Tips on making baby food at home

[@llli*bluesea]

I'll be introducing solids soon (6-mos) and wondering if anyone has tips or practical advice from their experience? After reading the momtastic site, I'm thinking of avocado, banana, sweet potato, carrot purees to start -- that sound good? Any other suggestions? A co-worker told me to get the Baby Bullet since it steams and purees the food, anyone know if it's worth it? Do you make food weekly and freeze? A friend told me to get a silicone cube tray so its easier to pop out the frozen cubes -- sounds like a good idea. Also, should I always nurse baby 1st? I definitely want to keep my supply up and keep BM as her main food source

[@llli*mercystreet]

All those foods sound great for first tastes. Steamed apples and pears are also good starter foods. I don't think you need a Baby Bullet -- you can just as easily steam/boil/roast, and then use a blender or food processor (that's what I do) -- but a Baby Bullet would probably be a matter of convenience. The ice cube trick is a good one, since that way you can make a batch and freeze in larger quantities. I have silicone trays for everyday use (I like the Orka stackable ones) and those would probably work, but for the baby purees I like the Mumi&Bubi freezer trays (link is below) - they are a bit pricey but they are easier to fill if the puree has texture (due to the wider openings), they freeze in perfect 1 oz portions, and they have a press-and-slide easy release.

http://www.amazon.com/Mumi-Bubi-Star...=mumi+and+bubi

I will let others speak to the when/how questions, since my LO isn't eating solids with any regularity ... he mostly just plays with them and makes sour faces :P

[@llli*mommal]

Always nurse first, until the first birthday. After the first birthday, you can continue to nurse before solids, or not, as you please. Don't expect your baby to eat much, if anything, at first. Many babies show little or no interest in solids until they're well into their second year- for example, my girls didn't eat more than a teaspoon or two of solids per day until they were around 14-15 months old. And that's okay, since until around the 1 year mark breastmilk meets all a baby's nutritional needs, and solids are just for fun with new tastes, textures, and motor skills. So if your baby eats some solids, great. If she tastes them and then spits them out, still great. And if she won't open her mouth, and prefers to explore the solids with her hands, still great- she had a fun learning experience and that's all that matters.

I know purees work for a lot of babies, but if you happen to have a kid like mine, who refuses to be fed and prefers to self-feed and bats the spoon away the moment it comes near her pursed lips, you might want to explore an approach called "baby led solids." In fact, even if your childish an eager eater when it comes to purees, BLS might be something to read up on, since it's a very breastfeeding-friendly approach to feeding a baby solid foods.

[@llli*filmmommy]

I think the foods you mention were some of the earliest ones we made for our LO, usually thinned out with breastmilk. Our LO LOVED beets and peas, so maybe try those, too. I got a Baby Bullet and loved using it. We cook a lot in our house, so it was nice having a separate little blender for my LO's food since our others were often dirty or was often used with garlic or other things. Sometimes I'd want to give her just a portion of what I was cooking (the vegetables only, for example, before putting them into something my husband and I were making) so I would just throw her portion into the Baby Bullet. I wanted to make my own grain gruels for my LO so the blade for milling was great for that. It does not steam, though (unless there's a new version I don't know about). There are some other brands that do steam and blend, though. My Baby Bullet came with ice cube trays, so I just use those. I didn't make a lot of foods just for her, but tried to make larger quantities when I was cooking. If it seemed like too much for a day or two, I'd freeze.

We did not do a strictly BLS approach, obviously, but did introduce foods she could pick up very early on so she'd be used to both. I nursed about a half hour before feeding her, generally. We never encouraged her to eat more than she wanted. We just used her open mouth heading towards the spoon as an indicator of wanting more or her closed mouth telling us the opposite. It worked out very well for us, and she went to about 90% finger foods around 9 months. She's just starting to use a spoon a little now by herself, which I hope will open up some new avenues.

One thing -- our pediatrician actually spoke down to us for introducing bananas as a first food, with the usual "she'll get used to sweet stuff" garbage. We eat more vegetables than most people I know, so I should have not been concerned, but it made me hold off on the fruits for a little while after that. It turned out, other than bananas, it took her until she was about 10-12 months to come around to fruits, and she loved vegetables much more! Clearly that was not true!

[@llli*bluesea]

Thanks all so much for the excellent advice! Mercystreet -- I've already ordered those freezer trays, yay! Thank you for the link. Mommal, I will research baby led solids, sounds interesting! Didn't know about it. Filmmommy, beets & peas, love those and will definitely make them! I like the idea of just throwing some of what I'm cooking (veggies and such) for me & hubby into the blender for her meal (no need to cook separately!). Big thank you guys!

[@llli*amysmom]

I made food for all of my girls. www.wholesomebabyfood.com was my go-to website.

I simply steamed, mushed with a fork and froze in ice cube trays. I mushed less as they adjusted. Meats in broth were great this way. As they ate more, I'd do one meat, one veggie. It worked out really well.

Washing a fork is easier than the bullet and I'll bet you already have one. No need to go over board. I didn't like making massive quantities. Freezer burn, no need for more than a few cubes at a time. It's really not difficult. Have fun with it!

[@llli*minigingerbread]

Many babies show little or no interest in solids until they're well into their second year- for example, my girls didn't eat more than a teaspoon or two of solids per day until they were around 14-15 months old.

Thanks so much for this very reassuring tip. My almost 10 mon old is not showing great interest in his solids yet. I'm doing bls. I always thought they will start to eat more purposefully at 9 months!

[@llli*mommal]

Yeah, just free yourself from any thoughts that the baby "will" do anything by a specific age. I was sure my first kid would talk by 9 months and would be into solids at 6 months and would be weaned by 12 months and be potty trained by age 2 and would ride a bike sans training wheels by age 5... I was totally off on all those things!

[@llli*andie613]

I recently got the Baby Bullet as a gift and have used it a few times. It doesn't steam or cook the food; you need to do that on the stove, then place in the bullet to puree. So far, it's really cool. Plus, all the parts are dishwasher safe and BPH free. It comes with 6 individual containers with a date function plus the 6-space silicone tray. I've also used a fork to mash up bananas, and that works well too. I think the main difference is that you could throw in a whole sweet potato, puree in a few seconds, and have 6-8 servings. I guess it's just preference and what you think will work best for you.

So far, we've tried avacado and banana. Baby thinks it's funny to blow raspberries while eating, getting green goo all over mama and daddy . Daddy was annoyed, while I couldn't stop laughing....though I tried not to because I didn't want to encourage him to continue this behavior. Most of the time he is a pretty good eater for 7 months.

[@llli*sprocket]

If your puree is thick enough to hold its shape just a little, a really easy thing to do it to freeze it in blobs on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, then peel off the little 'cookies' and store in a ziploc bag. I have also frozen shredded cooked meats in little clusters this way. I find this to be much simpler and faster than the silicone trays. Some foods I find are really tough to extract from the silicone tray. Since discovering this, I only use the trays for especially runny or juicy purees.