Do you need a baby food maker

The Complete Guide to Buying a Baby Food Maker: Mom's Guide 2018

Making your own healthy, yummy food has never been so easy.

Mom Tricks
June 17, 2022

Advantages of making your own baby food.
Disadvantages of making your own baby food.
Is it really necessary to make my own baby food?
Do I really need a baby food maker?
All-in-one machines vs. manual food mills.
What to Consider When Shopping
Our recommendation: BEABA Babycook Pro

I’m a huge fan of making your own baby food.

More and more parents these days are making the decision to make their own baby food, and who can blame them? How do we know what exactly goes into the jars of baby food we buy from the store?

Store-bought baby food can have a lot of added preservatives and sugars that you wouldn’t want your baby to ingest. If you want to make your own baby food — and know exactly what’s going into it — your best option is to get a baby food maker, which will allow you to make delicious baby food, as easy as can be!

There are a number of different baby food makers out there, so choosing the best might be difficult. Here is a list of things to consider when you’re looking for a good baby food maker.

Advantages of making your own baby food.

There are a lot of great benefits to taking the time to research and find the perfect baby food maker. Not only do you get the benefit of knowing what’s in the food you’re feeding your baby, but there are a number of other great reasons to make your own baby food that you might not have considered.

Saves money. Store-bought baby food can be expensive! Since the average American baby will consume around 600 jars of baby food, it’s easy to see how preparing your own food can save a lot of money.
You know what you’re feeding your baby. Store-bought baby foods are chock full of preservatives and added sugars. Not to mention pesticides and other nasty chemicals. If you make your own baby food at home, you know exactly what you’re feeding your baby. Not only that, but you have all of the quality control: who knows what type of fruits and vegetables go into the pureed baby food you can buy at the store? You can even go completely organic if you want!
Additional variety in food. If you buy jarred baby food at the store, you are limited to certain types of ingredients. If you make your own baby food, there is really no limit to what you can use! It’s important for people (especially children!) to have a well-balanced diet. You can even add your own choices of herbs and combinations to make great, delicious food that your baby will love.
More nutritional value. Some baby food maker models can steam the foods, which is a great way to keep all the valuable nutrients in it. The first few years of life are very important when it comes to growth and development, and having a balanced diet and all of the necessity vitamins and minerals is an essential part of it that a baby food maker will help with.
It’s fresh. You can use 100% fresh ingredients at their peak ripeness – who doesn’t love that? Store-bought baby foods are cooked at an extreme heat during processing (to kill bacteria) and then sit on store shelves for months and months before consumption.
Baby can eat the same food as the rest of the family. I love the fact that you can start baby off of the right path of eating the same food as the rest of the family. This can be a vital step in preventing them from becoming a picky eater.

Disadvantages of making your own baby food.

Of course, there are definite downsides to making all of your own baby food.

It takes time. As a busy parent, it can sometimes be difficult to find the time to make tiny servings of food every day.
It’s not as convenient, especially for travel. Prepacked baby food can be taken with you anywhere and doesn’t even need to be refrigerated. Of course, you can always bring your home-made food along with you, but it’s more of a pain.
It needs to be refrigerated. Home-made foods spoil quickly and need to be put in the fridge or freezer. This takes up space and you have to go through the trouble of storing them away, too.
It might taste gross. There’s a reason why many store-bought baby foods load them up with sugar. It’s very easy to make food that tastes bitter and gross, because the fruits and veggies weren’t ripe enough or because you did something wrong.

Is it really necessary to make my own baby food?

Of course it’s not.

Many parents feed their little one with store-bought food, and truth be told, nothing horrible is going to happen if you do so. Likewise, you should never feel like a failure because you go store-bought instead of making your own.

In fact, even parents who primarily feed their child with home-made baby food will supplement with store-bought food sometimes. Let’s face it: store-bought food is way more convenient.

Of course, there are tons of benefits to making your own food, but if you make the choice to feed only store-bought food, that’s perfectly acceptable.

Do I really need a baby food maker?

