Why I Chose Homemade Baby Food

If you're debating on whether or not to make your own baby food- then this post will be great for you!

Honestly, this should be a really short & sweet post, but I'm sure it won't be (knowing me).

Here it is:

I chose to make my own baby food for Gavin because I believe:

1. It's healthier

2. It's cheaper.

3. It's easy.

See. I could end my post right here.... but of course that'd be no fun. 

So let me dig deeper into each of those reasons for you :)

1. It's healthier. 
Store bought baby food (yes, even organic) has a shelf life of roughly 2 years. How is this achieved? By sterilization. How is sterilization accomplished? Well by heating the food to very high temperatures to ensure food safety. Well, during this process, the extreme heat destroys vitamins and nutrients- which also results in a change of taste (in my opinion, for the worse!). Homemade baby food is higher in nutrients since you prepare it by lightly steaming/cooking the foods, preserving the majority of the nutrients. A lot of ripe fruits can even be pureed WITHOUT cooking- which leaves ALL the nutrients intact! 

2. It's cheaper. 
(hold it right there- if you're anything like me, that just sold you. Yup, it saves you $$$)
Store bought baby food can cost two to three times more than home made baby food! The way I save the most money when it comes to making my own baby food, is making it in large batches and freezing it. The money you spend on jars of store bought baby food adds up.

3. It's easy.
I honestly am surprised at how easy it's been making all of the homemade baby food purees that I have! I have yet to make a baby food puree that takes longer than 20 minutes, from start to finish (that even includes the time it takes for me to toss it all in the freezer, and clean up my counters!)!
MOST of the baby foods I make only take about 10-15 minutes. It usually consists of cleaning the fruits/veggies, steaming/cooking them (sometimes you don't even have to do that!), tossing them in the blender for a few seconds, and then putting it into an ice cube tray to be frozen! *PS..remember how in the "It's Healthier" reason, I said with some purees you don't even have to steam/cook them?! Yes, that's right. Some of them are as simple as tossing them in a blender, and that's it!! Trust me, if it wasn't easy... I wouldn't say it is! (and I most likely wouldn't be doing it myself!)
Another thing to remember is you're baby doesn't eat pureed foods for very long...it's not long before they move onto finger foods, etc. So it's not like you'll be making puree's for your child forever! It's actually something I enjoy doing too! It's fun (because it's easy & it's saving me $$!).

Yes, making your own baby food is a little more work than going to the store, tossing the baby food jar in the cart, taking it home, popping open the jar, and feeding it to your baby.

But, homemade baby food really isn't a whole lot more work once it's made and frozen. Every morning (first thing) I take out the puree cubes that I plan to feed to Gavin that day, and toss them in the fridge to thaw. That way, when it's time to feed him they're ready to go! Sometimes I'll still warm them up- just like you sometimes would with a leftover jar of store bought baby food you've had in the fridge.

So when it all comes down to it, making your own baby food really isn't that much work- or as much work as a lot of people think!

For myself, the biggest benefit of doing it all is knowing exactly what's in my baby's food and knowing it's as nutritious as can be!

If making your own baby food is something you're interested in- I say give it a try!

Check out my homemade baby food recipes HERE!

PS...for all of my baby food purees I use my NINJA BLENDER, single-serve option (we bought ours from Target).