Baby food - homemade vs store bought

Have you looked into baby-led weaning? There's strong evidence that babies don't really need the pureed food stage of eating at all and can move to sharing in the family meal at that age once they reach a few milestones.

We are on baby #8 now so we are immune to the baby-economy of things. We haven't done "baby food" after our first baby in 2010. We just feed our baby chopped up slices of whatever the rest of us are eating for dinner that night. Mashed potatoes, sliced potatoes/veggies, chopped up chicken nuggets now that he's 9 months and he's eating more meat. Chopped up steak and burgers. He's thriving and loves it. The only thing my wife makes that resembles "baby food" for my son is cottage cheese with maybe bananas mixed in.

And as far as milk, my wife makes the baby a homemade "Weston A. Price" formula as he did not breast feed very well after 3 months or so. More than a gallon of milk but way less than buying formula and way more healthy.

Brilliant! So much fun as kiddos explore the broader world of food. You are making such a solid start :) Have you been looking into baby-led weaning approaches too? That gets into foods beyond purees, such as roasted sweet potato wedges, banana, etc. In our experience, BLW was a huge help as we bridged our son and daughter from nursing to foods, while keeping a good balance of whole foods and even a few simple recipes.

I used to do this and made a list of ingredients out of a fancy puree brand. Thought you might find these useful. I used them as a starting point and substituted with what I had on hand if needed.

Stage 2: smooth multi ingredient purees (7+ months)

All Star Soup Butternut Squash, Broccoli, Sweet Potato, Carrots, Nutritional Yeast

Triple Berry Pie Coconut Milk, Blackberries, Blueberries, Strawberry, Japanese Sweet Potato, White Beans, Cinnamon

Bean and Chard Green Beans, Chard, White Beans, Basil

Split Pea Soup Sweet Potato, Carrots, Ginger Powder, Apple, Split Pea

Coconut Cream Pie Coconut Milk, Japanese Sweet Potato, White Beans, Vanilla Extract, Cinnamon, Ginger Powder, Nutmeg

Strawberry Basil Pie Strawberry, Coconut Milk, Japanese Sweet Potato, White Beans, Basil

Apple Pie Apple, Japanese Sweet Potato, Coconut Milk, White Beans, Dates, Cinnamon, Nutmeg

Stage 3: textured multi ingredient with seeds or grains (9+ months) Broccoli Mash Bowl Sweet Potato, Broccoli, Amaranth, Apricot, Flax

Peaches & Blackberry Chia Pudding Peaches, Sweet Potato, Blackberries, Coconut Milk, Quinoa, Banana, Chia Seeds, Dates, Cinnamon

Peach Crumble Bowl Peaches, Apple, White Beans, Buckwheat Meal, Banana, Dates, Vanilla Extract, Cinnamon, Nutmeg

Butternut Squash Curry Bowl Butternut Squash, Coconut Milk, Onion, Quinoa, Garlic Powder, Curry Powder Stage 4: chunky combos

Squash Quinoa Combo Butternut Squash, Kale, Quinoa, Flax, Nutritional Yeast, Spirulina

Black Bean Sweet Potato Combo Sweet Potato, Apple, Black Beans, Cinnamon, Cumin

Green Medley Combo Broccoli, Green Beans, Chickpeas, Onion, Coconut Milk, Spinach, Garlic, Thyme, Rosemary, fresh

Coconut Peas & Carrot Combo Carrots, Green Peas, Onion, Coconut Milk, Quinoa, Cumin, Bay Leaf

My wife did the fresh veggies and frozen fruits puréed into ice cubes trays. Ice cube trays also make great food eating / sorting trays when the get into beginner foods (peas, Cheerios…).

I would would look at frozen fruit to make baby food from. There are great prices on berries there! In theory it has more vitamins because it is was frozen sooner after being picked compared to fresh fruit but also way cheaper.

We would make baby food and freeze in ice cube containers and pop them out and put them in the freezer bags then as they got older you can heat up more as they eat more. Way cheaper and healthier.

Have fun in this stretch of parenthood!

There are SO MANY things we can make at home for a fraction of the store-bought cost. Brad just shared that he's making his electrolyte supplement at home. Years ago I started looking up (or creating myself) homemade recipes for things I love. I'll never again buy these things from the grocery store: salad dressing, French bread, Alfredo sauce, Boursin, stir-fry sauce, teriyaki sauce, baked beans, etc... We even learned how to make sushi and we can make awesome, hearty, delicious Bento Box dinners for 4 people for about 1/3 the cost of going out.