Adventures In Baby Food

We began feeding our baby solid food a few weeks ago, and he’s starting to get the hang of swallowing from a spoon.  He still gets most of his food from breastfeeding, but at each meal, he’s getting a bit of other food, and learning how to eat – which is probably a good skill to have.  My husband and I take turns feeding him throughout the meal, which usually involves scooping the same spoonful of food off of his bib and into his mouth over and over and over until it finally gets swallowed.

I’ve been making pureed vegetables for him once a week, and then freezing them in an ice cube tray.  It’s simple and quick – I steam the veggies for a couple minutes, puree them in the blender with a little water, and then pour the puree into an ice cube tray.  Once they’re frozen, I put the ice cubes into a mason jar and store them in the freezer, defrosting one cube each day for him to eat.  So far I’ve done green beans, squash (cooked in our solar oven), and carrots. It takes all of about five minutes from start to finish.  I use frozen organic veggies, so there’s no cutting or washing involved (except the squash – I started with a whole squash, stuck it in the solar oven for an hour, peeled it, and pureed it).

In addition to my frozen veggie cubes, we have three baby food grinders.  One was a gift from a friend who had it for her daughter but never used it and passed it on to us (still in the box, unused).  The other two came from thrift stores, still in their boxes.  But even brand new you can get them online for ten to twenty bucks.  They’re easy to use, dishwasher safe, and allow you to feed your baby whatever you’re eating.  We started using our food grinders this week, since our little guy has gotten somewhat used to pureed food.  It’s as easy as taking a few scoops of whatever we’re eating, grinding it up at the table, and feeding it to him.  So far we’ve tried oatmeal (we eat old fashioned oats that retain their shape, so we need to grind it a bit for him), sweet potatoes, mixed veggies, and spaghetti.

Between my pureed veggies and the baby food grinder, we have everything we need to feed our baby from now until he’s ready to really start chewing food.  And the cost is pretty much nothing, since we just give him a few scoops from our own plate, or puree a handful of veggies every few days (and we only paid a few dollars for all three grinders together).  The other day I happened to glance at the baby food when I was at the grocery store.  Hot dang.  The jars of organic food ranged in price from 75 cents to a dollar for one tiny little jar.  Since we have three food grinders, we’ve put one in the diaper bag so that we have it with us when we’re out and about, and can grind up food wherever we are.  Just as we’ve never bought formula or disposable diapers for our son, I can’t imagine that we’ll ever buy baby food in a jar either.  Not when making our own is so simple and inexpensive.

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