Anyone make their own baby food??

I'm no expert, but did this some with my kids. Main benefits for us were that I could include things that they don't use in commercial foods (like DD loved blueberries, and at the time, that wasn't popular in baby food), and that I could often puree small amounts of our dinner (when the kids were further along). I do think there are a lot more choices out there now than there were just a few years ago, though.

I made my own, and it was much cheaper.

I just made up a batch of steamed vegetables, then used a potato masher to mash it, then put in ice cube trays to freeze. After it was frozen, I put them in freezer bags with the date on it. I would take out one cube at a time, put it in a snack size zip lock and put in a bowl of hot water to warm up. I didn't mix veggies, it would be a batch of peas or beans or whatever.

For bananas, avocado, and other soft foods, I would just mash with a fork as I fed it.

I didn't start giving meat until my kids could handle tiny pieces. I would make a grilled chicken breast, dice it into small pieces, and either feed it or let him pick it up and feed himself.

Do whatever works for you. If buying is easier, then do that! For me, I was home, so it didn't take much effort to make it. Good luck!

Mine did not have store bought baby food. It was cheaper and actually more convenient for us to just give her whatever we were eating. DH is a SAHD and he made soups for her and put it into ice cube trays to freeze and then into labeled ziploc bags. She is a fantastic eater now. Don't know if the home made with spices and stuff we actually were eating helped with this or not.

Currently pregnant and we plan to do the same. It's not hard to just purée whatever you are making. Come up with creative combinations too. Some stuff my DH made I looked at him like he was crazy but the kiddo ate it anyway.

As for eating out, I nursed so if the kiddo was hungry when we were eating out, I would just nurse her. By the time she had teeth and could eat things like rice and breads, we were good to go. We never had any food issues.

I also introduced peanut butter to her before a year. I will do the same with this one.

Check out Baby-Led Weaning - skipping purees and going straight to finger food. It worked really well for us, we just made sure our regular meals had foods that baby could easily hold and eat, and she was able to take part in the family diet right from the start. www.babyledweaning.com/

I made my own with my kids -boy that was a while ago.

I just pureed what we were having that day. THey are not picky eaters now - at all! LOL

I made most of my own. It was cheaper but you also know what is in it. I am far from a granola Mum LOL but the baby food I did buy in jars tasted disgusting and they are often full of fillers and artificial flavours etc - just check out most of the ingredient lists.

I also agree that it gets your kids use to your normal household meals a lot sooner. Pureeing a heap of vegies and putting them into containers or ice-cube trays takes hardly any time.

Jar or pouch food is convenient if you are going out or travelling or the odd time when you are beat and don't have any supplies but generally making your own is so much better.

I did the same. It's really pretty easy. I still bought some jarred foods for when we went out to eat, travel, etc.

If it makes you feel any better, I made all of DS's baby food exactly this way and he ate it all as a baby. Around 3, he suddenly got opinions about food and became picky as hell.

Feeding them the same from the very beginning is no guarantee, unfortunately.

Interesting thread!

I am currently taking care of my 14 mo grandson during the week. I had thought I'd make baby food for him and send it home...but just about the time I started taking care of him I also had to move my elderly Mom in with me and she was so sick...so I didn't have time to make baby food...

So he got packaged baby food. I found that green veggies were paired with apples or pairs or some other sweet fruit and he didn't really learn to eat green veggies alone. He is now 14 months (my mom passed away when he was almost 6 months.....it was awesome to have them together but really hard to feed him home made baby food...) and he loves fruit...and fruit. He will hardly eat meat unless it is pureed and mixed with cream cheese or something and spread on a cracker. He won't eat a green veggie unless it is also pureed and spread onto a cracker.

I am giving him chicken salad, egg salad, pureeed and mixed with mayo or something....on a cracker. Same with veggies. I've tried several recipes from pinterest...but unless it is pretty smooth, he won't eat it. He does eat Peanut Butter, all kinds of cheese, and a lot of fruits so he is not going hungry. I can even get him to eat an "egg in a hole"...but he won't eat the white part of the egg...but gets the yellow on the toast.

It's a challenge!

 Both my kids ate store bought baby food. One would pretty much eat whatever was served. The other was extremely picky.

I did. I liked knowing what was in the food and being able to add seasonings to the mush to help build palates. And add texture. It was a lot cheaper but mostly I felt it was healthier.

I found that it saved a lot of money and the food looked so much better than jarred food. The homemade foods are usually much more brightly colored and they smell better. (I never tasted the jar food because I didn't buy it, but I remember it from babysitting)

I was very simple with the food making. I pretty much baked/roasted everything and blended it. I didn't peel fruits and stuff like sweet potatoes and squash just got scooped out of the skins after baking.

My babies never ate a ton of purees and switched to table food well before their first birthdays - so it wasn't like I was constantly making babyfood. If you baby eats more like what the Gerber etc charts recommend, you will definitely save a lot of money making it yourself.

I made my own. It was much cheaper and I knew exactly what was in it.

I use Annabel Karmel recipes for the first 4 months of weaning. I like knowing what was going in it and being able to vary the chunkiness of the food. It was super easy to have a big cook off and freeze small portions. DS was and is a super eater. DD was tried on the same recipes. But she is a "I can do" kid, so she went over to chopped bits of our food much faster so she could feed herself. But she is picky....and it drives me nuts.