{I took this picture of Ben today. This is the second time he's had avocado.}
Now that you've read and decided how you want to approach feeding your baby here, and figured out what tools you may need here, it's time to talk about how to go about the actual process of making your own baby food and putting it in there mouth.
The Food
Choosing organic produce and dry goods is an important consideration for babies. The American Academy of Pediatrics states that children are more "vulnerable" to chemical exposure (read this article for more info) and feeding organic food can help reduce associated risks.
I personally buy produce for baby food from 3 main places - my farm to door delivery of regional and sustainablly grown produce, local farmer's markets, and grocery store organics. Depending on where I am that week, what I receive from the farm, and what's in season determines where I purchase what.
If you can't afford to buy organic produce, it's ok. Your baby will still get lots of great benefits from conventional food. But buy organic and local food when you can.
Prep and Cooking
The four main ways I prep food before pureeing are either steaming, roasting, stewing or keeping it raw.
Steaming is an easy and healthy choice, especially if you are using the Beaba Babycook or something similar. For bigger batches then what it could handle, I used bamboo steamer baskets. You can also use a simple steamer basket. Steaming helps preserve a lot of the nutrients in produce, especially green vegetables. Avoid boiling food unless you are going to use the boiling liquid in the food.
Roasting is another good option for bigger items like squashes. Since I make roasted veggies at least once a week I can do double duty with one big pan of whatever I'm cooking. I would still coat baby's veggies in a little olive oil but wouldn't use salt or pepper. I'm a big fan of adding flavor too, but I'll get to that in a minute. Alternatively, I've learned you can do large, winter squashes in the crock pot too (see my Rosemary Acorn Squash recipe).
Fruits work best when stewed on the stove top but you can certainly roast or steam them too. I found that cooking fruit wasn't always necessary and you can just puree fresh fruit with water or breast milk (mango, banana, avocado).
When I can, I try to do a big baby food cooking extravaganza in the kitchen. I think doing 3-4 different items at once (1 raw, 2 roasted, 1-2 steamed) is a reasonable goal if you have a chunk of a few hours. With enough storage containers, you could be set for 2-3 weeks after this, depending on how much baby eats. However, since early baby foods are so simple, it's easy to make batches every 1-3 days. Just try to think ahead for what you are making for dinner and include veggies or fruits you can give to baby. While you are making those veggies for dinner, pull some out and puree a portion for baby.
Combinations and Flavorings
Once you've established that your baby doesn't have any allergies (thus why you introduce one food at a time), I think it's good to get creative. Herbs and spices not only have wonderful health benefits but introducing them early can open up your child to flavor preferences that will hopefully stick with them for life (not a guarantee by any means, but a mom can hope).
I used several cookbooks as a general guide on what flavors to add and what combinations to try. But once you get your feet wet with making food and you learn your baby, just go for it!
Keep in mind that we all will naturally feed our babies foods and flavors that we like and eat often. It will take a little stretching on our part to include foods we don't normally eat. This is why cookbooks are sometimes helpful. Check out my Amazon store (click the link) for my favorite baby food cookbooks.
Lastly, kids are fickle when it comes to taste preferences. What they love one day, they will despise the next. If this happens to you, you didn't do anything wrong. I repeat: you did not do anything wrong. This is just how kids are wired and it's part of development. Continue to present all types of foods, whether they are in to them or not. You just never know what good could happen. For example, Jackson went through a time that he just loved pureed beets. (I don't know where that came from, but it happened.) Then one day, he had had enough. Similarly, one day he would love baby guacamole and another day he would not. Just stick with it. It's your job as a parent to present healthy options, but you can't make your kids eat all of them, all of the time.
The Act of Feeding
My philosophy on introducing foods while breast feeding is that the first 6 months (ages 6 months to 12 months) is all about discovery and learning the skill of eating for your baby. In my experience, it really took many, many months before my son was eating enough food to sustain him. I guess I had this idea that Jackson would just know what to do with food from the first bite, but it didn't work out that way for me.
There were many days (and many more to come) when I just wanted baby to eat the food so we could move on in our day. I got frustrated easily by how long it took him to 'get it'. (For the record, this is the story of my life as my personality is the check-off-the-box-and-move-on kind. Kids are really good at interrupting me in this mindset and reminding me of the need for grace and to be present in the moment.)
Eating is also going to be pretty messy for a while. So don't wear nice clothes (or do wear an apron), especially if you feed baby beets. I speak from experience here.
So, let me just encourage you with this: no matter what the books say, your baby may want to do this eating thing totally different. It doesn't mean the baby is wrong, or you are wrong, but sometimes you have to rethink your approach. I've had to do that many times, and not just with feeding.
Scheduling
The last thing I am going to share with you is the tool I used for putting both of my babies on a schedule. I am very very thankful to my sister in law for introducing me to it several years ago. Scheduling is a very personal choice, and there are many different (good) ways to go about it. The tool that worked for me is called Mom's on Call. I have followed their every word of advice in many areas, but used their scheduling tools to determine when to fit in food feedings. They (the owners are 2 nurses) are phenomenal. That is all I will say and now move on.
Making your baby food is something that you can do if you want to. And it's ok if you don't. But don't view it as some huge, gourmet task. At the end of the day, you are just pureeing food. That's it! Anyone can do it.
Please leave me a comment about what you did do or are going to do for your baby as well as if I missed any of your burning questions.
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