Adventures in Baby Food

If you follow us on Instagram, you know we recently started Wesley on solid/pureed foods. I waited until our 6 month appointment to speak with our pediatrician about starting Wesley on solid foods. After sleeping through the night (11-12 hours!) for about 2 months, he started waking at least twice through the night. I cannot complain because I know how lucky we are that Wesley was sleeping through the night at all, but it was really cramping my style!

After receiving the green light from the doctor, we got to making baby food! We started with a few easy ones - bananas and avocado. We bought some baby cereal, mixed that with breast milk, and fed him some cereal with a little mashed fruit or veggie.

I knew I would make our own baby food. A dear friend of mine told me how she made baby food for her kiddos and they would literally eat anything. She credited homemade baby food! I want a kid who will eat anything and if making his food will help assist in this, fantastic! Not only that, but it's more healthy, cheaper, and super easy!

Lucy likes Wesley a little more after a mishap with some mangoes...

I decided I'm going to make baby food about once a month and freeze it. Here's what I do:

1) Prepare the food. Peel carrots, poke holes in the sweet potato, etc.

2) Cook the vegetable or fruit. Steaming is best in retaining the most nutrients. I steam carrots in my rice cooker and bake sweet potatoes. I also love veggies and fruits that don't need to be cooked like bananas and avocados!

3) Puree! I use a small food processor and add a little water to get a nice consistency.

4) Freeze. I spoon small amount of puree into ice cube trays, cover with plastic wrap, and freeze until solid.

5) Remove cubes and put into storage container. I use freezer ziplock bags. The sandwich sized bags are perfect for 5-10 cubes and don't take up much freezer space.

6) Grab a cube, defrost (it doesn't take long at all because they are so small), and feed! You can add milk or oatmeal to get the desired consistency.

Obviously we aren't experts yet, but this process has worked great for us so far! It makes baby food cheap, easy, and simple. It took Wesley a few days to get the hang of eating off a spoon, but now he's a champ. So far he's had bananas, mango, avocado, apple sauce, sweet potatoes, and carrots. Once we run low on a few of those I plan to try squash, green beans, pumpkin, peas and pears.

What's your baby eating?