July 2009 Weddings
LindsayB0505
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Making your own baby food
Any mom's do this? My Grandma said that she wanted to buy me the Baby Bullet, but I think I'd just go with a good quality food processor instead and some of those cube trays. She said it would be great to get started stocking up now while all the fresh garden veggies are coming in (she has a HUGE garden). I'm just wondering if that would even be worth it. Baby probably won't start eating solid food until at least 6 months, so that puts us at 7 to 8 months being frozen before it would be used. What do you think?
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Re: Making your own baby food
I would absolutely love to have a Baby Bullet even though I know it's completely frivolous and you can do the same thing with a regular processor. But, c'mon, who wouldn't want to feed their baby out of this:
But, I too would be interested in knowing how easy this is, because I definitely want to do it when we have spawn.
We'll be making our own (I have a few different devices to try out
). I don't plan on making any until she is closer to eating solids though. I want it to be as fresh as possible and wouldn't want to stock up on something that she didn't like or didn't do well with.
We'll have to share recipes, since our girls will probably be similar in stages
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we made some! don't start now as it is only good in the freezer for 3-6 months.
eli was a super picky eater so i ended up just pureeing veggies we ate once for him to try. if he liked it then i would make a batch to freeze. he also only ate baby food for a month and then completely refused it so i ended up tossing a bunch of it which sucked. a food processor works great thats what i used and it wasn't a super nice one just a $30 one from target. then i got thes: http://www.amazon.com/green-sprouts-Eco-friendly-Silicone-Freezer/dp/B002F9MUM0/ref=sr_1_12?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1312924857&sr=1-12 they are great because they are square so they stack great in the bags and lay flat in the freezer. i had tried regular ice cube trays which also work and are cheaper but don't store as nicely in the freezer. if you have any questions i am happy to help.
oh an this website is great; http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/
we have the same growing season here too but i just used frozen until it got nice here. its hard but it really doesn't last long in the freezer the nutrients start to deteriorate at about 3 months out
I make Julia's food. I just take veggies and steam them or bake them to soften, then I use me immersion blender to puree. I find the immersion blender to be a little bit easier to control the consistency than the food processor. Then I put the puree in ice cube trays to freeze (one cube=about 1 oz). Once they are frozen, I pop them out and put them in a ziplock to save space.
I also like http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/. It offers a good guide to what to feed when.
I also agree not to start now. It is so easy and doesn't take much time. Plus, the fresher the food, the more nutrients it has.
I am proud to say that Parker has never had store bought baby food (except puffs...those things are like baby crack!). My mom bought me the baby beaba cooker and I iffy on it. I don't think I would ever get it again. It worked fine, but a food processor would of done the same thing and taken up less room. I bought the ziploc steam bags and steamed everything in that and then pureed it. I would freeze it in ice cube trays and then defrost as needed. 1 ice cube tray is about 1 ounce. I would make big batches at a time. I would spend maybe 2 hours on Sunday dicing, steaming, and pureeing fruits and veggies and that would last upwards of 4-6 weeks. So much faster than buying food at the grocery store if you ask me. I also bought little glass bowls with plastic lids at target and I warm the cubes up in them. The lid is nice for when you aren't at home.
I also use this same method for his food now, but I skip the puree part. I dice up his fruits and veggies small enough for him and freeze them in ice cube trays. It works perfect, especially when we are in a hurry.
If you have any questions please ask!
My SIL and RL friends all make their own baby food. I've even made it a few times while taking care of other people's kids. It is super easy.
They all just use their food processors since they all have good quality ones they got as wedding gifts. I'm sure the baby bullet is great, but IMO no kitchen is complete without a good quality food processor anyway so you're better off just getting that (if you don't already have one).
My vote is to just wait and make the baby food once your LO is old enough to eat it. I'm sure being frozen for 7-8 months would definitely effect the taste and you don't want to turn her off from all of those fruits and veggies with a batch of freezer burnt squash.
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Totally! How have you been feeling? Can you believe how fast this pregnancy has gone by. I'm in shock all the time that it's only 2 more months until D-day. I posted the same question on the October 2011 board if you want to check out the responses I got there.
We made all of Anders' food as well (he now eats what we eat) and it is SUPER easy.
I used a food processor (you can make a larger quantity of food than in some of the smaller machines), steamer basket and ice cube trays. Basically it's steam, puree, freeze. I liked making our own because you can control the texture-we added texture pretty early on-and it's so much fresher! We pureed everything from fish, steak, veggies, fruit, tofu, you name it. I still make some and mix it in with whole milk yogurt for Anders so he gets a fun flavor with his yog.
Re: freezing veggies now...I think it's a bit early. I certianly would not make any baby foods this far ahead, but I also wouldn't want to fill my freezer with foods to use that far out unless I had a serious deep freeze. Plus, you really never know what your LO will like, you may stock up on one veggie and have a kid who hates it.
I agree with wholesomebabyfood.com, but you can also change foods up with spices and seasonings as your LO grows, I think they do that a bit (if I remember right) as well.
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What are you looking at?
From what I have read you aren't supposed to make your own carrot puree... something about a chemical in the ground?! but I haven't done too much research on that yet.
We plan on making Darien's food when he gets to that point. I'm excited! We have a stick blender that I plan on using for smaller batches and a regular food processor for larger freezing batches,
I asked my pedi about this and she said that it was fine to give them carrots.
You can do carrots, just don't use the water you steam with to thin out the puree, use formula, breast milk or regular water. The concern re: carrots is nitrates, which is higher in commercially grown produce (thanks to fertilizer) than organic, but still present as it is naturally occuring. As stated in the linked article, nitrates cannot be 100% removed, even from commercial baby food.. Here's a summary on wholesomebabyfood.com: http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/nitratearticle.htm
It's not just in carrots either, most root veggies, collard greens, spinach, etc.. have nitrates. (As does a lot of processed food) I could go on and on, but really, it's about waiting until your kid is old enough for solids, proper prep, and everything in moderation.
I have been feeling pretty good. I can tell baby girl is getting bigger... she's learned how to sneak up under my ribs! I can't believe how fast it is going either. I was sitting on the couch last night with DH and all we could think about is how soon and how much our lives will change. We are so excited! How are you feeling? Do you feel like you are ready?
I have been feeling really good. I feel like I've been very blessed with an "easy" pregnancy. This little one has definitely found my ribs now too. I usually try to gently press her out of there. It's always on my right side. I'm ready in the sense that I'm getting really excited to just get to meet my baby and snuggle her. But in terms of having things organized (and in some cases purchased), not so much!
I just have a giant food processor and to be perfectly honest, it makes more sense to me than the baby bullet (although it does take up a lot more space). I spend one or 2 days a month doing nothing but making baby food, it lasts way longer and then I'm done for a good 2-3 weeks.
Plus, last time I saw the baby bullet at Canadian Tire they had it advertised on sale for $145.00... too much for me to pay anyways