Making your own baby food

2mommies

So Malakai is 5 months and he will be getting his first taste of baby food in a month!!! Im so excited to feed him for the first time. Any how, I want to make his baby food. I am a stay at home mom and this would be ideal for me. Also, I want what is best for my baby and I want to know exactly what is going into his little body.
I've been looking at food processors, baby food makers, blenders, etc. etc. I have so many mixed feelings. The Baby Brezza at Babies r us has mixed reviews. The Beaba food maker is in the same boat as far as reviews go. I know it seems kind of silly to spend a lot of money on these little baby food makers when I could just steam it in a pot and blend it BUT im a little bit of a freak when it comes to Malakai having his OWN things that haven't been contaminated by us adults. I don't know what to do as far as buying what is best.
Can anyone please help me? If you have had one of the baby food makers can you give me your opinion or if you make your own baby food can you let me know what works best for you?

Goobie

He is so cute! Personally, I always just steamed my kids food and squished it with a fork, but both my older kids gagged on purees and liked chunky textures right from first bite.

K&H

We use a cuisinart for the food we purée. Most of the time we steam things and then mash them with a fork or mince them really small. E prefers chunkier food and has since day 1.
You might want to check out the book Super Baby Food, or some of the ones by Anabel Karmel to get you excited and give you ideas. I know without a nice list of which foods to offer when I would run out of ideas for E. She loves food and really is enjoying the whole process. And I really like that even at 8 months we can go anywhere and find food for her. We never carry food with us which has been great.

starfish2318

We did purees at first for Olivia and I have just steamed them and used a blender. I just got a 4 c. food chopper deal to use for her food because I don't make a whole blender full or anything, and since she is 9 mo. I have been working to make her foods chunkier. She liked the purees at first because she would choke on anything the least bit chunky. I know a lot of my friends use the magic bullet or the baby bullet. We freeze her food and take it out on a daily basis, I make several batches of different foods in one day and freeze it for the month or for a few weeks. I think its fun

Kari

I made most of Justin's food using just a basic blender and a baby food grinder for coarser textured food (meats, mostly) that didn't puree in the blender well. Pour it in an ice cube tray, freeze it, then store it in ziplocs. It was very simple and quick. The blender I used was something simple, like a $30 blender. Square blenders work better than cylindrical ones because the food mixed more consistently and there were fewer air bubble traps.

Ibelieve

No advice on the baby blender but I have to tell you Malakai is so cute!

EMG_REL

Oh my goodness, Malakai is just DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!! I want to squeeze his little face!!!!!!!!!!!!

We plan on steaming food and using our blender. We registered for the Baby Brezza but didn't get it, so we're just going to make do with what we have. Keep us posted!

Shanny

I used the Beabe Cook with Arden...she ended up like the jarred stuff better and we ended up going with mostly Earth's Best. With Kate I skipped "baby food" and just gave her foods from 7 or so months that could be mashed up - applesauce, bananas, avocado, steamed carrots and squash. I gave her cereal a few times and we both hated it. The only jarred stuff she ever really had was prunes. We then worked our way p to foods that were chunkier. After having done both in the last few years I can tell you that Kate will and does eat anything and Arden is the pickiest child I have ever seen. May just be part of their personalities but I also think it had a lot to do with their introduction to food. We will be skipping baby food all together with Lydia as well. I highly recommend doing some research into Baby Led Weaning (ie skipping baby food).

K&H

We looked into baby led weaning as well but didn't like the limited amount of food options it would give E. This is mostly because our diets aren't what we would consider ideal. I think for us as we've been feeding E and realizing all the things we eat that she can't we've slowly started to make different choices for ourselves. So, for now, we feed her an ideal diet and we're working to change our own habits to fit her diet. It's somewhat the opposite of baby led weaning in that respect.

PtownMoms

We got one of the special baby food makers at our baby shower...and I hate it. I typically make big batches of food at a time...and it just wasn't big enough. And it didn't puree well. So I use a 9 cup Cuisinart. I just steam everything and put it in there. I freeze in ice cube trays then transfer to freezer safe bags once the food is frozen.

i got the book the best homemade baby food on the planet and I really like it. http://www.babyearth.com/karin-knight-with-tina-ruggiero-the-best-homemade-baby-food-on-the-planet-recipe-book.html