Baby Food Recipes

Another vote for making big batches, freezing in trays, and then storing in separate containers by flavor (I just used BPA-free ice cube trays and then Ziplocs; my kids were probably thoroughly poisoned because I didn't store it in organic hand-made glass bowls, but whatever). That's what I did and it worked great. One afternoon in the kitchen every 2-3 weeks, bake/steam and blend for a few hours, and you're set. If we were eating something at a meal that was easily mashable we'd include that, but having the cubes on hand made life really easy if we weren't eating something baby-appropriate or to send to daycare.

I also started with single-ingredient foods, then moved to combos - cube of this, cube of that, nuked carefully to ensure it wasn't too warm.

I baked apples and sweet potatoes and winter squash and pears, and then steamed peaches and mangoes and green beans and peas and summer squash and carrots and berries and broccoli and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff I can't remember, and just used my regular food processor or blender. I pureed the potatoes and blueberries with no texture issues. Everything except for bananas and avocadoes should be cooked before you serve it, at least at first (sometimes it can be hard on tummies otherwise). Don't use the water you steamed carrots with to blend (something about nitrates), but other than that it's a great idea. If you do berries, make sure to strain the seeds out as well as you can. When stuff was out of season, I occasionally would use a bag of organic frozen fruit/vegetables and would steam and blend it and that works great, too.

Don't bother with cereals, bananas and avocadoes and sweet potatoes are great to start with. I did use a bit of baby oatmeal or brown rice cereal mixed with fruit for breakfast sometimes just because it sounded good to me , but there's no need to use it.

Baby-led weaning is awesome, but if you/your partner isn't going to be staying home full-time with the baby make sure that your care provider is on board with the concept before you get all excited for it. Some people aren't comfortable doing it (I wasn't with my first; I was fine with it for my second but she was an easy choker so we had to back off and stick with ultra-pureed foods for a long time) and a lot of daycare centers simply can't since it takes more time/attention than purees. You might be able to have success doing it part-time, but what I've heard from some friends who have done it is that it's kind of hard to get it rolling at the beginning if you're not doing it all the time.

Particularly once the baby is a little older, don't be afraid of seasonings and flavors. Obviously nothing too spicy or salty or that might cause tummy upset (too much onion or garlic, for example), but a teeny pinch of cinnamon or garlic powder or paprika or whatever you're cooking with to create some variety and familiarity isn't a bad thing.

I also did baby led weaning and my son is such a good eater. He eats pretty much anything. A good book I used was by annabel karmel. Loads of good, healthy recipes that the whole family can eat

One of the first foods that you traditionally start feeding a baby is cereal--but it looks like your allergic to many grains... Can you eat rice/brown rice?

i used whole fruits and veggies. steamed or boiled until very soft. blend or strain and then freeze in ice cube trays for individual servings. at dinner, i would put breakfast into the fridge to defrost. at breakfast, i took out lunch, etc. you can find lots of books online for cooking methods/food blends.

Oh, and a little tip--adding a few drops of lemon juice to a whole batch of something like bananas or apples can help with the ugly browning. Just a few drops for the entire batch will do just fine!

I had a great amount of fun making my own. At first it was a little more time consuming but once you get rolling it really only takes 2 days a month to keep supplies up!

TavistockToad wrote: »

elphie754 wrote: »

Cahgetsfit wrote: »

but how do you know if the baby is going to have the same allergies as you?

It doesn't matter if they do or not. I am so allergic to those ingredients that I can't have them in the house at all.

so just make what you normally eat... why would baby eat any differently?

She's a brand new mom. I'm guessing she just didn't know what babies eat. I knew virtually nothing about babies before having one. I've never been a baby person and hadn't spent time around them so it was pretty much all new to me.

The only "rule" that was suggested to me was that you introduce veggies before fruit, as baby may reject the blander veg selections in favour of the sweeter fruit options. My kids are 31 and 27 (years, not months!) and they both started out with the same food we ate, only whizzed in a food processor and frozen into ice cube trays, just as has been suggested here a couple of times.

My kids 20 years ago would never eat "baby" food or allow me to feed them. They wanted regular food that they picked up themselves and ate. Boy was it messy since I would only feed them very soft things but that is the only way they would eat.

Oh! I guess that's a rule...only one food at a time for a few days so if there is a reaction you know what it is.