Yesterday, we received a message from Sandra, in Canada.
She asked us…
“I’ve started to make my own baby food but my daughter gags and cries! She liked my apple sauce but that is it! She is seven months old and loves all commercial brand veggies. How can I switch her to homemade?“
Here’s our reply – I hope you find this useful if you find yourself in the same situation!
I am so pleased that you have started to make your own baby food – and sorry to hear that your little one isn’t yet appreciating your efforts!
I’m assuming from your message that, so far, she has been eating jars of pureed, single ingredient veggies. These have a VERY smooth texture, so I think the first step would be to ensure that you are achieving the same texture at home. Of course, once she is accepting the home-cooked version of the vegetable, then you can try mashing it instead of pureeing it.
The issue may not be with texture, of course, and may simply be down to taste. Like all commercially prepared foods, jarred pureed veggies taste different to those you’ve prepared yourself.
My advice would be to take one of your baby’s favourite jarred purees (carrots, for example). Prepare your own batch of pureed carrots, then stir just a teaspoon of your homemade puree into the jarred variety and serve it to your daughter. The next day, mix in 2 teaspoons of the homemade puree. Continue to do this, adding a little extra homemade puree each day, to give your little girl the time to slowly become accustomed to the new flavour.
Within a week or two, she should be happily accepting the homemade puree by itself – and you can put the jarred puree behind you for good!
If your baby has made the transition from jarred foods to homemade baby food, here are some great ways to reuse all those baby food jars!
