Homemade Baby Food

Since Sweetpea is almost a year old, my foray into the world of homemade baby food is almost to an end but if we have another baby, I will definitely be making baby food again.  Some people around me have not understood why I took the time to make Sweetpea's food when stores sell baby food conveniently packaged and ready to go.  The reason I decided to try out making homemade baby food was how expensive baby food has become, even since Buddy was a baby.  One very small, non-name brand jar will cost almost 50 cents so you can imagine how quickly it adds up, especially as your baby grows and eats more. 

I began by reading a lot of online articles about homemade baby food, talking to a few friends who made theirs, and collecting a lot of ideas.  Wholesome Baby Food is a website dedicated to sharing nutrition facts on foods and how to prepare your own baby food.  This website is the main site that I have used and have even made Sweetpea teething biscuits from a recipe on the site.  I took a few hours one Saturday and made Sweetpea enough food to last two months and was surprised at how easy it was.  This even introduced my family to butternut squash for the first time.  If you are thinking about making baby food for your child, here are a few of the pros and cons that I have discovered. 

Pros:
1.  Homemade baby food is definitely less expensive than buying jars of baby food.  A bag of carrots is around $1 and made, for Sweetpea, over 10 servings.  If I were to buy 10 servings of jar carrots, it would cost around $5.
2.  Homemade baby food smells and looks so much better.  This was the reason I continued making Sweetpea's food because it is such a huge difference in the smell and look of the foods, especially the fruits.
3.  Homemade baby food introduces your baby to a wider variety.  Sweetpea loves mashed avocados but I never would have considered giving Buddy avocado because it did not come inside of a jar.

Cons:
1.  Homemade baby food is not as convenient.  When we go for a day of shopping, I tend to grab a few of the jars because the homemade food will not keep all day without refrigeration. 
2.  Homemade baby food takes a lot of freezer space.  I freeze Sweetpea's food in ice cube trays and then store the cubes in plastic bags.  Our current freezer section is not very big and her food takes up a lot of room now that she has a lot of choices stored.

All in all, making my own baby food for the past few months has been a great experience and if you have an infant who is ready to start solid foods, I encourage you to at least try making the baby food yourself first!