The Scoop On Paced Bottle Feeding (And Why You Should Try It)
In The Guide
I’m a huge fan of making your own baby food.
More and more parents these days are making the decision to make their own baby food, and who can blame them? How do we know what exactly goes into the jars of baby food we buy from the store?
Store-bought baby food can have a lot of added preservatives and sugars that you wouldn’t want your baby to ingest. If you want to make your own baby food — and know exactly what’s going into it — your best option is to get a baby food maker, which will allow you to make delicious baby food, as easy as can be!
There are a number of different baby food makers out there, so choosing the best might be difficult. Here is a list of things to consider when you’re looking for a good baby food maker.
There are a lot of great benefits to taking the time to research and find the perfect baby food maker. Not only do you get the benefit of knowing what’s in the food you’re feeding your baby, but there are a number of other great reasons to make your own baby food that you might not have considered.
Of course, there are definite downsides to making all of your own baby food.
Of course it’s not.
Many parents feed their little one with store-bought food, and truth be told, nothing horrible is going to happen if you do so. Likewise, you should never feel like a failure because you go store-bought instead of making your own.
In fact, even parents who primarily feed their child with home-made baby food will supplement with store-bought food sometimes. Let’s face it: store-bought food is way more convenient.
Of course, there are tons of benefits to making your own food, but if you make the choice to feed only store-bought food, that’s perfectly acceptable.
If you’re set on making your own baby food, you absolutely don’t need to buy a specialized baby food maker if you already have a food processor at home.
In fact, you can do everything 100% by hand and still make great home-made foods for your little one.
Let’s be real: when it comes to all of the expenses you’ll need to look after for your new baby, a baby food maker is really a luxury and not at all a necessity.
However, if you really want to feed primarily your own home-made purees, the convenience of an all-in-one baby food maker can’t be understated.
Time is something that comes at a premium when you have a new baby around the house, and having the convenience of being able to throw the veggies into the machine along with a little bit of water, turn it on, and have the machine automatically make a ready-to-feed puree is almost magical.
But if you just can’t find the room to squeeze a machine like this into your budget, it’s really not necessary.
The main choice you need to make when choosing a baby food maker is whether to get an all-in-one machine that does everything for you or a manual mill that requires you to steam or roast the food yourself before pureeing it.
These are a wonderful option for parents who want a hands-off approach to making their own baby food and want a machine that will do everything for them.
There are pros and cons to an all-in-one machine, of course.
Pros
Cons
Some other things you might want to think about when searching for a baby food maker are things like features and functionality. If you want to make large batches of baby food at once, you’ll need a large capacity baby food maker. Of course, these take up a considerable amount of space on your countertops.
A steamer function is something that many parents find useful. Steaming foods, especially vegetables, is an excellent way to preserve the valuable nutrients found in the foods, and I would definitely encourage you to purchase a baby food maker with this capability. On top of helping preserve nutrients, steaming is also a great way to lock in the flavor, making great-tasting food for your baby, too!
A baby food maker can be a wonderful addition to any kitchen, allowing you to make great, wholesome and organic food for your precious little one. I think that if you give one a chance, you’ll never go back to feeding your baby store-bought baby food again! Take the time to find the a great baby food maker and I promise you’ll love it.
Of all of the all-in-one baby food mills out there, this is the one I’d recommend.
You can see it on Amazon by clicking here.
It has a large capacity of 4.5 cups, which equates to roughly 18 servings. If you’re pressed for time like most parents, you’re going to love being able to make so much food at once. The Babycook does have a little brother that’s cheaper and has half the capacity, but I wouldn’t recommend it for this reason alone.
However, I wouldn’t recommend filling it to the absolute brim when cooking. Instead, leaving some empty space to make sure the food is cooked at an even temperature all the way through is a better way to use it.
The Babycook does have a little brother that’s cheaper and has half the capacity, but I wouldn’t recommend it for this reason alone.
It has a relatively small footprint of 8.5″ x 4.2″ – it’s narrow, making it easy to fit on most countertops.
The blender cup is made of food-grade plastic without BPA. I know, I’m not a fan of plastic either, but the main reason companies use plastic instead of glass in blenders is that glass can shatter from the high speed. The last thing you want is shards of glass in your baby food purees.
The Babycook Pro is pretty easy to use.
It’s really easy, and it takes all of the guesswork out of making baby purees.
The whole process takes about 15 minutes from beginning to end, although it might take a little while longer depending on how much you need to prepare your ingredients.
Something nice about the Babycook is that once you make your purees, you can freeze them and then use the machine to defrost and warm them up again for you.
Can you make meat purees?
You can, yes! The main thing to remember is to always cut your meat into very small chunks to make sure it cooks all the way through in the mill.
Are there mold issues?
I’ve seen a few people say that they’ve had mold issues in the water reservoir with other models of the Babycook. As long as you let the reservoir air dry out (don’t close the lid up every time you clean it) it shouldn’t have any problems.
How loud is it?
If you’ve used a typical blender before, you’ll be happy to know that it’s a lot quieter than that. It’s relatively quiet during the steam function, but obviously the blending action is louder. Still, it’s not too bad.
Is it dishwasher safe?
The blending cup, mixing cup, spatula and lid are all top-rack dishwasher safe, but to make the parts last as long as possible, washing by hand in warm soapy water is recommended.
The blade can be disassembled from the machine, making it easy to clean and get out any chunks that might have gotten stuck underneath it.
Can you blend to different consistencies?
You can! However, there are no predetermined settings. You just blend it until the food reaches the consistency you’re aiming for.
Where is the best place to buy it?
I personally recommend Amazon for most baby gear. The main reason is their excellent return policy: no questions asked for 30 days. So if you get the machine and you don’t like it, you can simply send it back for free for a full return. You can see it on Amazon by clicking here.
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