Parentpedia

What Experts Say

It's hard to beat those cute little jars of baby food when it comes to convenience. But if you've got the time and inclination, you don't have to be Rachael Ray to make your own.

The tools of the trade are few:

• a blender (better still, a hand-turned baby food grinder)
• extra ice cube trays for freezing
• a steamer (handy for cooking vegetables to a soft texture while maintaining as many nutrients as possible)

From there, it's really a matter of prepping the food (washing, peeling, slicing, as necessary), steaming or cooking, grinding it to the right texture for your baby's age and development, and then feeding (adding breast milk, formula, or water as necessary for the right consistency) or freezing it.

As your baby gets older and relies more on solid food instead of breast milk or formula for nutrition, it's increasingly important that she eat a wide variety of foods. So when she's ready for more complex multi-ingredient fare, it's useful to have a few resources on hand.

"What to Expect in the First Year" features a nifty section called Best-Odd Recipes, designed to help little ones get what the authors call the "daily dozen" key nutrients with simple meals that appeal to small taste buds. Many moms refer to "Super Baby Food" as their "baby food bible." It's packed with information on how to prepare foods for baby at all stages, along with 350-plus recipes (you can find sample recipes at the Super Baby Foods website.

How to Make Baby Food

• If you plan to make your own baby cereal, check with your pediatrician. He or she will want to make sure your baby is getting the same key vitamins and minerals that are found in fortified commercial infant cereals.
• Prep carefully. Scrub fruits and vegetables with a vegetable brush under running water and rinse well. Trim any hard or potentially choke-able pieces (stems, skins, pits, and seeds from fruits and veggies; skin, bones, and extra fat from meats).
• Don't feed babies who are less than 6 months of age home-prepared beets, carrots, collard greens, spinach, or turnips. They are high in nitrates and can cause a type of anemia in young babies. (Commercial baby foods of these varieties contain only traces amounts of nitrates.)
• After freezing purees in ice cube trays covered with plastic wrap, transfer them to freezer-safe containers or plastic bags, and label the contents and date.