If you’re set on making your own baby food, you absolutely don’t need to buy a specialized baby food maker if you already have a food processor at home.

In fact, you can do everything 100% by hand and still make great home-made foods for your little one.

Let’s be real: when it comes to all of the expenses you’ll need to look after for your new baby, a baby food maker is really a luxury and not at all a necessity.

However, if you really want to feed primarily your own home-made purees, the convenience of an all-in-one baby food maker can’t be understated.

Time is something that comes at a premium when you have a new baby around the house, and having the convenience of being able to throw the veggies into the machine along with a little bit of water, turn it on, and have the machine automatically make a ready-to-feed puree is almost magical.

But if you just can’t find the room to squeeze a machine like this into your budget, it’s really not necessary.

All-in-one machines vs. manual food mills.

The main choice you need to make when choosing a baby food maker is whether to get an all-in-one machine that does everything for you or a manual mill that requires you to steam or roast the food yourself before pureeing it.

All-in-one machines.

These are a wonderful option for parents who want a hands-off approach to making their own baby food and want a machine that will do everything for them.

There are pros and cons to an all-in-one machine, of course.

Pros

No need to pre-cook the veggies. An all-in-one machine will handle that for you. All you need to do is wash and peel them, throw them in the machine along with some water, and before you know it, it will spit out a ready-to-feed puree.
Way more convenient and saves time. Because you don’t need to pre-cook and prepare the veggies, you can save a lot of time.

Cons

They tend to be bigger. Unfortunately, countertop space can often be hard to come by, and all-in-one machines are bigger than food-mills.
Harder to clean up. Because there are more parts that come into contact with food, cleaning these machine can be a pain.
More expensive. If your budget is already stretched thing, it might be hard to justify spending a lot of money on something that is more of a luxury than a necessity.

Manual or electric? — Baby food makers come in both manual and electric versions, and the first thing you should think about is which type you’d prefer. Generally, electric models are much faster and efficient, not to mention easier to use. Manual baby food makers are usually less expensive, but take manual effort to use. I would recommend an electric baby food maker over a manual one.

Dishwasher safe & easy to clean — Having a dishwasher-safe baby food maker can be very convenient. Some baby food makers have a lot of different parts that need to be washed, and being able to throw them in the dishwasher to clean can save a ton of time! You’ll probably want a baby food maker that is easy to wipe clean and doesn’t show smudges — chrome and stainless steel are notorious for this. Just something to keep in mind.

BPA-Free — BPA stands for Bisphenol A, a compound used in plastic parts of many food storage containers. There has been a lot of controversy over BPA recently, leaving parents concerned that it might be harmful to their children. While there is no concrete proof that BPA is harmful to humans, you might want to go with a BPA-free baby food maker for some peace of mind.

Made of unbreakable materials — Safety is very important, and I’d strongly suggest finding a model that contains 100% unbreakable materials. It would be extremely dangerous if part of the baby food maker were to break and end up in the food.

Which type of baby food maker? — There are several different types of baby food makers that cover a wide variety of functions. Some models will do only the most basic preparation: blending or grinding the food which you then have to cook, and some baby food makers will do everything, including the cooking! An all-in-one unit might be a good option; not only are they convenient, but countertop space is a precious resource.

Price — Think about how much money you want to spend; I know being a parent can be expensive! The best baby food maker isn’t necessarily the most expensive one, much like many other kinds of baby items. Also, keep in mind that you will probably only be using the baby food maker for about 6 months, so

Some other things you might want to think about when searching for a baby food maker are things like features and functionality. If you want to make large batches of baby food at once, you’ll need a large capacity baby food maker. Of course, these take up a considerable amount of space on your countertops.

A steamer function is something that many parents find useful. Steaming foods, especially vegetables, is an excellent way to preserve the valuable nutrients found in the foods, and I would definitely encourage you to purchase a baby food maker with this capability. On top of helping preserve nutrients, steaming is also a great way to lock in the flavor, making great-tasting food for your baby, too!

