Looking to serve the food of your choice to your little one? Homemade baby food gives you total control over the ingredient list. So, how to make your own baby food? What steps and care must be taken? By following a few rituals like cleaning your hands and workplace, you can be assured that your baby food is healthy and safe to eat. And you just need a blender to make mouthwatering purées for your baby.
Moreover, ingredients like fruits, vegetables, grains, etc. should be steamed or cooked first. And then, you can purée them with formula, breast milk or purified water. Feeding your puree without any added flavours is the best way to build healthy eating habits for your infant. Further, your homemade baby food will stay safe to eat for up to one or two days if stored in a fridge.
In This Article
- Is it Safe to Make Your Own Baby Food?
- Main Supplies Needed to Make Your Own Baby Food
- How to Make Your Own Baby Food?
- When Can You Start Making Your Own Baby Food?
- How to Store Homemade Baby Food?
- What Baby Foods Cannot be Made at Home?
- Top 5 Tips For Making Homemade Baby Food
- FAQ’s
Is it Safe to Make Your Own Baby Food?
Take a deep breath, the food prepared lovingly by your hands will be as safe for your infant as the packaged ones. Whether it’s store-bought or homemade, it doesn’t count, at last, it’s the play of ingredients that matter. If you’ve served homemade chip cookies to your little one, could you still hope for them to be healthier than packaged ones? Homemade baby food gives parents the choice to add any ingredient that they wish, and in any quantity they desire.
Store-bought baby foods are not as flavorful as homemade ones. Moreover, packaged baby foods handcuff your choice to a limited number of flavors. But by being the MasterChef for your baby, you can put a big smile on their face with a burst of flavors. What about Dragon fruit puree for that matter?
Main Supplies Needed to Make Your Own Baby Food
Most parents go with introducing solid foods as purée to their babies. And you’ll need to have something which will grind the solid foods into purée. Likely you won’t have to rush to the market as equipment like a grinder or food processor might already be present in your home. Or, if you’re in the mood for some shopping, the supermarket has some fancy gadgets for the sole purpose of preparing homemade baby food. You may consider investing in a
1. Baby Food Grinder
All-in-one baby food maker (it can steam, cook and also purée the food).
2. Strainer or a Sieve
A hand-turned food mill (normally comes with multiple blades for foods with varied textures).
Aside from all this equipment, food purée can easily be made with just a fork, spoon or potato masher. But it only serves the purpose for easily mashable foods such as bananas, avocados, butternut squash, and so forth.
[Read : Baby And Solid Foods – When And How to Introduce]
How to Make Your Own Baby Food?
Just go along with the flow – making infant food at home is a piece of cake if you know a few basic steps
1. Have a Clean and Tidy Workstation
What’s the golden rule of making baby food? It’s Washing your hands with soap and water! You will need to cleanse your hands again if you touch raw meat, eggs, or fish (which can easily infect the baby’s food with bacteria). Make sure that your utensils and work surfaces are clean too. And if you wish to check the flavour, use a clean spoon on each test of taste.
2. Get Going With the Ingredients
Follow the instructions to effortlessly cook the ingredients mentioned.
a) Grains and Cereals
Cook the grains in line with the package instructions (prefer single grain, whole grains like whole grain barley or whole grain oat and other than that, iron-enriched grain), and purée them. It’s a good idea to mix grains with formula or breast milk to make them smoother, as your baby is a beginner.
b) Fruits and Vegetables
Before making a fruit or vegetable purée, the vegetables and hard fruits such as apples are boiled, steamed or baked. Puree them and use water, formula or breast milk to reach the desired level of consistency.
c) Meats and Poultry
Firstly, cook the meat or poultry well, and secondly, purée them. Blend them with vegetables and other already introduced foods to notch up the bar of healthiness.
3. Add Some Flavor (in a Healthy Way)
Believe it or not, unseasoned food or food which is not flavored with salt, spices, and so forth is super healthy for your infant. Their taste buds are still at a growing stage. So, they won’t crave salt or sweetness from their food. Why should you turn on the switch of cravings and sweet tooth so early then? Your baby will naturally develop a liking for some foods, without any butter and salt. It’s so great, isn’t it?
Choose healthy herbs like cinnamon to make it flavorful and add some puree of sweet fruits in it to make it sweeter.
[Read : Does Adding Sugar To Baby’s Food Help Digest Better?]
4. Serve it Safely
Again, cleanse your hands. Don’t leave your homemade food at room temperature for longer than an hour. A rule of thumb is that cold food should remain cold, and the warm ones should stay warm. Dispose of the infant food if you’re puzzled about its freshness.
When Can You Start Making Your Own Baby Food?
A good time to start is when your little one is around 6 months old. This is the time when they are ready to eat solid foods.
How to Store Homemade Baby Food?
Your fridge will keep the homemade purée in good condition for one or two days while in the freezer for up to two months. Store them in ice-cube trays, the mini-containers make it easy to serve in portions.
Heat the cold food on the stove. Remember, the purée should be lukewarm, and not too hot.
What Baby Foods Cannot be Made at Home?
If you’re on your way to making your baby food with unpasteurized foods like eggs, fish, dairy, undercooked meats, or poultry, you must stop right there. These foods are healthy for your baby only if they’re pasteurized, and not in their raw form. This is for the fact that they may have infection-causing bacteria. Moreover, if your infant is 6 months old or older, you may not worry much about the safety of giving solid food to them. Just make sure that they are not allergic to them; a pediatrician can help.
Top 5 Tips For Making Homemade Baby Food
These 5 tips are wholesome, as far as making homemade baby food is concerned.
- Slightly cook the fruits and vegetables in a steamer, pan, or slow cooker.
- Use a blender to make them smooth.
- Don’t use whole milk to thin out the consistency of the puree.
- Water, breast milk, or formula are the best options anytime to achieve the desired level of consistency for your puree.
- Don’t worry about the lumps in the purée, your fingers can easily mash them, but if they can’t, blend it properly again.
Homemade baby food is affordable. When you make your own baby food, have a lot of control over its flavors, freshness of ingredients and nutrition levels. But keep in mind that store-bought foods can also prove to be a bang for your buck as they save you a lot of time that you spend making baby food.
FAQ’s
1. Is it Cheaper to Make Your Own Baby Food?
Yes. Purée can cost you a lot if it is store-bought. You may know about the ingredients from the ingredient list mentioned in the packaging and make your own purée.
2. How Long Will Homemade Baby Food Keep?
Homemade baby food stays safe to eat for one to two days in a fridge and for one to two months when stored in a freezer.
3. Should I Puree My Baby’s Food?
Yes. But make sure that you serve them a purée of only one ingredient, let’s say apple purée for instance. And later when some time has passed, you can introduce multi-ingredient purées.
Read Also: Is it Safe to Cook or Heat Baby Food in a Microwave?
