Ninja baby food

The 8 Best Blenders for Baby Food of 2023

The best gear to help you feed your baby homemade meals

Sharon Lehman, RDN

Sharon Lehman is a freelance writer and Registered Dietitian Nutritionist specializing in food, health, and wellness topics. She is the Small Appliance Expert for The Spruce Eats.

Learn about The Spruce Eats' Editorial Process

Updated on 07/13/22

We independently research, test, review, and recommend the best products—learn more about our process. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a commission.

The Spruce Eats / Lecia Landis

Making your own baby food puts you in control of what goes into your child's meals and will save you money at the grocery store. It also gives parents a more hands-on role in the process of discovering their little ones' culinary preferences. What better feeling than watching your baby happily devour a meal you lovingly prepared? It might sound like an intimidating and time-consuming task, but in reality, the process is pretty simple.

You can make an endless variety of single- and multiple-ingredient baby blends with just two basic steps: steaming or roasting, and then blending. Fruits, vegetables, and proteins can be roasted in the oven or steamed on the stovetop, microwave, or in an electric food steamer. While you could mash by hand or process steamed food through a food mill, a blender saves you the time and mess by making quick work of pureeing everything from baby’s first bites to thicker, more advanced textures. Plus, blenders are a staple for making smoothies and frozen pops, both useful recipes when introducing fruit and veggies.

Standard blenders, handheld stick blenders, and baby-food makers are all options for creating both single-ingredient purees and more complex recipes.

To help you figure out which style is best for your needs, here are the best blenders for making baby food.

Our Top Picks

Best Overall:

Vitamix Ascent Series Blender Family Pack at Vitamix.com

Best with Steamer:

Baby Brezza Glass One Step Baby Food Maker at Amazon

Best Glass System:

BEABA Babycook Neo Baby Food Maker at Amazon

Best Handheld:

Vitamix Immersion Blender at Amazon

Best Budget:

Sage Spoonfuls Baby Puree & Blend Immersion Blender at Amazon

Best Ninja:

Ninja Foodi Power Blender and Processor System at Amazon

Best Mini:

Nuby Mighty Blender Baby Food Maker Set at Amazon

Best with Storage:

Nutribullet Baby The Complete Baby Food Prep System at Amazon

In This Article

Our Picks
What to Look For
FAQs
Why Trust The Spruce Eats?

Vitamix

View On Vitamix. com

What We Like

Versatile
Powerful motor
Easy to clean

What We Don't Like

Yes, the price tag on this Vitamix model is splurge-worthy, but it takes our top spot because it’s one of the most versatile and coveted blenders on the market.

Vitamix created this family pack to include extra storage containers to make and store batches of baby food or smoothies to go. It comes with the trademark Vitamix 64-ounce, low-profile blending container, a 20-ounce lidded blending cup, and a pair of 8-ounce lidded bowls that are the perfect size for making fresh baby meals. Additional bowls are available for separate purchase and all bowls, cups, and blender jars are dishwasher safe for easy cleaning.

The blender is equipped with “Self-Detect Technology” that enables it to recognize when the blending cup or bowls are being used and adjust the blender’s speed and power for their smaller size. The Vitamix A2300 packs a whopping 2.2-horsepower motor, which is more than enough power to make ultra-smooth purees out of tougher ingredients, like leafy greens and dried prunes, and whip up smoothies (great for the whole family, including young children), frozen desserts, fresh nut butter, soups, and more.

The dial lets you control the speed with 10 settings so you can achieve any consistency you need. The Ascent series also has built-in WiFi connectivity and can be paired with the Vitamix app for access to a recipe library.

Price at time of publish: $650

Power Rating: 2.2 HP | What’s Included: Blender base, 64-ounce container, 20-ounce cup with lid, 2 8-ounce bowls with lids, tamper, blade base, and cookbook | Maximum Capacity: 64 ounces | Dimensions: 11 x 8 x 17 inches | Weight: 11.86 pounds | Warranty: 10 years

Amazon

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What We Like

Glass work bowl
Automatically cooks, blends, and shuts off
Dishwasher-safe parts

What We Don't Like

If you’re looking for an all-in-one system to streamline the baby food-making process, the Baby Brezza is going to be your new favorite kitchen tool. It steam cooks, then automatically switches to blending, so you can fill it, start it, and walk away while it works.

