As I begin to look over the estimated monthly cost of having a baby {whew} I’m trying to think of ways to cut back and save a little money on a month to month basis. It’s pretty difficult. Disposable diapers are a must if I want any help from family members {aka husband}. Not to mention, I can’t imagine cleaning toddler sized turds. No thanks.
I am curious about making my own baby food. It is certainly healthier for our little nugget.
No preservatives.
No chemicals.
No extra.
No chemicals.
No extra.
Simple nutrients from natural sources. It is significantly cheaper than buying baby food. Homemade baby food is freezable and easy to store, and you can have a supply for weeks and weeks.
The only two negatives I can think of for the homemade baby food is storage and travelling. Yes, it stores easy, but will I have enough space to store it? I think saving money will be the primary motive here, so I’ll get over the storage issue quickly. It also doesn’t travel quite as smoothly as prepackaged food… BUT they make these nifty little containers {pictured above}, so I don’t see how that is too much of a problem. If I really wanted to go hog wild, I could even buy glass storage.
There are plenty of recipes out there.
I’m pretty sure I just talked myself into making my own baby food.
Have any of you tried it?
What about that cute little baby bullet up there? Anyone used it?
9 comments:
I just started making my own baby food 3 weeks ago. SO MUCH CHEAPER. I have only done pure and simple mixtures, no pasta or meat yet, but am planning to start on them this next week. Elsa, my little one, seems to like my food better than the pre-packaged foods. I am also hoping to look into making snack items, like nila-wafer style cookies, but without all the preservatives. Let me know if you have any ideas. As for storage, I have some Tupperware containers that are PERFECT for storage as they are for freezers and are nice and flat. I make the food in my food processor and then spoon it into some ice cube trays. Freeze 4 hours and pop them out into the storage containers. I actually made a huge amount of food this past week to bring on our Christmas trip to PA (a 4 hour drive) and the food stayed frozen in the trunk. Any ideas to include in my baby food endeavors would be welcome! Are you going organic or simply homemade?
I did some homemade baby food when Grayson was in the puree baby food stage. He seemed to really like it and I loved knowing it was so good for him AND cheap. I never used anything fancy. I used a food processor and ice cube trays. Then I stored them in labeled ziploc freezer bags and would take out how every many I wanted as needed. I wasn't super dedicated though and used the store bought jars too. So I can't help with the traveling situation. Although, you could use jars just for travel if you wanted. Anyways, don't know if that helped, but I definitely enjoyed making my own baby food and recommend it!
Hey, Megan! A friend told me about baby-led weaning, and that's what we decided to try. I think it sounds intimidating to a lot of people--it did to us, too--but my son, Colston, has really done well with it. Basically, upon introducing "food", you let them have 'real' food instead of purees. Steamed, mashed, etc. but not pureed. Here are some resources for you to check out: http://www.babyledweaning.com/ and on Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby-led_weaning
We didn't follow everything to the letter; we DO help him some, but we never make him or force him. If he's not interested in something, we wait a few minutes or if he seems full, we take the food. He's playing with his own spoon some too. Colston is 8 months old, and loves to eat! He is loving green peas right now, as well as banana. It's fun to watch him feed himself, even though he is a bit misguided in his direction sometimes! :)
The lady I work for just started using her Baby Bullet. She did some prepackaged foods to get Logan started on solids (purees, anyway). She was spending almost $2 per serving for the organic Gerber stuff, and she got 6 servings out of 1 organic sweet potato, and 10 servings out of 1 butternut squash. So it is WAY cheaper, way healthier because the original nutrients are there (you just steam most foods before you puree), and Logan likes it better than the packaged stuff! My husband and I will definitely be making our own baby food when that time comes.
We also like the idea of baby-led weaning. I'm pretty sure that's just the old-fashioned way of letting a baby eat as soon as he's ready. Basically, if they don't choke on it, they can have it. Except the high-risk allergens, of course.
Go for it, Megan! And I don't think storage will be much of an issue . . . their servings are tiny. :P
we used to buy entire bags of organic frozen vegetables, steam them in my pampered chef steamer in the microwave {which only uses about 2 T. of water and you're not losing any nutrients}, toss everything into my regular size food processor and made either ice cube trays or reused our purchased baby food containers {we traveled a lot and had about 20-30 containers that we re-used throughout his babyfood eating months}. you can also add some spices like: cumin, coriander, oregano -- whatever spices you use in your regular cooking around 6m.
consider green beans, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes {we used fresh whenever we could} and you can mix things up by adding peas & carrots to one thing - peas are bland & carrots are sweet and my kids did better when we added a little carrot or sweet potato to each meal.
i don't think you need any fancy new gadgets.. a basic food processor, microwave steamer & some small containers are good enough. freeze everything and put in the fridge only what you'll need for the next day! good luck! :) :)
I did it with both my boys and loved it. They also ate real food faster too. I think you should give it a try and see if it works for you! Everyones different though so if it doesn't, don't let it bother you!
we did the same as amimee, along with lots of fresh produce! we stored ours in glade disposable 1/2 cup containers they have lids and it's perfect 2 portion for little ones and 1 portion for when they get bigger. I made all baby #3's food and she is my best eater yet! i would not buy anything special to make it a regular food processor is fine!
We did this too... We used fresh produce, steamed or boiled them then put them in our smoothie maker (bc thats what we have), then in ice cube trays and we actually stored ours in freezer bags. I liked doing a huge amount at a time. Its a lot of work but he seemed to like it better and we knew what we were giving him.
Good luck!!!
Ok definitely bookmarking this for when I have babes! So useful thanks!
-Monica
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Megan Volnoff