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My husband and I wanted to make sure that our 8 month old son gets the healthiest choices when it comes to what he puts in his mouth, so we figured that homemade would be our best choice. Sure, we occasionally give him stuff out of a store bought packet, but we try not to if we don’t have to. Since I’m still on maternity leave, we have this option, so I intend to take advantage of it while I can. And I’m so thankful to be in Canada, where our maternity leave is 1 year. But thats enough about that.
We invested in a Babycook Beaba, and although it was expensive (even on sale), I feel it was worth every penny. If you’re in Canada, TJ’s Kids sometimes has select colours on sale for $169 (for the double) or $149 for the single. I would recommend the double if you can get it, since we normally do a bunch of his foods at one shot.
Below are a couple of our “staple” recipes, and storage instructions.
Pear Purée (Prep Time: 5-10 min | Cook Time: 15-20min)
3 Bartlett Pears, peeled, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes. Fill the Beaba to the number 3 mark, place cut pears into the steaming basket and let it steam. (about 15-20 min) Pour water into a cup and save it Pour pears from the basket into the plastic blender piece. Blend until smooth and no lumps are visible. If you need to add liquid, use the saved (excess water) from when it was steaming. * Tip: You can use breastmilk or formula to add nutrition, but I usually only add this when I’m ready to serve the food for our infant, so it keeps longer in the fridge.
Apple Purée (Prep Time: 5-10 min | Cook Time: 15-20min)
3 Apples (I use Pink Lady or Ambrosia) peeled, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes. Fill the Beaba to the number 3 mark, place cut apples into the steaming basket and let it steam. (about 15-20 min) Pour water into a cup and save it Pour apples from the basket into the plastic blender piece. Blend until smooth and no lumps are visible. If you need to add liquid, use the saved (excess water) from when it was steaming. * Tip: You can use breastmilk or formula to add nutrition, but I usually only add this when I’m ready to serve the food for our infant, so it keeps longer in the fridge.
Sweet Potato Purée (Prep Time: 10min | Cook Time: 15-20 min)
1 Jumbo Sweet Potato (if you scratch the skin off with your fingernail, they should be orange underneath, not white). In Canada, the grocery stores mix them up and call them yams, but they’re not actually yams.
Peeled, and cut into 1/2 inch cubes. If you’re using a regular sweet potato, then you’ll probably need 2. Fill the Beaba to the number 3 mark, place cut sweet potatoes into the steaming basket and let it steam. (about 15-20 min) Pour water into a cup and save it Pour sweet potatoes from the basket into the plastic blender piece. Blend until smooth and no lumps are visible. You will most likely need to add liquid to this recipe since sweet potatoes don’t have as much water content as fruits. Use the liquid that was saved from steaming, since it will retain all the nutrients from the sweet potato. * Tip: You can use breastmilk or formula to add nutrition, but I usually only add this when I’m ready to serve the food for our infant, so it keeps longer in the fridge.
These 3 are my staple purées for our 8 month old son, but he has been eating these since he was 5 months old. Pears are good on their digestive system, and apparently are supposed to help them poop if they’re a little “clogged” (if you know what I mean).
We normally feed fruits to our son in the mornings and afternoons (breakfast and lunch), since they have a higher sugar content, and try to avoid giving him too many fruits at night (or for dinner), since we don’t want him wired at bedtime! So, for evening or dinner feeds, we try to give him more of the vegetable purées, and maybe one fruit option.
So a typical breakfast or lunch for our 8 month old will consist of 4 different things, oatmeal cereal (mixed with expressed breastmilk), and 2 fruit purées, and a vegetable purée. And a typical dinner for him will usually consist of oatmeal cereal, sweet potatoes, and 2 veggie purées.
For anyone wondering about the oatmeal cereal that we use, we typically buy the Heinz brand since it offers a higher fibre content, so we don’t have to worry too much about him being constipated since we know he’s getting a lot of fibre.
And as a side note, see the photo below for recommendations on how long puréed foods should last in the fridge. You can also freeze some of the purées if you don’t think you’ll use them up before they will go bad. Frozen purées make for good (but messy) teethers for your little one.
We normally just store all the purées in tupperware and label with the date and description so we know how long its been in the fridge. We also occasionally store some of the food in those food snack bags – we purchased the Infantino Squeeze Station off Amazon for $16 and it was seriously one of the greatest investments we made. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to have homemade purées readily available for feeding on the go, or if you just want a different storing option.