Doing all the cooking and blending in the same appliance helps cut down on dirty dishes, and the Brezza works quickly, with most recipes ready to serve or store in 10 to 15 minutes. An LCD control panel houses the versatile settings making it easy to choose between steam only, blend only, or steam and blend.

The glass bowl holds up to 4 cups of food and is dishwasher safe. If you want to save a few dollars, there’s also a Baby Brezza model with a plastic work bowl that costs a bit less. The Baby Brezza includes a spatula to help you scrape every last bit of food from the blender and a recipe book to start your creative cooking juices.

Price at time of publish: $130

Amazon

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What We Like

What We Don't Like

The Beaba Babycook Neo is an all-in-one system, but the big draw with this model is its eco-friendly materials. Parents who prefer plastic-free items will appreciate the glass and stainless steel construction.

The Babycook system can steam and blend fresh ingredients. It promises to turn raw fruit, vegetables, and even meat and fish into ready-to-eat or freeze baby meals in just 15 minutes. The Beaba can also be used to warm and defrost cold or frozen baby meals straight from the fridge or freezer—a useful feature if you prefer not to use a microwave for heating.

Parents who prefer baby items that fit in with their decor will appreciate Beaba’s modern design and attractive color choices. It has a small footprint, so it won’t take up too much space on the counter or could even be tucked into a cabinet.

Whether you want to make apple sauce, veggie purees, or multi-ingredient toddler meals, the process is easy. You just fill the water reservoir and place your food in the steamer basket insert. Just touch the steam button to start the cooking process. When food is cooked, the unit will automatically shut off and sound a timer. Then, you can transfer your food into the blender and hold the pulse button until the desired texture is reached. The brand also sells lidded glass storage containers and an insert for cooking rice, pasta, and grains.

Price at time of publish: $260

Amazon

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What We Like

Compact, space-saving design
Can be used to puree in pots, jars, and bowls
Quiet
Easy to clean

What We Don't Like

Vitamix Immersion Blender Review

You don’t need a huge blender to make big batches of baby food in advance. A handheld immersion or stick blender can process both small and large quantities of food without taking up too much kitchen real estate. The Vitamix Immersion Blender is a plug-in model with a 5-foot cord, so you’ll have plenty of reach. The 625-watt motor with 5 variable speeds helps you create any texture you want and control exactly how smooth or chunky baby’s meals will be.

A big draw of an immersion blender is the ability to blend one-handed right in cooking pots, bowls, cups, and wide-mouth Mason jars. The Vitamix can fit in any vessel with at least a 3-inch wide opening. As infants begin to transition to eating what the family eats, this immersion blender can be used to process their portion into an age-appropriate texture and consistency right before serving.

To clean, simply submerge in a jar or bowl of soapy water and let it run for a few seconds, then rinse off and dry. It’s backed by Vitamix’s legendary customer service and will provide tons of versatility since it can also be used to make grown-up recipes, like pureed creamy soups, sauces, dressings, marinades, and dips.

Price at time of publish: $150

The Spruce / Donna Currie

What Our Testers Say

"It had no trouble blending cooked fruits to make a tasty mostarda, it handled freshly cooked dried beans to make refried beans, and it made a silky smooth tomato soup. " — Donna Currie, Product Tester

The Best Immersion Blenders for Soups, Sauces, and Smoothies

Amazon

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What We Like

What We Don't Like

The Sage Spoonfuls Baby Food Maker has all the tools you need to get started making baby food with a minimal investment. It’s also the right size for small kitchens or households that already have a full-size blender but want a dedicated tool to use just for making baby food.

The 2-in-1 system works as both an immersion blender and a food processor. The handheld stick blender can be used to blend full pots of soups, sauces, and steamed fruits and vegetables. Or, you can detach the motor from the immersion blade and attach it to the work bowl to create a mini food processor—great for creating finely chopped and minced foods as your baby progresses to more advanced textures.

