For those of you who make your own baby food...

[Anonymous]

...I have a question about freezing food.

I have been making baby food for my 10 month old for about 4 months. Since he started eating purees and solids during the late summer and fall, there was always a great selection of fresh, in season fruits and veggies at the store. I would buy fresh produce, cook, puree and then freeze it. I understand that you can use bags of frozen veggies (as long as they are not cooked) and cook, puree and refreeze, but cooked food that is frozen then reheated cannot be frozen again. So my question is...

I bought some bags of frozen fruit this week, and am wondering if I can refreeze these? Since at this age it's not necessary to cook fruit, can I simply defrost and make my own purees and refreeze them into cubes? Would I have to cook them before pureeing and freezing again? Or do I just have to take out a few berries and chunks of mango at a time, and make it on a daily basis? Would rather do it all at once and refreeze in order to be more efficient, but wanted to check in with anyone who is more experienced in this area than I am. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

As far as I know the whole no re-freezing thing applies to meat, I thik you are fine re-freezing fruits and veggies

[Anonymous]

I'm using the book "Super Baby Food" as my baby-food-making guide, and I looked up this question. According to Super Baby Food, you should not use frozen fruits and veggies to make baby food. There's no real explanation as to why, though. This may be a good book for you to check out.

[Anonymous]

I've been using frozen fruits and veggies for DS, off and on, for the past six months. I just check the label to make sure that there's nothing else added (e.g. sodium, sugar, etc.). As far as refreezing, I have generally cooked and then refrozen the veggies, but taken out fruit a little at a time and haven't refrozen. I don't see why you couldn't puree and then refreeze, though?

[Anonymous]

I have been using some frozen fruits and veggies, along with fresh, for my now-9-month-old for the past several months. I have always heard that frozen produce often retains more nutrients than fresh, since it is frozen immediately after harvest rather than being shipped across the country and stored for who knows how long. Of course I buy the organic frozen produce with nothing added, then cook them in batches, and re-freeze. The fruits I cook only enough to defrost and soften, and then puree and re-freeze. Now I am only pureeing half of each bag and dicing the other half as we explore the exciting and messy world of finger foods. Anyway, I haven't had any trouble with this system yet.

[Anonymous]

I am using that book also (with my 6 mo old), and wondered why the prohibition on refreezing fruits and veggies--there certainly is not much variety of good organic produce in the winter! Babies cannot survive on squash alone, at least not without turning orange!

I don't think it's unsafe to cook, puree, and refreeze fruits or veggies. Maybe you lose a few nutrients, but what are the other options? Jarred food with preservatives? Making new food for each meal? As a WOHM, I can't do the latter, and as a guilt-ridden organic fanatic (at least as far as my kids are concerned), I can't do the former.

If anyone has any more insight, please let us know!

[Anonymous]

By 10 months my Ds was eating chunkier textures, so I'd just defrost frozen fruit for 30-45 seconds in the microwave and mash/puree it at each serving. It took all of a minute, so I didn't think it was worth doing a whole batch. I don't think there's anything wrong with refreezing fruits/veggies, though it could affect the texture. For an even easier winter produce cheat, I'll pop open organic canned pumpkin and freeze that in cubes. Not homemade, but no preservatives so I feel good with it, and Ds loves pumpkin oatmeal!

[Anonymous]

I made almost all of my baby food and used alot of frozen veggies. We used the magic bullet, which is MUCH MUCH easier to clean than a food processor. So we just defrosted, heated and pureed what we needed at each meal, it took only 2 minutes each time and clean up was easy. Sample day...
Bfast- 1/2 apple or pear and plain yogurt pureed together (actually super yummy)
lunch- spinach and an egg yolk (hard boiled)
dinner- another green or orange veg
we also used alot of plain tofu (cut up straight from the fridge), ww pasta, cottage cheese... I liked the RUth Yaron book SUper baby foods other peopel have mentioned alot, but she recs starting nuts WAY before most doctors do.

[Anonymous]

21:12 how old was your baby for the sample day that you gave?