Making baby food

[c_helwig89]

I want to make our baby's baby food. Does it really save that much money?
Also, I was told to feed the veggies before fruits so that they like veggies. Is this true?

[fuzzy]

I have never tried making my own food..It was really too hard to fit it into my already busy schedule.** When it comes to veggies before fruits,I heard the same thing..If they get used to yummy/sweet fruits when it comes to the sometimes bland/bitter veggies they'll be more likely to spit it out(not eat it).

[c_helwig89]

See, I'm not too worried about my schedule. I am fantastic on running on empty if the need be. Plus, I was on another website and found ways to make a lot at once and store it for a long time.
My finace and I eat a lot of fruit and veggies, so I just want to make sure the baby does too. I also plan on giving the baby foods that we don't like, so that maybe it can have a broader range of foods to enjoy.. I figured that trying a lot of homemade stuff would help... give them a better idea of the taste and whatnot....

Thank you for verifying the veggies before fruits thing!!!

[MamaT]

start with veggies like green beans. then go on to something like peas.. leaving sweet potatos and carrots towards the end as they're sweeter. that's what i did.
I also made my own food. it did cut on cost for a while.. unfortunately, or maybe fortunately i dont know.. my son started wanting to eat everythign under the sun so i started him on small bites of whatever we were having for dinner.
a good trick if you're making your own.. mash it in the blender with some of the juice from the can if you're using canned, so that it's a nice texture. not too thick, but not too runny. then pour it into ice cube trays. i froze it up, then got containers and labeled what was in each so i didnt give him the same thing every day. this way you can take out a cube or 2 and let it defrost so it's ready by lunch!
i hope this helps you out!

[kaiya23]

Yes! it's cheaper! Go with the veggies first. I did mine in the blender, usually adding formula (breastmilk works too) for the added nutrients and texture. But you could use water or juice, I found that apple juice overpowered a lot of the flavors though. Canned veggies and fruits are much softer b/c they've soaked in the juices. The ice cube trays worked really well, if you can find ones with lids it'll save you on the plastic wrap, but if you're using plastic wrap, wrap it tight so other flavors from your freezer don't get in. I kept my cubes in freezer bags so they were easy to label and I could get a lot of the air out. If I remember right, we were pureeing when she was eating a whole container of the 2nd foods, and three cubes equalled about one of those containers. The whole process took me 3-4 hours on a Saturday to get her 2 weeks of food. That included several fruits and veggies. The cool part is that you can give your child fruits and veggies that wouldn't normally be found in the baby food aisle...like mango and kiwi (the seeds pureed for me without a problem), and you could throw a couple of different types of bell pepper or onion in with some green beans to introduce flavors.

I didn't start until I realized how tight things were, and it did make a huge difference. The only thing I had a problem was that different fruits or veggies turned colors in the freezer (bananas and apples turned a purplish-brown) or the texture just didn't get smooth enough. She was onto table food before I had enough experience to figure out how to solve those problems. www.freshbaby.com was the website I found in the little bit of research that I did. But with the next kid, I will start with just making his/her food.

[ktejmommy]

Thanks Kaiya23! I was asking myself this very question, with DD I tried making my own but it just wasn't coming together well. Thanks for sharing the website. DS is sooo picky I'd like to try it again and "cater to his needs" so he'll freaking eat! lol thanks again!

[c_helwig89]

Thank you so much for the website!

And thanks everyone for the help & advice :-)