To Make Your Own Baby Food or Not? That is the question!

So since I am feeling particularly domesticated today...I thought I would write on making your own baby food. When I first had Caroline my goal was to make her baby food. I asked for a food processor and baby cookbook for Christmas and was all about it when she began to try new foods. But as I soon found out, it was a lot more challenging than I thought.

A lot of people think it's time consuming and that's why they don't do it, but I don't think that is it. It really is fairly simple and doesn't take a lot of time if you are freezing the food as you cook it. For me the issue in the beginning was consistency. It seemed like I couldn't get my foods to be the right puree for C to maneuver with her mouth. She just ended up spitting alot of it out.  The first couple months they are trying to figure out how to eat solids and use a spoon at the same time which makes chunkier or stringy foods difficult for them. It seemed the only things that I could get right was mashed up banana and rice cereal :). So pretty quickly I gave up and just went for the store bought.

There is nothing wrong with the store bought stuff. I mean C really enjoyed most it and they have a lot of good options out there now with organic and natural options.

 My issue was cost and how much I needed to buy. Caroline caught on to the yumminess of food pretty quickly and by 6 months old was pretty consistently eating 3 meals a day. To by that much baby food was pretty expensive. I coupon, and even when my favorite store did the BYGO sales it still was $.60 each if not more. So feeling a little more confident with Caroline's eating skills I decided to make a go of making her baby food again.

Now I make everything. Every now and again I will buy some store baby food to travel with but for the most part I cook it all...and I love it! Not only do I feel like she is getting healthier options, but man is it more cost effective. For example I bought a bag of sweet potatoes the other day for $2. This bag will last C a long time for it holds 2 servings per potato and is way cheaper than paying $.60 for one. Strawberries, blueberries, mango, green beans, peas, carrots, squash...the options are endless for fresh vegies and fruits (I also am loving going to our local farmers market to get local produce). When I get ready to cook her food I just make a lot of it at once, that way I can try new food combinations for her and then freeze it. Then when I get ready to feed her I just take the frozen food out and run it under warm water till it thaws. SUPER EASY!

I have done both options and I now prefer the do it yourself method. I do understand the convenience of just buying it and cracking open a jar, but if you have never tried it... go for it! It's kinda fun :) There are a lot of really great baby cookbooks out there...I really like this one.


Domesticated and Loving it,
Lindsey