Attachments are dishwasher safe, and the work bowl is made from plastic that's free of BPA, phthalates, lead, and PVC. Glass storage jars in various sizes, which are highly rated by consumers, are sold separately to help you baby meal prep in bulk.

Price at time of publish: $49

The 9 Best Glass Food Storage Containers of 2023, Tested and Reviewed

Amazon

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What We Like

Versatile
Powerful motor
Easy to clean

What We Don't Like

Noisy
Heavy

Like our top pick, the Ninja Foodi Power Blender makes the list because of its tremendous versatility and value. If you want a multifunctional appliance that can help you make baby food, but can also be used to feed the rest of the family, a powerful standard blender like the Ninja is your best bet.

It even comes with lots of blending containers for your family’s needs. It includes a standard blending pitcher, a blending cup for smoothies, and a bowl that’s ideal for churning frozen recipes without much liquid, like smoothie bowls and frozen desserts.

The Foodi blender has a 1,400-watt motor that can handle everything from crushing ice, blending frozen ingredients for smoothies, mixing dough, and yes, processing steamed ingredients into textured baby meals. The variable speed dial lets you control the consistency of your baby recipes and there are six preset blending functions for smoothies, extractions, bowls, spreads, chopping, and dough.

Price at time of publish: $200

Power Rating: 1400 watts | What’s Included: Blender base, 72-ounce blender pitcher, crushing/chopping blade, dough blade, 24-ounce cup with lid, 14-ounce smoothie bowl maker with lid, recipe book | Maximum Capacity: 3 cups | Dimensions: 8. 19 x 8.43 x 14.17 inches | Weight: 8.2 pounds | Warranty: 1 year limited

The Spruce Eats / Sharon Lehman

The 8 Best Ninja Blenders of 2023

Amazon

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What We Like

What We Don't Like

If you don’t have a lot of counter space to dedicate to baby food making, a mini blending set might be worth the investment. The Nuby Mighty Blender Baby Food Maker Set includes everything you need to get started steaming, blending, and storing fresh baby food.

It's a bullet-style blender that is powered by pushing down on the blending cup, so there are no settings or controls to navigate. You can control the consistency of your blends by adjusting the blending time.

The set includes two stainless-steel blades designed for blending cooked foods and grinding oats or other grains into fine powders to make your own baby cereals. The two blending jars included are a large batch bowl and a smaller blending cup. There's also a steamer basket that fits into the large blending bowl and can be used in the microwave. A freezer tray and six lidded storage cups are also included, plus a spatula and spoons to help you transfer your blends.

Price at time of publish: $70

Power Rating: 200 watts | What’s Included: Blending blade, milling blade, blender base, batch bowl, steamer basket, short blending cup with lid, spatula, 6 2-ounce storage cups with lids, freezer tray, 2 feeding spoons, recipe book | Maximum Capacity: 2 cups | Dimensions: 10.43 x 8.20 x 11.00 inches | Weight: 5.3 pounds | Warranty: 1 year limited

Amazon

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What We Like

What We Don't Like

Plastic construction
May not hold up with regular use
200-watt motor may not offer enough power

Similar to the popular Magic Bullet, the Nutribullet Baby is a miniature blending system that saves on storage space. You can blend in either the 32-ounce bowl to make large batches of purees or in the 12-ounce cups for smaller portions that will be eaten right away. It comes with enough baby food storage to get you on your way to building both a refrigerator and freezer stash of baby’s favorite meals.

If you’re meal prepping for a baby, you can use the two included silicone freezer trays to proportion and freeze your homemade blends. There are also a dozen lidded storage cups that fit neatly into a storage tray to help keep your refrigerator tidy. Everything is dishwasher safe, so cleaning up after a round of baby food prep is super quick and easy.

Some reviewers have been disappointed to find the blender begins to degrade or the motor gives out after several months of heavy use, so this model may be a better choice for occasional use.

