Homemade Baby Food Benefits

There are many reasons why you should consider making your own baby food versus buying the pre-made. Making your own baby food lets you know (and control) exactly what you are feeding your child. By making it freshly at home you can skip any added preservatives, such as extra salt.

Also, you can control the cooking method and freshness to ensure that you are getting the most nutritional value from your foods. It's also pretty fun creating new concoctions for your little one to try! I have found it to be a great experience and pretty easy as well! So for anyone who is considering this but a little hesitant on where to start and whether it's for them or not, here are some tips and tricks and things I have learned along the way.

• Go Organic: Like you may have read in my food intro post, it's important to try and feed baby organic. Their little bodies are much less able to handle added toxins than adults and for most items, there is very little cost difference between organic and conventional foods any more. Also, try to go local! Most of the time, even though a food is grown organically, when it is imported from another country, it's sprayed with pesticides at customs to insure that no unwanted insects are also making the journey. So organic/local first if you can!

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• Consistency is Key: This is a huge bonus to making your own, you can control consistency. At first, many babies struggle with a new texture after being so used to liquids. If baby is gagging on their first meal, it doesn't necessarily mean they don't like it, it could be the texture that is turning them off. Try making the food very thin, even soup like, and increase the density as baby gets more used to solids. You can thin food with water or cooking liquid for added benefit, or my personal favourite, with breast milk to really up it's nutritional value! 
• How to Cook It: Most fruits and vegetables can be steamed, a steamer basket and pot with lid is all you need. For some of the root vegetables, like butternut squash, roasting is a good option. When you get to meats, you can either roast it or 'fry' it in water in a shallow saucepan or frying pan. Make sure everything is soft, but not over cooked. 
• Get Creative: Once a few foods have been introduced without a problem, you can start mixing it up. This is also helpful for foods that don't make the best purees. My daughter LOVES sweet potatoes and they blend into a smooth, creamy puree. However, she is not a fan of the more fibrous veggies, like green beans or fresh peas. So, to increase it's palatability (since it was mostly the texture that was turning her off) I mixed these veggies with the already introduced sweet potatoes to make a creamier puree, which she scarfed down! By mixing some of the less enjoyed veggies with the favourite ones, she still gets expose to the different flavours so later when she goes to eat them, the flavour won't be super new. This can be helpful when starting meats as well, when we tried chicken, we pureed it with sweet potato and apple, which made a delicious dinner!

• Up the Iron: Many pre-made baby foods are fortified with iron. Although baby's best source of iron is breast milk, you can increase baby's iron by using foods that are naturally higher in iron. Meats are obviously one of the highest sources, but before that is introduced, dark, green, leafy vegetables (like kale), spirulina and blackstrap molasses are good sources of iron that can easily be added to any puree. (*A note about blackstrap molasses, it's important to get a good organic molasses as there is a huge difference in iron content between this (15%) and the 'cheap' commercial grocery store molasses (4%)). One of my daughter's fave meals is Sweet Potato/Apple/Kale puree.

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• What about Nitrates: A quick google search may make you hesitate on feeding baby certain foods with the worry of causing 'blue baby syndrome.' Blue Baby Syndrome can occur when Nitrates are converted to Nitrites in the body and can then bind to red blood cells, decreasing the oxygen available for baby's body and turning baby blue. Many resources warn that vegetables which are nitrate rich (such as carrots, collard greens, kale, beets and other root vegetables) should not be homemade but can be bought pre-made because baby food companies test for nitrate levels. However, nitrates are naturally occurring and though they may be tested for, they are not removed, they actually can't be. So even those commercially available baby foods will contain nitrates. I wouldn't necessarily avoid these foods (because they are some of the healthiest vegetables) but there are ways to decrease the nitrate concentration and risk. For most babies, by the time they are 6 months old, their digestive system (and stomach acid) is mature enough to prevent the bacteria that converts nitrates to nitrites (which are the harmful substances) and there is almost zero risk, however, babies under 3 months of age should 100% not be exposed to these vegetables. Having said that, I do not recommend food introduction of any kind to babies under about 6 months of age. For babies over 6 months of age, buy organic (chemical nitrogen-based fertilizers will increase nitrate concentrations), don't use the cooking liquid of these vegetables to make the puree, buy as fresh produce as possible (the older the vegetables the more time bacteria has had to convert the natural occurring nitrates to the harmful nitrites), do not feed baby processed or cured meats (such as lunch meats) , avoid using well water to make babies food or formula (if formula fed). There are very, very few reported cases of Blue Baby Syndrome in general, almost zero in infants older than 6 mos of age and the cases that have been reported are usually linked to well water or areas where the soil is known to contain excessively high levels of nitrogen. Again, we have fed our daughter kale, beets and carrots without worry.

A Couple of Notes: 

• Do NOT give babies under 1 year of age honey because of the risk of botulism poisoning.
• Avoid adding sweeteners to baby foods, use some fruit puree, if needed, instead.
• Baby food should only be stored for about 3 days in the fridge, if it won't be used within that amount of time, freeze it. I tend to make about 3 days worth of food at a time which works well because you should introduce a food for about 3 days before switching to a new one.
• Don't feed baby right out of the container, use a bowl and toss anything unfinished to help avoid added bacteria.
• Investing in a good baby food cookbook is a good idea, we have Cooking for Baby by Lisa Barnes which I have found very good and creative!

What you'll Need:

• A Steamer Basket and Pot with Lid
• A Blender: The Baby Bullet is a very popular option, however, for anyone who already owns a regular Bullet, there is no need to invest in the Baby version. A Vitamix is another great option and can handle larger amounts. However, my personal favourite is a mini-processor made by Betty Crocker because it uses a glass bowl (instead of plastic like the others) and at a very reasonable $30 was a great investment!
• Storage Containers (if making more than one serving at a time): My personal fave is the Glasslock containers, obviously because it avoids plastic.

Making your own baby food is pretty fun and is a great way to start baby off on a healthy diet. Pull baby's high chair up to the kitchen counter and let them watch while you prepare their meals. This can even be used as a great time to reacquaint yourself with some veggies that may not be in your regular rotation. So take some time, plan some meals and get cooking!

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Disclaimer: Naturopathic Doctors strive to provide individualized health care. The information contained in these topics is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, it is provided for educational purposes only. This information shouldn’t take the place of seeing an ND for individualized health recommendations.