Unintended Benefits of Making Baby Food at Home

A few weeks in and Lucy has become committed to eating real food. And by real food I mean Cherrios. I have also been introducing some new flavors (and textures) which she isn’t always thrilled about, but don’t they say you have to try something like 12 times before you like it? Anyways it’s going great and my two year old has rediscovered his love for Cheerio’s and other baby foods as well. He is constantly taking food off her tray and of course he is also willing to share his own. I find myself saying “Henry, thanks for sharing, but Lucy is too little” a lot!

So I’m going to get a little “granola” on you for just a second. When introducing solids to my babies I have (so far) gone the organic route. My thought is this, so far Lucy has only eaten organic milk, I mean straight from the source, so why not continue that. I try to avoid some processing if I can. Now I did SIGNIFICANTLY better with Henry but I’m getting better with Lucy. I’m talking about making my own organic baby food.

It really isn’t that hard and doesn’t take a whole lot of time, so I don’t have a real good excuse as to why I haven’t made more. Sweet potato is probably the easiest. First it’s a vegetable and I try to hold off on fruits and use them more like a dessert. I simply bake them, remove the filling, mash it up and then place in ice cube trays and put in the freezer. Now everything I do, I got from a book, I’m not this brilliant in real life. So this last batch of sweet potatoes, I baked about 3 medium size organic potatoes and got about 20 servings. I consider one “ice cube” of potato a serving.  After mashing up the potatoes I place about a tablespoon into each ice cube slot, when the tray is full cover with foil and place in the freezer for about 3-4 hours, until frozen. Then I pop them out and place in a gallon freezer bag marked with the date and then throw them back into the freezer. Then all I have to do is grab one serving put in a bowl and microwave for about 30 seconds and ta-da I’ve got baby food!

Now with Henry I had sweet peas, sweet potato, green beans, carrot, blueberries, spinach and other various foods in my freezer ready to go. AND I was working full time, see I told you I have no good reason for not doing as well with Lucy! But what is so cool is now they have a lot of the organic baby food in those squirt pouches. I don’t think that’s the right name but you know the pouches that you can squirt onto a spoon, or into a bowl or Henry’s favorite, just suck it right out of the package. Those things are awesome! Not to mention super convenient but you pay for that convenience.

Another positive I have found when preparing my own baby food is that everyone else in the house seems to eat a little better too. I’m sure many of you can relate to this, but all kids know that the food on their parents’ plates is 763,972 times better than the food on theirs. Lucy at seven months, already knows this. A sweet potato that comes off my plate has got to be better than the ones in her bowl. So in that way it makes me want to have a better looking plate. It wouldn’t really be fair to have a burger and fries on my plate and carrots on hers. See these are all the little thoughts that float through my mind when preparing food for my kids. I guess to sum it all up, be the example. I can teach my kids about the convenience of already packaged food or show them how to prepare fresh meals.

Trust me you’ll still find those squirt pouches in my diaper bag and in my pantry but it wouldn’t hurt for me to spend a little more time in my kitchen. Did you try making your own baby food? When your babies started on solids did it change your family’s diet too?

Laine Moses is a stay-at-home-Mom to Henry and Lucy.