A baby food maker can be a wonderful addition to any kitchen, allowing you to make great, wholesome and organic food for your precious little one. I think that if you give one a chance, you’ll never go back to feeding your baby store-bought baby food again! Take the time to find the a great baby food maker and I promise you’ll love it.

Of all of the all-in-one baby food mills out there, this is the one I’d recommend.

You can see it on Amazon by clicking here.

It has a large capacity of 4.5 cups, which equates to roughly 18 servings. If you’re pressed for time like most parents, you’re going to love being able to make so much food at once. The Babycook does have a little brother that’s cheaper and has half the capacity, but I wouldn’t recommend it for this reason alone.

However, I wouldn’t recommend filling it to the absolute brim when cooking. Instead, leaving some empty space to make sure the food is cooked at an even temperature all the way through is a better way to use it.

The Babycook does have a little brother that’s cheaper and has half the capacity, but I wouldn’t recommend it for this reason alone.

It has a relatively small footprint of 8.5″ x 4.2″ – it’s narrow, making it easy to fit on most countertops.

The blender cup is made of food-grade plastic without BPA. I know, I’m not a fan of plastic either, but the main reason companies use plastic instead of glass in blenders is that glass can shatter from the high speed. The last thing you want is shards of glass in your baby food purees.

How it works.

The Babycook Pro is pretty easy to use.

To start out with steaming, you add a tiny amount of water to the reservoir in the base of the machine.
Then, you add your chopped up veggies to the steaming cup, which goes inside the main mixing cup.
You place the mixing cup in the base, then press the steam button. An indicator lights up to tell you that the steaming process is still going on, and it turns off when it’s complete along with a beep.
You remove the mixing cup, pour the steamed ingredients into the mixing cup, place it in the machine, and puree!

It’s really easy, and it takes all of the guesswork out of making baby purees.

The whole process takes about 15 minutes from beginning to end, although it might take a little while longer depending on how much you need to prepare your ingredients.

Something nice about the Babycook is that once you make your purees, you can freeze them and then use the machine to defrost and warm them up again for you.

FAQ

Can you make meat purees?

You can, yes! The main thing to remember is to always cut your meat into very small chunks to make sure it cooks all the way through in the mill.

Are there mold issues?

I’ve seen a few people say that they’ve had mold issues in the water reservoir with other models of the Babycook. As long as you let the reservoir air dry out (don’t close the lid up every time you clean it) it shouldn’t have any problems.

How loud is it?

If you’ve used a typical blender before, you’ll be happy to know that it’s a lot quieter than that. It’s relatively quiet during the steam function, but obviously the blending action is louder. Still, it’s not too bad.

Is it dishwasher safe?

The blending cup, mixing cup, spatula and lid are all top-rack dishwasher safe, but to make the parts last as long as possible, washing by hand in warm soapy water is recommended.

The blade can be disassembled from the machine, making it easy to clean and get out any chunks that might have gotten stuck underneath it.

Can you blend to different consistencies?

You can! However, there are no predetermined settings. You just blend it until the food reaches the consistency you’re aiming for.

Where is the best place to buy it?

I personally recommend Amazon for most baby gear. The main reason is their excellent return policy: no questions asked for 30 days. So if you get the machine and you don’t like it, you can simply send it back for free for a full return. You can see it on Amazon by clicking here.

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Should You Buy a Baby Food Maker?

Ask a bunch of moms if you need a baby food maker and be prepared to get some strong opinions, both for and against. But have no fear, we’ll help you with the answer. Read on to find out if a baby food maker is right for your family and which brands we recommend.

Videos From Tinybeans

photo: life is fantastic via Unsplash

Why Some People Love Their Baby Food Maker

1. Making your own baby food is cheaper than buying store-bought baby food, and more environmentally friendly since there are fewer jars and pouches to throw away.

2. You can control exactly what your child is eating, making sure you give them a variety of nutrients and limit sugar, salt and preservatives. You can cook up fruits, veggies, meat and fish in your baby food maker, with any herbs and spices you like.

3. By pureeing foods that the rest of the family eats, you introduce your child at an early age to flavors they’ll be eating as they grow up.

