Healthy Homemade Pureed Meals for Kids: A Detailed Guide
After completing a successful six months, a newborn baby starts getting open to different types of food. Starting a solid food at this stage is a great initiation for developing your baby’s health. Including pureed food is a perfect way to introduce solid food to them.
There are many benefits of making purred food at home instead of buying them readymade. Now, if you are a parent and someone who does not know cooking, then it would be good to know that making pureed food at home is very easy. You just have to boil them, mash them nicely without leaving any chunks, and feed your baby.
In the guide below, we will discuss everything about homemade pureed food, from benefits to ingredients and materials required, the step-by-step process to make them, and tips to store them for a long period.
Ingredients And Materials Required
For some parents who became parents for the first time, it must be confusing what are the right ingredients and materials to use for making proper pureed food for their baby. Making pureed food is very easy and doesn’t require the cooking skills of the chef! Just boil the ingredients and mash them properly, and then make your baby eat after cooling it down. Some of the ingredients and materials required to make a homemade puree are:
Ingredients
In ingredients, you can choose any kind of fruit and vegetable you want. But we suggest you start with fruits for some time, after that, you can start the process with vegetables. We suggest you use fresh products. Some of the fruits and vegetables that you can use at the initial level of solid feeding are carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, apples, pears, bananas, avocados, etc. their no use of seasoning in the making process.
Materials
For the materials, you can use a blender or food processor, steamer, tools like knives and mashers, baby spoons, and baby stools. Wash all the materials properly before using them to avoid any germ contact with the baby. Some materials like baby spoons must be boiled both before and after use. If you do not have a blender you can use a spoon or fork to mash.
Step By Step Guide To Make a Pureed Food
Making pureed food is one of the easiest things to do while being a parent of a baby. Below is a guide that will help you in the process.
Step-1 Cooking All The Ingredients
Starting with The first step is gathering and cooking the ingredients. So, choose any fruit or vegetable (grains and proteins like pulse can also be used) you want your baby to eat. For example, you chose carrots, so in the first step, wash them properly and, after that, peel them. After that, keep them for boiling. Tip: Cut them into dice shapes to ensure even cooking of the fruits or vegetables. You do not require any seasoning. Many parents put a little bit of sugar or salt in the food, which is a total no cause the baby’s body is not ready for the spices yet.
Step-2 Blend It In The Consistency Required
After boiling, take all the chunks of fruits or vegetables and put them in a blender or food processor, which will make the food into pureed form. If your baby likes a thick consistency, you can keep it as it is, but you can add water if you want a thin consistency. Instead of water, you can use other liquids like cow’s milk, formula, or goat milk (cow and goat milk only after crossing one year). Remember to start with a very small portion and increase it gradually with time. If some portion of the food is left, then you can store it in the freezer for later use by following the following tips to store baby food.
Tips to Store Baby Food
If you are a parent who is busy with their work, you can make use of this tip. Do you know? That pureed can be kept at frights for 2-3 months. To learn how to store pureed food, follow the below steps:
- Prepare the pureed normally from fruits or vegetables given in the above steps.
- After boiling them, mash them properly and keep them aside for cooling.
- Now, take an ice tray or a silicon ice tray and transfer this puree to them.
- Before keeping it in the freezer, cover it nicely with plastic or anything
- Keep them in a freezer, and let them freeze (keep them overnight)
- Now, wherever you want to feed your baby, take out a pureed cube from the tray, keep it in a container or glass, and put it in a microwave. Pureed food for your baby is ready.
Mix and cool it well before feeding your baby. This method of storing baby food will save you a lot of time. If you want, you can use more than one fruit or vegetable to make pureed food.
Recipe of Pureed Food for Baby
In this particular section, we will discuss a nutritious or balanced baby food using sweet potatoes. Making this is just like making a cup of tea, so first, take a medium-sized sweet potato, wash it well, and peel it nicely. Cut them into small dice pieces, put them in a container of hot boiling water, and let them boil until they are soft enough to get mashed with a fork. To make potatoes soft, you have three options: either you steam them, microwave them, or boil them. Now, transfer the boiled sweet potatoes into the blender or processor; if you do not have this, you can use a simple spoon or fork to mash it.
