With just a little extra work and preparation, you can make your own homemade baby food really fast and save a truckload of money at the grocery store. Guess what? Prepared baby food is very expensive; usually about 30 cents per ounce for store bought jarred baby foods!
The sad fact is, even some of the so-called nutritious baby foods on the market have fillers that add no nutritional value and really don’t add much if anything to the taste. Filler means cheaper, so why not give your baby homemade baby food that tastes good, smells good, and is less expensive?
In some cases you can buy “big people” prepared foods that are cheaper, taste better, and are fine for baby to eat. One example would be commercially prepared applesauce. And when you can simply buy a banana and smash it up there is no reason to buy banana puréed anything. The bottom line is you don’t need to buy the “baby” varieties of most products. If it’s all natural, organic, and without any additives, for the most part, it’s fine for baby as long as it’s pureed in a blender or mashed up with a fork.
Most blenders have a small attachment so that you can prepare small amounts of blended foods, and if not, you can use a mini food processor or make the food in bulk freezing individual servings for later. Most veggies you can cook until done by steaming until soft then blending. You can add a bit of water if needed.
You can blend up meats, veggies, and fruits in the mini blender or food processor rather quickly. If the food you are cooking the rest of the family is healthy, there is no reason you can’t just blend up some of that food for your baby if he or she is over six months of age and you know it’s a food that baby can handle.
Remember to introduce new foods slowly. If you’re just starting out with solids, skip the rice cereal in favor of buckwheat cereal (babies don’t develop amylase, an important digestive enzyme that helps them digest grain. Buckwheat is a fruit, not a grain). Then after that, remember only one new food per week noting how baby does after eating that one particular food. Also remember, babies under two should not eat honey, whether cooked, or raw, due to infant botulism concerns. (the same goes for corn syrup and maple syrup!) Besides, most foods don’t need to be sweetened; your baby will enjoy the various textures, tastes and smells of single ingredient foods for a while to come.
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I love this. I bookmarked it for our next baby… probably not coming any time soon, but eventually.
Thanks so much for sharing! I love your site!