Home-Made Baby Food Series: The Basics

Hi there! Okay, so I haven't been able to continue with this plan that I started last month. You see, it's quite hard finding time to write nowadays because Trev has been battling with cough and colds the past few days and I have been busy with my very first sponsored post (which I will post not later than next week so watch out for that because I'm really excited!), so my hands are really full with so many things. But don't get me wrong, I don't feel bad about those things, in fact, I am thankful. Except of course about Trev's cough and colds, I don't want that and I hope he gets better soon. It's the first time he's ever had cough and the second time he got colds. Tsk tsk. Sad. :-(

But, I am really very eager to share this with you guys so I still want to continue with this. Just please bear with me if I'm not really up to date. :-)

So, first, I want to write about the basics when I started with this journey. And oh, just to give you a disclaimer (haha! dapat may ganun?), these are just based on my own personal research okay? There could still be others which are better. Making home made baby food also doesn't apply to everyone. It's all just a matter of preference. Some prefer to be more adventurous when it comes to feeding their kids. Whatever you prefer, it's all good. What matters is baby is healthy and happy, right? But anyhow, I hope I could give a little help. :-)

Actually, when I say, the basics, it is really BASIC. When Trev was still starting with solid food, everything that I gave him were steamed fruits and vegetables. Here's what I did:

1. Choose what fruit or vegetable to give your baby based on his age. You may check out Wholesome Babyfood about what fruit or veggie you can give. You can't really serve your baby ANY fruit or vegetable just yet. It should be appropriate for his age.

2. Wash the fruit or vegetable thoroughly. 

• I personally use Cradle Bottle and Nipple Cleanser to wash fruits and vegetables like potatoes and apples because it's made from natural and edible ingredients. 

3. Peel.

4. Slice into small cubes.

5. Steam. Based on research that I read, steaming can preserve a lot of nutrients from the food you're cooking.

• I use the steamer that came with our rice cooker.

6. Mash or puree.

• I use the Bebeta Food maker set or our blender, depends on what kind of food I prepared. You see, it's hard to mash cauliflower or broccoli using the Bebeta food maker set so I have to use the blender. 

 7.  Let cool as fast as possible. You can store it inside the fridge for 24 to 48 hours. If you prepared too many, you can freeze the remaining using the ice cube method. Ice cube method simply means that you just pour the puree in an ice cube tray, preferably with a cover like the one I bought which I mentioned here. Once frozen, you can simply put it in a zip lock freezer bag so you can use your ice cube tray again. Then, you can just get one or two food cubes, depends on how many your baby can consume, one food cube is approximately 1 oz. Thaw the cube/s and feed your baby. You can add breastmilk to the food cube once thawed to give it a familiar taste for your baby and of course, to give the food that extra boost. :-)

•  Personally, I let my baby consume the food I stored inside the fridge within 24 hours only. Regarding the frozen food, I freeze pureed food good for one week only.

Here's an example of the ice method I just mentioned. The box labeled "Glad" in the pic is actually the zip lock plastic bag where I put the frozen cubes so it's easier to get one cube for thawing.

Here's an example of what I basically do. These is actually mixed fruits and veggies already. I can't seem to find a picture that shows only one type of food. But anyway, it's just the same principle. Just make it one type of food at first. :-)

So, basically, that's it. Very easy, isn't it? Don't forget the 4-day wait rule when introducing new food to your baby, okay? 4-day wait rule means that you have to feed your baby one type of food for four consecutive days and observe any reactions like allergies. If he has none, then you can continue and serve him another type after 4 days. And so on. However, what I did was to serve one type of food to him for one whole week just to be sure, before I introduced another type. After a few weeks of doing that, then I reduced it to four days. 

Trev has tried the following fruits and vegetables when he was still starting with solid food. The list actually goes on but these are just a few of the first foods that he had.

1. Marble potatoes
2. Sweet potatoes
3. Squash
4. Carrots
5. Sayote
6. Ripe papaya
7. Avocado
8. Pears
9. Fuji apples
10. Red lentils or Red Munggo
11. Senyorita and lakatan banana
12. Broccoli
13. Cauliflower 
14. Green beans

Trev, when he was 6 months old. His first taste of solid food. I gave him one piece of small marble potato and he likes it! :-) I never really had a hard time feeding him and introducing different types of food to him because he eats just almost anything that we give him.

There you go! Stay tuned for more on this series. I will try my best to feature the recipes I used when I started giving him mixed food already. :-)

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. You can either drop a comment below or email me. :-)