Homemade Baby Food: A Healthy, Inexpensive Way to Feed Your Baby

It is simple, healthy and cost-efficient to make your baby's food at home. Homemade baby food allows you to control the ingredients. Whether fruit or vegetables, homemade baby food is easy to make, store and reheat. You can even make tasty combinations of fruits or vegetables that will increase the vitamin and nutrition content of your baby's food once the baby has tried the fruit or vegetable by itself.

It is important that the first time a baby eats a food, it is not combined with another new food in order to watch for any allergies. If a baby ate two new foods mixed together and developed hives, the parent would not know which food was the cause.

All one needs to prepare baby food at home is a blender or food processor. All one needs to store baby food in convenient portions is an ice cube tray. Cook vegetables the way you would normally, using only water for cooking liquid. The microwave or stovetop are equally fine. Make more than the baby will eat in one sitting, since you will be able to store the excess. Cook vegetables or firm fruits until soft enough to puree. Once soft, you may want to pour off some of the cooking water before you puree it. Homemade baby food should be the consistency of applesauce until your baby is old enough to eat more textured food. Puree the fruit or vegetable in the blender or food processor.

Making your own baby food lets the baby try vegetables that you won't always find in the grocery store baby food aisle. Try zucchini, spinach, broccoli, squash, potatoes, and even cauliflower. Avocado is very healthy, and doesn't need to be cooked first. Of course, standbys like carrots, peas, and yams are easy to make homemade also.

Not all fruits have to be cooked first, unless it is necessary to soften them. Firmer fruits such as apples and pears should be peeled and cooked first. Melons, plums, mangoes, peaches, nectarines, bananas, and berries can be simply washed, sliced and pureed without cooking. Remember not to serve strawberries to babies until one year of age as they are a common allergen. Fruits do not need to be sweetened, and seldom need water.

Once the baby food is at the desired consistency, you can pour it into an ice cube tray and freeze. Once frozen, the cubes can be removed and stored in a Ziploc bag in the freezer. Label the bag so you remember what veggie it is. Individual cubes can be heated in the microwave whenever needed.