Chop, Chop, Mush, Mush.

Thanks to everyone who read my first blog post yesterday, and thanks for all of the great feedback on my Facebook page. It is nice to know that I am not the only one making baby food from scratch!

So when my son was 5 1/2 months old I started mixing pumped breast milk and rice cereal and feeding it to him with a spoon. That was the simplest form of baby food, but he loved it all the same. To my surprise the most common advise that I was getting at that time was the one that was most disputed online and by my pediatrician. Everyone and their brother (and grandmother) was telling me to mix rice cereal into his bottle at night because that would ensure him sleeping through the night. Well after a little research I found out that this "tried and true" fix for sleepless nights was not going to make my baby sleep longer, and was also a choking hazard. However, I can tell you that out of desperation I have tried it on a few occasions, but after 8 1/2 months my son still does not sleep through the night!

So at six months Dylan graduated from baby rice cereal to mushed bananas and from there pureed peas. At the time when I was experimenting with single ingredient foods my husband and I looked into buying the Beaba Babycook Baby Food Maker It seemed like it got good reviews online and I loved the concept of steaming and pureeing all in one...but alas it was so stinkin expensive and it only made a few servings at a time. Luckily my dad bought me a 6 cup food processor on ebay for like 35 bucks and I have been pureeing ever since. As for a steamer I just use a Black and Decker Handy Veggie Steamer. It works great and it also holds up to 6 cups.

Making large batches of baby food works best for me. I will put about two weeks worth of food in the freezer. It also helps with the clean up because I am only pulling out the steamer and food processor every two weeks.