Any MBs or nannies prepare homemade baby food?

[Anonymous]

My nanny, whom we love, is insisting on my homemade baby food for my child. She said it's healthiest, cost effective, and easy. I don't know because the baby cookers ( she said use a blender), steamers, storage, etc., adds up. If you tried it, is it really that cost effective compared to the organic jars and pouches?

[Anonymous]

It's not as easy as jars or pouches, but it's pretty easy. It's definitely cheaper.

We didn't any special equipment. Many foods can just be mashed (banana, avacado, etc). Many foods can just be cooked as per usual and mashed (carrots, sweet potato).

We also made homemade cereal by using the "super baby porridge " recipe you can google online. That's also very easy and extremely nutritious compared to rice cereal.

[Anonymous]

I don't worry about cost when it comes to my kids health (I'll pause while you roll your eyes).

It's not hard though, and doesn't take much time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My nanny, whom we love, is insisting on my homemade baby food for my child. She said it's healthiest, cost effective, and easy. I don't know because the baby cookers ( she said use a blender), steamers, storage, etc., adds up. If you tried it, is it really that cost effective compared to the organic jars and pouches?

I used to buy Earth's Best organic baby food, which generally runs about $0.90 to $1/jar, so even if you bought one of those expensive baby food makers, you'd recoup its cost within a month or so, assuming your baby eats the equivalent of 3 jars/day. But as others said, you don't need special equipment, just a blender (the little ones are great) and steamer basket, and storage containers you will need anyway when your baby moves to solids.

Having said that, what ends up being most cost-effective depends on your baby. Some babies refuse purees (like my daughter) and others eat them for just a short time before they lose interest. So before you buy any equipment that you plan to use just for making baby food, make sure that your baby likes it!

But more importantly, why is your nanny "insisting" on homemade baby food rather than just "suggesting"...?!?!? Do what is right for you and your family! Sounds like your nanny needs to be put in her place!

[Anonymous]

Mom of twins here. I did almost exclusively homemade food for our kids - which I didn't plan. I didn't have strong convictions about it, I don't think store bought babyfood is evil. It just kind of happened and it was cheaper and easier than buying separate jarred food.

It was WAY easier than I expected. I didn't buy any supplies - just used a stickblender for anything I wanted to puree. Mashed tons of other stuff right into a bowl as I fed them. Made some big batches of stuff occasionally (like mashed sweet potatos) and froze sandwich baggies full, etc...

If your nanny wants to make food for your baby - great. If she's telling you that you have to invest in a bunch of equipment that's silly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My nanny, whom we love, is insisting on my homemade baby food for my child. She said it's healthiest, cost effective, and easy. I don't know because the baby cookers ( she said use a blender), steamers, storage, etc., adds up. If you tried it, is it really that cost effective compared to the organic jars and pouches?

I used to buy Earth's Best organic baby food, which generally runs about $0.90 to $1/jar, so even if you bought one of those expensive baby food makers, you'd recoup its cost within a month or so, assuming your baby eats the equivalent of 3 jars/day. But as others said, you don't need special equipment, just a blender (the little ones are great) and steamer basket, and storage containers you will need anyway when your baby moves to solids.

Having said that, what ends up being most cost-effective depends on your baby. Some babies refuse purees (like my daughter) and others eat them for just a short time before they lose interest. So before you buy any equipment that you plan to use just for making baby food, make sure that your baby likes it!

But more importantly, why is your nanny "insisting" on homemade baby food rather than just "suggesting"...?!?!? Do what is right for you and your family! Sounds like your nanny needs to be put in her place!

Op here. I think "insisting" is a harsh word. She has brought homemade baby food on two occasions and the benefits of it. It would fall more under the category of a suggestion. He eats purees with no problem. He's been on them for about two weeks. The pouches are a little more pricey but he doesn't eat much of it yet.

[Anonymous]

Its super easy and cheaper. You can buy either fresh produce or frozen. You can buy a bag of frozen peas for a couple of dollars, blend in a regular blender with some water, then pour into ice cube trays. Take one or two out for a meal.

[Anonymous]

Why do you not want her to do it? If she can do it all with the equipment you have on hand, give her some money and let her take the baby to the store and make the food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My nanny, whom we love, is insisting on my homemade baby food for my child. She said it's healthiest, cost effective, and easy. I don't know because the baby cookers ( she said use a blender), steamers, storage, etc., adds up. If you tried it, is it really that cost effective compared to the organic jars and pouches?