Price at time of publish: $70

Power Rating: 200 watts | What’s Included: Motor base, blending blade, 32 ounce bowl with lid, 12 ounce short cup with handles and re-sealable lid, 6 storage cups with date ring lids and storage tray, silicone freezer tray with lid and recipe book | Maximum Capacity: 32 ounces | Weight: 4. 55 pounds | Warranty: 1 year limited

The 8 Best Food Steamers of 2023

Final Verdict

If you’re looking for a blender that can not only whip up fresh batches of baby food, but can also be used by the whole family for years to come, we recommend investing in a powerful standard blender, like the Vitamix Ascent Series A2300 or Ninja Foodi Blender.

What to Look for When Buying a Blender for Baby Food

Style

The type of blender you buy to make baby food depends on how often you’ll use it, how much baby food you plan to make, how much storage space you have, and your budget. If your plan is to prepare large batches of baby food and freeze in individual portions, then a standard countertop blender with a large capacity might be your best bet.

Standard blenders can be budget priced or cost several hundred dollars, but the more powerful ones tend to be the most expensive. They take up the most counter space, but they also offer the most versatility since they can be used to blend smoothies, sauces, batters, and frozen desserts.

An immersion stick blender can also handle large batches of food and is very useful as babies transition to eating what the rest of the family has for dinner. A quick pulse of an immersion blender can transform chunkier soups, stews, and sauces into a more manageable texture for young babies either right in the cooking pot or in a serving bowl. Immersion blenders are also easier to store than standard blenders.

If you have limited storage or think you’ll make some, but not all, of baby’s meals at home, then a smaller blender, like a personal bullet-style blender, can also save on space and cost. Dedicated all-in-one baby food makers are another option.

Included Storage

If you don’t want to bother with figuring out a baby food storage system, which could include investing in multiple freezer trays and airtight glass or plastic containers, look for a blending system that comes with some storage to get you started.

Some of the blenders on this list include several lidded cups or jars so you can place what you make directly into cold storage. Most dedicated baby food makers also have storage containers sold separately.

Freezer trays are useful for prepping large batches of baby food in advance. One or two frozen cubes can be popped out and thawed for baby’s meals when you don’t have time or are too tired to cook from scratch.

FAQs

How do you make homemade baby food?

The first step is to prepare the produce by washing, peeling, and removing any pits or seeds. If the vegetable or fruit needs to be cooked (to become tender), you can steam it on the stovetop or in the microwave, or roast it in the oven. Then simply place it in the blender and puree; if the mixture needs to be thinned out, you can add breast milk, formula, or water.

What's the best way to store homemade baby food?

Pureed fruits and vegetables need to be kept in the refrigerator or freezer in an airtight container. If refrigerated, the baby food will stay fresh for two to three days; frozen homemade baby food will last up to a month. Make sure to label and date the containers before storing. You can spoon the pureed food into an ice cube tray before freezing to create individual servings.

When do I feed my baby pureed food?

It is recommended that you start your baby on puree once they are 4 to 6 months old and continue until they reach 8 to 12 months. Keep this in mind if you are making large batches and freezing the homemade baby food for later.

Why Trust The Spruce Eats?

Sharon Lehman is a registered dietitian nutritionist, a new mom (established 2020), and the author of this roundup. She owns a Vitamix blender, which she uses daily to blend smoothies and fruit ice pops, mash sweet potatoes, puree Bolognese, grind oats, and more for her hungry and growing baby boy. She happily makes space for any gadget that makes cooking faster and easier and specializes in small kitchen appliance testing and reviews for The Spruce Eats.

The Best New Baby Gift Baskets for Parents

Updated by

Amy Gordon

Amy Gordon is an expert recipe editor and food writer who has been contributing to online, magazine, and book publishing for over 25 years.

Learn about The Spruce Eats' Editorial Process

Additional reporting by

Allison Wignall

Allison Wignall is a staff writer for The Spruce Eats who focuses on product reviews. She has also contributed to publications such as Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, and Southern Living.

Learn about The Spruce Eats' Editorial Process

Article Sources

The Spruce Eats uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Food and Drug Administration. Bisphenol A (BPA): Use in food contact application.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Phthalates fact sheet.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ToxFAQs for vinyl chloride.

