Baby Food

I know it has been awhile but with two little ones it's a little difficult to find the time to update blogs. Especially since they were tag teaming me for awhile there. I would get maybe 15 mins to myself at the most. I would get one to sleep and the other would give me a hard time getting them to sleep and when I finally did the other woke. It was so frustrating! I finally have them sleeping at the same time most days! Although I am up for the day by 8 am and for those of you that know me well that is not always easy for me I am NOT a morning person!!


On to today's subject....
Baby food...With the girl I was happily using Beechnut baby jars. I felt pretty confidante in the product and I still do but I wish I had made my own purees. Think about it that's really all baby food is. I did try to make my own baby cereal and that was a disaster and turned me off to making my own. I wish I had stuck it out a bit! Because with the boy I have found out how EASY it is! Especially if you have the right equipment! I have many friends that make their own. Just stay away from making your own baby cereal! With the girl I started giving her solids at about 4 months old. But with the boy I had to wait until he was 6 months old. Why you ask? Because we found out when he was 4 months old that he had a milk allergy just like his father. He had these awful bumps on his beautiful chubby checks. I noticed it about two week into his life. I was nursing and bottle feeding him. I stopped when he was two weeks old because he bit me twice and it HURT! I wish now I had stuck it out for his sake. We kept taking him in and for some reason or another we couldn't see our regular pediatrician. So we were lead down many different paths. Until one of the professionals finally referred us to a specialist, the allergist. He did some tests and he came back with a milk protein allergy. So we had to wait a month to see how he was doing on the new formula. And I am happy to say he is thriving and he no longer has anything on his beautiful face.

We do have to take things slow with him like introduce foods one at a time (and every baby should be introduced to foods one at a time) so that we could make sure to illuminate any foods he reacted to but instead of waiting the normal four days between new food we have to wait two weeks. I decided to give making my own purees another chance because I wanted to better control what went to my precious child and because he was already sensitive to some foods, why expose him to unnecessary preservatives.

I didn't start him on cereal, I decided to skip the frustration! And move right into veggies. I have a friend that makes her own baby food with the Beaba Baby cooker and I have seen it! It is an awesome little kitchen appliance that steams and purees anything in the same bowl but I didn't have the $150 to shell out to get it. I already had a food processor and I had a Pampered Chef Rice Cooker and Steamer. So I made pureed carrots. I steamed the carrots in the Steamer and then purred them in my food processor. It was not easy. I could not get the carrots completely smooth! I had to strain it. The second time I did it, I steamed the carrots a little longer and added water (the water used to steam them in which I later found out was not a good idea because of nitrates, so use fresh water) It came out PERFECT! And it was easier! But the third time I did it, it was not smooth and I had to run it through a srainer. I was getting discouraged! I was really considering getting that babycooker! I did research and decided to get a Food Steamer which I paid $15 at Target and a Hand Blender that I paid $2o also at Target. So for $35 I got the best appliances in my opinion!! Because it work so well!!! I steamed the carrots for 30 mins and then used the hand blender to puree it and I could NOT believe how EASY it was!!!! I got the perfect puree! When I purchased these appliances it was time to introduce another veggie and I decided on green beans. I used frozen green beans and steamed them for 20 mins. and then purred them. It was so incredibly easy and clean up was quick!

I purchased ice cube trays at the dollar store and froze some of it. I recommend putting the ice trays in a freezer bag so it doesn't pick up any other flavors. The next morning I popped them out and placed them in the freezer bag I had the ice tray in. Now about an hour before it's time to eat I pull out two. In the future I will be combining them for different flavor combos. But at least this way I will begin to have a variety of purees in my freezer for my little guy!

An awesome website is Homemade Baby Food Recipes There are many great ones out there but this one has been the most helpful to me. If you have another website you like please let me know in the comment section!