Homemade Baby Food
Commercial baby food is easy and convenient, if relatively expensive. While it's easy enough to make your own, don't be guilted into preparing homemade baby foods if you have no time or interest. Buy the jarred food for the few months until your baby is eating table food.
Simple Food Made Simply
There's nothing complicated about making baby food. In fact, simplicity is the key. You can make a batch and freeze it to be defrosted as needed. Here are some simple steps to making baby meals:
Buy the freshest vegetables and fruits and use them within a day or two.
Peel, remove any seeds and cores, and then steam or boil until soft.
Bananas don't need to be cooked — just mash with a fork.
Puree the mixture well (in a blender, baby food grinder, or food processor).
Freeze individual portions in ice-cube trays. Once frozen, you can take the cubes out of the trays and store them in bags in the freezer.
Be sure to label and date the bags. Frozen fruit and vegetable purees are good for three months; pureed meat, fish, and chicken will last up to eight weeks.
Don't mix ingredients while you are still introducing them to your baby. You can mix two together — like carrots and sweet potatoes — once you know that your baby is not allergic to a particular fruit or vegetable.
Defrost in the microwave, but just until barely warm and stir thoroughly to get rid of any hot spots. If necessary, add breastmilk, water, or formula to smooth or thin the puree. Avoid butter, oil, sugar, and salt.
Organic for Baby?
You may see some food labeled “natural,” “free-range,” and “hormone-free,” but that doesn't guarantee that the food is organic. Only baby food labeled “USDA organic” has met standards set by the United States Department of Agriculture, and only those foods that have been certified to meet USDA standards can be legally labeled “organic.”
In order to qualify as “USDA organic,” the food must be at least 95 percent organic, meaning that all but 5 percent was produced without conventional fertilizers and pesticides. Organic food can't be irradiated, genetically modified, or produced with antibiotics or hormones. Any meat products must come from animals that have been fed organically grown feed.
While organic jarred baby food may be slightly more expensive, you can save if you shop at sales and buy in bulk.
If you are going to make your own baby food, look for fruits and vegetables that have been certified as USDA organic on their labels.
Constipation is common in the early weeks of introducing solid food. You're giving your baby something a lot harder to digest than breastmilk or formula, and the most typical first foods — rice cereal, banana, and applesauce — are binding. Sometimes adding fluids (a bottle or cup of water a day) is enough to solve the problem. You can also feed your baby a little prune juice, or switch from rice cereal and applesauce to oat cereal and pureed pears.
Nitrate Alert
Fresh beets, turnips, carrots, collard greens, and spinach may contain nitrates, chemicals found in abundance in the soil from certain parts of the country. Nitrates can cause a type of anemia in infants up to six months of age. It's not a question of whether or not the vegetables are organic. To avoid this problem, the AAP recommends you buy commercially prepared forms of these vegetables. Baby food manufacturers screen the produce for nitrates.
