Feeding your baby is hard enough without adding more work by making your own baby food, right? Well, just like every other aspect of parenting, I changed my tune on this once I had a baby of my. And just like every other aspect of parenting, there are pros and cons to making your own baby food. No spices, complicated ingredients or garnishes necessary. Yes, it does take more time to wash, peel, steam, and mash some carrots than to pop open a jar. But I know some parents who make a whole bunch of pureed carrots at once, then froze them in ice cube trays for individual servings they can thaw in a jiffy. I was never that organized. I decided to buy only organic baby food with my second child and let me tell you, that stuff does not come cheap.
Make Your Own Baby Food.
Here is a cost comparison of making your own baby food and buying it, for both organic and non-organic food. One surprising fact I discovered is that the price of store-bought baby food is consistent across the board, which makes it easy to calculate how much it will cost you. On the flipside, produce prices vary widely depending on season and what region of the country you live in. So, to get an average cost for making your own baby food for this little experiment, I calculated the per-serving cost for a variety of fruits and vegetables and then averaged the group. My baby is a big fan of sweet potatoes. Two carrots makes three servings of food. Each one makes eight servings. So, in about an hour I can make all her food for the week. Julia Scott founded the money and coupon blog , BargainBabe. And when I started to steam and puree fruits and vegetables for my daughter, I realized that it was easy, quick and even less expensive than store-bought baby food.
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The decision to make my own baby food made itself The double cost of single-serve jars and pouches was math I had no interest in doing. Also full disclosure I am a trained cook and personal chef, so I may have been expected to make baby food regardless of head count. Skipping the prepackaged commercial option can save you money, and it primes your baby to accept and enjoy a wider array of flavors and textures. And really, the skills I used to make baby food were ones I learned as a kid, helping my own mother in the kitchen: simply chopping and boiling water. Yet somehow making baby food has earned the reputation of being an extraneous, complicated task requiring considerable skill and organization, the kind most busy parents would never be able to undertake. Not true! Here are a few of the most common concerns parents tend to have about making baby food. Yes, making your own baby food does require more time than purchasing premade food. But if you regularly prepare meals for yourself and your family, it tacks on a negligible amount. Roasting sweet potatoes to go with Sunday dinner? Need a side to go with those weeknight pork chops your spouse likes so much?
Store-Bought Non-Organic
Advertiser Disclosure: The credit card and banking offers that appear on this site are from credit card companies and banks from which MoneyCrashers. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site, including, for example, the order in which they appear on category pages. Advertiser partners include American Express, Chase, U. Bank, and Barclaycard, among others. I remember being really impressed a few years back when my friend was telling me about how she made her own baby food. She told me how she bought fruits and vegetables, cooked them, pureed them, and froze them in an ice cube tray. I was all excited about doing it, but once I started, I realized that there were some definite downsides as well. Here are the pros and cons of making your own baby food to help you decide if it is right for you and your family:. You can save quite a bit of money by making your own food. I imagine that your baby will eat more than that so you should expect even greater savings. There are a lot of baby costs so you need to save where you can! Or fruit at its peak ripeness?
Pros of Making Your Own Baby Food
Here are some tips to get you started! Please see our Disclosure Page for more information. Not only does making your own baby food save you money, but it gives you added peace of mind. Buy in Bulk: The great thing about baby food is that you can make it and freeze it, so feel free to buy fruits and veggies in bulk. Using ice cube trays is one way to make your life easier after you have prepped the baby food. The truth is that you do not need a fancy blender to make baby food. You can use a food processor or you can even cook the food over the stove and use a masher. Pull out what baby food you want or need in the morning and then put it in the container before you leave in the morning. The food will be easily thawed by the time you need to use it. Here is the basic recipe for making your own baby food! Keep in mind that you can sub fresh and frozen most times. Let cool and reserve the liquid you cooked the fruit or vegetable in. Add additional water if necessary. Puree the fruit or vegetable in a food processor or blender.
How To Make Baby Food: Homemade Brown Rice Cereal — weelicious
Store-Bought Non-Organic
Registered dietitian Abbey Foox of Toronto says a single serving of baby food is often pricer than something you can make at home. A recent study from U. Helen Crawley found that vegetable-based baby foods are often filled with fruits like apple and pear, and little of the actual vegetable on the labelmooney Daily Mail reports. The research, which looked at products across the country, noted pear and apple are widely used because they are cheap and taste sweet to babies. Mom-to-be Sharp says making your own baby food also allows your child to be exposed to new flavours — that they may end up liking. But as busy parents, Sharp says the biggest con to making your make your own baby food save money baby good is finding the time to do it. When dealing with produce, wash it thoroughly, including produce you want to peel. For meat, fish and mney, cook it thoroughly to kill any ssve and when it comes to storage, refrigerate food as quickly as possible. If you are using produce, choose fresh fruits and vegetables without any blemishes. Get rid of seeds, skin if needed and pits. Then you can puree them for a fine texture in a food processor or blender, or mash them if you want a more fod texture. Some fruit, like bananas, do not need to be cooked prior. You could add some herbs and spices. Some experts add babies can start eating a small amount of spices after six months.
Store-Bought Organic
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