Wes had his 6 month appointment today and we got the "okay" to start on solids. I have not been looking forward to this time for many reasons, including: the mess involved, the time involved, the money involved, the nasty poops, and the potential for allergic reactions. The last one has me especially worried due to our constant battle with allergy issues throughout his breast-feeding months. I decided I was going to put it off for as long as possible, but was strongly encouraged by his doctor to start sometime soon. So, we will give it a go.
I was at least excited about being able to make my own baby food. That was, until I actually did it. It was certainly much cheaper, but was extremely time consuming. I'm sure it will get easier once I have a system in place, but the first time was certainly not too thrilling, to say the least. I decided that I was going to start with sweet potatoes, and then move to carrots. Two great sites that I used for recipes and info about safe foods for babies were the following:
The total time from start to finish was about 3 hours = way too much time!
I started with USDA Organic Bunny Luv (Costco sized bag) carrots and steamed them in a strainer over boiling water. Apparently carrots have nitrates in them so you have to make sure that the steaming water does not touch the carrots or baby could be infected with the "evil" nitrates. See "Hip Organic Mama" blog if you are interested in reading more about this. You are also, apparently, supposed to steam all veggies rather than microwaving them etc., because this process preserves the most nutrients. I then baked some Organic, Trader Joes sweet potatoes in the oven wrapped in foil (which was much easier than the steaming process).
Once they cooled, I stuck them in the baby food processor and added some water to get a consistency I was happy with.
Finally, I stored the food in ice cub trays and special freezer/microwave safe containers I bought and stuck them all in the freezer!
Hope Wes likes them :)
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