Homemade baby food

When making your baby food, well actually when making any kind if food, there are some procedures to follow in order to make it healthy, safe and time saving. Some general rules to follow would be to work under as clean and healthy conditions as possible including washing your hands with soap and hot water, before making the meal and after changing diapers. No need for further explanation there. Scrub all fresh fruits and vegetables well, and cook them soft. Use as little water when boiling as possible, the less water you use the more nutrients are saved. Puré food with a good blender. A good, sturdy blender will make it all so much easier. Don't get the cheapest one you find, you will make up for the price many times over when you are not buying readymade process foods. Don't save any leftovers in the fridge or at room temperature, anything not eaten must be thrown or deep frozen in small packages (ice cube trays a great). Be gentle with seasoning, babies need very little salt and sugar (as do we, but they need even less). Good luck - get cookin'!

Why would your baby just want to eat the bland readymade foods available in jars? No spice, no exciting tastes, no peppers, no... taste? There is no reason. It is not dangerous to introduce more exciting foods, but key is to introduce it slowly, and just one new meal per week. This is to be able to pinpoint any allergies. Don't let the scare tactics from huge food industries scare you into only serving boring, bland food to your little one. Let him or her taste new things, you'll be surprised how much goes down well. The best part is that he or she will be less likely to discard exotic food later on. I know of kids who will only eat hamburgers and fries. Only! A scary thought. However, most would recommend waiting until the child is about 8 months before introducing spices. Ok, so what can you serve? Baby taste buds are different, they taste savory, bitter, sweet and salt foods stronger and indeed differently than us adults, so you can't serve a spicy enchilada for breakfast. But try in traducing a new fruits like Pomegranates, Passion Fruit, Figs and Dates, Lychees, Persimmons, and Star Fruit. That's just some of the fruits covered which are very low on the allergy list and any rare occurrence of a reaction has been traced to a cross reactivity, usually birch pollen. Then we have the veggies, many seem to be concerned about whether it's safe to use mushrooms, celery, leeks, onions, peppers etc. Sure it is, but as I mentioned earlier, introduce new things one at a time to be able o pinpoint any allergies. You can introduce them at the age of about eight to ten months. The vegetables can be sautéed and added to your child's food. I wouldn't just purée these veggies in the raw and serve them to a child, but certainly add them to other dishes to spice them up, make them more exciting and let her acquire the tastes. Make sure you cook them (you know, the way your mother overcooked your vegetables when you where little - that's perfect for the baby). Hard foods, not cooked soft can pose a choking hazard. get educated, get cooking and relax a bit when it comes to introducing new things to your baby and I am sure you are in for a treat and a healthy growing child!

Some good things to have when planning to make the food for your baby yourself is a good blender, as I have said before - go for a really good one, sturdy, powerful and easy to clean and doesn't sound like a tractor are good criteria. Moreover, a sieve is a good thing to mash soft veggies. You probably only have one or two ice cube trays - get more, you are going to need them when freezing left over baby food in convenient bite size bits.

It's not that hard to understand why you would want to make your own baby food, the advantages are more than obvious, really. It's cheaper for one thing. Secondly it's healthier and more nutrient dense. The third thing is that you can teach you little one to appreciate the foods your family is already eating. I mean, you won't find many ready-mades with taste of Indonesia shrimp and tofu, if that's you thing. And if you are vegetarian you can get your baby the nutrient bomb-shell that freshly made veggie-food actually is. What's more, you can learn your baby to appreciate new tastes a lot easier when making your own food. If you don't believe me have a taste of the "dead" baby food that you can find on the shelves - tasteless, absolutely tasteless. So why doesn't more people make their own baby food, I can tell you the two main reasons in my opinion. One: laziness. Yup, it's that simple, and it is *not* hard to understand why. A toddler is a fulltime job in itself, so don't get me wrong but I think when you make it routine to make your own baby food and you get the hang of it you will see that it's just a matter of minutes a day with a good blender. Why not let your smallest family member taste the food you are having (before salting and seasoning) - just throw it in the blender and let it cool off for a bit. Of course not all foods are suited for really small babies but I can tell you, it's more than you think. They are human after all, not a different species. The second thing I personally think is maybe the biggest reason why babies don't get homemade wholesome food is because the baby food industry has imprinted that their food is safe, bacteria free, just enough nutrients, maybe it's best to do it their way, you don't want to hurt you little child, do you? Well, excuse me for thinking I am able to know what's good for MY baby! For thousands of years we have fed the little ones with homemade food. Millions of mothers do it still today and I am sure they can tell you it works very well. So never mind the propaganda, make your own baby food!

