My son is 10 months old today. I've been making his baby food since he began eating solids at 5 months. It sure seems like much longer than 5 months!! While I am a huge advocate for making your baby's food, I can certainly understand why many parents would choose not to do so. I hope to present the many benefits of home made, as well as the time and aggravation involved so that maybe you can decide what's best for you and your little one, as well as how I got started in this process and have kept at it.
First of all, much like breastfeeding, making my son's baby food is something I never imagined myself doing. Much to my surprise, just like breastfeeding, I'm pretty darn good at it! But as many of my posts have pointed out, my decisions often come with reading, research, and talking to others about their experiences. This was no different. When my son was only a couple months old I began researching why I would want to go to the effort of making his food, versus just buying it at the store. And again, much like what I learned about breastfeeding, is that there are in fact SO many benefits of home made food that a child just can't get in the pre-packaged, processed, food. Not even the best intentioned organic food can come close to what is natural-and best.
Here are some reasons why home made food is best for baby:
-It is fresher and more nutritious. Packaged baby food is often months-if not years-old. It is made to last up to 3 years in the store. It is heated to such a high temperature (to kill bacteria for longer storage) when it is processed, that many of the nutrients are destroyed; especially vitamins A & B; which are extremely important to a developing baby. When you steam and puree your own fruits and veggies, you are able to retain much more of those vital nutrients. TIP: use the water you use to steam the food (from the steamer or pot), to add in making your purees.
-It is free of preservatives. Packaged baby food has to have chemicals put into it so it can sit in a jar or pouch (for up to 3 years on the store shelf) without spoiling. A good comparison is a cheeseburger at any fast food place. You can leave that thing sitting on your patio table for....a long time...and it will look just like the day you bought it. This is because of the preservatives put in it. You wouldn't feed your baby a Big Mac, would you?
-It is free of fillers and other additives. Packaged food often contains salt, butter, sugar, or starch. Either added for "taste" or to take up space. None of which have nutritional value.
-You have more options to introduce foods and rule out allergens. If you are wanting to be cautious of possible food allergies, then you have probably been told to introduce new foods one at a time, waiting at least 3-4 days before introducing a new food. With packaged foods, there aren't very many single foods; most are mixed or a combination. Also there is the possible culprit of additives or fillers. This makes it almost impossible to know what your baby might be allergic to. If you are feeding him one food, with only water added, then you can pretty much pinpoint the (food) culprit.
-It will never be recalled. I was horrified to learn that there have been documented times where baby food has been recalled by major companies. There is a lot of information out there that says this is inaccurate, were hoaxes, or nonsense, but where there is smoke.....We all know that multi-million dollar companies can easily cover up mistakes.
-It can be more cost efficient. Of course this depends on the price of the food you are using, and whether or not you produce it in bulk, and freeze or not.
-Home made tastes better (try it yourself)! It is also more likely that your baby will be open to trying new foods if he has been exposed to what REAL food tastes like from the get go.
Here are some negatives to making home made food:
-It is time consuming
-It can cost more
-It can be frustrating to do all the work involved (shop for the food, peel and cut up the food, steam the food, then puree/blend the food and portion it)
Here is how I got started and what I've learned:
-I bought the baby bullet since I was pretty clueless about the whole process. It comes with 2 blades (one for pureeing and one for milling), 2 sizes of blending bowls, 6-two ounce storage containers, 1 freezable batch tray that stores 6-two ounce portions, a food introduction guide/recipe book, and plastic spatula. I think I paid $50 for it on sale. I think it was a great place to start. However, I'm advanced enough now, (and cooking much larger portions that do not even fit in the larger blending bowl), that I no longer use the baby bullet, and just use my regular old blender. What was really great about this package was the step by step guide about introducing foods at certain ages, what foods to avoid, an idea of how much to give, and the recipes. I guess I could have hunted all this down on line, or bought a book, but this was a very concise way to take in this information. And I love the little food storage containers, they have little smiley faces on them and are just adorable. You certainly don't have to have the baby bullet, I had several people say they used the Ninja or other food processor, and it worked great. Just as did ice cube trays to freeze the food. I also recommend a steamer, with at least 2 trays. I tried the baskets you put in a large pot on the stove, and they simply don't hold very much. There are also really cool gadgets out there that you can stem and puree the food all with one machine. I haven't tried any, so I'm not sure how they work, or how much they cost.
-I started with brown rice cereal as the first food I introduced. The milling blade worked great to crush it into a powder and then I cooked that. This was much cheaper than buying the box of cereal. After that came the banana. This is a staple in my son's diet, and for a while I had to mix it with almost everything to get him to try it, then I slowly have taken it out as his openness to food has increased. Every 4-7 days (depending on our schedule and what was going on), I would introduce a new food. Once you are know there are no negative reactions to the food, then you can mix it with other safe foods that are liked.
-I did try freezing the food, and I would recommend doing this as well. This will definitely save time and energy. However, defrosting it was a pain if you need it right then, since hot water is basically the only option, and I didn't find a container, or plastic bag that kept all water out. It also seems that my son hated the texture of the food once it had been frozen. It did seem to really change the consistency once frozen- thawed, but he may just be odd like me about textures.
-As he began eating more I quickly realized I didn't have enough containers to keep the food in. I went to Target (any store that sells plastic has them) and bought the 4 oz Rubbermaid containers and these are the perfect size.
-As I have been making more food, I changed how I portioned it. I had been making one food at a time then trying to put it into the containers immediately after. This became infuriating when I came to the last 2-3 foods left to make and I realized that didn't have any more small containers. So now I make each kind, then pour into a big plastic bowl with lid and put it in the refrigerator and portion out food later as I needed it, or for the day. As a side note, I've read that most babies (my son is no different), prefer food at room temperature, so I set out his food about an hour before he usually will eat it.
-We all know fresh is ideal, and organic is best. I also try to buy local since I live in an area where there is so much locally grown fresh produce at either the farmer's markets or local-only food stores. However, some places do not always have certain things in stock. So since I make his food 2-3 times a week, I have to go shop for the food 2-3 times a week, and I go to at least 2-3 different places. This isn't necessary, and I certainly have used regular and organic produce from the grocery store. That is up to each individual.
The bottom line: Making the food yourself is time consuming, and depending on where you have to go to get it can add more time to the process. Doing all the steps (buying, peeling, cutting, steaming, blending) requires even more time! No lie, I get quite sick of it. And the more mobile my son gets, the harder it gets to keep him occupied while I attend to making it every time. There have been several times on my trips to the store that I've thought I would just break down and buy some packaged food but I haven't, and I'm so glad. I have bought some frozen food that is home made by a local company that just started up. It's still in the freezer and I should probably pitch it at this point actually, but I did buy it as back up, in case I was in a pinch. We all don't have the luxury of time, but since I work 3 days a week, I'm able to use some of my off time to make the food, and I'm so grateful for that. It really does make me feel good to know that I'm doing everything I can to make sure my son gets the most nutritional food. Even if he has spit it back out or thrown it at me a few times.
