Are you at the point in parenthood where it’s getting close to time to wean your infant off of breast milk or formula? Tackling what and how to feed a little one real food can be challenging, there are a lot of options. Some options are based on convenience and others take thought and time to create. What is right for one person may be completely wrong for another, and that’s okay. The question is, what journey do you want to take with your little one when it comes to introducing real food into their diet?
Do I need a baby food maker?
In short, the answer is NO! There are countless options when it comes to baby food that do not require the use of a baby food maker. Those options include subscriptions, purchasing baby food, making baby food with a blender, stick blender, and food processor. Woolah, no baby food maker needed!
To discover what will be optimal for your family, check out what we present about each option and how they can help you transition into feeding your little one real food and make your own decision.
Top Baby Food Guide
Purchasing Baby Food
It’s 2019 and my oh my how things have changed dramatically when it comes to purchasing baby food. Not that long ago the only store bought option that was available was Gerber baby food in glass jars. They were cheap and certainly not organic. If the goal was to feed your baby a clean diet the only way to do so was to prepare the food yourself. Those days are long gone! Today we have more options than we really need to feed our babies clean food without doing any of the prep work.
If you are a parent that is on the go and needs to save as much time as possible, then purchasing baby food may be the best option for you.
Baby Food Delivery and Subscription Systems
For those of us who are crazy busy, a fabulous option is using a baby food delivery system. It seems like every day a new company opens up in this space that is better than the last. The reason it’s so hot in 2019 is because it takes all the guesswork out of feeding our babies. Majority of these food subscriptions are completely organic and tailored to your baby by a Dietician and Pediatrician to ensure that your baby is getting the variance of food that he or she needs without the crap they don’t. The availability to choose what things you want restricted in your infants diet is almost always available as well. The only real downside is that majority of these options are pretty pricey, but…time is money!
The most popular delivery and subscription options are listed below.
- Little Spoon
Little Spoon appears to be the most popular option currently. The food is organic, delivered every other week, and the subscription can be cancelled anytime. The price starts at about 3 dollars per meal but varies depending on how many meals per day you choose to buy.
- Yumi
Yumi creates organic baby food that is delivered weekly. There concept is feeding babies the food they need at the right time. For example, is the little one going through a sleep regression? Well they have a food plan to help with that.
- Raised Real
Raised Real creates flash frozen organic baby food. Their food does require 5 minutes of prep work, including steaming and then mashing.
- Square Baby
Square Baby is an organic subscription service that is shipped every two weeks. The food is frozen and shipping to your home is always free.
- Pure Spoon
Pure Spoon uses a unique process called high pressure pasteurization, which pasteurizes food without chemicals or high heat. Heat will deplete some of the nutrients so this method savors those nutrients so our babies can benefit from them. Pure Spoon does subscriptions and the products can also be found at select grocery stores and on Amazon. Check them out here. A create your own 10 count subscription is about $26.00.
- Little Foodie
Little Foodie Club is pretty cool if you want to play it safe and healthy when introducing food to your infant. They have a 21 day plan that introduces single low allergen fruit and vegetables each day. A guide and planner comes with the 21 day plan to inform parents about each ingredient. I love that each day your baby gets to try something different. I feel it would be a great way to help a baby enjoy all different flavors right from the start. It costs $125.00 for the 21 days.
- Once Upon a Farm
Once Upon a Farm is unique because they offer a subscription service and their products can also be purchased on Amazon and at select grocery stores like Target and Whole Foods. Check out their products here.
Store Bought Pouches and Glass Jars
If your still a very busy individual, that doesn’t see yourself signing up for a subscription service than purchasing baby food at the grocery store may be for you. The good news is that it has become a breeze to find organic, clean, and delicious baby food at the grocery store. The bad news is, if you are very busy parents you will have to frequent the grocery store as well as do some research on how you want to introduce different foods to your infant. That being said, it will take a bit more of your time but can also be much more affordable.
What should I look for when buying baby food?
Buy Organic
I recommend buying organic baby food. Why? Because your infant will have a lower risk of being exposed to pesticides.
Check the Label
Watch out for unwanted preservatives like MSG and Nitrates. When buying organic baby food without preservatives be sure to read what the packaging says. Typically after opening you have 24 hours to use the product before it needs to be tossed, without the preservatives they do not last very long.
Start Small
Introduce foods one at a time. Many baby food jars and pouches mix many different fruits and vegetables. When starting out pick single foods to introduce so it’s easy to identify if your infant has a reaction to something. Also, introduce savory foods first. Savory foods are generally more difficult to get little one’s to enjoy, if you start them with it chances are higher that they will enjoy those savory flavors later.
Sugar and Salt
Check to be sure the sugar and salt content is low, neither of these ingredients are good for babies in large quantities.
