Healthy (And Cheap) Homemade Baby Food

Home-made baby food is healthier because it has no additives or preserv-atives, and is usually lower in salt and sugar. When you make it yourself you can be sure that the vitamins occur naturally, instead of being "fortified", which is like taking a vitamin - it isn't absorbed as easily. Jarred baby food has also contained some scary things from time to time, leading to quite a few recalls.

You can't even rely on a baby food brand to give you the right foods for your child's development. Many of those baby snacks contain strawberries, which allergists reccomend you not feed to your baby until they are at least one!

My happy baby with ground peaches on her bib

This great site is pretty much my Bible when it comes to feeding babies. I used to think that in order to make baby food you had to get one of those fancy grinders and cook and mash food to make it look just like the jarred variety. In fact if it wasn't for my own crunchy mom, I probably would have thought it was illegal to feed a baby anything that didn't come from a jar with the Gerber baby on it! I had no idea that a 6 month old could eat an avocado.

Yes, an avocado! It's a wonderful first food because it's already pretty mushy and is safe for babies 6 months and up. You can just mash it up with a fork. It has over 22 natural vitamins and minerals right in it! Talk about a nutrient powerhouse! You'd think a baby might not like it, but mine certainly did!

Both of my little ones also LOVE canned pumpkin mixed with a little milk (I used breastmilk before the baby turned 1) and you can add mashed banana for sweetness.

There are lots of other great recipe ideas on the site so check it out. It's free!

Their new toddler food site is pretty neat too!