My babies are now 5 months and are on solids but the jar variety. I keep meaning to make my own but I'm a bit nervous. Any tips about preparation, storage and types of food. Right now they are only having carrot, squash, sweet potato and occassionally applesauce or pear mixed with rice cereal and they love most of it!

Beatrice

Beatrice
Mom to Max Hugo and Henri born August 4 2003

Beatrice,

I made my own baby food and found it easy and painless. I would steam the veggies or fruit and they puree it in the food processor. Freeze the food in ice cube trays for 24 hours, then store them in a dated ziplock freezer bags. After making several thing and finding out later that they didn't like it, I would buy a few jars of a new food and try it first. Once I new they would eat it, I would freeze a big batch. I had a few friends come over one afternoon and play with the babies and I cooked all day. I had enough veggies and fruit to last months. I found several books on making your own baby food online that gave me some great recipies.

GOOD LUCK!
Renee
Mom to Drew, Lily & Tess
1/30/03 35w5d

It's super easy. Take one Saturday, have someone else watch the babies, and steam and puree all day. I also would do one batch at night, one-two times a week if I found I was running low. I would make small batches to begin with, so that if they didn't like it, then I wouldn't have wasted a ton of food. Also, I found that it was much cheaper to use canned fruits in pear juice. Also a lot less mess that way, IMO.

THere are lots of books out there, but essentially, you just steam and puree.

Paula

Paula P-F

It's easy- just steam or bake til soft, and mash/puree with some water. I found that the Gladware 1/2cup size containers were a GREAT size for freezing. The icecube trays worked well at first- but once they were getting the hang of it, the 1/2cup size was a much better option. And they come with a lid!
There are a lot of good books- Super BAby Food is good- and has practical suggestions for what foods you can introduce at what age. It's a bit on the safe side- but I liked that.
Give it a go- you'll find it easy, and rewarding
-Amy
BGB 8/2002

-Amy
BGB 8/2002

I have had great luck using my food processor to puree fruits. The veggies ('cept sweet potatoes & carrots) I never could get smooth enough, so I went to jarred baby foods for those. Now we are getting more into table foods, so I'm using the food processor a bit less, and mashing foods more with a fork.

Tulip & The Three Amigos
Born at 35w5d on December 31, 2002 - Happy New Year's Eve!!!
Aimee, Let's bump heads!
Edward, Rollin' Rollin' Rollin', Got to keep on rollin'!
Hope, Bouncy! Bouncy! Bouncy! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

YES! You *can* breastfeed triplets!!!
http://www.tripletconnection.org/dcforum/forum1/14349.html

Tulip & The Three Amigos
GBG born at 35w5d on December 31, 2002 - Happy New Year's Eve!!!

YES! You *can* breastfeed triplets!!!

I am a Velveteen Rabbit, and the birth, love, kisses & magic that are my children has made me Real.

Just a helpful hint to pass along: I've been washing and reusing the plastic containers that the Gerber fruits come in to freeze their food. They're the perfect size, easy to clean, and the lid fits fairly tight. I write the date and what's in it using a Sharpie.

I know that Amazon has a book called 'The Baby Bistro Cookbook.' We're planning on ordering it. Does anyone have this and have comments on it?

I also checked out some baby cookbooks I liked at our local library (free

I made the pot pie on the back of the Bisquick box, and my girls really liked it. Of course I processed it pretty well. Also, there are eggs in the crust, so you might want to watch that. This is just to give you an example.

The pedi told me they can have what we have, as long as it isn't too spicy. DH and I love Italian and Mexican food, so I'm having to rethink my cooking

Just a couple of ideas. Hope it helps.

Michelle
mommy to: Izzy, Sophie, and Lexxy
(4/12/03)

~Michelle
mommy to: Gracie, Sophie, & Izzy
(4/12/03) The best day of my life!
http://theglennfamilyadventures.blogspot.com/

Hello. I hate to brag, but I actually am the author of "The Baby Bistro Cookbook" though it sounds like you're doing pretty terrific on your own. Most moms don't even try squash.

Don't be nervous about cooking for your babies! Just taste everything you make to make sure it is the appropriate consistency and temperature. I always asked my pediatrician for "what's next" advice as far as trying new food groups (like dairy, eggs, nuts, etc.). But, otherwise, we really tried to let our first child tell us what he wanted to eat. He often showed interest in what we were eating.

But, good lord, I wrote that book when my first child was two. I will be eating my "make your own baby food" words now that I've got triplets!