When you make your own homemade baby food, why not go all the way and make it ecological. Yes it costs a little bit more, but babies only east the tiniest amounts. It makes sense to not expose small children to pesticides and other toxins, doesn't it? If your baby doesn't like the food you are serving, accept it but try the same food again a couple of weeks later, and don't be surprised if he or she devours it this time, their taste buds are fickle. It's a good thing to let the baby try lots of different new foods, just like it is for us - variation satisfies. As an added bonus to this is that as your child grows up it's more likely to keep testing new foods and vegetables for a happy healthy life.

You may know that I am an advocate of making your own baby food, it's healthy and economic. I wanted to share some of the best tips on homemade baby food to make it even simpler to actually do it. It's best to start with veggies before introducing meat (if any). Have your baby familiarize with all sorts of vegetables before trying any meats. The best and quickest way to prepare vegetables in order to preserve the vitamins is to steam them instead of boiling them. You need to thin the food? use water from the steaming, breast milk, formula or apple juice for example. Want to thicken the food instead? try cottage cheese, cooked egg yolks, yoghurt, mashed sweet potatoes or white potatoes. A great way to save leftovers i to use ice cube trays to freeze the food. A very bad way is to just keep it out in the room or in the fridge - bacteria multiply quickly. SO it's either freeze it ir throw it. There you go, some good ideas that I hope you can use when starting to fed your baby real, homemade food!

When you are outside of your home you may think it's a hassle to find, or bring homemade baby food. But don't let that stop you. An ecological, "homemade" baby food that you can find in any store is a ripe banana or avocado. They are fresh, and require no cooking. Avocados are perfect, because they even come with their own built in plate. All you need to bring is a spoon. Other homemade baby foods can be prepared in advance and brought along in a plastic container as long as it doesn't spoil if kept outside the fridge.

When is a baby ready for solids? This is of course important to know since introduction of solid foods to early is said to increase the likelihood of intolerance to certain foods. Most medical professionals agree that six months is a good age for a baby to begin eating solids. Som tell tale signs are that the baby is able to sit without support, development of the pincer grasp ir ability to take food and put it in his/her mouth by him/herself. Increased nursing for several days (not because of teething or illness).
OK, you decided it's time. But you heard about allergies, aren't readymade food safer? It's safe but it it can never replace the nutrient denseness and tastiness of homemade food. Allergies, then? Well, introduce one new food a week. This is a great way to be able to pinpoint any allergies, if the baby is showing reaction to a newly introduced food, you can be pretty sure which one it is, and simply eliminate it. To tell if the baby is has an allergy; some common signs are vomiting, bloating, gasiness, discomfort, rash on face, running nose and watery eyes.
Now, let's get to the fun part instead. Making your own (or actually, not your own, the baby's) baby.
It all starts in the grocery store. Look for the absolutely freshest fruits and vegetables you can find, look for ecological if available. Some great newbie fruits are apples, bananas, mango, blueberries, plums, peaches. Moving over to the veggie section we have loads to choose from. Good ones to start with are sweet potatoes, avocados, peas, cauliflower, sweet peppers etc. There are vegetables that can be high in nitrates due to the soil they grow in, so don't use these veggies. They include: spinach, carrots, turnips and collard greens.
Back home again, it's time to get cooking. Hygiene is always key in the kitchen, but you already knew that. All vegetables and some harder fruits should be cooked soft before the baby can eat them. Banana and avocado are fine just out of their built in packaging. But others need to be softened, cook them soft (yes, a bit overdone) in short water, the shorter the better to keep all the nutrients in. After it's softened you can puree it, let it cool off and serve. It's really easy and takes just a bit of your valuable time. To mash fruits and veggies that are hard and not very watery, add some liquid such as breast milk or formula, or some of the cooking water. Adjust the liquid amount to a consistency that agrees with your baby. Strain the puree before serv