Homemade Organic Baby Food Series: The Benefits

Welcome to a first of a massive series of my trials and tribulations of tackling making homemade baby food for my daughter Madison.  To give you all a little background, this is my first time trying this out.  When I had my first child, I worked 40+ hours per week and I had absolutely no time to make my own baby food (or so I thought!).  I spent hundreds of dollars purchasing baby food and really had quite a limited selection!  After a TON of research, I have found that not only is making homemade baby food not time consuming at all, it’s easy on the wallet, I’ll know how the food is made, where it’s coming from, and best of all, I’ll have the control of what I’m putting into my daughter’s mouth. 

So, I know what you may be thinking.  I don’t have time for that!  It must be really time consuming to make baby food from scratch.  I’m here to tell you it’s not!  It really is as simple as making some veggies, throwing it in a food processor, and zapping it a few times to puree it.  You can make a week’s worth of baby food in 30 minutes or less. 

I personally have chosen to feed my daughter organic foods.  By all means, this is not necessary; this is just a personal choice for me.  I have decided to go organic for a variety of reasons.  The biggest reason I have gone down this path is because of the health benefits.  Feeding your baby an organic diet packed with naturally grown, whole foods is greater in terms of quality, taste, and nutrition than a conventional diet made up of processed foods that could possibly include additives, dyes, artificial ingredients, chemicals, or pesticides.  According to the EPA, young children are at a larger risk of pesticide exposure because their internal organs are still immature or underdeveloped.  Starting off with the good quality stuff will guarantee less worry for you and a clean bill of health for your little one. 

Another reason I have decided to do this is because it is so cost effective!  Get this….Where I live a jar of organic peas would be on average about $0.85 which equates to about $0.34 per ounce.  To make homemade organic peas, $0.04 per ounce!  For me, it was a no-brainer!

So these are just some of the benefits and why’s of how I have come to my decision.  Stay tuned for lots of tips, tricks, successes (and failures), and recipes!  Also, please join my Facebook community for lots of other support and discussions on everything fun and healthy! 

Have a great Monday everyone!

~Nikki

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/semerssuaq/4635251084/">domitilla ferrari</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photo pin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>