There are any number of great reasons to make baby food: it’s inexpensive, you have complete control over what your baby is eating, and you can offer a wider variety of foods than what’s available in jars. Cooking food for your little one isn’t complex, but it can be time-consuming if you feel like you have to do it in big batches.
If you feel like you don’t have enough time to devote to making big batches of pureed fruits and veggies, here are five foods you can make for your baby using only a knife and fork.
Bananas
This was the food our pediatrician recommended for my boys’ first solid food, and it couldn’t be simpler to make. Cut a banana in half, slice it lengthwise and smush it up with a fork until it’s a paste. If your baby is a brand new eater, you might want to thin it a bit with breast milk or formula.
Avocado
Another great choice for a first food is avocado. Dice the avocado by cutting it right in the skin, scoop it out and smash it into a paste with a fork.
Strawberries and Cantaloupe
Strawberries and cantaloupe are a bit firmer than bananas and avocados so they require a smidge more effort, but they’re still simple to prepare for a baby. Start by choosing fully ripe fruit, then dice the fruit fairly fine. At this point, it should be small enough that you can “puree” it with a fork.
Pears
Pears need to be very ripe to smash them with a fork, but if they are diced fine smashing works really well. If you find yourself having trouble, you can microwave the pears for a minute or so (depending on your microwave) to help soften them.
Do you make purees for your baby?
cantaloupe / 6146 posts
That’s awesome!
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
Cool! We did that for bananas and avocadoes but steamed the pears and pureed it. Our doctor told us wait until 1 year to give strawberries so by that time we just cut it up and gave it to DD.
pomegranate / 3414 posts
I made all of DD’s food although I mainly did big batches and then froze in ice cube trays. I would take a Sunday afternoon once a month and do enough for a month. We would introduce new foods as we were eating them so the next month I would add them to the variety that was frozen.
clementine / 878 posts
We were gifted a Baby Bullet – I’m looking forward to using it after the LO is here and I can start freezing meals for future use.
@purrpletulips: Ooh, ice cube trays – thanks for the tip!
pomegranate / 3414 posts
@Godlilocks1107: if I remember correctly, the ice cube trays we used (cheap ones from Dollar Tree) ended up being about 2T worth of food once thawed.
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
We’re going straight to solids with baby led weaning. I’m starting to get excited for the 6mos mark when we can start!
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22646 posts
So easy, efficient, healthy!
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
Very cool! I did make purees for my LO!
She wasn’t a fan of the chunkier foods until she was a lot older though.
GOLD / wonderful grape / 20289 posts
Thanks for the post! It’s always nice to have things like this on hand for when I forget to defrost the food I make her in big batches!
olive / 50 posts
@Andrea: Definitely follow your doctor’s instructions about the proper ages to introduce foods! Mine was a lot more laid back about it than others are, I know.
olive / 50 posts
@purrpletulips: I lived by my frozen food cubes when feeding my boys, but it was nice to shake it up with something fresh now and then.
pomegranate / 3414 posts
@Wendy@Wendolonia: I agree, I used the frozen stuff mostly for daycare because I would smush/puree whatever we were eating at home and feed her that
olive / 50 posts
@Mrs. Stroller: I think baby led weaning sounds like a great way to feed a baby. I didn’t hear about it until my youngest was already well into self feeding with finger foods though, so I didn’t get a chance to try it on my kids. (He’s only three! Isn’t it crazy how quickly parenting techniques change??)
olive / 50 posts
@chopsuey119: It’s amazing how different kids are. My boys both moved out of smooth purees *very* quickly — like within a month or so — but they didn’t get any teeth until they were over a year. It was sometimes tricky to find a balance between what they wanted to eat and what they were capable of eating.
kiwi / 549 posts
All of these things are also great first foods for baby led weaning, since they’re pretty soft, but can still be grasped by little fingers. Baby X loves strawberries.
pomegranate / 3053 posts
I made most of my oldest son’s purees and will do it again for my youngest son when he starts solids. I found that a lot of veggies can be “pureed” also by using just a fork after you’ve steamed it like sweet potato, carrots, butternut squash, etc.
guest
We did a lot of that for our first baby (and plan to with the second) although our pediatrician suggested we wait until 1 year to introduce strawberries (and watermelon) because a lot of kids are allergic to them. We didn’t wait, but it’s something to think on.
persimmon / 1255 posts
Yes, we pureed everything (meats included) until LO had better control of her hands, then we switched over to baby-led weaning.