Ninja BL660 Review | Tested by BabyGearLab

A blender with a unique blade system, safety locking lid, suction-cup feet, and more extras, but can't handle hot liquids

Credit: Ninja

$100 at Amazon

Price: $120 List

Manufacturer: Ninja

By Molly Bradac ⋅ Senior Review Editor ⋅ Jul 2, 2021

OVERALL
SCORE

RANKED
#1 of 10

Puree Quality - 35% 9. 5
Ease of Use - 30% 7.5
Health/Safety - 20% 9.0
Ease of Cleaning - 15% 8.8

RELATED: Best Baby Food Makers

The Skinny

For making homemade baby food, the Ninja BL660 performs well, making it an attractive and compelling option. It has a unique blade system (three sets of blades!) to blend and pulverize ingredients and creates a puree acceptable for most babies. The machine sports convenience features, such as suction cup feet to keep it steady while blending and space for cord storage on the base's backside. However, the Ninja cannot blend hot ingredients. Therefore, you must allow food items to cool to room temperature. Also, the blades are sharp and can scratch the pitcher's inside if they accidentally brush against the pitcher's wall while removing or assembling. Despite these factors, you might appreciate the blender's unique blade system.

REASONS TO BUY

Top-performer

Three-tier blade

Safety mechanisms

And lots of extras

REASONS TO AVOID

Can't accommodate hot ingredients

Blade can scratch pitcher

Compare to Similar Products

(change comparison)

	This Product Ninja BL660	NutriBullet Blender	Oster Pro 1200 Blender	Sage Spoonfuls Puree and Blend	OXO Tot Food Masher
Awards
Price	$120 List $99.95 at Amazon	$110 List $101.53 at Amazon	$90 List $89.99 at Amazon	$50 List $49.99 at Amazon	$12.00 List $11.99 at Amazon
Overall Score
Star Rating	1 2 3 4 5	1 2 3 4 5	1 2 3 4 5	1 2 3 4 5	1 2 3 4 5
Pros	Top-performer, three-tier blade, safety mechanisms, and lots of extras	Easy to use, excellent purees, large batches, easy to clean	Glass, easier cleaning, above-average performance, and user-friendly	Quality puree, easy to clean, inexpensive	Minimal, small in size, compact, lid included, easy to clean, inexpensive, portable
Cons	Can't accommodate hot ingredients, blade can scratch pitcher	No cooking feature, not portable, takes up space	Loud on highest setting, trapped food chunks under blade	Does not cook	Below-average puree quality, small amounts, requires effort, lid may pop-off, staining
Bottom Line	A blender with a unique blade system, safety locking lid, suction-cup feet, and more extras, but can't handle hot liquids	A top-notch blender that consistently creates smooth purees and offers enough capacity to produce large batches of baby food but takes up kitchen counter real estate	A blender that performs decently and features a Boroclass pitcher that is durable and healthier for babies	Simple, inexpensive, and versatile, this unit makes baby food in a snap	A travel-friendly, manual food maker that mashes, but does not puree like machines
Rating Categories	Ninja BL660	NutriBullet Blender	Oster Pro 1200 Blender	Sage Spoonfuls Pure. ..	OXO Tot Food Masher
Puree Quality (35%)
Ease of Use (30%)
Health/Safety (20%)
Ease of Cleaning (15%)
Specs	Ninja BL660	NutriBullet Blender	Oster Pro 1200 Blender	Sage Spoonfuls Pure...	OXO Tot Food Masher
Capacity	72 oz. Pitcher (MAX Liquid Capacity : 64 oz./8 cups)	8 cups	6 cups	Not Listed for Food Processor, N/A for Immersion Blender	Not Listed
Footprint	Large	Large	Large	Small	Small
Steam	No	No	No	No	No
Settings	Blend, Puree	Blend, Puree	Blend, Puree	Blend, Puree	Blend, Mash
Special Features		None		None	None
Included Accessories	(1) 72 oz. Pitcher, (2) 16 oz. Nutri Ninja Cups with Lids, and (1) Small Blade	Tamper, Recipe Booklet	(1) 6 cup Pitcher, 24 oz. Smoothie Cup with Lid	HomeMade Essentials Package Available with (1) Recipe Book, (6) Glass 4oz Storage Jars, (60) Labels, (1) Immersion Blender with Food Processor Attachment and Pocket Guide	(1) Lid
Available Accessories	None	Yes	None	Sage Baby Eco Steamer, Sage Spoonfuls - Simple Recipes, Healthy Meals, Happy Babies; Sage Spoonfuls Pocket Guide, Assorted Storage Jars, Pouches, Snackie and Munchie Bag Sets	None

