Clean Eating Baby Food

Have you ever tried store bought baby food? YUCK!! Is it any wonder our babies don’t want to eat it? Is it any wonder that our kids are so overweight?

I should warn you, this article is totally biased. I am a huge proponent of making your own baby food. So I don’t share the following story with you to make you feel bad if you don’t make your own baby food, but rather to encourage you to start. It’s easy. I promise.

In my teens I was friends with a couple who had just had a baby. They were always commenting on how much the little guy ate. He was incredibly chubby, ate a huge amount of food, and was still always hungry.

Now, a baby is nothing like an adult. Babies KNOW when they’ve had enough to eat, just like they know when they are hungry. This poor little guy just couldn’t get enough food.

Guess what they were feeding him? Standard, run of the mill Gerber baby food. Ick.

1. ~First of all, the stuff is so processed that it has no actual nutritional value, aside from the few vitamins they “fortify” it with.

1. ~Second of all, it’s really nothing but empty calories.

1. ~Third of all, the government actually has a percentage of rat poop that it allows in baby food due to manufacturers not being able to keep the rats out of their facilities. I researched this myself at my local library. I don’t recall the numbers, but it was there in print. Not something you want to be feeding your baby.

So back to my story, this little guy was eating and eating all these nutritionally defective “foods”, and getting fatter and fatter. He was hungry because he wasn’t getting the nutrients his little body needed.

So one night, I babysat him. I cooked him some organic peas, put them through the blender with a tiny pat of butter for flavor (babies need some fat for brain development – but not loads of it).

That kid went through an entire pot of peas. And when he was full, he sat back and grunted. He was actually full for the first time in his little life. It almost broke my heart to give him back to his parents ( I knew they would never cook their own baby food).

How to make baby food: If you want to get your baby started on a clean eating lifestyle, just cook up some veggies (steaming them is best for nutrient retention), put them through the blender, and feed them! I always put a small pat of butter in with mine for two reasons:

1. For flavor.
2. Babies need extra fat in their diet for brain development.

What to do with leftovers: Obviously, you are going to have some leftovers. But this is a good thing. I used to make a huge pot of veggies for my son. Once I put them through the blender, I scooped most of it into ice trays and froze them into cubes. They kept for a long time, and all I had to do was pop 2-3 cubes in a bowl and heat them when it came to feeding time. And you thought leftovers were a bad thing….

Side Note: If your baby is trying a veggie or any other food for the first time and he/she makes funny faces, it’s NOT because they don’t like what they are eating. They are just experiencing a new flavor and texture. It’s odd to them. But they’ll get used to it. Just keep feeding them. Kids won’t learn to love their veggies unless you actually feed them their veggies!