On Making Home-made Babyfood

When Trev turned 6 months old, I was still a working mom. But I was determined to provide him with all the healthy meals when he starts taking solid. I was a constant lurker in a lot of mommy forums looking for ways on how I could succeed in doing this. I resigned from work when Trev was almost 7 months old so I was blessed with more time to prepare. And so far, thank God, I can say that I was successful with that. Trev did not turn out to be a picky eater, he eats anything that we give him. Whether the food is bland, sour or bitter, he would eat it happily. Maybe he knows that we're giving him what's best for him. Okay, I admit, we gave him occasional store-bought food when we go out, but I settled with organic food from Earth's Best. Foods from tooot, tooot and tooot, etc  are no-no for me, well, for Trev actually.

I have to give credit to the following websites though because these served as my guide when I was still making baby food for my little boy. 

Momtastic's Wholesome Babyfood - This was my number one guide. I learned a lot from this website. Really awesome site!  

Homemade Babyfood Recipes - This one is very similar with the website above although here, I found other recipes which are really good too!

Nurture Baby - I found a lot of yummy baby food recipes here.

I have to acknowledge also all the other random sites I chanced upon via google. Thank you for sharing all the wonderful baby food recipes. 

I just made a little tinkering on some of the recipes I gathered from the above websites and some other googled sites because some of the listed ingredients were not available locally. 

This will probably be a series of blogs about how I prepared my home made baby food for Trev. I hope I can catch up though. 

Okay, so first on the list. I researched on how I could store home made baby food. You see, I planned to make it in bulk, at least a week's worth, so it will make life easier for Trev and I. I followed the 4-day wait rule I have been reading in a lot of sites. 4-day wait rule simply means that if you are introducing a kind of food to your baby for the first time, serve it to him for 4 consecutive days and observe for any reactions like allergies or anything. If baby is okay with it, then serve a new one again repeating the same routine. 

Since I plan to store and freeze baby food for Trev for a week's worth, I decided that I needed to have a storage. I followed the ice cube method and it was very useful. 

Here are the things that I first used when I was still starting with this journey.

His very first feeding set. Bought this from SM Baby Company. I think it was worth Ph500 more or less. Medyo mahal nga eh. Pero I'm still using this until now to store some of Trev's food. Note that Trev is already 15 months now. So, sulit na rin kahit panu. :-)

The foodmaker set that we bought from Landmark Trinoma. I was so happy with this buy because it was way more affordable than the other brands. Got it for a little over Ph300 only. Other known brands would cost you around Ph900. :-)

This is the most expensive among all my baby food making (and storage) finds. I got it at SM Baby Company for I think Ph1600, discounted na yan kasi onsale that time. 

That Dr. Brown's storage pods are my most loved among my baby food storage finds kahit super expensive siya. I am still using it until now to freeze Trev's food. Yes, I still freeze some of Trev's food until now. Masisira kasi yung fruit or veggie na binibili namin if I don't cook it right away so I cook in bulk and freeze the remaining. So this storage pods are most useful. I can use it kasi individually, so if konti lang naluto ko, I wouldn't need all of those pods inside the freezer, unlike pag yung ice cube tray gamit ko which would consume more space inside the freezer, di ba? Tapos I can just take one down from the freezer to the ref lang for thawing the night before so I can serve it to Trev the next day. Buti na lang Allan approved when I asked him if I can buy it. You see, it's been a while since I was looking for a storage pod na ganitong ganito, yung parang rubber or silicone  yung material, so when the saleslady at Baby Company offered me this, I got it na. Buti na lang on sale. Partida, on sale na ang Ph1600! Wehe. I forgot na nga lang how much the original cost was. :-)

Finally, nakahanap din kami ni hubby ng ice cube tray na more or less eh 1 oz. per cube ang size and with matching cover and storage. Not only that, it's BPA free pa, san ka pa! Sa SM Department Store lang yan, I think it costs more or less Ph200 ata.

