This morning as I was eating breakfast, Baby Gray was eyeballing the banana slices on my plate. I let him suck on one to see if he liked it before smashing some up for him. He loved them! He scarfed them down and screamed for more. After I got him all cleaned up, I remembered that when we had tried baby food bananas with him, he didn’t care for them. I guess you can’t beat fresh! (Which brings me to a blog I had been meaning to post anyway.)
We slowed the solids down a couple of weeks after starting them because his tummy was bothering him at night. We started him over with oatmeal and have slowly been introducing foods I have prepared instead of packaged foods. It was always my intention to make his food, but the “stage one” foods looked so runny, I was scared I wouldn’t be able to get mine as smooth. However, he likes his oatmeal with a course texture, anyway, so as long as he’s able to handle it that way, I’m okay with my vegetable purees.
It’s super easy to make your own baby food. I wish I had started it originally like I planned. He hasn’t had any trouble with his tummy, and he loves the more bland fruits and vegetables that he didn’t like as much when I bought them as packaged foods. I have a great cookbook that gives meal suggestions for children of all ages. It has a lot of information on creating healthy eating habits for your children.
Baby stores will try to sell you the baby food makers and all the bells and whistles. I just used a cheap-o mini-blender (I think it’s Hamilton Beach) that Mr. Gray and I have had for years. It worked wonderfully. I made several types of food at once and froze them in individual serving sizes so I could defrost them as needed. I have a fancy-schmancy single portion silicone freezer container that you can bend to pop each individual portion out. I really like it; thanks, shower hostesses! I also found a cool set of containers at Marshall’s not too long ago that sit in a tray to stay together in the freezer, but can be taken individually for each serving. When Baby Gray’s solid meals become more frequent (right now we just do solids at dinner, except this morning), I feel like I will really like the ones that can be taken along as a single serving.