Super Baby Food book--recipes for adults too!

jennajoehro

When our twin boys were little, my husband and I almost keeled over at the cost of commercially prepared baby food. After doing some quick calculations, we figured that jarred baby food would cost our family approx. $300 a month. I mean, holy geez! As if the cost wasn't staggering enough, I found it sad that so many baby foods have added salt and sugar in them. Why do babies need that added to their supposedly healthy food?

So I decided that we would make our own baby food. A daunting idea, but we had a blender, ice cube trays, and a desire to feed our kiddos healthy stuff--so I set off.

I found an AMAZING book, "Super Baby Food," by Ruth Yaron. Ruth is a mom of twins herself, and offers a comprehensive look at the mutritional/physiological/emotional developments of babies and toddlers as related to food. She gives a month-by-month guideline of what foods to introduce and when, as well as offers HUNDREDS of options for meals, snacks, and beverages that go beyond the usual goldfish crackers and juice boxes.

This book is such a good guide for parents but offers so much practical advice on nutrition, which is why I'm recommending it here. This book really makes you take a good look at how food essentially fuels your body and what fuels can work together to help you function as efficiently as possible.

Happy reading!

~Jenna

melodyg

For anyone out there contemplating homemade baby food... it is easier than I thought it would be and got the adults eating healthier too. We didn't really use any recipes, just pureed natural foods (cooked fruits, sweet potato, butternut squash, etc.). I did have a few I ended up buying jarred because I couldn't get them to work but overall still saved a lot of money for very little work. We did hold off on meats until baby was eating finger foods because pureed chicken is just gross to me! (We did protein in egg yolks or beans though).

I was doing Weight Watchers at the time so it helped me too... crack an egg, scramble up the yolk for baby and the white with another egg for me. Or cook up veggies (with no added ingredients) for us and just puree a bit and set aside. The bonus is that we adults discovered butternut squash and avocado... two of my favorite foods now!

(To the OP, hope you don't mind me jumping in with my experience. I am sure it is a great book but just wanted to add in my experience without even using a book for those who might be interested!)