Feeding Baby

I waited until Caleb was 6 months old to start feeding solids. He turned 6 months on November 18th so we started Caleb on Rice Cereal at Grammi's house during Thanksgiving. Caleb loved food from the beginning. We were still struggling to get him to take milk from a bottle at this time and so we would mix whatever milk was leftover with cereal and feed it with a spoon in order to get him to eat it.

Now, Three months later and you would think that kid had been on solid food for a year now. He still loves to eat. In January, Scott and I mad some tough financial decisions, cutting all bills as much as we could. It was then that I realized, I could not afford to continue to feed my baby as much as he ate! (Or rather, I did not want to afford it.) So what started as an experiment, turned to a necessity. I now make my own baby food. I don't do it to be organic, or because I don't trust Gerber's products, I have just found that making my own is SOOOO much cheaper!

My new friend is the Magic Bullet. With my bullet, I can puree foods in seconds and pour them into 1 oz ice cube trays to freeze for later use. I did this a few times with Brendan, but we mostly fed him store bought food. With Caleb though, he is pretty much solely on homemade baby food.


For many of you, this may not seem like a big deal. A lot of moms go with homemade over store bought. But being a working mom, I am always impressed with myself when I am able to do these "homey" types of activities.

I can find Gerber baby food on sale for $1.00 most places for 2 3.5 oz containers, which is not a bad price. But when my son eats usually about 3 of these a day, sometimes more, the 1 pound bag of carrots for $0.99 is a whole lot better. Without all the preservatives. And Caleb really seems to enjoy it!

I puree the food, freeze it in Ice Cube Trays and then store them in Zip Lock bags. I only make food once sometimes twice a week, and it is a huge payoff in the end. Plus, we can mix-and-match different foods together to give Caleb more variety. Currently in the freezer we have: Mashed potatoes, carrots, peas, apricots, apples, bananas, peach-apple, and squash. Next time we go to the store I would like to get some new flavors to expand his food intake, like blueberries, mango, avocado, the options are limitless!

Beside the pureed baby food, Caleb is starting to really enjoy finger-foods. Soft foods that he can gum to death. Like soft-cooked carrots cut up, cooked zucchini, bits of potato, and his favorite-Cheerios. I'm really enjoys experimenting with food with him, as we learn and experience together!