I am always making baby food

I think I may have made a terrible mistake. I started my child on homemade baby food and now he won't eat the jarred stuff. I mean, you can't blame him. That stuff looks nasty, smells nasty and I am sure tastes pretty nasty. I will just take his word for it on the taste.

Now, I was all well intentioned with making baby food. How fun it would be to cook for my kiddo, right? Well, sometimes life gets busy and the last thing I need to fit into my schedule is shopping, buying, peeling, chopping, steaming, puree-ing, portioning, and storing a variety of local, organic, nutritious fruits and vegetables for my boy. Could the kid give me a break and like ONE of the jarred foods? Nope.

So, I find myself ALWAYS making baby food. Every spare minute I have. In between work emails, folding laundry, playing with baby on my work from home days and weekends, I run to Trader Joe's or the Olympia Farmers Market and peel, chop, steam and puree. Wash and repeat. Repeat, repeat.

It's hard to keep up. He loves eating. And, okay, I feel pretty accomplished that I can say my baby is eating whole, unprocessed, organic first foods. And a smashed avocado or banana is just as easy as opening a jar. Right? Okay, right. I remember why I decided to do it in the first place...

There is a point to my post (other than complaining and giving myself a pat on the back) and that is to give my tips for baby food making and how I went about introducing solids to my handsome boy. This is again something I researched tirelessly because we aren't magically born knowing how to transition our kids to solids. I had lots of questions before I started: What is best to feed him first? When do I start? How exactly do you make baby food? How often? How much? What times? And after I started: What do I do about constipation? How much variety? Orange spit up?

So let me give you the answers here:

What is the best first food? When do I start?
After starting Nathan on rice and oatmeal cereal after 5 months, we started him on vegetables at 6 months. The first vegetable we gave him was sweet potatoes. He loved it. The following are the "rules" I have used to introduce new foods:

• Offer new food in the morning this ensures that if he has a reaction, it is during the day and not at night. 
• Offer new food when he is in a good mood, not overly hungry or tired. 
• Don't force it, if he doesn't like it, I try again another day. 
• Wait 3 days or more between new foods. Look for signs of allergy (rash, vomiting, diarrhea)
• Choose foods that are easy for baby to digest at first. Sweet potatoes, avocados, apples, peas, bananas, squashes.
• There are certain foods that should not be homemade because of the nitrates that are released when pureed. These can be offered in jarred form because the manufacturers have taken out any harmful bi-product. Beets, carrots, green beans, and spinach should be avoided. 

How exactly do I make baby food?

It is the most simple thing in the world.

1. Wash
2. Peel - when appropriate 
3. Chop - the smaller the chop, the smoother the puree
4. Steam - until very tender and save water for the pureeing 
5. Puree - add water to make it the right consistency
6. Freeze - 

Bananas and avocados can just be mashed with a fork, no need to cook!

I also recommend the Beaba Babycook Baby Food Maker which I got as a gift from my mom. The thing is amazing. It steams and purees all in one container. Makes baby food making a breeze. I also use individual portion plastic cubes to store and freeze my baby food. Perfect portions, I just pull the needed food out of the freezer the night before I need it. 

How often? How much? What times?
There is no consensus in baby "guru" literature on this. I started out with 1-2 tablespoons of cereal once a day and increased to two times a day once he had it all down. Now we feed Nathan solids three times a day. This is what it looks like:

Morning: Cereal and Fruit (mixed or separate, depends on my mood)
Afternoon: Vegetable
Evening: Cereal and Vegetable

Constipation
From talking with other moms, constipation happens to most babies when they start eating solids. When we introduced solids, Nathan started pooping less and his movements became more solid. This has now  evened out with the introduction of fruits and vegetables. I have had to intervene - ie: glycerin suppository - when Nathan didn't poop for 5 days!!! The general word from Pediatricians is: if it isn't bothering them, don't worry until it has been more than TWO WEEKS. Well, if I didn't poo for 5 days, I would want someone to do something about it, so I did for Nathan and he was a much happier boy. But I have only had to one time. Some other tips I have gathered for getting babies regular again are:

• Offer sips of water from a big kid cup! Nathan loves using his tippy cup. Once babies start solids, they need water to help digestion. 
• Apple, squash, and prunes help the process. Bananas and avocados back it up. 
• Add an ounce of apple or prune juice to babies water. 

How much variety?

Babies should be offered a variety of fruits and vegetables! But, remember to start slow and allow adequate amount of time to make sure baby doesn't have a reaction to the new food. Nathan is 6.5 months old and his menu choices are: apple, banana, sweet potato, peas, avocado, and prunes. In the freezer to be introduced soon: butternut squash, acorn squash, pear, and carrot. You can also mix them for more variety.

Rainbow spit up is normal (I checked with the pediatrician) and it smells gross too. 


There you have it. My literature review on homemade baby food. I hope this helps someone make their decisions on baby food making. It is easy and fun (sometimes). My main reasons for doing it is to instill good eating habits for Nathan. I want him to be an adventurous eater and to truly LIKE a variety of vegetables and fruits.

My information is by no means the expert advice! This is simply a compilation of others information and what I have found most helpful. Every family is unique. Thats why there is so much damn information out there.

Happy eating! Happy feeding!