As Mothers, we always want to do what’s best for our children. That means something different for every Mother. Some cloth diaper. Some teach their babies sign language. Some practice baby lead weaning. Some start their infants in swimming lessons as early as 6 months old. I make all organic baby food from scratch!
To some moms, this isn’t important, and that’s okay. But to me, it is! When I first got pregnant, I started researching everything infant. And in my research, I came across what to do when it was time to start solids. And you know what I found? A bunch of news articles from a few years ago about how Gerber baby food was recalled because a set of parents found glass in one of the jars.
Glass.
After learning that fact alone, I knew I wanted to make all my own food. Plus, I tend to be on the “granola” side of things, so I knew it would be better for him if I made him all organic food from scratch. Plus its a lot less expensive to make it myself!
Disclaimer: I know baby lead weaning is very popular right now. Yes, I’ve looked into it. And yes, I think it’s great! BLW is not recommended for babies who were born prematurely since they are usually behind developmentally and are more likely to choke. Because of this, our doctor recommended, and we decided, to do all pureèd foods for now and introduce more self-feeding techniques in another month or two when we feel he is ready. A lot of Mothers feel more comfortable giving their babies pureès until they get more accustomed to eating and I couldn’t agree more!
To get started, I started adding a handful or organic produce to my grocery list each week, and setting aside 1-2 hours every Monday evening to prep his food for the week. It will be a lot easier to make all your food at once rather than before each meal. I put half in the fridge and half in the freezer. Pureèd produce is only good for 3 days in the fridge, so once I use up all the food in the fridge, I defrost what’s in the freezer for the rest of the week.
What we use: Baby Bullet 20 piece food system we got it as a baby shower gift from my grandma and we love it! It’s so cute and fun. A regular food processor will work just as well.
What we really like about baby bullet is the storage system. The tops of the jar have all the days of the month and you can twist the top to show a specific day. The idea behind this is, you set the jar to the date that the food was made so you know when it’s bad!
We also relied heavily on the book Real Baby Food by Jenna Helwig. This is where we get all our recipes. Besides recipes, the book has a ton of information on starting your baby on solids, what type of nutrition they need, etc. All the way from 6 months to 4 years! I’m sure we’ll be using these recipes well into Sawyer’s toddler years, there are so many more recipes besides just pureès.
What we make: Sawyer currently eats sweet potatoes, apples, kale, sweet peas, bananas, and avocados. Bananas and avocados are easy because they can just be mashed with a fork right before serving. Everything else we make in advance! In the coming weeks we’ll be slowly introducing new and different foods to grow his pallet. Here’s how to make a few of our favorite things:
Sweet Potato
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Roast sweet potatoes for 45 minutes (2 large sweet potatoes is usually enough to make 1 weeks supply of food). Cut open and scoop out the potato (no skin!) and add to your baby bullet/food processor (depending on the size of your food processor, you might want to do one potato at a time) add a little water and blend until you reach your desired consistency, adding more water as necessary.
Apples and Kale
So far, Sawyer isn’t a big fan of the green veggies. So I add kale to his applesauce. He gets all the vitamins and minerals from the kale, while still tasting the sweetness from the apple.
Peel and cut apple into cubes. Fill a saucepan with 2 inches of water and bring to a simmer. Add apples to a steamer, place in saucepan, and cover. Steam for 15 minutes, then add to baby bullet/food processor.
Remove kale from stems. Add to steamer, place in saucepan, and cover. Steam for 5 minutes. Add to baby bullet/food processor in addition to your apples with a little bit of water and blend to desired consistency, adding more water as necessary.
Sweet Peas
Add (defrosted) peas to baby bullet/food processor with a little bit of water, blend until desired consistency is reached, adding more water as necessary.
In a bind? There are a few select store bought baby food brands that I trust. We currently use Earth’s Best Organic baby food pouches from time to time. I pick up a couple of pouches every time I’m at the grocery store for when we are on the go (they’re super easy to toss in the diaper bag), or we use up all of our premade food before the week is up. I still check them before serving them to Sawyer to make sure there is no glass or anything weird (I’m paranoid)
Do you make your own baby food? Did you buy? Which brands did you trust? Comment below!
xoxo.
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