A Free Baby Food Recipe

And the reasons why you should learn about making your own homemade baby food

Baby Food Recipe: How did a whole generation of parents get brainwashed into thinking that commercial baby foods are best for our babies? Why is it that we don't sit around talking with other moms about baby food recipes?

We seem to think that Gerber baby food, prepared in a factory, is better than homemade baby food that we prepare in our own kitchens. Is it the cute little jars? Is it because they don't seem that expensive when you buy them one at a time?

Before I go any further, let me admit that I am not a complete freak about making my own homemade baby food. I do sometimes have a few jars on hand so that when I am on the road I can easily feed my baby. When I do buy commercial baby food, I buy Earth's Best baby food, because it is organic.

I met a woman recently who laughed at me and said that she wasn't raised on organic vegetables, and she "turned out just fine", and there was no way she was going to spend money on organic veggies for her baby. And use a baby food recipe? No way! But what she doesn't realise is that when we were growing up, we didn't have nearly the copious amounts of pesticides and chemicals covering our vegetables that do today. And nevermind the genetically modified vegetables!

Baby Food Recipe

There are two main reasons for making your own baby food: saving money and the comfort of knowing what goes into it. Commercial baby food often has additives and fillers added to it, and unless otherwise stated, you can bet that it is made with GMOs. According to INFACT Canada, Nestle lost a lawsuit it filed against the All-Russian Genetic Safety Association for exposing its use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in its soy ingredient in NEstle baby food. Nestle did not want the public to know what they were feeding their children.

According to Greenpeace, "The process of genetic engineering is imprecise and unpredictable. Unintended effects can create human health risks such as the development of antibiotic resistance, allergic reactions, nutritional changes and the creation of toxins." Gerber baby food is also known to contain GMOs.

If the above doesn't make you want to try making your own baby food, consider this - you can save a lot of money by making homemade baby food. To show you how easy it is, a baby food recipe follows, below.

In the meantime, for more detailed information, I highly recommend Super Baby Food, written by Ruth Yaron. It is excellent! It is the best book you can buy on homemade baby food. She makes you feel smart and confident making your own baby food. And she makes it easy. I bought my first copy of her book at a second hand store, and then bought a new copy of it for all my friends!

So what baby foods can you make at home? All of them! Yes, even rice cereal. Commerical rice cereal (also known as Pablum) is what most doctors recommend as baby's first food. How difficult is a baby food recipe? Not at all. Anyone can do it.

Baby Food Recipe: Rice cereal

You simply grind 1/4 cup of brown rice in a grinder (I bought a coffee grinder for $10 for the sole purpose of grinding rice and other ingredients for baby food). My babies have only ever had brown rice. It is way healthier for them (and you!) because brown rice still contains bran and germ, which are removed from white rice. Grind the brown rice until it has turned into powder. In the meantime, boil one cup of water in a pot on the stove. When it's boiling, turn it down to a simmer and pour the powdered rice into the water and stir with a whisk. Then just pop a cover onto the pot and let it simmer on low for ten minutes. If you're anything like me, I would encourage you to turn on your timer on your stove, otherwise you'll get busy with your baby and forget all about it. You should also stir it every now and then to avoid it from clumping. When it's done, give it another good stir and let it cool. Take a few tablespoons out, add some breastmilk, water or formula to cool it down, and then feed it to the baby. The leftovers will keep in the fridge for two or three days.

If you are not feeding your baby any iron fortified foods (such as formula), then you should speak with your doctor about an iron supplement for your baby, because homemade baby foods, although superior in a million different ways, may not not contain enough iron to meet your baby's needs. Having said that, I never gave my babies iron supplements - I sprinkled their food with powdered seaweed and gave them iron fortified teething biscuits.

So now you know how to make your own rice cereal. And you know that when you make it yourself, it really does contain only rice. That's it!

I will be adding more recipes, so please check back often.

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