Making Your Own Baby Food
Making your own baby food is healthy, easy and saves money.
Getting Started
- Wash your hands and equipment with soap and warm water
- Clean your work area
What You Need
- Cutting board
- Knife
- Pot
- Strainer & spoon or Baby food grinder or Blender
When Making Baby Food
- Offer a variety of soft textures including lumpy, tender-cooked, finely minced, pureed, mashed and ground
- Steam food because it keeps more nutrients in
- The more you cook vegetables and fruit, the more nutrients are lost
- Limit sugar and salt to food
Note: Offer lumpy foods no later than nine months.
Preparing Different Type of Baby Food
Meat & Alternatives
Provide Protein, Iron, Zinc, and Vitamin B12
Ingredients:
- Meat, chicken, fish, egg, tofu or legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas)
- Small amounts of breast milk or water
How to prepare meat, chicken and fish:
- Bake, roast, steam, poach or boil until soft and well-done
- If poaching or boiling, drain and keep the cooking water
- Remove bones, skin and trim fat
- Cut meat, chicken or fish into small pieces
- Mash, grind or blend with breast milk or water (use reserved cooking water if boiled or poached) to desired thickness if you like
- Give your infant small, soft, cooked pieces of meat, chicken and fish as finger foods
How to prepare eggs:
- Cook eggs until well-done
- Cut egg into small pieces
- Blend, grind or mash eggs with breast milk or water to desired texture if you like
- You can give your infant the small, pieces of cooked eggs as finger foods
How to prepare tofu:
- Mash tofu with breast milk or water to desired texture
How to prepare legumes:
- Drain and rinse canned legumesĀ OR cook dry legumes according to package directions
- Mash to desired texture
If legume/lentils still has a semi-hard husk after cooking remove husk (pass it through as sieve) before offering
Vegetables and Fruit
Provide Fibre, Folate, Vitamin A, and Vitamin C
Ingredients:
- Fresh, frozen or canned vegetables and fruit
- Small amounts of breast milk or water
How to prepare vegetables and fruit:
- Wash, peel and cut fresh vegetables and fruit or use frozen or canned vegetables and fruit
- Boil, bake, microwave or steam vegetables and fruits until soft and drain
- Mash, blend or press food through strainer to desired texture. Add breast milk or cooking water as needed
- Cut the vegetables and fruit into small pieces and give the small, soft, pieces of cooked vegetables and fruit as finger foods
Note: Soft or canned fruits, such as mango, banana, avocado, ripe pears andĀ canned peaches do not need cooking
Grain Products
Provide Fibre, Folate, Iron and B Vitamins
Ingredients:
- Iron-fortified (single grain) infant cereal, such as rice, oatmeal or barley
- Small amounts of breast milk or water (as per preparation instructions on food label)
How to prepare:
- Add breast milk or water to cereal (as per preparation instructions on food label)
- Stir
Keeping Baby Food Safe to Eat
Storing
Store baby food in the refrigerator or freezer, to keep it from going bad.
In the Refrigerator
- Place foods in a container. Cover, tightly seal and label foods
- Store for two to three days in the refrigerator
In the Freezer
- Place baby foods into an ice cube tray OR put spoonfuls of baby foods on a cookie sheet
- Cover ice cube tray or cookie sheet with plastic wrap or wax paper
- When frozen, put in freezer bags and label with name and date
- Store in a fridge freezer for up to two months and six months in a deep freezer
Serving
- Thaw baby food in the refrigerator OR thaw over a small bowl of hot water. Do not refreeze once thawed
- Always check the food’s temperature before feeding on the back of your hand to make sure it is not too hot
- Do not use the microwave to heat baby food. The food heats unevenly and can cause burns
- Offer your baby safe finger foods from six months of age such as soft-cooked vegetables and fruit; soft, ripe fruit e.g. bananas; finely minced, ground or mashed cooked meats, fish without bone, and poultry; grated cheese; crackers, bread crust or toast.
Food Safety
Bacteria can grow in food. Make sure to:
- Heat only the amount of food the baby needs
- Throw out any food that the baby does not eat
- Put frozen food in freezer bags
- Remove air from bag to prevent nutrient losses
- Write the date and type of food on freezer bag
- Use the food with the earliest date first
- Do not offer honey or any foods made with honey, until your baby is older than 12 months of age, as consumption can cause botulism, a kind of food poisoning