Check out our favorite baby food that we fed our daughter here.
The Face Off (What Kitchen Appliance takes the cake for whipping up baby food)
Making Baby Food with a Blender
I love using our blender to make baby food. It was a bonus that we like many other people already owned a blender, so we did not have to fork over any money for it. A blender is generally pretty powerful because it’s meant to liquify things, and baby food does not need to be the consistency of water. A bit of a thicker consistency will be easier to feed to a baby. I recommend using a low setting when blending fruits and veggies and using a pulsing action this way you can achieve the perfect consistency.
Prep
Vegetables and fruits will need to be prepped before blending. Washing fruits and vegetables is a must, peeling fruits and veggies with a peel, and steaming hard fruits and veggies must be done before blending to achieve a healthy, easy to digest meal for your baby. This is our favorite steamer basket.
Add Liquid
When using a blender, a liquid will be needed in order to achieve the appropriate consistency. If the infant is just starting out with real food either mix in some formula or breast milk. If the baby is a bit older, water is also a great option.
Blend
Blend the baby food on medium while pulsing until smooth and free of chunks.
Divide and store
Now it’s time to decide how you want to store the baby food. What kind of containers do you want to use, there are a lot of options that vary from storage bags to mason jars. Our favorite way to store baby food is in these reusable food pouches. These pouches are easy to clean, dishwasher safe, simple to fill with food, and can be frozen as well! Homemade baby food will last 3-4 days in the fridge and 3 months in the freezer.
My favorite part about using a blender is that I didn’t have to spend extra money for a device to make the baby food. We use our blender every day for our breakfast smoothies. Now that our daughter is getting older we still use the blender to make her smoothies instead of baby food every day.
If you don’t already have a blender I want to assure you that it can be extremely useful when you have little one’s. Here is our families favorite blender. We use the Nutribullet because it’s smaller than a bulky blender making it easy to store, the pieces are all dishwasher safe which makes cleanup super easy. If you are looking for a full sized blender than I recommend this high rated blender.
Making Baby Food with a Immersion Blender (least amount of cleanup)
To be honest, I never thought of using an immersion blender to make baby food, and I wish I would have. Through my research, I discovered that an immersion blender may just be the holy grail for making baby food.
Prep, Add Liquid, Divide and Store
This is all the same as with the blender
Affordable
Not everyone is going to have an immersion blender, but the good news is they are pretty reasonable when it comes to price. Check out this immersion blender here.
Small
Immersion blenders are so small, making them easy to store and easy to use.
Cleaning
Cleaning an Immersion blender is a piece of cake, much easier than a blender and food processor. The parts are typically dishwasher safe which saves a lot of time.
The Only Downside
Immersion blenders are small, making them ideal for making small batches of baby food. Making large portions of baby food can take a bit more time than using a blender or food processor.
Divide and Store
Dividing and storing the baby food is the same as with using the blender.
Making Baby Food with a Food Processor
I’m not going to spend a ton of time speaking on a food processor, why? Because we purchased a food processor to make our daughter baby food and it was more of a hassle than anything else. To start, majority of people do not have a food processor. If you are going out and buying one for baby food, well then your pretty much buying a baby food maker. If you happen to already have a food processor, I bet that you will end up using either a blender or immersion blender before you know it.
Expensive
You get what you pay for with a food processor. In order to get a decent food processor you will need to spend at minimum $50.00 and the prices go way higher than that! My question to you is, how often will you use the food processor when your not making baby food? Will it collect dust otherwise? I personally don’t feel it’s worth the price when I could just use the blender I already have.
Prep, Add Liquid, Blend, Divide and Store
These steps are all the same as with the blender and immersion blender.
Bulky
Who in this world is saying.. Golley we really need to purchase a bulky kitchen appliance so we can fill up our cabinets? The answer is nobody. Food processors are a large appliance with an awkward shape. I find that ours is a complete hassel to store.
Cleaning
Food processors have so many parts. I despise cleaning it, it’s truly downright awful and takes all the fun out of making baby food at home.
The Only Upside!
A food processor comes with many different attachments to help achieve the desired consistency with ease. A food processor can puree, slice, dice, chop and shred. It also works at a slower speed so you can have a bit more control when making baby food. That being said, it does not get my stamp of approval for making baby food. This gadget is more of a hassle than anything else.
The Winner!
The Blender takes the win for making baby food, but the immersion blender was not far behind. The reason for selecting the blender as the clear winner is the fact that more often than not people already own a blender making it the most affordable option. The blender also can get the job done very well in a quick amount of time.
There truly is no reason to go out a drop cash on a designated baby food maker when you can simply use what you already have in your home to get the job done.
