Homemade Baby Food: 5 Reasons to Try
Today's guest post is from Cortney, the other fabulous mind of onceamonthmom.com (they paid me with a freezer meal to say that :-). So, I'll admit it – I never made my own baby food. But, I was always curious about it and thought it was probably too much work. It's not…seriously! Cortney has so many great resources available in the Baby Food section of onceamonthmom.com that help make this a piece of pie…sweet potatoe pie, of course!
Want 5 convincing reasons to make you own baby food? Don't think it really makes a difference? Want what's best for your little ones? Well check out, what I believe are some pretty convincing arguments on why you should make your own baby food.
1. Homemade baby food smells a whole lot better than store bought. Okay so this may not be the greatest reason to make your own, but if you are like me, I almost gagged every time I had to feed my first born. I don't do well with strong odors and/or unique tastes. Your feeding experiences with your kids shouldn't make you want to leave the room!
2. It gives you and your child an opportunity to try unique flavors. Making your own baby food exposes your baby to more of a variety of tastes and textures. This will encourage your child to try new foods when he is a toddler and through out his childhood, and in turn develop healthy eating habits. Not to mention you control the food combination's! Maybe your child likes pears and bananas, but not peaches. Maybe you can find peaches and bananas and not pears and bananas. No problem, you are making the food, you can make whatever combination you and your child would like!
3. You know WHEN and WHERE your child's food was made. I don't know about you, but I like knowing that my child's chicken and rice dinner was made in my clean kitchen, cleaned by my hands, using the freshest ingredients that I could find. No uncertainties here. Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying baby food plants are dirty, I am just saying when I make the food I am CERTAIN of the conditions the food has been under.
4. You know EXACTLY what your child is eating. When my first son was an infant, he ate store bought food and he turned out fine. But he did suffer from allergy symptoms that we could not pin-point but that he grew out of eventually. But I often wonder if there was some ingredient that I wasn't aware of that was causing his symptoms? I will never know but I know now exactly what my second son is eating. If you can't pronounce niacinamide, ferrous sulfate, or thiamine mononitrate should your child be eating it, whether it is found to be safe or not?
5. It SAVES you money. On average making your own baby food can save you 10¢ to 40¢ a jar! Over the course of 6 to 8 months of your child eating baby food that savings can really add up! Can't do the math that quickly? In my first month, that was a savings of nearly $40!! What could you do with an extra $40 a month?
Cortney recently became a SAHM to her two boys, after a 8 year career in elementary education. She currently resides in Kettering, Ohio where her and her husband grew up. She and her co-author, Tricia, love to find new ways to save time and money, especially in the kitchen. In doing so, they share these ideas with you at onceamonthmom.com.
I made all of my 3 kids baby food and I found the book, Super Baby Food, to be my best resource for nutrition and ideas. I highly recommend it!
I used store bought baby food with my boy…but with this new baby on the way I am definitely planning on making my own! My boy used to HATE the dinners (they always had a nasty smell), and I worried about too much sugar in the fruits.
My son is 5 1/2 months old and we’re about to start him on solids. I do plan to make his food for those very reasons. I also have Super Baby Food and The Healthy Baby Meal Planner. I have a friend who made her own and recommended those books. She also got me a food processor. Can’t wait to try them out (sort of). He’s growing up too fast!!!
It’s funny you mention homemade baby food. One of our most popular money saving posts has actually been our “Homemade baby food with ingredients you would never guess”
Great post! I encourage everyone to try making their own baby food! It’s a great money saver!
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I froze baby food in ice cube trays for our 5 children. After frozen, I popped them in freezer bags. One for veggies, one for fruits, one for meals.
At home we would heat and feed. When we would go out, I would take a cube or two in a container and usually it was thawed by the time the baby needed to eat. Saved a lot of money! Don’t have any babies now, so now we have a lot of ice cube trays for ICE!!!
BR
I always made my own baby food for our 5 babies. I used the ice cube tray system too. I used either a blender or a food grinder to make the food.
With my first 4 children, I used nothing but homemade food. With my 5th child, I did buy some baby food jars to use as we were “running” with the older children.
For example, if someone had a dance class over baby’s dinner time, I’d take a small jar of my son’s favorite food to hold him over until we could get home.
Great post, Cortney! I really wish I had done this. Maybe Sophie wouldn’t be so picky now. Almost makes me want to pop out a third kids just to try it…ALMOST… :)
I think making baby food is almost easier than buying it. The key is to make food for yourself and give some to your baby (not always possible of course – no hamburgers for 6 month old).
Great post,
Lisa
http://www.babyfood101.com
I love making my own baby food! It is so easy and like the post said, I know exactly what is in the food I am giving to my son! I love it when I can find good sales on produce because I can make it extra cheep – I just made 48 oz of pears for my son for $0.60! (He is only 7 months old so he only eats fruits, veggies and cereal right now)
We make our own baby food as well….wish I would have known to do this with my first two kids…lol!
I did it with my second boy and LOVED it!!! He did much better with the homeade than store bought and I felt very proud being able to do it for him….its very easy!