Homemade Baby Food Adventures with Summer Infant | Purées

Hi loves! I hope you're doing well. Happy Friday! I have decided that weekend are my times to post all things baby related, because although this is a fashion blog, it's also a personal style blog, and having a baby/caring for my baby is something that I'm personally learning about every day, so why not share it with all of my mama-to-be, new mama friends?! If this topic disinterests you, do not fret! I'll be back Monday with a regular fashion post ;)

So, I have so many friends asking about my Snapchat and Instagram posts since I often take photos and videos of what Grace is eating, and I did mention on there that I'm making her food at home. It took me 15 minutes, literally, and she's been eating the same orange sweet potato for the past 3 weeks! Haha. This method is wayyyyy cheaper than buying canned foods, and although that may be convenient, I chose to go this route. (No judgement zone here, by the way, all mamas must do what works best for them and their families.)

What You Need

Here are some of the things I bought, and I obviously had the pan and steamer basket already. I'll include links to this stuff below so you can easily find it, but it was fairly inexpensive and I don't really use the 'glass food cubes' as much as I thought I would as I'm super inconsistent with what I feed Gracie (food before 1 is just for fun!) and I like to keep it safe in the freezer until I use it. I also bought different spoons - I'll link to them, but I love the silicone ones. They are much easier for her little mouth to use!

• Glass food storage cubes (I have a giant fear of BPA and I never use/store anything in plastic)
• Silicone food storage trays (Again, you can use plastic ice cube trays - it's my BPA thing again)
• Baby feeding spoons (ones pictured) but the first ones I linked to are better!
• Reusable food pouches
• Steamer basket
• Large pan that can fit steamer basket
• Medium saucepan
• Blender or food processor (or if you're fancy a cool baby food maker thing)
• A high chair of course! I love my Summer Infant Bentwood High Chair

Baby Led Weaning Vs. Purees

I actually wanted to do Baby Led Weaning with Gracie (if you aren't familiar with it, basically it's just having your baby eat what you eat, so say you have chicken and sweet potato pieces for dinner, your children basically eat the same exact thing - whole pieces of chicken and whole pieces of sweet potato.) I am a bit of a worry wart though and may wait to do Baby Led Weaning fully until she has teeth, so we are doing purees. I do love those pouches though because Grace can feed herself and I don't have to force bites into her mouth haha. The most we've done with Baby Led Weaning is cutting up an apple without the skin and letting her suck the juice out of it, and she did like that, so I may try more of it. It's basically getting her used to pieces of food and practicing those fine motor skills (grasping a small object). 

When To Offer Solids & How Often

A couple of things before I start explaining how I made the purees. The first is that I chose not to be consistent with solids. She isn't 100% into it yet and that's okay. Babies should get their main source of nutrition from either breastmilk or formula until one year old. The solids are just extra nutrients and helps them get acquainted with various tastes as they get older and eventually eat all sorts of foods. Second, I read that you should offer foods in the morning in case babies have an allergic reaction throughout the day, and that way it doesn't happen at night, which would be more stressful for you and baby. ***There's an exception though - breastfed babies are used to more variety of tastes through mama's milk, so I did read that you can offer them things in the evening if you like. 

Grace only eats solids 3 times a week and always at dinner. Make sure to offer the same food for at least a week long. This will ensure that your baby isn't allergic and can continue to eat that food in the future. So far Grace has eaten sweet potato, avocado (her favorites), and peas (not so great haha) and that's it. We've been eating solids a total of 6 months.

When Is My Child Ready?

I was dead set on waiting until 6 months old to start Grace on solids, but it's true what they say: if your baby tries to take food off of your plate, shows interest in what you're eating, and can sit unassisted, they're probably ready for solids haha. Gracie would reach out for whatever I was eating and eventually it got so bad that she would stare at me with each bite I took! She had her own timing in mind, and when we did first give her solid food, she was absolutely ready and didn't make funny faces or have any hesitation. That was our sure sign haha.

Making Purees

So, onto the good stuff - we chose to feed Grace sweet potatoes as her first food, and she loves them, so for my first baby food making adventure I chose two things - sweet potatoes and peas. Both healthy. I chose not to start with a fruit or cereal (again personal preference - everyone does their own thing) since cereal is just empty calories to make them full and fruit is sweet which they'll probably end up preferring if you don't try out the veggies first, so veggies it was! See the graphic below for pictures and short-version directions. After the graphic I go into detail about how I made the peas!

Green Pea Puree

1. I just bought a bag of organic frozen peas (I buy organic because so little food feeds her for such a long time - the 50 cents doesn't make a difference to us.)

2. Pour half the bag of peas in and add just enough water so that the peas are covered (about a cup for a half bag.) Bring to a boil and let it boil for 5-7 minutes until peas are soft!

3. I used a food processor the first time, and a blender the second time. For first timers I would definitely start with a blender - the liquify setting is much better, but as Grace gets older, I will most likely use my food processor because I liked how it left little chunks of the food in there! I thinned the peas out with breastmilk (make sure to use fresh breastmilk, not defrosted frozen milk because you're going to be freezing the food and you can't refreeze and thaw breastmilk if that makes sense) I just pumped on the day I made her food so it was fresh milk OR you can thin it out with the water left after draining the peas/any filtered water. Make sure the consistency is very runny though.

4. Those silicone cube trays are just the best - they are super bendy. After leaving the trays in the freezer for 5-6 hours I transferred the little frozen cubes of food to a freezer safe container to store and wrote the date on them for reference. 

How Long Does Baby Food Last?

Baby food is considered safe after 48 hours in the refrigerator. Anything after that and it must be frozen. Frozen baby food should be used within 3-6 months for optimal nutrition.

Sweet Potato Puree 

(This method can also be used with butternut, acorn, and zucchini squashes.) 

1. Peel and slice sweet potatoes.

2. Fill a pan with an inch of water and insert steamer basket into the pan (let it get to a boil while you're peeling/cutting potatoes) and place the potatoes in the steamer basket and cover. Let steam for 15 minutes, or until tender when pierced with a fork.

3. Transfer sweet potatoes to blender and either use breastmilk to thin or leftover water from the steamer pan (it has nutrients in it!) Liquify to desired consistency - should be pretty runny!

4. Pour mixture into silicone ice cube trays. After leaving the trays in the freezer for 5-6 hours I transferred the little frozen cubes of food to a freezer safe container to store and wrote the date on them for reference. 

Serving Your Baby

I defrost the cubes of food in warm water (don't defrost in hot water because that could cause bacteria to develop as you're defrosting!) Or, if you like, you can bag the cubes separately and just take one baggy of two cubes out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to defrost all day. It's completely up to what works for your schedule!

Grace eats most of the two cubes, but some days she will take three bites and be done. Remember this is only to assimilate solids within babies diet veryyyy slowly. I've heard some babies take to them and eat three square meals a day (with formula/breastmilk still of course) and others take months to really like them. Every little one is different :)

I really had fun writing this out! It took quite a while, but it was so worth it, and I hope this helped you in your baby food making adventures!

Leave any comments below if you have additional questions or you need me to clarify something! I love talking all things baby! xo.