Thank you all for your advice on feeding my picky child solids and making the food on my own. I looked up some recipes and decided to give making baby food a try. I was going to go out and buy a baby food processor but decided to try my trusty KitchenAid blender first. I started with making homemade sweet potatoes. I went out and just bought some yams at the store and then baked them for an hour as I read baking them preserves the most nutrition. I then scrapped the yams out of the peels and put them in the blender with some water. To my suprise my KitchenAid blender whipped these yams right up to the exact same consistency as the jars. I then put a few in the fridge to feed Logan over the next few days and put the rest in ice cube trays and froze them. Once they were frozen I put the cubes in a ziploc bag. I now take the cubes out of the freezer each night for dinner and defrost for 20 seconds or so. This has worked so well for me. I still buy the jars to use if we are going out, but I have decided that making my own food seems healthier and cheaper. Some of the jars of food just don't look appealing...like the peas. I haven't introduced these to Logan yet, but when I do I am going to blend up some frozen peas instead.
I would highly recommend making your own food for anyone out there. The only other foods I have made are peaches and pears (from cans-I bought the unsweetened versions) and bananas. I thought making the food might be inconvenient or take too much time but I don't find that at all. You can make so much at one time and then just put it in the freezer. My main motivation for making my own baby food was that I was sick of going to the store every few days to buy more jars of baby food. I thought I was buying a lot, but 10 jars, if they eat 2 a day doesn't last for every long. So I baked 3 yams and have like over 30-40 ounces of frozen yams. One jar of peaches made probably 15 or more ounces. I am not the most domestic person but get some crazy pride out of making my child his food. I am convinced that it has to be a little bit healthier. I will admit that some things will just be easier to buy in jars like applesauce and squash. But I plan to attempt to make more homemade baby food as Logan continues to enjoy more solid foods.
On a good note, Logan was being very picky about his solid foods for awhile. If we gave him anything but peaches he would throw a fit. I am glad to say that we have now successfully introduced him to pears, bananas, and carrots as well which he seems to enjoy. His favorites are still probably peaches and now pears, but nevertheless I am glad he is starting to enjoy more foods.
On an unrelated note, have any of you had problems with your children taking bottles? I go to work 3 times a week and we have to give Logan a bottle. He has been good in the past about taking a bottle, but it seems like recently he has no interest even though he is hungry. It seems like he almost gets bored. I bought the Playtex Vent Aire bottles because of his reflux and got the slow flow as he seems to choke on anything faster than that, but now I wonder if it is too slow. However, I have tried giving him a fast flow and it still doesn't seem to work. Is their a medium flow? Do you have any suggestions for how to get your baby to take a bottle?
3 comments:
I'm glad you brought this up a few weeks ago because I have also made some baby food for Maggie. I have only done the fruits so far since I was running low on fruits to give her, but I found that my Rocket Blending Machine (generic Magic Bullet) blended it up to the same consistency as the jars as well. It's worked out pretty well. I have done pears, peaches, and bananas. There are still some things that I will buy in the jars. Like the dinners with the meats in them and stuff because I want Maggie to get that protein and since I'm cutting back on nursing now, I want her to get all she needs...especially with her weight issues. Also, there are baby food jars that have yogurt and mixed fruit that Maggie loves to eat for breakfast. The yogurt in the jars is pasteurized after culturing so she can eat it, whereas normal yogurt isn't safe for her yet I don't believe. But as far as single ingredient fruits and some veggies, it works out great!
That's funny that you feel it is healthier. I sometimes get nervous feeding her the fruits I have made because I wonder if they have things on them or in them that will be unsafe for her little body. Like, maybe they weren't cleaned as well because the standards are set higher for the fruits used in the baby food jars. I feel much better giving her the jars because all they have in them are the fruits and veggies and water and I assume they've been carefully monitored for safety. LOL. It's stupid, I know.
Also, if you find anything that works for the bottle, let me know. As you know, I have struggled to get Maggie to take a bottle for over 2 months now. I talked to my Dr. about it and she said that a lot of babies just decide what they like around 4 or 5 months and there's nothing you can do about it. For Maggie, she took a bottle great one night and the next night she wouldn't. She decided in one day that she would rather just have breast milk and wanted nothing to do with a bottle. Well, my Dr. told me yesterday to leave her for 6 hours with Kory and she'll finally get hungry enough that she'll hopefully figure it out. I hope this works. We're going to do it on Saturday. :(
Also, I believe you can just go look for different bottle nipples. I think they do have medium flow ones and you shouldn't have to buy brand new bottles, just the nipples. I'm not sure though. Wow, this was a long comment!
just this week Camrie decided that she didn't want a bottle. I have been working with Cam this week and she has been at my parents and she wont take the bottle. She eats enough real food and will drink juice and water out of a real cup (not her sippy) so she has been fine but I don't know what to do to get her to drink out of a bottle. Good luck with working that out.
I am glad Logan likes your homemade baby food. Anna hates mine, but I think I need to invest in a Kitchen Aide or a Magic Bullet next time so I can get the consistency finer. I am planning on doing a beter job witht he next one. If you puree it all at once it takes a while, but it also lasts longer, like you said. I have been pureeing veggies since I got my 'Deceptively Delicious' cookbook and I love it!
Anna loved the mixed fruit and yogurt baby food that Carlee mentioned. And it does have more protein (I worry about Anna getting enough protein too) and quite a bit of calories for one jar. Since Anna's weight has dropped so much I am trying to get the most bang for my buck calories wise ;)
Anna liked the bottle more than my boob because the milk instantly was in her mouth - she didn't have to suck at first. What a lazy baby! I had the Playtex bottles and there was only a slow and fast flow - it took Anna while to get used to the fast flow - but it was much better once she got the hang of it. I know Avent makes 3 different nipple sizes, so you could look into that. Sorry for the long comment!
Post a Comment