Making Baby Food

Wow, apparently I've been away for some time with other things.  The site is looking... interesting.  I haven't yet naviguessed it yet.

Anyhow, was wondering how many of you have made your own baby food, and the time it took you to put into it.  Did it save money?  Do you feel that it was healthier than buying baby food?  Did you use baby cereal?  

Nadezdha is 5 months now, I can't believe it, and I figure its time to start preparing for this (especially with TTC - should know on Friday or Saturday if we have more baby dust!).

[lovefamily]

I will buy some food and make some depending upon time restraints.  I steam and mash up food adding no salts or seasons and place food in ice cube tray.  Freeze it and pop out cubes in ziploc, date, seal and store in freezer.  Then you just get out how many cubes needed, thaw and warm up.  My little guy is the same age as your daughter.  I haven't started food yet and am still breastfeeding fulltime.  We will wait until 6 months unless he acts like he is ready sooner.

[tiredbuthappy]

we had every intention of making most of her fruits and veggies, but haven't yet. we've been on solids for about 3 weeks. we figured it's easier and more efficient to explore what she likes and dislikes by using the brand stuff as opposed to making it ourselves. once we have a better picture of her preferences, we're gonna make it. dh did try out roasting a squash(or something similar- i'm embarrassed to say i hate veggies so i don't know much about the different ones) a few weeks back. that one huge veggie cost $.69 and would probably feed her for a week. that's about how much brand food she eats in a day, so it definitely would save $. i just didn't want to fill my freezer with something she may not like. we're going to mix it with cereal as we do with the brand stuff now because the cereals are fortified and right now their iron requirements are very high.

[SeeingSpots]

We didn't freeze any of it (I didn't know how to prevent freezer burn, as even our meat gets freezer burn in the ziplock freezer bags sometimes, plus some items get "watery" when frozen/thawed), but we did buy a baby food grinder and would use that to puree foods.  Once our son was old enough to handle a bigger variety, I'd often just grind up whatever we were having (minus the salt/pepper/seasoings).  But, for the most part, we just bought the "Gerber Organic" baby food... it's preservative/chemical free and all natural.  I just couldn't eat, or stand to smell cooking, some of the things that babies should have- like "butternut squash", "sweet potatoes", "guava", etc.  They come in resealable plastic containers nowadays, so we'd usually get 2 servings a piece (and they come 2 to a pack, so for $.89 cents you get 4 servings), and once done, I'd throw the container in the dishwasher then use it later for storing our own babyfoods-- like when I make mashed potatoes, I scoop some in to the containers for my son for later.  Anyway, the Gerber Organic can be fed cold or warmed, so it was handy to throw in the diaper bag and take with us (doesn't need to be refridgerated until opened), and if we were somewhere with no microwave, it wasn't a big deal-- he loved the veggies cold too.

We tried the baby cereal for starters.  He liked it at first (when all he'd previously had was breast milk), but once we started him eating other items, the baby cereal was NOT desired.  In order to get him to continue to eat the cereal (which was high in iron), we would often mix in a 1/2 a jar of some sort of baby pureed fruit.  Once he got to Stage 2 in baby food (a little less smooth food), he LOVED the Gerber containers of cereal blends-- they have like "Banana Strawberry Granola", "Mixed Berry Oat", etc.

Anyway, good luck!  Can't believe your little Nadezdha is 5 months old already!  Good luck with the ttc... I got pg with our 2nd when Alexander was 6mo.  As soon as I stopped nursing full-time and started some solids, bingo, got pg without ever even seeing AF inbetween.  (Which by the way, since I hadn't had an AF between pregnancies, they classified me as a "high risk" for this pregnancy.... baby is fine, but they've had me do lots of extra tests throughout it all.)

[kcs08]

I make all my own baby food. The only time we use jars is if we are away from home.  Go to wholesomebabyfoods.com and it will tell you how to make everything.  It also tells you how much you save.  My DD is 9 mo and eats what is equivalent to 5 jars of organic baby food a day.  They are almost $.80.  each!  That is less than what my friends babies are eating but my DD is a peanut.  I spend one Sunday a month, buy all the food, bring it home and cook it, steam, or bake...then I use a blender (it's so fast) and pour it in ice cube trays and muffin pans.  One squash gives me almost 12 servings!!!  Also, I started blending things like corn, potato, carrots to make more appealing flavors.  I feel that it has transitioned her to table food very easily.  She now feeds herself all kinds of food.  

[SeeingSpots]

Also to add... I continued breast feeding until my son was just about a year old.  So, for us, table food was actually a "supplimentary" item.  That's why for us, feeding baby food wasn't expensive-- boobie milk is free!! LOL!! :)  

Once he was a yr old I weaned him, and by then he had several teeth and didn't need "baby food" per se.  He's 14mo. old now and just eats whatever we do at meals, just cut in to very small pieces and nothing too hard  for him to still gum, since he doesn't have any molars yet.

[ImmortalOne]

Thank you ladies for all that valuable information.  Nadezdha is still exclusively breastfed, we are going for 6 months exclusive, then another 6 months if she wants till a year or we are successful at TTC.  

We haven't tried cereal at all, the doc said we probably shouldn't need to and that it was empty calories anyway.  I have let her taste my own food now and again and she had interest in what I am doing when eating but doesn't understand that its just different from her boobie milk.  I wanted to start stocking up this weekend so we are prepared in a month when we start.  I saw some baby cube things that seem to be like icecube trays, but I think the trays are just the same thing.  

She is still very much nursing (on demand when not at work, and pumped milk otherwise).  She absolutely refused the formula my husband gave her.  LOL  hated it.

[ImmortalOne]

I tried a little bit of cereal today *tear*  My milk supply seems to be a little less than it was, and I wanted to be the one to try it.  So she got a little bit tonight after nursing for a little while (I have pictures!)  We'll see how she does with that the next few days I guess.  I can't believe she's 5 1/2 months already!  She thought it was "interesting" and had some difficulty, but for the most part did good all together.