How to make homemade food for my baby?

Time flies when you’re parenting! Or at least at the beginning… Your baby has began to develop and show curiosity about solid foods. You have been checking for all signs of readiness and starting introducing meals. Now next thing you know you are scrolling all over the internet looking for best homemade baby food, how to make baby food, and recipe ideas. 

Before we start, let’s remember: making your own baby food is a great way to ensure that your little one gets variety as well as a way for you to manage sugar and salt intake. You have a better control over your baby’s nutrition but making your own baby food is not a universal rule, neither should it becomes your new everyday if you barely cooked before. 

Now if you do decided to make baby food,  let’s walk through a few simple guidelines to make it easy! 

Gear up

If you decide to prepare homemade purees to your baby then there are a few simple appliance you might want to invest in to make cooking easy as a breeze. 

Chances are if you like to cook you will already have these appliances in your home: 

– A steamer: Steaming food is the best way to ensure that nutrients stays intact in the cooking process. and tasty. Also you can pretty much steam anything: Fruit, vegetables, meat, fish… It is also very fast (5-20 mins depending on the food) and allows the food to be cooked through, which is important for a baby. A simple steamer pot will do the job! 

– A food processor: Just mashing with a spoon won’t be enough to create the smooth consistency required when feeding puree to a baby. I usually don’t recommend parents to purchase baby’s food processor as they are often very small and prevent you to either make food for the whole family or to make bigger quantity to last longer. 

Getting Started

Making baby food doesn’t necessarily mean that cooking is required. There are simple foods that can easily be offered first such as avocado or banana. When ripped, these foods are easily pureed and make delicious first foods.

You can also select food from your own meal that you are planning to serve and offer the same food to your baby without the seasoning, added salt or sugar. For example if you are making a stir-fry with rice and broccoli, cook the broccoli and keep some aside for your baby before adding to your own meal. This will provide your baby with a healthy nutritious meal with little extra effort on your side!

Food prep

• Ensure that fruits and vegetables are thoroughly washed and seeds & peels removed 
• Food will need to be cooked through to become very tender. This is valid for both puree and when doing baby-led weaning. 
• It is recommended to prepare larger quantity of puree and to keep the leftovers in ice cubes containers in your freezer (wrapped properly ). This will allow you to unfreeze only what you need quickly. You can then increase the amount of food ice cubes given as your baby grows and asks for more. 
• Conservation is key as your baby’s immune system is still developing and he is more inclined to get food poisoning from bacterias. Once food is ready, serve it or refrigerate immediately. In the fridge or freezer, food needs to be kept covered tightly. Any food that has touched the spoon should be thrown away if not finished. Hence the advantage of keeping food in small portions! 

Offer store-bought baby food

Today’s baby food market is filled with healthy and various food options which will allow you to offer a nutritious and balanced meal in no time, when cooking is not an option. Little Spoon baby blends and plates for one is an amazing option providing a wide variety of food, and with the convenience of home delivery.