Show full specification detailsHide full specification details

Our Analysis and Test Results

Ninja is one of several house-care brands developed by SharkNinja Operating LLC, a well-established company in the housewares industry. They produce not only household appliances, including blenders, but also home cleaning products, like vacuums. Driven by innovation and ease of use, plus competitive pricing, the company strives to impact people worldwide with helpful products.

Performance Comparison

The Ninja BL660 comes with some extras, such as two 16 oz. Nutri Ninja cups with lids, suction cup feet, and cord storage.

Credit: Abriah Wofford

Puree Quality

We blended various foods from soft to raw, including frozen, to compare the puree quality of each machine. Equipped with an 1100 watt motor and unique blade system (amping up the blending efficacy), this machine certainly has enough power and an innovative design to blend most foods. Therefore, it may come as no surprise that this machine was a top performer in this metric.

This machine excels at blending soft foods, like bananas and avocados, and prepared a puree of meats and grains that can work for most babies. Although kale and uncooked foods can cause issues for most machines, the Ninja BL660 did a fine job with these ingredients, only leaving behind tiny pieces like skins.

Peas.Carrot.

The container's design does not accommodate hot blending, so you'll need cool ingredients to room temperature. We consider this a drawback as food items are often hot while preparing baby food ingredients or family meals, so it can be inconvenient to wait for ingredients to cool. Despite having top scores in this metric, this drawback kept it from receiving an award.

The Ninja BL660 features a unique blade system that is unlike any other contender in our review.

Credit: Abriah Wofford

Ease of Use

If a machine is easy to set up and use, it is more likely that you'll use it for your baby food-making adventures. Fortunately for the Ninja, it scored high in this metric. Out of the box, the machine is easy to set up and has a short learning curve before you start blending. You will need to cook or steam ingredients depending on what you'd like to prepare. But, once ingredients are ready to go and cooled, the blending task is quick.

Besides the base and BPA-free pitcher (72 oz. capacity, but MAX liquid capacity is 64 oz), you get two Nutri Ninja cups (16 oz.) and a blade unit to use with the cups. The Nutri Ninja smoothie cups work well to blend smaller portions, and they come with to-go lids so that you can stick them in the fridge. However, the to-go lids are not travel-friendly, with open drinking holes that are not sealable. So, if you prep a smoothie for the road and it falls over, a mess is unavoidable.

This blender has a few features of convenience that we appreciate, such as suction-cup feet and space for cord storage, which is handy when striving to keep your countertop tidy.

The Ninja BL660 has multiple safeguards. For the machine to operate, lock the lid and twist and lock the pitcher into place. It also has a motor thermostat, meaning the motor will turn off if overheated.

Credit: Abriah Wofford

Health and Safety

Among other competitors, the Ninja has a rather high score for health and safety as it features a fair amount of safety mechanisms. For instance, the lid's handle locks down for the blender to work, and the two arrows must point towards each other, showing the cover is on correctly.

According to the user manual, you should not run the appliance beyond four minutes to prevent overheating of the machine. There is an internal motor thermostat, and if the appliance is being overloaded, the motor will stop. However, as a good rule of thumb, be mindful of how long you are using the blender.

The blade system on this Ninja is very sharp. While testing, we noticed that the blade rod scratched the inside of the pitcher, despite our best efforts to remove or place it without touching the pitcher (kind of reminded us of the game Operation). If this occurs, we worry about plastic entering the food. Therefore, we advise users to be extremely careful when handling the blades, and if you plan on handwashing it, use a bottle brush.

If you prefer to prepare a small batch of homemade baby food, a blade is included with the Nutri Ninja cups.

