Our Adventures in Baby Food Part 1

If you follow me on Instagram, you already know that we have begun the world of baby food in our house.  We waited until 6 months to start the babies on it for a couple of reasons. 1. We waited until close to 6 months with Reagan. 2. The research says it is what is best for babies. (Not judging those of you who started early. I just tend to be a big rule follower). Currently the APA recommends waiting until 6 months before starting solid foods.  3 Feeding twins scared the bajeebas out of me.  

I spoke with both our pediatrician as well as one of my childhood best friends (who is a pediatrician) and grilled them about introducing food.  Isn't it funny how quickly you forget all of this stuff even though you've done it before?  I mean- 3 1/2 years ago wasn't that long ago! The following is what I gathered from them and what we have been doing. Clearly, I am not a pediatrician and I am not telling you what we have done is right/wrong. It's just what we did! 

To Buy or Make?

I decided that since I was home and not working I would make the twins' baby food.  I thought that while it would take some time, it would save us some money. For example: Gerber 1st foods cost $3.92 for a 2 pack. Which, we would go through 4 packs a day.  That's over $50 a week. Not including cereal and formula.  A bag of mini carrots at Frys is 99 cents.  One bag can feed the babies 5 dinners.  Get the gist? Much smarter for us right now.

The Recipes

I purchased a book from Barnes and Noble called Top 100 Baby Purees and have been using it as my guide.  I am still very much in the simple phase of the purees but some of them look quite fancy! Haha.

Food Prep

I looked into all of the baby food makers but decided to use what we had at home.  For making food I use (not necessarily all each time) 

a microwavable steamer

(I use it to steam the veggies in the microwave before putting them in the food processor/blender.)

a food chopper

(This makes all that chopping quicker.)

a food processor
(I use this to make the food smaller before putting it in the blender... I have a tendency to try everything in the blender and nothing  blends because my pieces are too big. So this extra step helps me to make sure the food gets pureed.) 

a blender

(Obviously used to make the purees.)

ice cube trays

(After the food is pureed, I pour it into ice cube trays. I usually need 5 or 6 each session. FYI I bought some from the dollar store and they totally broke when trying to get the food out.  So I would recommend getting the nicer ones. It will be worth it in the end!)

small ziplock bags
(I put a serving for both kids in one small bag so that I can grab one bag out of the freezer each day.)

large ziplock bags

(I put all the small bags inside a bigger bag. For example, all of the green been bags go into one large bag, etc.)

Feeding Prep

Seating

We started with the babies sitting in their Bumbo chairs. We only had 1 high chair at that point and two Bumbos. Once we got the second high chair we started feeding them in those. It definitely made me feel a lot safer having them in the high chairs! 

We use the Fisher Price Space Saver high chairs for the twins. I didn't want to have to deal with 2 large high chairs this time around! I love them!

Bowls and Spoons

We had a bunch of bowls and spoons from Reagan, but I picked up a few more.  We have been using these bowls and spoons.  Make sure you get the tiny spoons first (for their little mouths).

Bibs

We started the twins' out with their regular bibs. Disaster! We never had a problem with Reagan messing up his baby bibs with food. In fact, most of the babies' bibs are his hand-me-downs.  So the twins must just be horribly messy eaters!  After a handful of stained bibs, I purchased the wipe able bibs for solid foods and it's been so much easier. 

The Order

I remember with Reagan we followed a specific order and set of rules as to how to feed him.  I asked the pediatricians and they both said that it really didn't matter.  The baby gets most of its nutritional intake from my milk and the formula.  This baby food is more to expose them to the practice of eating and seeing any allergies.  When I asked about doing all of the veggies first, I was told that again it really didn't matter. She said that many of the veggies taste sweeter than the fruits. So I shouldn't be afraid to make them only want the sweet stuff.  

So we dove right in.

I will be back with part 2 soon!