers to his mouth and find out. He can open his mouth and lean forward if he wants to eat; he can close his mouth and turn his head away if he is not interested."

This is one reason that it is not recommended to give cereal through a bottle. Your baby isn't learning how to properly chew or swallow. If you try solids and your baby doesn't seem interested or doesn't use his tongue to move the food around, wait. Then, try again later.

Iron fortified rice cereal mixed with formula or breast milk should be the first food. It is the least likely to cause allergies. Part of the reason for rice cereal is to teach your baby how to eat. Start out with a thinner consistency and then gradually increase the thickness so that your baby learns how to move the food around, chew, and swallow.

After about a month of rice cereal, its time for pureed fruits and vegetables. This is the really fun part. For baby L, we made sweet potatoes, spinach, peaches, carrots, and peas. We did our best to purchase organic produce. Frozen fruits and vegetables are an excellent choice. They are picked at the peak of freshness and the freezing process preserves their nutrients. Therefore, they are often times MORE nutrient packed than fresh produce. This is especially wonderful if your baby is starting solids in the middle of winter when many fruits and vegetables are not in season.

Here are the directions...

For the Sweet Potatoes:

Wash a large sweet potato. Wrap in tin foil and bake at 400 degrees for about an hour. Puree with a hand-held blender, Magic Bullet, or food processor. I don't believe it is necessary to spent a ton of money on fancy "baby food makers." If you have triplets (like someone really cute I know), then it might be worth the extra money.

For the peas, carrots, peaches, and spinach:

Wash properly. Fill a sauce pan with about 1-2 inches of water and bring to a simmer. Add in veggies and cook until a fork is easily inserted. The carrots take about 15 minutes and the spinach takes about 5.Drain the produce, preserving some of the water it cooked in. Puree the produce adding the preserved liquid (which contains some of the nutrients lost in cooking) to create the desired consistency.

A typical serving of fruits and veggies is about 2-3 tablespoons, which is about the size of an ice cube. We froze the baby food in ice cube trays. If Mrs. K is going to be out and about she can just pop one out, place it in a container (BPA-free), and toss it in her diaper bag. Its just as easy as grabbing a jar out of your pantry.

We purchased all of this for about $30. I jar of baby food is about $1. We made about 62 servings. So, the savings are tremendous.

L started with Sweet Potatoes, which is a good move. I started my son on green beans and he was not a fan, its a good thing he will eat them now. Sweet potatoes are packed with nutrients and are slightly sweet, so it makes it a pleasurable experience for your little one. Remember, you are also trying to establish a positive feeding environment and relationship with food. If your baby is healthy and has been doing well on solids wait about 2 days before introducing a new food. L had sweet potatoes on thursday and friday, then he started peas on saturday. Look for signs of allergies such as bloating or rashes.

The beauty of L being totally ready for solids is that once he is through with this batch of baby food, Mrs. K can just prepare a different fruit or veggie for dinner and smash L's portion with a fork. He will be ready to try thicker food that perhaps has some small chucks that he can dissolve with his tongue.

One of Ms. Satter's books, Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense - has a wonderful chart displaying when is the appropriate age for a baby to be introduced to different foods. If your child is doing well, he can transition very quickly through the various foods.

Yes, this was a LONG post. As you can see I am very passionate about this subject and there is a lot more to discuss. Comment with your thoughts and questions!!