Homemade Baby Food... or at least my version

I'm actually having a lot fun making John's food. I do still buy a few jars & cereal for emergencies, but I've made most of it. It's so easy and I like making up little names for the creations I feed him... peaches & cream oatmeal, not-so-spiced apples, orange melody (stole that from a friend), cream of green soup, etc.

I've made oatmeal, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, avocado and banana. I like the puree-and-freeze-in-ice-cube-trays method. When it's time for him to eat I take out a cube, microwave it, mix in a little milk if it needs it & serve! You can also take out a few cubes the night before and put them in the fridge to thaw, but I can never remember to do that.

I even freeze some jarred baby food into cubes. The jars say to use within two days... well, John can't eat a whole jar at one or even two sittings yet. I like freezing them because then I can give him a variety of food without worrying about using up containers before they grow bacteria. He eats four times a day and I give him some solids at each feeding except the last. He has oatmeal & fruit for breakfast, usually something orange for lunch and someone green for dinner. That is what works best for John and I but it's definitely not the only method out there for feeding your baby.

Here is a picture of our cubes. The bags are of things I've mostly made myself. The tray is full of jarred fruits (peaches, pears, prunes & a mixed fruit) to go with John's breakfasts. I haven't done the cost comparison on fruit yet so I just bought some jars the last time I was at the store. I'm sure I'm saving money making his veggies, but it may be pretty close when it comes to fruit and I was being lazy.



For oatmeal I would suggest just buying the dehydrated stuff at the store. We had some steel cut oats that I wanted to use, but it's a lot of work to turn them into powder and cook them. I want to use them up, but it's taking FOREVER!!! He eat like one cube of oatmeal a day. If you are really interested in how to make your own oatmeal you can check out wholesome baby food. For the little amount that John eats I don't mind spending a little extra. Plus homemade oatmeal has to be re-heated with formula to return it to it's original form. It can be done, it's just not the most convenient thing in the world.

For Squash & Sweet Potatoes, I roast and mash (not even puree) them into the cubes. They are so soft from roasting and John can handle well mashed things.

For Green Beans & Peas I buy the frozen package and boil them until they are soft. Then I put them in our blender and puree till they are very smooth. I put in all the cooking liquid (it's where the vitamins go while boiling) and sometimes even add more water. Our blender does a better job of it than our food processor. John wouldn't eat the green beans if I made them in the food processor, but once I figured out how to make them smoother, he got on board.

For Apples, I get the unsweetened BIG jar of apple sauce. A friend told me about it and it is DEFINITELY cheaper!!! Just make sure you grab the one that's ingredients say only apples & water. I freeze apple sauce too! John actually really likes to eat frozen apples in his little feeder thingy. After only one time with green beans he lost interest in the feeder... then I put in apples and he was a lot happier to use it. Apples are better anyways, they don't stain like green beans do... I think all of our bibs have green bean stains on them.

And for avocado & bananas I slice them and put them in ice cube trays to freeze individually before I toss them into a bag. I don't have a picture of it above because I needed to get some more avocado & bananas when I took this picture. John wasn't actually a fan avocado or banana at first. I was persistent with the avocado and I think he like it's now... or at least tolerates it. Bananas stop him up pretty bad so he doesn't actually eat much of those.

Next up is finger foods! I'm really excited about finger foods! We still have about a month before John is suppose to be able to do finger foods, but I'm willing to give them to him whenever he wants to try. He tries to uses his hands to feed himself anyway, so why not use it to my advantage?

I actually tried a few days ago with small pieces of avocado... he manged to get them in his hands but got distracted by his thumb when his hand got close to his mouth... the result... a hand full of avocado while sucking on his thumb.

I'm sure he'll have it figured out soon but right now he doesn't quite get it. Really we need high chair with a tray before we can do finger foods anyway. For some reason his boppy tray has become a toy so I can't use it when I feed him... it's too distracting.

In addition to feeding himself the food gets a lot easier when he can do finger foods. I'll have to do more chopping and less pureeing, but for some reason that seems easier to me. And I really like the idea of feeding him when I feed myself... it just makes sense in my brain.

Happy Baby Feeding!