# Baby food?



## brightstar (Apr 24, 2012)

So I'm due with our son in mid-March. I was going thru our food preps and had a random thought on adding baby food to our preps for after nursing. Has anyone stored or looked into storing this? Shelf-life? I started prepping after my 3 year old stepdaughter had already started eating regular food so I'm not even sure where or if I should start with this. Thanks y'all!


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## dixiemama (Nov 28, 2012)

What I've found is to make your own. When my son (who is 8) started food, whatever I made for dinner I mashed up for him. I only have him but I do plan on having more. I'm not storing any baby food, but supplies to make my own.


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## mamak (Nov 28, 2012)

Have you ever made your own baby food? It's very easy....if you can make mashed potates you can do it. I actually still do a form of it now. I will make a batch of pureed carrots - just like mashed potatoes but keep the cooking water and use the blender or food processor to make it thinner (you don't have to use these, you can do it by hand) - then pour it in an ice cube tray and freeze. When frozen, put them all in a big freezer bag and store in the freezer. Don't tell my hubby and kids but when I make spaghetti sauce or a soup I toss in 1 or 2 carrot cubes. You can't taste it and it adds an extra veggie. 
You can do this with potatoes, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, squash, apples, bananas (well, just mash those, no cooking), pears, peaches...... It's harder to do corn, green beans, peas - you need a food mill. 
There are new mini food processors out there marketed for baby food - their premise is whatever you're having for dinner put it in and mush it up. I never did that but it's out there. I personally like my hand masher. And I wanted my babies to taste individual foods when they were just starting out eating solids. 
You could can these baby foods if you wanted to. I would use the smallest jars out there. 
Not sure how long they would last in the freezer - I used them often. But if your son isn't due till March he'll start eating solids around June - good, lots of fresh fruits and veggies then, I would start making your own small batches say in May. But you could still start earlier to toss in the family meals. This would all be for regualr life - not in a bad situation. If you're wanting to "prep" baby food for a senario the freezer may be out. I don't have a deydrator yet so I haven't tried it that way - but in a SHTF situation if you had dehydrated baby food you would only have to add water. 
Ohhh, just remembered at Babies r us they have a brand of dried baby food called NurtureMe. It's organic, gluten free, preservative free...all that good stuff and you can use it for adult meals food - like adding a packet of the pumpkin and some pumpkin pie spice to panckae batter to make a twist on pancakes. Or adding a packet of the banana to ice cream in the blender to make a banana smoothie.
Something for those with elderly or invalid loved ones to think about, too.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Dixie is right. Making your own will save you work in the long run. I made baby food for Roo. I used fresh foods and steamed them. Then mashed using a food processor. For first foods you can add more water and strain through a mesh colander. Now she just eats off our plates. She doesn't want her own because she thinks she is eating something different than us. 

When we try for #2 I'll start canning foods in small 8oz jars to store for when baby is ready for food.


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## PackerBacker (Dec 13, 2012)

Baby food should be outlawed. IMO ( along with formula) It's completely unnecessary.

Boob juice and table food is all our kids every ate.

The first solid food my youngest ate was a strip of grilled t bone steak.


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## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

I have 7 kids and the only thing we ever purchased for them was rice cereal and oatmeal. Otherwise each of them just ate what we ate, just smashed up with a fork. We did make some baby food in advance using mamk's recommended method (real natural food, food processor and ice cube trays). The Mrs. and I firmly believe in a quick transition from a liquid diet to just eating solid food. I only have one child left young enough for this to be an issue and he is still drinking his Mother's milk. So I prep to ensure that the Mrs. has the proper nutrients and calories to keep both of their food supply at the level it needs to be. She will continue to pump and freeze until he is on solids.


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## cnsper (Sep 20, 2012)

I remember doing this for a friend when their baby was 6 months old and they did not bring any food when they came over for Thanksgiving. I just added some smashed potatoes, meat and a little gravy into the food processor and wala the little guy was happy.

At 5 days old we had to start giving our daughter a little rice cereal in her bottle at night so that she would sleep. We could not fill that kid up with a cement truck.


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## Lake Windsong (Nov 27, 2009)

brightstar said:


> So I'm due with our son in mid-March. I was going thru our food preps and had a random thought on adding baby food to our preps for after nursing. Has anyone stored or looked into storing this? Shelf-life? I started prepping after my 3 year old stepdaughter had already started eating regular food so I'm not even sure where or if I should start with this. Thanks y'all!


