Baby Food Making

Timing

Ask your baby's doctor when to start. The CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) point to about 6 months, not before 4 months, once your baby sits up with support, controls their head and swallows food rather than pushing it out.

No honey before 12 months

The CDC warns it can cause botulism. Do not add it to purees, cereal or anything else.

No added salt or sugar

Cook fresh food without salt or seasoning (AAP), and give no added sugars before age 2 (CDC). Skip juice and cow's milk as a drink before 12 months.

Choking hazards

Start with smooth purees and thicken gradually. Cook hard fruits and vegetables until soft and remove skins, seeds, pits and bones. Never serve whole grapes, nuts, popcorn, chunks of raw vegetable, meat or cheese, or spoonfuls of nut butter. Seat your baby upright and stay with them while they eat.

New foods and allergens

Offer one single-ingredient food at a time and wait 3 to 5 days before the next. Common allergens such as egg, peanut, dairy, wheat, fish and soy come in as your baby's doctor advises; if your baby has severe eczema or an egg allergy, ask the doctor before any peanut food.

Storage

Refrigerate cooked fruits, vegetables, grains and beans for up to 2 days, and cooked meat, fish and eggs for 1 day. Frozen cubes keep their best quality for about 1 month. Thaw in the fridge, never on the counter, and do not refreeze thawed food.

Reheating and leftovers

Reheat to 165°F, stir well, let it cool and test the temperature with a clean spoon before feeding. Throw away anything left in your baby's dish, because saliva from the spoon contaminates it.

Single-vegetable puree

One steamed vegetable blended smooth, the usual way to offer a new food on its own.

Single-fruit puree

A soft-cooked, peeled fruit blended and frozen in cubes, ready to rotate with the vegetables.

Carrot apple puree

The extension recipe, once your baby has already had carrots and apples separately.

A labeled freezer stash

A week or two of dated single-food cubes so each feeding is a thaw, not a cook.

A thicker mash

The same foods blended less and thinned less, for when your baby's doctor says to move on in texture.

Steaming to fork-tender

Soft enough to blend with no fibrous bits, without boiling away color and flavor in a full pot of water.

Controlling texture

Blending longer and thinning with cooking water for smooth first purees, then blending less as your baby moves to thicker, lumpier mashes.

Portioning and freezing

Filling cubes evenly so one or two make a meal, and moving them out of the tray once solid so the tray is free for the next batch.

Labeling and rotating

Writing the food and date on every container and using the oldest first.