Short kuwento lang about the other items in the photo above. Trev did'nt like the Munchkin Sippy Cup, mas gusto pa niyang uminom straight from his cup. Or dapat tatanggalin mo yung spout para uminom siya, wehehe! I use naman the Munchkin Food feeder whenever I give Trev fruits like oranges, grapes, pears, apples etc. He loves munching on it, especially if chilled or frozen yung fruit. About the spoons, well I have to add more spoons for Trev kasi he has this tendency na tabigin yung kamay mo while feeding, hahaha! Feeling niya siguro, naglalaro lang kami. Countless times, nalalaglag yung spoon niya so we had to get more pa. 

Allan got me this blender with coffee grinder. This blender/coffee grinder costs more or less Ph900 ata at SM Department Store. 

Nirequest ko talaga yang blender kay Allan because I was having a hard time grinding the other veggies for Trev using the Bebeta Food Processor. Just imagine kung ganu kahirap magdurog ng broccoli or cauliflower or baguio beans using the manual food processor di ba? Wehe! Tsaka kailangan ko rin i-grind ang brown rice at steel cut oats ni Trev when I started giving it to him, so the coffee grinder really helped a lot para magawa ko yun. Buti na lang naawa ang hubby ko sa akin kaya binilhan ako, haha! Joke! Ang negative side lang ng blender na ito: Takot si Trev sa sound, naiingayan siya, sus ang iyak pag naririnig na niya!

Allan bought this for me too. It was around Ph250 more or less ata. He got it from SM Supermarket.

I mentioned kasi that I want an ice cube tray from Biokips kasi meron siyang cover, air tight and BPA Free din like the first one we bought. Kaso, based solely from my experience, wrong choice kasi I would find out later na hindi siya madaling gamitin: (1) Maliit yung content per cube, less than 1 oz lang. (2) Matigas yung tray talaga pag frozen na yung food so ang hirap niya i-twist para makuha yung cubes. A lot of times, nag-sspill yung mga cubes pag tinatanggal ko na siya from the tray, diretso sa floor, tsk tsk! Disaster! There was even a time natapon lahat ng cubes ko, oh my! Sayang ang food and effort, huhu. :-( (3) Ang hirap gamitin nung mga cube parts sa corners and sides because mas maliit siya kesa sa cubes sa gitna so kahit marami siyang cube compartments, di ko rin ma-maximize. Epic Fail! Wehe, okay lang, I learned my lesson. :-)
 
Not in photo: Lock n Lock food storage. Yes, I have pa aside from the ones shown here. I have it in the following sizes: two 15 oz, 13.5 oz, 10 oz and we bought Trev a Barney feeding set with cover and spoon. I also use The First Year's Breastflow milk storage as Trev's food storage kasi it has a cover, I have two of those, 4 oz each.

Nag-hoard ata ako ng mga food storage and utensils ni Trev. Pero mind you, nagagamit ko lahat yan! Sulit! So far, aside from the ones mentioned above, meron pa siyang 5 na baso (Note: ginagamit ko rin yung Breastflow milk storage niya as baso so parang 7 lahat), and I think 11 spoons more or less, hahaha! Three of those yung normal na kutsarita namin, it turns out kasi na puwede naman pala niya gamitin yun kasi liit lang naman. :-)

So far, those were the things I came up with when I started this journey for my baby. It was challenging at first but as time went by, I can say that I was able to manage. And thank God because it paid off really well. My baby is not a picky eater and I am happy that I am able to serve him with healthy food. 

Watch out for more entries because I would like to share with you guys how I make home made baby food for Trev. I hope through this, I will be able to help and inspire mommies out there. If I may add, preparing home made baby food does not only save you money from buying expensive store bought food, but it's also a good training ground for babies not to be picky eater (at least based from my experience), and in my humble opinion, at least you are assured that your baby is not taking in all the bad effects of preservatives that can be found in some store bought food. Healthy baby = happy parents! :-)