I agree with the posts suggesting make your own. But sometimes you may want or need the convenience of portable, easy to prepare food.

I will suggest NurturMe brand baby food - you can look at their website for details. I have used this brand for storage (still have some in our BOB) and my little one liked it. If you decide to buy some, do not pay full price as it is expensive! Groupon or the brand website will sometimes have a sale, that's a good time to buy enough for storing in a BOB or to try. They have variety packs and they taste good.
Boxed infant cereals store well, I would wait and see which types your baby tolerates before stocking up. Store enough liquids to use with the cereals. The pouches of pureed fruit/veggies do not store well IMO, but are handy for everyday use. Glass jar and plastic containers of single servings do store well, again I would see which flavors your little one likes before stocking up.

When you make your own baby food, I highly recommend using ice cube trays to freeze leftovers. They make these specifically for baby food complete with lids, but any ice tray will do. *** Once frozen, don't store them in the trays, store the cubes in labeled freezer containers or ziplocs and just thaw what you need for each days meals. That way you only need a couple trays.

You can find free baby food recipes and tips on puree consistency online on various natural mom type blogs. Experiment to find what works for your schedule and your baby's tastes.


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## dixiemama (Nov 28, 2012)

That's supposed to be 8. For whatever reason it placed an emoticon lol


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## jsriley5 (Sep 22, 2012)

My first thoughts for BOB types was the dry cereals that you mix with milk or water you all have that covered. I figure to stock some along with formula mix soonish (not top of list but on the priority list) all else fails adults can eat it too if there isn't a baby and we are all starving. If we are all starving and there is a baby then at least the child won't be.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Like Lake Windsong mentioned you may need the convenience of store bought baby food. I recommend Earth's Best Organic. Babies R Us as a sale every month or so on it and the jars are less than $0.75 each. You can stack coupons on that and they are less than $0.50 each. Its a good brand and tastes good. Yes, I have tried it. After the baby food tasting game at my baby shower I was dead set on not feeding store bought to my Roo but friends of ours gave us 200 jars. Their son was refusing baby food because he wanted what his older sisters were eating. Ally was sick of sneaking baby food into all her recipes to get rid of the extras so she gave them to us.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

Congratulations! We had our third baby in April so we were where you are a year ago. We combined coupons & sales to acquire baby's preps so be sure to sign up for deals at all the baby stuff manufacturer's websites, just use a much earlier date of birth so you can get the coupons now vs later. 

A great place to start is with 15-20 pounds of various baby cereals, these will supplement the iron babies can get deficient in & are a great first food as well as a versatile food the entire first year. After they go through that, they'll probably be ready for regular cereals & grains. Even though I breast feed, we have a good stash of powdered formula just in case. We store a year's worth of prenatal vitamins for me & vitamin D drops for baby.

Some foods can be dehydrated crisp enough to crush when dry, such as strawberries, squash, spinach, & tomato. You just simply dehydate them & when you're ready to use crush them up, rehydrate, & eat. You could also dehydrate things like mashed sweet potato & applesauce. 

Freeze dried foods are super easy to powder then rehydrate so we keep a lot of yogurt, meats, fruits, & veggie types that are harder to store or use dehydrated in freeze dried form. Watch your price per ounce on these because I have gotten FD yogurt cheaper in the Gerber 1oz bags at the store than I could buy it in a #10 can. The little bags are much more convenient & portable. I have seen FD fruit at Walmart in small bags over by the nuts & it's pretty good. My family really likes FD fruit & yogurt so we store a lot of it.

Our baby has eaten chunky table foods like canned green beans & fish since he was 5 months old but many babies are unable to manage them. We had a large stash of jarred baby food but we've used the majority of it & are replacing it primarily with toddler food & low sodium canned soups. 

Customize your storage to reflect your lifestyle, budget, & preferences, no one has to use your storage but your family so do what works for you.


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## brightstar (Apr 24, 2012)

Thanks for all the advice! I plan on freezing homemade food but the dehydrated looks like a great alternative for our preps if we lost power and the organic pre-jarred. I am already familiar with the FD yogurt drops and fruit bites, little Erin loved them for a long time. Had never heard of the dehydrated baby food though before yesterday and picked some up to try. Thanks everyone!


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