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

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 legumes 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

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:

  1. Wash, peel and cut fresh vegetables and fruit or use frozen or canned vegetables and fruit
  2. Boil, bake, microwave or steam vegetables and fruits until soft and drain
  3. Mash, blend or press food through strainer to desired texture. Add breast milk or cooking water as needed
  4. 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 and canned peaches do not need cooking

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