Making Baby Food
Baby’s first food and best food is breastmilk. I am a strong breastfeeding advocate. I encourage all moms to breastfeed well into the second year if at all possible. If you go longer, more power to ya! There are many many health benefits for baby and Mommy by extending breastfeeding into the second year. My first baby breastfed exclusively until she was a year old. God designed our bodies to provide everything baby needs, the breastmilk changes as baby does. God is so amazing! (Make sure you take care of your nutrition too while breastfeeding). My daughter weaned around 2 ½ years. Different Mothers will introduce solids at different times based on their convictions, influences and also depending on their baby. My youngest is 8 months old and he is pretty excited about eating with the family. We are just now introducing different foods in small quantity.
We start with very ripe bananas (peel is brown) pureed. We will also introduce brown rice, cooked and pureed. I will breastfeed him first and then introduce the babyfood. I want him to fill up on the best food first. At this point he is just taste testing and having fun being a big boy while the rest of the family eats their food. The quantity is very small, maybe a couple little spoonfuls. He may just taste tes one of these once a day at first. We slowly introduce other fruits and veggies like avocado, carrots, zucchini, apples, plums, peaches, etc. We start by only introducing one thing at a time to make sure he has no reaction to it. We stay away from acidic foods too. We may just let him taste those initially.
Organic Brown Rice: cooked, pureed, and ready for the freezer.
Tip 1: Fruits & Veggies: Organic and in season. We try to buy all our produce organic and from local farmers. If you choose to not buy organic (I strongly recommend you do, even if it’s only for your baby), please peel everything.
Organic produce from local farmers: Abundant Harvest
Tip 2: Cook veggies lightly. Don’t kill all the nutrients by over cooking. Fruits don’t need to be cooked.
Tip 3: Puree everything when baby is just starting with solids. You can buy different kinds of baby food processors if you want or you can simply make bigger batches and use your bigger food processors or blenders.
Tip 4: Make baby food when you are cooking for your family. So if your family are eating carrots for dinner for example, set a little aside for baby and then puree them separately.
Tip 5: You can thin any fruit or veggie with breast milk if you have any expressed.
Tip 6: After puree feed to baby and pour remainder into ice cube trays and freeze. Fresh is best but frozen organic food is second best. You can buy ice cube trays that have lids (more expensive), or use your regular ice cube trays without lids.
half banana-half zucchini
Tip 7: After fruits or veggies are frozen take them out of tray and store in a labeled baggy in the freezer. If you have empty ice cube trays on hand it will make it easier for you to continue to prepare baby food as you make your family meals. If you store them in baggies it's faster to get to when you want to feed your baby. The easier you make it for yourself to get from the freezer the more likely you'll be to continue to make baby food.
Tip 8: When you are preparing food for the rest of your family pull out one or two baby food ice cubes to thaw. Everybody can eat at the same time.
Isaac eating fresh organic zucchini. Straight from our garden.
Happy Baby Food Making!