You are very close hands,o loco!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My nanny, whom we love, is insisting on my homemade baby food for my child. She said it's healthiest, cost effective, and easy. I don't know because the baby cookers ( she said use a blender), steamers, storage, etc., adds up. If you tried it, is it really that cost effective compared to the organic jars and pouches?

I don't think it's cheaper - especially the fruits or veg (takes too many to make even 4 one ounce ice cubes - but I plus nanny made all sorts of purees. I focused on chicken, chuck roast and tilapia ones since the canned stuff is always lik 90% tomatoes or carrot base. Weelicious has good puree recipes. I'd make a batch, put into 50 ice cubes, then freezer bag it and each meal was 4-6 or I added half jar + half my purees depending on the consistency.
Nanny should have plenty of time to make it during naps. Ours also does apples + quinoa. Or we just puree leftovers for the 1 yo.

kids only eat purees for like 9-12 months so enjoy and don't sweat it!

[Anonymous]

P.S. we used the $40 cuisinart hand blender for our two kids. super easy, just stick it in the bowl after steaming the protein, veg, then add the little pasta stars, quinoa or rice! and a bit of seasoning. We tried lentils too but a bit filmy for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My nanny, whom we love, is insisting on my homemade baby food for my child. She said it's healthiest, cost effective, and easy. I don't know because the baby cookers ( she said use a blender), steamers, storage, etc., adds up. If you tried it, is it really that cost effective compared to the organic jars and pouches?

I don't think it's cheaper - especially the fruits or veg (takes too many to make even 4 one ounce ice cubes - but I plus nanny made all sorts of purees. I focused on chicken, chuck roast and tilapia ones since the canned stuff is always lik 90% tomatoes or carrot base. Weelicious has good puree recipes. I'd make a batch, put into 50 ice cubes, then freezer bag it and each meal was 4-6 or I added half jar + half my purees depending on the consistency.
Nanny should have plenty of time to make it during naps. Ours also does apples + quinoa. Or we just puree leftovers for the 1 yo.

kids only eat purees for like 9-12 months so enjoy and don't sweat it!

It's is much cheaper! Where are you buying your fruits and veggies? We bought organic at Whole Foods or Trader Joes. For 2-3 meals or organic store food ran us about $30/week. Making a variety was about $10/week. I made about a months worth of food for about $40.

[Anonymous]

our kid eats one mango ($1) and one banana ($0.30) for breakfast > a Gerber fruit jar(4 oz).

then eats one pureed squash ($3.5 / 3 servings) for lunch > a Gerber veg jar (4 oz).

then eats a chicken + veg puree ($5 / 5 servings) for dinner = a Gerber meat jar (4 oz).

either way, kids aren't cheap, and when you account for the amount of homemade food spit out, blown out, and whacked across the room and floor, they really aren't cheap!

[Anonymous]

16:56 sounds a little bonkers to me.

NP here and I have made all the food for my 11mo twin charges since they started eating. An entire mango and an entire banana should definitely be yielding way more than 4 oz of puree.

I can't remember what we spent earlier on, but they currently eat about 6-9 oz of puree each per day as well as lots of finger foods (so 12-18 oz total per day plus all the finger food) and we spend about $30-50 per week on "their" groceries. That includes pricier items liked pastured organic eggs and dairy. If we were paying ~a dollar for 4 oz of organic baby food, we would be spending around $100 per week on purees alone.

When you make your own food, you can shop sales. If apples are on sale, I buy a ton and make lots and lots of apple puree, then freeze it in cubes and we thaw out different flavor combinations.

They also tend to be better eaters, IME. Packaged food has to be cooked at a high temp to be shelf stable and it is much less flavorful than homemade. The result is that it all tastes the same. You also have a limited number of flavors available. My guys probably only repeat a flavor combo 2-3 times a month. The rest of the time we mix it up and combine different things so that they are exposed to more variety and can find more things they really like.

As far as being healthier, I think it can be more nutritious based on what you are making, and obviously you won't have any additives.

[Anonymous]

There are several websites on how. You basically oversteam food slightly, puree with water to make smooth. I did veggies. I never got fruit well.