4. Baby food makers are built with busy parents in mind. Some operate one-handed, and they have timers so you can set them to steam or blend and walk away until the food is ready to eat.

5. They have more longevity than you might think. You can use your baby food maker even if your child doesn’t eat baby food purees. Use it to steam veggies or make mashed potatoes or applesauce for your baby or the whole family. You can also use it to reheat chilled foods.

Why Some People Skip It

1. Buying, washing, chopping, steaming, pureeing and storing baby food takes time, and not everybody has that. You also need to carve out time to clean the baby food maker and the reusable containers you store the food in, as well as planning out your menus and finding baby food recipes.

2. Baby food makers are usually compact, but they’ll still take up space in your cupboards or on your countertop.

3. If you spend a lot of time outside your home on errands or adventures, you need to find a way to pack and refrigerate the foods you bring with you and heat them up when it’s time to eat. Store-bought foods are often shelf-stable and you can buy more as you’re out living your life.

4. If you already have a steamer and a blender or immersion blender, you can perform the same functions of a baby food maker, just with a bit more clean-up since baby food makers let you steam and blend in the same container.

photo: iStock

Three Baby Food Makers We Love

BÉABA Babycook Baby Food Maker and Blender, $149.95
This powerhouse prepares up to 4.7 cups of food in 15 minutes or less, so you can bulk-cook or prepare food like soup or applesauce for the whole family. In addition to steaming and blending, you can defrost and reheat foods to a comfortable temperature for baby. The unit can be used one-handed if you’re holding your baby, and it comes with a spatula, mixing lid/smoothie filter and a recipe booklet. The Babycook Neo ($249.95) comes with a glass bowl and stainless steel basket and holds 5.2 cups of food.

Baby Brezza Glass Baby Food Maker, $98.99
The Baby Brezza has a 4-cup capacity and three modes: steam, blend, or steam automatically followed by blending. For convenience, you can steam and blend in the same glass bowl without any transferring. It comes with a spatula and recipe book.

Tommy Tippee Quick Food Baby Food Maker, $65
This compact, budget-friendly option lets you steam and blend up to 7 ounces of food in the same container for convenience. There’s also an included basket you can steam in if you want to remove the steaming liquid and blend up a chunkier puree for your child.

—Eva Ingvarson Cerise

RELATED STORIES:

The Best Baby & Toddler Feeding Tools of the Year

Baby’s First Foods: The Best Ways to Introduce Solids to Your Baby

New Store-Bought Meals, Beverages & Snacks for Babies & Toddlers

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Review of machines for the preparation of children's mixture

28.12.2021

16325

feeding and dream

Author We write a lot about how to breastfeed and still get enough sleep. But don't formula-fed babies have trouble sleeping? When a baby on IV wants to eat, mom needs to get up, heat water, prepare a bottle of formula. If you linger with this process, the child may burst into tears. And if bottle warmers have been known for a long time, then who can prepare the mixture instead of mom and dad?

It turns out that there is a solution for this situation too! In this review, we have put together devices for preparing infant formula. So far there are not many of them on the market, but we will monitor the appearance of new ones and add them to this review.

Baby Crisis Calendar

Infant Formula Machines

Agu Baby Häppi Shaker

This is the most popular machine that can prepare formula by measuring certain proportions and temperature as recommended by the formula manufacturer. The machine is controlled both using the display and through a mobile application.

The flow heating system heats water in seconds and prevents the development of dangerous microorganisms in the water. The amount of water and mixture spoons can be selected manually on the machine's display. And you can register in the AGU app, where there is a database of the most famous formulas for artificial feeding. In the app, you can set the desired parameters for preparing a bottle according to the age of the baby, and at night, just open the app on your phone and instruct the machine to prepare a bottle.

Baby Brezza FORMULA PRO Advanced

Similar infant formula machine. Manufacturers write that any mixture can be used with it, any bottles from 60 to 300 ml. The bottle tray is adjustable in height. The device prepares infant formula without air bubbles. The dry mixture can be poured with a margin into a special compartment that does not allow air to pass through, it holds about 700 grams. The water tank is designed for 1.5 liters.

