In times like these when the cost of everything is going up, people are looking for ways to save money in every aspect of their lives. One often over looked way to save money is to make your own baby food. You can easily save up to 50% over store bought baby food and when you make your own baby food. You are in total control of what goes into your baby food and just as importantly, what doesn't go into it. When you make your own baby food, you will also be surprised that it isn't as labor intensive or as time consuming as you thought.
Since babies' digestive systems are very sensitive, you need to take some pretty common sense precautions when you make your own baby food.
* Wash your hands, and wash them frequently
* Use clean utensils and wash them frequently
* Wipe down any surface that will have food sitting on it with a diluted bleach solution, or a store bought kitchen wipe and allow the surface to air dry.
* Cook the fruits and vegetables as soon as you take them from the fridge or freezer
* Store your cooked foods as soon as they have cooled enough to put in containers.
The best way to cook fruits and vegetables is by steaming them as opposed to using the microwave or by boiling them. This goes for both fresh and frozen produce. By steaming them, you will retain more of the nutritional properties and you will be able to better judge when the fruits and vegetables are cooked to the desired consistency. If you don't own a steamer basket, don't worry, there are a variety of models out on the market and they don't have to be expensive.
After you have cooked the fruits or vegetables, you will need to puree them. The best way to do this, especially when you are first introducing fruits and veggies to your baby, is to use a small food processor. A food processor or blender will enable you to get the foods to a very fine puree, and this is what you want when introducing new foods to your baby. As your child gets older, you can leave the purees a little chunkier.
To be more efficient, prepare large amounts of fruits or vegetables at one time. You will already have to equipment out, so you might as well make a few batches and then freeze what you won't be using within the next 48 hours. To store baby food in the refrigerator, use small plastic "Tupperware" containers that allow you to know how many ounces you are storing. In this way, you can keep track of how much your child eats at each meal.
For freezing your homemade baby food, you have a couple options. You can use regular ice cube trays to freeze 1+ ounce portions. After they have frozen, take them out of the tray and put them in freezer storage bags. Label and date them and store them in the back of the freezer. Another option is to buy specialty baby food storage containers. These hold 1 ounce and come with snap-on lids. Of course, you can also use these containers to store your baby food in the fridge.
Keep in mind to always wait a few days between adding a new food to make sure your baby doesn't have any adverse reactions to the previously added food.
With a little forethought and a few pieces of equipment, you can make homemade baby food. You will, as they say, kill two birds with one stone. You can save money making your own baby food, and providing nutritious foods that you can feel confident about feeding to your baby.
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