Now, add some water or formula to make the puree of your desired consistency. Let it cool down a bit before you serve it to your little one. Lastly, store the remaining portion nicely in the freezer. This can be served for the next 3-4 days.
Benefits of Making Pureed Food at Home
Making pureed food at home has certain advantages, especially for individuals with certain dietary needs. Some babies may have difficulty chewing, swallowing, and sometimes digesting. So, making food according to their need can be an important step to support their health.
1. The Texture Can Be Made According to Your Baby
When you make your baby food at your home, one of the main advantages you have is that you can give them the desired consistency your baby wants. As we know, most babies do not have teeth, so they mostly swallow or chew their food. So, any inconsistent or chunky texture can lead to serious choking, which smooth and uniform purees can prevent.
The digestive system of the babies is still developing skills. So, if you introduce easily digestible or smooth purees then it can help their body process and absorb nutrients more efficiently. Also, pureed food serves as a bridge between liquid and solid foods. That is why it is important to make food with a thin consistency.
2. Is Customizable
The body of a baby requires a certain amount of ingredients based on their age and developmental stage. Customizing the pureed food allows you to ensure that the ingredients are appropriate for the baby’s age and nutritional needs, which a preserved food cannot do. This can be explained better with an example so as the baby grows, their need for certain nutrients like iron, calcium, and protein changes, and you can tailor the ingredients to provide the nutrients adequate.
Another point is allergy; babies might also have a chance of having allergies, or they can be sensitive to certain food items. This can be avoided by making customized pureed food and skipping those ingredients to which the baby is allergic.
3. Nutrition Of Your Baby Can Be Optimized
The optimization of nutrition in the context of making pureed food for babies refers to creating a balanced and nutrient-dense diet that meets the specific nutrition needs of the baby. You can include any nutrients like vitamins A, C, D, and K, minerals like iron, calcium, and zinc, and fibers according to the baby’s needs, which a store-bought pureed food fails to provide. To know what nutrients, fibers, and minerals your baby needs, you can get a consultation from a pediatrician if you want.
Tip: Babies are said to have high energy needs and small stomachs. So, make sure to focus on those products that have dense nutrients and enough calories to support their growth.
4. Limited Cost
Studies say that homemade pureed food is much better than store-bought pureed food. It can be up to 45% cheaper if made with the same ingredients and the same quantity at home. Homemade puree has the advantage that it does not contain any processing and chemicals that are used in stored products. You can even customize the consistency according to your needs and requirements.
But if you are a busy parent who does not have time to invest in cooking food for your baby, then you can go for store-bought pureed food. Just buy it from a company that has a good reputation and uses hygienic ways to make products.
Conclusion
This was the step-by-step guide to making pureed food for your baby at home in a healthy way. The body of a baby is quite sensitive so you have to be very careful with that. Some tips that you must follow while giving food to your baby are to use fresh fruits and vegetables, cool down the food before feeding your baby, blend the puree nicely, and check if there are any chunks. These are small things, but will help with the safety of your baby.
Have you ever made pureed food for your little one? Let us know what your favorite thing to make for them is in the comment section below.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to Make Homemade Puree?
The basic step to make s homemade puree is quite simple. Just select any fruit or vegetable and cut them into pieces. After this, boil your vegetables in a pan, steamer, or slow cooker for a few minutes. After that, take out the boiled fruits and vegetables and mash them nicely without leaving any chunks.
Is Homemade Food Puree Healthy?
Yes, pureed food is healthy for babies when they are introduced at the right time. Most of the time, fruit puree is preferred over vegetables for the first solid food of a baby after they transition from a milk-only diet. Fruits are considered an option as they contain vitamins C and A). Avoid the addition of sugars if in fruit puree.
What Are the Stages of Puree Food?
There are 3 stages of pureed food. The first stage is feeding solid food to the babies in the form of puree without any chunks for the babies of 6 months. The second step is feeding puree with a thicker consistency to babies aged 6-9 months. The last stage for puree food is for babies aged 9-12 months, where you can feed them soft and chewable chunks.
What Tool Is Used to Make Pureed Food?
Pureed food can be made from the blender at your home. Some other things that can be used for making pureed food are a food processor, hand blender, steamer, masher, baby food maker, stainer (for mashing), silicon or normal ice cube trays, knife, and many more.
