Are you curious about making homemade baby food but unsure where to start? Check out our latest blog on what to know about making baby food at home
When feeding infants and children, it’s easy to get swept up in all the processed products on the grocery shelves, claiming to be packed with nutrients for your kids and a simple solution for busy families.
Feeding your children should be done with care. To support proper growth and development, you want to choose the best ingredients for them and opt for the most nutritious meals. Homemade meals for your infant and children can feel like a daunting task, but are beneficial both in terms of cost and nutrition for your family.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the benefits of DIY baby food, offer tips on how to get started, and provide some easy and delicious recipes.
What are the benefits of choosing homemade baby food?
- Proper nutrition: Homemade baby food puts you in complete control of what your baby is eating. You can choose the highest quality ingredients, giving your baby a wide variety of essential nutrients specifically tailored to their needs. Providing a balance of fruits, vegetables, and proteins in your baby’s diet, without the preservatives, additives, and high sugar load that often comes with store-bought, processed baby food.
- Developing tastes and preferences: We know that children begin to form their tastes and preferences for food from the first feed. Preparing your baby’s food will allow you to expose your baby to new fresh flavors and textures, and support them in building their palate for plant-forward meals. Exposing them to a range of flavors and textures that may be more culturally relevant to your family. Additionally, it allows you to introduce to your baby potential food allergies, early, at a recommended pace.
- Being fiscally responsible: Without a doubt preparing food for your baby on your own is more affordable than purchasing pre-packaged options. Choosing to purchase ingredients that the whole family is eating, in bulk, and focusing on what is in season will provide you with a more budget-friendly approach to feeding your family.
How to get started with making your baby food:
- Set yourself up for success! Be sure you have all the right equipment at home such as a blender, food processor, steamer, masher, and storage containers. Containers used for baby food should be designated as such to ensure you always have what you need and that there is no cross-contamination.
- Educate yourself on proper food safety. Know how to prep and cook by following all the appropriate food safety guidelines. Some things to keep in mind are washing your hands, cleaning your utensils well, and rinsing all produce before prep. Additionally, if you are cooking animal products, know the internal temperatures of meats and poultry. Don’t store any of the prepared food for too long, it’s recommended no more than 3 days in the fridge and up to 3 months in the freezer. Consider dating the containers after prep.
- One ingredient at a time. Decide on an order of exposure, start with one ingredient at a time. First solids are usually pureed fruit and/or vegetables. For example banana mash or sweet potato puree. By serving one ingredient at a time, you can monitor for an allergic reaction, as well as take note of your baby’s overall reaction. Did they like it? How much of it did they eat?
Once your infant has passed the single-ingredient phase, and is now ready for multiple ingredients per meal, here are some recipes to try:
Wash all produce well before handling!
Apple and Pear Puree
- Ingredients: 1 apple, 1 pear, and cinnamon
- Directions: 1) Peel, core and chop the apple. 2) Steam the peeled apple chunks until soft. 3) Purée the apple with peeled pear chunks in a food processor or blender until smooth. 4) Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Banana and Avocado Cream
- Ingredients: 1 ripe banana, 1 ripe avocado
- Directions: Peel and mash the banana and avocado together until creamy. Serve immediately.
Zucchini Potato Puree
- Ingredients: 4 cups zucchini, 3/8 cups potatoes, water, 1 tbsp olive oil
- Directions: 1) Peel and slice zucchini and potatoes 2) Steam both in a steamer basket (~10 minutes) 3) Blend softened vegetables with olive oil in a food processor or blender.
Homemade baby food is a fun and nutritious way to transition your infant to solids. Not only will this ensure your baby is eating to meet their nutrition and developmental needs, but it is budget-friendly for your family. Using this guide for preparation, safety tips, and DIY baby food recipes you can get started feeding your little one with ease.
If you have any questions, want to share your homemade baby food recipes, or learn more about what Dining With Nature offers for infant nutrition care – take a look at our Services page.
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