I have jotted down how Syd and I make Easton’s baby food for
some of the girls’ friends who are asking me. I am just a Grandma, not a
nutritionist so this is just how we did it, not thee way to do it. When the
doctor said to go ahead and give Easton solid foods this is how we did it.
First of all we bought these trays from Amazon. There are
cheaper ones on Amazon now but I haven’t used them. Some covers look like they
slide on… I dunno about that.
We bought organic fruits and vegetables when we could. Sprouts has a good selection, but any of the grocery
stores and Wal-Mart has organic produce. We also bought a Nutribullet which was
perfect for the job of pureeing.
We started with rice cereal and oat meal. After four days of
each of them, we tried apples. I peeled, cooked and pureed about six apples in
distilled water about half way up the apples. After freezing them we fed him
one cube once a day for four days, (watching for any allergy symptoms like rash
or breathing issues), to start out with. After four days we made carrots (organic
baby carrots) the same way we made the apples. Only cook them until they are
soft enough to puree. For example, we fed him apples and rice cereal in the
morning and carrots and oatmeal at night after enough days had past. Next we
added one fruit or veg every four days. In the stage one category are:
Apples
Apricots
Mango
Nectarines
Papaya
Peaches
Pears
Plums
Prunes
Carrots
Green beans
Peas
Squash
Sweet Potato
He also ate bananas and avocados( he doesn’t like avocados
much but we try it) which we didn’t freeze and fed mashed up
After the baby food is cooked, pureed, and frozen at least
over night, we bagged them in labeled gallon baggies (dollar store) and put
them in the freezer. I get the cubes out of the trays by running hot water on
the bottom of the tray. The trays with the green lid just take a quick twist.
The mumi ones you have to push one end of the cube with your finger and they
come out. You can even freeze breast milk in these but we just used the little
plastic bags for that. I did use my microwave about twenty
seconds to thaw them knowing cooking in the microwave might be not as good as heating
on the stove but it was fast.
We
added whole milk yogurt at eight months and he started eating three times a day-
the recipe for that is on my blog too. He ate these foods until he was a year
old, and the doctor told us he could eat whatever we ate. At that time we
started mixing and adding to the list.
We are still experimenting as
he is only fourteen months now. We don’t have a full menu but some of the
things Easton likes, that we added are green peas mixed with organic black
beans ( which I freeze in the cubes with a little water on the top, I don’t
have to puree them for some reason and he likes them)! At fourteen months he
eats two or three green pea cubes and one black bean mixed in. I also make him
chicken pot pie, puree it and freeze it in cubes. We also buy organic rotisserie
chicken, roast it a little longer with some water in the bottom of the pan, let
it cool and puree it with some of the water for chicken cubes. He only eats one
of those because it’s solid protein. I make cauliflower and broccoli and add
some white cheese, puree it, and freeze. I make him whole wheat baby pancakes and
freeze them in a gallon zip lock and take out what I need. He’s up to five
little pancakes in the morning with some spiced apples (apples with cinnamon in
them). I make pumpkin pie filling and freeze that. We have frozen mashed
potatoes. If I have left over bean soup
I puree it. You wouldn’t have to puree it at this point but he has only certain
things he likes the texture of. He could be eating macaroni and cheese and lots
of things you will think of but he doesn’t like a lot yet. The doctor wants
Easton to drink two cups of whole milk a day so he has yogurt every lunch right
now, with a vegetable and a fruit on top and a little pumpkin muffin or raisin
toast or something. If he has a green veg at lunch then he has orange at night or
vise versa. I keep potato flakes and rice cereal handy and if whatever hes
going to eat is runny or something I add tablespoon of potatos or a little rice
cereal to thicken it.
I could go into a long spiel
about how much cheaper this is but I will leave it at this. Apples are 2.67 a
bag and one bag makes about 40 cubes. That is .07 a cube. There are probably
three cubes in a pouch of apples for 1.83 in some stores compared to .21 cents
and you know what’s in it! When you are going somewhere you just put the frozen
cubes in the bowls. I like these because the lids are good and tight.
When were home we heat in
glass bowls only, like the ones below.
This is just a rough guideline. It depends on your children, your
life, how busy you are, and how making baby food fits into your life. If you’re
already doing a balancing act then it’s probably not for you because it is time
consuming, which is the biggest drawback. For Sydney and me it was good because
I am home all day, and she is a single Mom without a lot of money. I was asked
to write this down for some of the kids’ friends and that’s all this is…what we
did. Growing up all of my kids ate Gerber’s in a glass jar, drank juice etc
because that’s what we did then so don’t beat yourself up if that’s what you
want to do.
They all grow up! Speaking of that this is the cutest baby movie.
It
shows how babies all over the world have a different norm and all grow up fine!
Here’s to all the sweet babies in the
world!
