On Making Baby Food

I've never understood why people make such a big deal about homemade baby food. It's cooking and smashing up food; how hard can it be? When we started Madeleine on solids, I made the majority of her baby food. It's not because I have an issue with store-bought baby food; as Madeleine has progressed and developed in her eating, I have also given her a lot of baby foods from the store. At the beginning I decided to make a lot of my own simply because I had the time, it was easy to do, and I found that I actually enjoyed it! 

If you're wanting to make your own baby food, all you need is a food processor and small containers or ice cube trays to freeze the baby food. They do make special baby food makers, but I hate owning one-function appliances, and I found that my food processor worked just fine. I used both ice cube trays and these baby food freezer containers; you just need to be able to freeze smaller portions of the baby food so you can take out just what you need for the day and store the rest in the freezer.

I found that it was easy to just purchase extra of whatever produce I was already buying for my meals that week, or if there was specific produce on sale that I knew Madeleine would be eating, I would also buy that. 

There are a ton of resources on how to make baby food and when to introduce what, etc. The site that I referenced the most was Wholesome Baby Food. All of the recipes were categorized by stages of baby food, so it was easy to see what foods I should be introducing next. Obviously first get information from your pediatrician about when to introduce solids, how much to feed your baby, how long to wait in between new foods, etc! But once you've got a good handle on the whole process, this is a great site for recipes and reminders on what your baby should be trying next.

If you're hoping to make your own baby food, I hope these few tips were helpful!