Credit: Abriah Wofford

Ease of Cleaning

If a machine is easy to clean and maintain, it will positively influence your food-making experience. Again, the Ninja ranks high in this metric.

Contrary to all-in-one machines with steam tanks, this machine is much easier to clean with fewer concerns about potential mold growth. Also, The benefit of selecting a blender is that it cleans itself by blending water with a small drop of soap. Finally, keep in mind, washing the pitcher as soon as possible while food is moist will help ease the overall cleaning process as dried-on food can be stubborn and difficult to remove.

According to the user manual, all of the removable parts are dishwasher safe. However, we suggest handwashing plastic products for longevity and to avoid the potential of plastic leaching chemicals.

— Molly Bradac

Ninja Turtles: Good with Big Fists | Motherhood

Everyone feels that there is a big difference between our old cartoons and "Western" ones (from American to Japanese). According to the child psychologist, member of the Union of Writers, chairman of the international society of art teachers and art therapists, author (together with T. L. Shishova) of the method of "puppet therapy" Irina Yakovlevna Medvedeva, behind this difference there are deep differences in the picture of the world.

When choosing a cartoon, one must be ten times more careful than when choosing a book, because visual images affect a child much more strongly. If we talk about "Soviet" cartoons, they are good because they reflect a normal picture of the world for a child born in Russia. Basically, it is Orthodox, because evil in this picture of the world is not ontological, not pre-eternal, it parasitizes on good, and good is eternal. And in this good picture of the world, some small piece of evil is interspersed in the form of a negative character. This negative character, as a rule, is also easily re-educated. And it suddenly turns out that he is so vicious only because no one was friends with him, no one loved him, no one sympathized with him. It is very important that in the "Soviet" cartoons the evil character was presented in a humorous form, which counterbalanced his "villainous" essence.

Such a picture of the world harmonizes the child's psyche. Therefore, these cartoons are useful for children who are unhealthy or weakened by some kind of mental trauma. For children with communication problems (of which there are a lot now), they give the right models of behavior: how to make friends, how to be a good friend, how to help others.

As for "Western" cartoons, I can't say that they are useful for a child. As a clinical psychologist, I often encountered phobias (pathological fears) caused by "Western" and Japanese cartoons. Formally, everything is the same in them: there are positive and negative heroes, the positive ones win. Well, what's wrong?

First of all, these cartoons have a completely different picture of the world. The world, the background against which the events of the cartoon take place, lies hopelessly in evil. And only miserable grains of good in the form of some kind of ninja turtles are trying to fight evil. Moreover, evil, as a rule, is destroyed physically, which is absolutely not familiar to our mode of action in fairy tales, where they tried to fight evil in other ways: they tried to outwit it or persuade it. We only cut off the heads of the Serpent Gorynych. There has never been such a thing that blood flows like a river in cartoons.

But the most important thing is that the villain in foreign "cartoons" is Shredder in "Ninja Turtles", all these cyborgs are the modern incarnation of the devil. This is not typical for Russian culture, because in Orthodoxy there has always been a very strict ban on close contact between a person and evil spirits. And, for example, for the Western European novel, this is a long tradition. Therefore, it probably does not cause transthreshold fears in Western children, but it does in our children, because there is no centuries-old cultural inoculation in their genetic memory.

Representatives of good in "Western" cartoons are rather ugly - these turtles or supermen, who can easily turn into representatives of evil in the next series. Good and evil are interchangeable very easily. We cannot imagine such werewolves: Ivan Tsarevich cannot become the Serpent Gorynych in the next series of the cartoon, and Vasilisa the Wise cannot become Baba Yaga. I think that planting such ugly (in the sense of ugly) heroes is very harmful, because if our life, including the life of a child, is given to us so that we ascend from the image to the likeness, then when the image is taken away, the path becomes more difficult. to likeness.

In general, children should not be overfed with any cartoons. I think that a good cartoon should be a reward, a celebration. It is useful to use cartoons as a tool of reward and punishment (to deprive a child of a cartoon if he misbehaves). In fact, a child always prefers communication to TV, and if an adult communicates with him, then the child does not really need a movie or cartoon, and sometimes it is not needed at all.