What do I need to make homemade baby food?

Question

If I want to make homemade baby food, what utensils will I need? Do you have any recipe ideas for all of the stages or any helpful links? I appreciate your help.

Answer 1

a blender

Answer 2

we simply used a food processor and our son ate what we had given it wasn't cooked with spices and quiet bland...we would spice our own after making our plate.  

Answer 3

Nothing.

Pureed food is bad for babies, so just take what you eat (within reason) and hand it over.

All mammals are protected by the same thing -they can't physically eat food until they are physiologically ready to digest it. For humans this means picking up the food, placing it in their mouth, gumming it, moving it back with their tongue, and swallowing it. The most obvious of course it the tongue thrust that newborns have -this reflex actively keeps food out of their body until they can digest it. But the other steps all have safeguards as well.

For healthy, full term infants the ability to eat food develops around 6-9 months. In recent years there have been numerous studies looking at the risks of certain things (allergies, asthma, anemia, etc) in relation to when solids are started and almost all have shown that the lowest risks are when solids are started between 6-9 months.

However it should also be noted that babies with allergies may refuse solids for up to a year, and that breastmilk is nutritionally complete for at least the first year of life despite earlier statements that it is not. An unpleasant feeling in the mouth is often a first sign of allergy and may cause babies to spit out rather than swallow allergenic foods. This is a very useful safeguard that should not be overridden.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/676279...

Solids best

After six months, Mrs Rapley said babies were capable of taking food into their mouths and chewing it.

Therefore, feeding them pureed food at this time could delay the development of chewing skills.

Instead, she said, they should be given milk and solid pieces of food which they could chew.

Mrs Rapley argued that babies fed pureed food had little control over how much food they ate, thus rendering them vulnerable to constipation, and running a risk that they would react by becoming fussy eaters later in life.

She blamed the food industry for convincing parents that they should give children pureed food.

She said: "Sound scientific research and government advice now agree that there is no longer any window of a baby's development in which they need something more than milk and less than solids."

http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintro...

Won't he choke?

Many parents worry about babies choking. However, there is good reason to believe that babies are at less risk of choking if they are in control of what goes into their mouth than if they are spoon fed. This is because babies are not capable of intentionally moving food to the back of their throats until after they have developed the ability to chew. And they do not develop the ability to chew until after they have developed the ability to reach out and grab things. The ability to pick up very small things develops later still. Thus, a very young baby cannot easily put himself at risk because he cannot get small pieces of food into his mouth. Spoon feeding, by contrast, encourages the baby to suck the food straight to the back of his mouth, potentially making choking more likely.

It appears that a baby's general development keeps pace with the development of his ability to manage food in his mouth, and to digest it. A baby who is struggling to get food into his mouth is probably not quite ready to eat it. It is important to resist the temptation to 'help' the baby in these circumstances since his own developmental abilities are what ensure that the transition to solid foods takes place at the right pace for him, while keeping the risk of choking to a minimum.

[...]

Ensuring good nutrition

Babies who are allowed to feed themselves seem to accept a wide range of foods. This is probably because they have more than just the flavour of the food to focus on – they are experiencing texture, colour, size and shape as well. In addition, giving babies foods separately, or in a way which enables them to separate them for themselves, enables them to learn about a range of different flavours and textures. And allowing them to leave anything they appear not to like will encourage them to be prepared to try new things.

General principles of good nutrition for children apply equally to young babies who are managing their own introduction to solid foods. Thus, 'fast foods' and foods with added sugar and salt should be avoided. However, once a baby is over six months old there is no need (unless there is a family history of allergy or a known or suspected digestive disorder) to otherwise restrict the foods that the baby can be offered. Fruit and vegetables are ideal, with harder foods cooked lightly so that they are soft enough to be chewed. At first, meat is best offered as a large piece, to be explored and sucked; once the baby can manage to pick up and release fistfuls of food, minced meat works well. (Note: babies do not need teeth to bite and chew – gums do very well!)

Answer 4

first of all how old is your baby?

what i do is i cook like sweet potatoes, potatoes, squash, carrots, etc.

(not all of them at the same time. but one every week) for a 6 month old. i cook it in a pressure pot. if you dont have one just use a regular one but put a top , i heard it keeps the nutrients in. then Oh yeah i peel it first and cut it into small pieces, then i mash it all and leave it for her to eat throughout the week. when i take a small amount i just mix it with breastmilk and she looves it!! you can also mix it with formula or water, but try to only use formula or breastmilk just so your baby has more nutrients in his/her diet. hope that helped

Answer 5

well i would start off with the soft foods like corn or peas!dont cook them.....mash them up and add water to a consistency! if you want to make like sweet potatoes or something just cook them like normal and then just add water!DO NOT ADD ANY SEASONINGS!no sugar or any sweetner!when baby are allergic they will stop breathing so do not try anything unless it is organic and natural! well hope it helps! good luck!bye!: )

Answer 6

I agree with Mystic!  Pureed foods aren't beneficial to babies.  They need texture and substance.  Some babies have difficulty transitioning to "table foods" when they've been fed purees.

Also, if you have food with seasoning, it's fine to share with baby!  Just keep an eye on the amount of salt in the seasoning.  Lots of salt isn't good (for mommy, daddy, OR baby).

Answer 7

well all you need is a food processor, some water, veg and fruits of your choice. just cook them until tender and then mush them or put them through the food processor depending how young the baby s the younger the smoother the food should be. my son used to love it when i mixed a whole bunch of veg together, spinach, green beans, corn, carrots, and peas. he loved it. same thing with fruits just mixed em all together.

Answer 8

I made my own baby food with a hand blender.  I only made enough for one or two days at a time.  It was fast and easy to do so there was no real reason to make more than that.

I put freshly steamed fruit and veggies in the processor and mashed it with a few splashes of prepared baby formula. I made bananas, carrots and whatever else. I did not add salt or sugar, just the splash of formula.