The Nutritional Benefits Of Making Your Own Baby Food
Have you ever thought of making your own baby food? Do you think it would be hard to do? What would you say if I told you that it is less expensive and more nutritious to make your own baby food? Think about this for a moment: When you make commercial baby food purchase, you are paying for the jar the food comes in, the cost of processing the food, and the profit for the manufacturer. When you make your own food, the cost is for the food alone. The benefits are that you have total control over the food you are making and feeding to your baby. You choose the quality ingredients that you put into your baby food and you would of course leave out any preservatives or added chemicals too. You would not put in extra sugar or salt as commercial baby foods have. This is why your homemade baby food will be more nutritious for your baby than commercial baby food is.
Your baby is also exposed to a larger variety of nutrients, textures and also tastes when you make your own baby food so the transition from baby food to table food will be less stressful on your baby.
Your first step in making your own nutritious baby food starts with washing your hands and also wash the equipment thoroughly before using it.
Scrub, peel and remove any pits or seeds from fresh fruits and vegetables. When preparing meats remove all bones, skin, gristle and fat from them. Do not use leftovers to make your baby food, use only fresh foods.
You will want to bake, steam or cook food in small amounts of water just until the food is tender. It is better to steam and microwave vegetables and fruits instead of boiling them because microwaving and steaming preserves the nutrients and boiling can remove nutrients.
After the food is softened puree or mash the cooked food.
You can thin out pureed foods with leftover water from steaming. You can also thin out food using breast milk or formula.
You can package and label foods to store in the refrigerator or freezer. You can put pureed foods in ice cube trays and freeze, then pop them out in cubes and into sealed plastic bags. Each cube will be about 1 ounce and will keep for approximately two months in the freezer.
You should not add salt, sugar, or strong spices to homemade baby foods.
Use fresh produce only. Canned vegetables are high in sodium and additives. You may use frozen if you check the label first to be sure there are no added preservatives or other chemicals.
When microwaving makes sure that you check the temperature as foods heated in a microwave can have hot spots even after stirring.
Once you thaw food to use it, if there are any leftover after the meal do not save. Discard any leftovers. Bacteria can grow in leftover food, so you do not want to give leftover food to babies.
