Sometime around her half-birthday, your munchkin will likely be ready for an exciting milestone: her first spoonful of solid food!
There are a few ways to introduce your baby to solids. Some parents try baby-led weaning, which involves bypassing purées and introducing solids in the form of soft, gummable finger foods after the 6-month mark. By this age, babies are more likely to be capable of self-feeding.
Other families prefer to start solids by spoon-feeding their baby mashed or puréed fruits, veggies, grains and proteins. Because purées (what you probably think of as traditional "baby food") are easy to swallow and served on a spoon, they can be introduced a little sooner, usually between 4 and 6 months (but often closer to 6), depending on when your little one gets the green light from her pediatrician.
If you decide to start with purées, you can purchase commercially prepared baby food or make your own purées at home from scratch. Although both options can be nutritious, many parents enjoy making their own baby food, especially since it gives you control over everything your baby is eating — plus, it might help you save money, too.
Here’s what you need to know about making homemade baby food.
What supplies do you need to make your own baby food?
If you're introducing solids in the form of purées, you’ll need something to grind or purée your baby’s food to the right consistency.
You can use a blender, food processor or immersion blender — equipment you’ll likely have at home already. Or, you can invest in some fancier gadgets, including ones designed specifically for making homemade baby food. This might include:
- A hand-turned food mill (which usually has different blades for different textured foods)
- A baby food grinder
- A sieve or strainer
- An all-in-one baby food maker (which both steam-cooks and then purées the food)
Of course, you can also go low tech with just a spoon, fork or potato masher — this works well when you’re preparing easily mashable foods like avocados, bananas or butternut squash.
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How to make your own baby food
Making your own baby food purées at home is easier than you might think. Follow these steps to get started:
Clean your workstation
Always wash your hands with soap and water before making baby food. If you touch raw meat, fish or eggs (all of which can harbor bacteria), wash your hands again. Be sure to use clean utensils and work surfaces, too. And if you’re sampling the food while you cook it, use a fresh spoon — or wash it off — each time you take a taste.
Prepare the ingredients
- Grains and cereals: Cook grains according to package instructions (good choices include single-grain, iron-enriched, whole-grain varieties, such as whole-grain oat or whole-grain barley) and purée or grind them. When you first introduce cereals and grains to your baby, you can serve with breast milk or formula to thin out the consistency.
- Fruits and vegetables: Bake, steam or boil vegetables and hard fruits like apples before puréeing or grinding them. Mild yellow or orange veggies such as sweet potatoes and carrots; green veggies like peas and string beans; and fruits like bananas, peaches and pears all work well. Peel, and either pit or strain as needed, then purée in a blender, grinder or food mill, adding liquid (water, breast milk or formula) to achieve the desired consistency. As your child gets older and becomes a more confident eater, you can serve up chunkier textures.
- Meats and poultry: Purée trimmed and skinned cooked meats and poultry either alone or with already-introduced foods such as vegetables for an all-in-one meal. Minced meats like chicken, lamb, turkey or beef are popular choices.
Add flavor in a healthy way
It’s best to serve up unseasoned foods at first. Baby’s taste buds are just developing, so she doesn't have a sweet tooth or a craving for salt yet. (And why flip the switch early?) Plus, by giving her foods straight up, she’s more likely to develop a preference for their taste — no butter or salt needed.
If you want to add some extra pizzazz to sweet potatoes, carrots and other vegetables, stick to healthy herbs like cinnamon — always a high-chair favorite — or sweeten the pot (or bowl) by mixing in puréed fruits such as apples or pears.
Safely feed and serve
Before feeding your baby, wash your hands with soap and water.
Make sure the food doesn’t stay out at room temperature for more than an hour; cold foods should stay cold and warm foods should stay warm. When in doubt about the freshness of a food, throw it out.
Finally, once your baby is eating multi-ingredient foods or recipes (usually once she graduates from purées to finger foods), make sure all ingredients like cheese and dairy products are pasteurized — if they’re “raw,” they could contain infection-causing bacteria. Raw or undercooked eggs can also harbor salmonella bacteria. (To be extra safe, you can use pasteurized eggs.)
How to store homemade baby food
You can store homemade purées in the fridge for one to two days or in the freezer for up to two months. Try spooning them into single-serving containers or ice cube trays for easy-to-serve portions.
To heat up leftovers, warm on the stove. Stir, let stand for 30 seconds and test the temperature before serving to your little one. (Purées should feel lukewarm, not hot.)
Tips for making homemade baby food
Here are a few things to keep in mind when making baby food at home:
- Cook down fruits and vegetables in a pan, steamer or slow cooker, then mash up or blend the mixture until smooth
- To thin the consistency of a purée, you can mix in water, breast milk, or formula
- It’s okay if there are some lumps in the purée as long as you can mash it with your fingers
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