Béaba MILKEO

The water tank capacity of this machine is 1.8 liters. Compartment for a mixture of 390 gr. The bottle holder is height adjustable. Removable parts can be washed in the dishwasher. The manufacturer promises that the bottle will be ready in 20 seconds. The built-in mixing system allows you to prepare a drink without lumps. The manufacturer does not recommend the use of the formula maker for premature or low birth weight infants. It is also not recommended to use mixtures with a thickener, goat's milk, rice proteins, a large amount of maltodextrin and vegetable oils. With these mixtures, the device can become clogged.

Ocub1

Moms on the net appreciated the convenience of this device: it is enough to set up the device in advance, fill in the mixture, pour water, select the mode, and at night you only need to press 1 button to prepare a bottle - and in 10 seconds everything will be ready. This compact device can be placed on the bedside table near the bed. In standby mode, it works silently. Ocub always maintains a tank temperature of 45°C and the final mix temperature will be 37°C. This machine fits standard bottles with a neck diameter of 40 mm.

The reviews say that machines do not always measure the correct amount of the mixture. The first time is to watch them.

How to calculate the amount of formula for a baby

The simplest calculation for full-term babies is: 1 day - 10 ml, 2 day - 20 ml, 3 day - 30 ml, 4 day - 40 ml, and so on up to 100 ml maximum.

After the first week of life, the calculation is more complicated and depends on the child's current weight.

From 10 days to 2 months, 1/5 of body weight per day is divided into 8 or 7 feedings. For example, a baby is 1 month old and weighs 4200 grams. Calculation: 4200:5 = 840 ml per day, 840:8 = 105 ml per feeding 8 times a day. If the child maintains intervals of more than 3 hours, usually at night, then there will be 7 feedings and a single volume will be slightly larger. If the baby is not large and cannot absorb more than 80 ml per feeding, you can calculate how many times a day you need to feed him at smaller intervals.

2-4 months: 1/6 of body weight is divided into 6-7 feedings per day. A single volume is usually 140-160 ml.

4-6 months: 1/7 body weight for 6 feedings. A single volume is on average 160-180 ml.

6–8 months: 1/8 body weight for 5–6 feedings, but not more than 1 liter in total per day. Single volume 180-200 ml.

8–12 months: 1/9 body weight per day for 4–5 feedings, no more than 1100 ml per day. Single volume 200–240 ml.

Pediatrician's recommendations

Natalia Trofimova

Senior Sleep Consultant, Pediatrician

Premature babies are more complicated and depend on gestational age, that is, the degree of prematurity and maturity. If the baby was born not very premature, after 34 weeks, he can almost immediately suck a bottle or breast.

Calculation of nutrition for premature babies in intensive care units and emergency departments is carried out every day by the calorie method. Depending on the presence of concomitant pathology and gestational age, the norm ranges from 110-120 kcal / kg of baby's weight. The daily volume of formula or breast milk (70 kcal / 100 ml) and divided into 8 feedings.

In terms of the number and one-time volumes of feeding on the IV, our approach differs from that in the West. There, from birth, a larger volume of each feeding is recommended and, accordingly, feedings occur less frequently. For example, at the age of 1 month, 6 feedings per day are recommended.

Baby's sleep on IW

Formula-fed newborns have slightly different sleep and wake times than breastfed babies. One of the reasons is the rate of absorption of breast milk - it is higher than that of formula. The mixture allows you to prolong the feeling of satiety of the child, so for 2-3 hours a well-fed baby may never wake up.

The size of the portion also affects the duration of sleep: infants drink different amounts of breast milk at each meal and sometimes they may “not finish eating”, so the sleep time may be shorter than in formula-fed infants who receive milk formula in equal portions.

But the sleep of babies on AI is not always better than that of infants. A child can wake up not only from hunger. He may be disturbed by colic, a wet diaper, uncomfortable clothes. Also, the quality and duration of sleep is affected by the microclimate in the room. You can read about what can prevent a child from sleeping and how to help him sleep better in this article.

