Save Money by Making Your Own Baby Food!

Four months ago I gave birth to my fourth child, yes, fourth! This was the closest spacing between children, and a huge surprise for us all. I was positive we were finished having babies after the difficult birth of Baylee in October of 2006. Lo and behold, Peyton arrives in June of 2008, a short 20 months after the birth of Baylee.

Having four children on one income, you look for any way you can cut costs. Anything to save a buck here and there helps the entire household. I belong to a few women's groups online for babies and families on CafeMom. There I learned how simple it is to make your babies food! A few times here and there I would mush up some over ripened bananas for Baylee, or give her the mashed potatoes we ate with dinner, but that was the extent of it.

I was walking the aisles of the grocery store last night; the prices of baby food have gone up! Now for a small size 1 jar of baby food (which is only 2.2 ounces or 17 grams) it was just short of $0.50!!! You are going to get only one serving out of that tiny jar and it was nearly half a dollar. That quickly adds up, three meals a day, seven days a week, you are averaging $10.50 a week just in pureed baby food alone. That totals near $42 dollars a month, and we only calculated stage one baby food. Once your baby starts eating stage two the price goes up about ten to twenty cents a jar, and then again once you get into stage three!

Last night I went ahead and picked up two large sweet potatoes for under $3 total cost. The amount of pureed sweet potatoes I can get out of those two is going to give me a whole weeks worth of food, if I were to give her nothing but sweet potatoes! By simply buying the sweet potatoes in whole, peeling, boiling, mashing and storing, I have saved myself roughly $7.50 a week. That is a huge savings if you ask me!

You don't need any special tools to make your own baby food, though some make things a bit easier on you. A small food processor would be a great tool to use, if you get tired of mashing with a fork or potato masher. This would also probably cut your time spent mashing in half. Small food processors run about $20 at your local Target or Wal-Mart.

Wondering how to store your purees? Many websites I have looked at suggest using ice cube trays. Simply pour the puree into the ice cube tray, stack in the freezer to freeze, then transfer to a zip bag once they are frozen. Be sure to label the zip bag with what puree it is along with when it was made.

A website I have found to be very helpful in making purees is www.wholesomebabyfood.com. There you will find tons of great information about how to prepare the food to be pureed, ages and suggestions for foods at that stage of life, and great recipes as well!

In making your own baby food you are not limiting yourself or your baby to the few offerings the baby food companies make, rather, your possibilities are nearly endless. For instance, when was the last time you saw mashed avocado in the baby food aisle? I personally have never come across that one! Did you know it is perfectly safe to give a baby avocado, not to mention extremely healthy? Avocados are high in good fats, help reduce bad fats, are high in fiber, and are an all around great food to feed your baby.

Ever wonder what kinds of preservatives go in jarred baby food so it can have such a long shelf life? Take a look at the back of the jar, or on the company's website, you will be surprised. Picking out your own fresh fruits and vegetables to puree yourself, you know exactly what goes in your baby's mouth and body. For me there is a huge peace of mind in knowing that.

Remember to think ahead! Your area is having a farmers market, go ahead and stock up on those local grown items, puree and store for when baby is ready to enjoy them. This way you are able to provide tasty summer fruits and veggies when they are hard to come by in the dead of winter!

Once you get the hang of making your own pureed baby foods your pocketbook will thank you! There is nothing to lose, so give making your own purees a try!