Baby food can be expensive, and not only that, it’s often full of preservatives and artificial ingredients that are bad for your baby’s health.
Making your baby food at home is not only better for your baby, but it’s also cheaper than buying prepackaged baby food, and it allows you to make your blends based on the best possible ingredients for your baby.
Here are five benefits of making baby food at home.
1. Homemade baby food is cheaper
When you make your own baby food, you know exactly what’s going into it. There are no preservatives, no added sugar or salt, and it hasn’t been sitting on a shelf for months.
By making your own food, you eliminate all of those additional expenses, while still providing your baby with healthy meals that contain real ingredients.
Not only is homemade baby food cheaper in general, but buying in bulk and using coupons to cut down on costs even further.
2. It’s easy to make fresh baby food whenever you want
One of our favorite reasons to make baby food at home is that it saves time. It’s so simple!
Just toss in some fresh, washed fruits and veggies (cut them into small pieces for babies), add a few tablespoons of water or breast milk, blend, and voila! You’ll have several jars worth of puree in less than 10 minutes.
It’s perfect for busy parents who need quick meals on the go, especially when you store it in a Babeehive Goods baby food bottle feeder for your little one to enjoy in the car or elsewhere.
3. It saves time
You might think it takes time to make baby food, but once you have your system down it only takes minutes per batch.
If you have a few extra minutes in between changing diapers or feeding bottles, pour some puree into ice cube trays for future use.
All that goes out the window when you buy food already made, which is almost always more expensive than making it yourself.
Not only is making your own food easier on your wallet because you’re not buying pre-made foods but if you grow your fruits and veggies or participate in farmer’s markets, there are serious savings to be had by using fresh produce.
4. Homemade baby food is healthy
The most obvious benefit to making your own baby food is that you’ll know exactly what goes into it.
Unlike commercial baby food, which has been processed, packaged, and stored for days on end, homemade baby food is fresh. Freshness counts when it comes to boosting your little one’s health and reducing the risk of disease.
Also, by making your own baby food you’ll know that there aren’t any preservatives or other additives that could negatively affect your child as he or she grows.
5. Homemade baby food teaches responsibility
One of your biggest goals in making baby food at home is to make sure your child gets essential vitamins and minerals, but you’ll also want to teach him how to eat healthily.
The best way to do that is by example: By eating healthy and cooking for yourself, you can show your kids that eating healthy and cooking for themselves is important.
Maybe even more importantly, when you make baby food at home, it gives you a chance to practice these skills – and find out what works and what doesn’t. In other words, if it doesn’t taste good to adults, don’t give it to your baby.
Making baby food at home has many benefits, the most important being that it allows you to control what your child eats.
About The Author:
Angie is a WAHM and a California native that is now raising her 2-year-old son in a city between the mountains of Utah. In her downtime, she writes posts about her new role as a mother, wife, and her escapes back to her home state which you can find on her blog at http://lavidamom.com/