Home Made Baby Food Recipes

By Barbara Hillary, PhD

Healthy eating from the start gives strong foundation for healthy development. Teach your baby to eat a variety of healthy foods from the beginning to let her learn about flavors and textures. Sometimes, it may take several attempts to have the infant accept a new food, so do not give up if she wrinkles up her nose at the peas or beans that you prepared for her!

Home made baby foods allow parents to be in total control in regards to what ingredients go into their children's bodies. That may be one reason for why some parents select to prepare the baby meals themselves. Others like to express their love by making food, or simply save some money.

Whatever your rationale for deciding to prepare your infants food at home, review the recipes below Try them out, or come up with your own!

WINTER SQUASH

Cut one squash in half. Place face down in a baking pan and add 1 inch of water. Bake at 400F for ~40 min. or until soft. Scoop out the soft squash and mix it with peaches, carrots, or chicken.

SQUASH-APPLE RICE

1 squash, baked
1-2 cups brown rice, cooked
½ cup applesauce
Mix all ingredients together.

SWEET POTATOES

Cooked sweet potatoes can be combined for a tasty meal with baby cereal, applesauce, carrots, beans, squash, rice, or chicken.

BANANA

1 small ripe banana
breast milk or formula
Break banana into pieces. Blend with a blender or food processor. Add breast milk or formula to thin it out.

CARROTS

½ lbs peeled and washed carrots
breast milk or formula
Steam carrots until tender (~10 minutes). Cool for ~10 minutes. Blend. Add breast milk or formula to thin it out.

MEAT/POULTRY

2 oz cooked and chopped chicken, turkey, beef, or pork
breast milk or formula
Blend the meat. Remove chunks. Add breast milk or formula to thin it out.

For a discussion on introducing solids to babies, see my article Healthy From The Start: An Intro To Solids available at http://www.pluggedinparents.com. You will also find there an article about how to prepare, store and freeze, home made baby foods.

Dr. Hillary is a pediatric nurse practitioner with a doctoral degree in health promotion and risk reduction. She works as a pediatric clinician and writes for Plugged in Parents. Plugged In Parents provides up-to-date info on pediatric health, safety and nutrition along with movie reviews, recipes, tech-savvy tips, and a parent's only forum. You can also contact Dr. Hillary for personal questions related to health and nutrition. Please visit http://www.pluggedinparents.com

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