Make your own organic baby food

Start at the source

Scour the local farmers' market for the season's freshest and best organic produce. Fill a basket, take it home and wash every piece carefully. Babies typically love sweet tasting foods like apples, pears, bananas, avocadoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash and green beans.

Boil or steam the fruit and vegetables separately until tender, keeping in mind that bananas and avocadoes won't need any cooking.

Allow the food to cool a little, then transfer to a blender or food processor. Puree with a small amount of breast milk or formula. The amount will depend on how advanced your baby is -- simply add a small amount of liquid at a time. If just starting out on food, the mixture should be very thin, but if he or she has been eating baby food for a while, a pasty consistency is fine. If, however, your baby is a bit older, the mixture can have some small chunks.

Pour the mixture into ice cube trays, cover with plastic wrap and pop in the freezer. When the cubes are frozen, separate them and store individually in snack bags.

Label them with the ingredients and date. It's important to remember that frozen baby food will expire two months after it's placed in the freezer.

To warm the food, place a cup in a pan of boiling water and pop a cube inside the cup. Stir. Test the food before serving to make sure it's not too hot.

Mixing it up

If you are only just introducing foods to your baby's eating routine, try one at a time for a few days each and monitor allergic reactions. Once you've tried the food individually, you can start mixing.

The combinations below are popular favourites. Combine equal proportions of each ingredient and adding breast milk or formula to achieve the desired consistency.

• Bananas and oatmeal
• Green beans and brown rice
• Peas and barley
• Apples and sweet potatoes
• Carrots and brown rice
• Peaches and oatmeal

When your baby is about eight months old, you can start to introduce proteins. Boil the meat until it's no longer pink, then blend as you do for fruits and vegetables.

Try the following combinations:

• Chicken and sweet potato
• Brown rice, broccoli and chicken
• Chicken, carrots and noodles

Homemade baby food Tutorial

Preparing home-made baby food is simple and far more nutritious than store bought baby food. A hands-on workshop like Mommy Chef teaches mums how to make healthy organic meals for their babies with the guidance of a registered nutritionist.

More baby fun

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5 Ways to help your baby sleep
Raising a vegetarian baby