Our Adventures in Baby Food- Part 2

Well, back to our adventures in baby food.

If you missed Part 1, click here!

Again, not say we did this the "right" way or not- just sharing our story! 

I've gotten into the groove of taking about 2 hours per weekend and whipping up a bunch of baby food.  I use the ice cube trays to freeze the purees for the week or 2 and then transfer them into the plastic baggies.  (You should see our freezer! Ha)

When it's time to eat, I just take 1 baggie out of the freezer and put the 2 cubes in a bowl.  I thaw them in the microwave and add it to the cereal mixture already in 2 other bowls. I hold one baby's bowl in one hand and keep the other baby's bowl on the table.  It seemed overwhelming at first, but it really is pretty easy to feed them both a the same time.

(1)

The first week we had the babies try rice cereal.

I followed the directions on the box and mixed it with some formula.

The first half of the week we made it pretty runny and then let it be more chunky.

We fed the babies the rice  cereal at 5:00 pm every evening before their dinner bottles.

Here is a video of their second night trying it.

Hudson thought it was good and chowed down.

Harper hated it.

She pretty much refused to eat it that whole week! 

(2)

The next three days we tried oatmeal cereal.

(Again- just followed the directions on the box!)

Same response to the oatmeal. Hudson was happy and Harper wanted nothing to do with it!

I began giving the babies their oatmeal before their 11:00 am bottle. 

And they had their rice cereal before their 5:00 pm bottle.

(3)

After 3 days of oatmeal and no reactions, we started carrots.

My doctor said there was no real order to follow when introducing new foods, just to make sure that you only do 1 new food a time in case their was a reaction. I honestly just looked in my book (from Part 1) and did the first vegetable puree listed- carrots.

We would do oatmeal before their 11:00 am bottle and rice cereal mixed with carrot puree before the dinner bottle.  After a few days with no reaction we moved on to the next puree.  (By the way- carrots- same reaction as everything else... Harper was not a fan and Hudson thought it was tasty.)

(4)

So next we started doing oatmeal mixed with some carrot puree before the 11:00 am feeding and rice cereal mixed with green bean puree before the 5:00 pm feeding.

(5)

After a few days with no reaction we started introducing a fruit.

First up were apples.

I mixed the oatmeal in the morning with my apple purees before the 11:00 am feeding.

And before the evening bottle I would rotate between carrots and green beans with the rice cereal.

The babies LOVED the apples. Harper was so happy- finally!

She even started wanted to grab the spoon and feed herself.

(6)

After a few days with no reaction to the apples, we started pear purees.
We did he oatmeal in the mornings with the pear purees and continued to rotate between carrots and green beans with rice at dinner time.

(7)
Next up were peas. Blah.
In the mornings they would rotate between apple and pear purees with oatmeal and dinner time was rice cereal and peas.  They eat the peas no problem, but not with the excitement that was with the fruit!

(8)
After peas we introduced bananas.  We added banana puree to the morning mix and the babies loved them.  Unfortunately they have given Harper some constipation! Poor girl has really been struggling with little rock poopies. I think we are done with them for awhile!! Next up we are going to try sweet potatoes! I will let you know that goes!  

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!