Cheers,
Joohee

Joohee,
We'll definately have to order your book now, knowing it's written by a triplet mommy (even if you weren't at the time you wrote it)! It's something you should be very proud of!

Michelle
mommy to: Izzy, Lexxy, & Sophie
(4/12/03)

~Michelle
mommy to: Gracie, Sophie, & Izzy
(4/12/03) The best day of my life!
http://theglennfamilyadventures.blogspot.com/

We do both, but with three it is soooo much cheaper to make it. I am having a baby food swap - like a cookie swap - with other moms around here. Everyone is bringing eight (there are eight babies, singletons adn otherwise) Ziploc bags with twelve ice-cube sized fozen chunks of their "specialty" and then we all swap and go home with eight different foods for the babes to try. I'll let you know how it goes. There are books with recipes and freezing hints. For ourselves we got some of those disposable tupperware pieces and freeze food in those since for us ice cube portions are too small to be practical.
Ali

Jack - 10 years old
Abraham, Dylan and Zane - 8 years
and now . . . . Tobias, 2 years old!

Ali - what an awesome idea!

luvmytrio
Gavin, Garret & Claire
born 8/7/03 at 36w4d

luvmytrio
Gavin, Garret & Claire
born 8/7/03 at 36w4d

beatrice- some things are really easy to prepare for babies- just don't add any spices or extra stuff except water and store it just like you would your own food. with my first child i planned to make all her baby food at home. so i bough a couple of books and the right tools to mash and small containers to store and decided to start with something easy - sweet potatoes. i peeled, cooked, chopped, mashed etc... and served them to her- she gagged and spit them out. she must be full i thought- so i gave them to her the nexxt night- and she threw up all over the table and her high chair. that was the end of my mommy homemaker phase. didn't even cross my mind to try with the trips. too much other stuff to do just getting through the day. but there are lots of how to's in most baby books - it is undoubtedly cheaper than the jars. good luck. terri

terri
mom to ian,wes,amelia (09/02)
leslie 12 years
micaela 9 years

Beatrice,

The only thing I have to add to all the great suggestions is a book called
"Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron. She answered all my thousands of questions on this topic.

I agree with all the others, that it isn't very difficult and it is cheaper too!

Good luck cooking!

Kari

Here are a couple of good websites that I found on making baby foods...

http://www.foodshare.net/toolbox_baby03.htm

http://www.babyworld.co.uk/information/books_food/recipe_archive.asp

I just started this last week. I made carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans & bananas. So far they like anything I give them. I ususally feed them the veggies along w/ some cereal and do a 1/2 and 1/2 bite.

It's even easier than I thought it would be - go for it!

luvmytrio
Gavin, Garret & Claire
born 8/7/03 at 36w4d

luvmytrio
Gavin, Garret & Claire
born 8/7/03 at 36w4d

These are all great ideas,but I still think that it sounds like alot of work.I would just make alot more than my husband and I could eat and the rest went in the processor.If I were making a roast with potatos and carrots I would just done alot more veggies~pull them out and puree them,then eventually I would add some of the shredded beef in.I think my kids are awesome eaters now b/c they never had a special menu.I know somethings have to be done seperate, but if you make extras a few nights a week it really cuts down on your work.I also used the ice cube trays and would freeze overnight and in the a.m. pop everything in bags.Kuddos to you all for making your own!

Becky
SAHM~
Emma,Amber,Ian 8/18/99
Olivia 9/29/00

Becky
Realtor in Ohio and Indiana
Emma,Amber,Ian 8/18/99
Olivia 9/29/00

We did this too. Made more of whatever we were having for dinner, took theirs out before I added seasonings, and I have one of those Black and Decker Mini Food Processors that I used to puree it.

Some things I did do in mass batches though. Sweet Potatos were one, Fruits were another because it wasn't often that we would have those with our dinner.

I used the Glad Containers too. I used the 9 oz ones, knowing that I had 3 3 oz servings in each one.

MTM - mom to Michael(84),Stephan(85), Thomas, Matthew and Kathryn - born 12/27/99 at 32w 0 days

Becky and MTM - that only works if you cook a meal for yourself - lol. I make my babies food, but hardly ever cook for me and dh. And if I do, it's not something worth giving to my babies. HEHEHE Good idea though for those healthy eaters out there.

luvmytrio
Gavin, Garret & Claire
born 8/7/03 at 36w4d

luvmytrio
Gavin, Garret & Claire
born 8/7/03 at 36w4d