If you think your baby is not hungry, healthy, but still wakes up frequently at night, book an individual consultation with BabySleep. It happens that the reason for frequent nighttime awakenings is not obvious, a sleep consultant will help you understand the situation and find a way to solve the problem that suits your family.

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Elena Muradova

Founder of BabySleep, the first sleep consultant in Russia and the CIS

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How to choose a baby food maker

Motherhood is much easier when there are helpers around. And they can be not only close people, but also equipment. Having at hand a couple of useful devices, you can save about an hour every day (plus or minus), which you can devote to yourself or your child.

Organization of nutrition for the baby is just the process that takes the most time. And it's great that it can be significantly simplified. Let's take a look at the different types of baby food and how to choose the right one.

Modern technology comes to the aid of mothers - bottle warmers and sterilizers. They can be placed in the room, so you don’t have to go far.

Consider the main types of heaters and sterilizers, and how to choose them correctly.

Bottle warmers

Bottle warmers are:

Steam: bottles are heated by hot steam. The device maintains the desired temperature, so the mixture does not overheat. Such models are not designed for a large number of bottles.
On hot water: the food will be heated by water at 80-90°C. Here you need to get the hang of it a little, because you can overheat the mixture, the bottles are hot and hot water drips from them.
On warm water (50-60°C). There are no risks here, but heating is slow.
Electric: the bottles are heated by a heating element. These are fast and convenient models. No need to mess with water, the device can be taken in a car or a trip. But the bottom of the mixture will be hotter than the top, so it needs to be shaken and checked for temperature.

The choice of one or another type of heater depends on personal preferences for the convenience and speed of the process.

It is also important to pay attention to the number of bottles that the device can hold. If there are several of them, you will provide the baby with food for the whole night. Models with one bottle take up less space, but then there will be no supply of warm mixture.

It is very convenient to have a temperature maintenance mode. With it, the food will be at the right temperature for a couple of hours. You just need to get a bottle and give it to your baby.

Sterilizers

Sterilizers are also available in three varieties:

Steam: convenient models that allow you to process 6-8 bottles at a time, including metal ones.
For microwave ovens: the most affordable models. Processing also comes at the expense of steam (you need to pour water), only in the microwave.
Ultraviolet: sterilization is carried out by irradiation with an ultraviolet lamp. Only one bottle can be processed at a time, which is not very convenient.

Warning: Do not sterilize in the microwave without a sterilizer. Bottles and nipples are easily damaged.

The processing time depends on the device type:

in the steam - 5-15 minutes;
in microwave sterilizers - up to 30 minutes;
in ultraviolet - 5 minutes.

When choosing the right model, it is important to pay attention to the number of bottles that the device will process at a time.

It will not be superfluous to pay attention to the auto-off function. It will turn off the device at the end of the treatment or if the water runs out.

There are also combined devices - sterilizers-heaters. Their capacity is small (up to 2 bottles), but even such a small device will greatly simplify the care of the baby.

Useful tools for mothers of babies on complementary foods

Babies under 1.5 years old need very small portions of food. Someone feeds the child from a portioned jar, while someone prefers to cook on their own. To simplify this process, the blender-steamer comes to the rescue .

This is a combined instrument. It consists of a compartment with water and a bowl with knives. First you need to cut the vegetables, turn on the steamer mode and wait for the end of cooking. Then switch the lever to blender mode and grind them. The whole process takes no more than 20 minutes.

With a steamer blender, food preparation takes much less time than with a conventional steamer or slow cooker. In one bowl, food is chopped and cooked, so there is less washing up. In addition, it is more convenient to cook small portions in such a device, and not in traditional ways.

In the steamer blender, you can cook all kinds of steamed dishes, with or without pre-grinding.

When choosing a device, pay attention to its power. The higher it is, the faster the water boils. Suitable values are 400-500 watts.

In chopping, power does not play a special role, since sinewy meat will not be used for children, and any model will cope with vegetables and turkey.