homemade baby food

Let's feed the baby! For the first six months of baby's life, all he consumes is breast milk or formula — and when the time comes to introduce him to real foods, mama wants only the best. For this reason, lots of new moms decide to make their baby food at home, using organic fruits and veggies, and a baby food processor makes the endeavor oh-so-much easier!

• Simple: The Magic Baby Bullet ($80), from the makers of the Magic Bullet, allows mama to prepare homemade baby food in seconds and comes with everything you need to store up to five days worth of food for baby! It's BPA free and comes with a helpful little cookbook.
• Swank: The Beaba Babycook ($150) does it all! This unique appliance isn't just a food processor, it functions as a steamer, blender, warmer, and defroster to prepare fresh, healthy meals for baby.

Which do you prefer?

Susan Lucci has a new project now that All My Children has said goodbye. Jumping on the homemade baby food trend, she's promoting her daughter Liza's brand-new cookbook for lil purees. The two of them appeared on Good Morning America (along with Susan's granddaughter) to discuss Sage Spoonfuls and show off some of their techniques. See if the babies ate it up below!

Though he races around the country serving up alternatives to fast food as the host of The Great Food Truck Race, Tyler Florence slows things down when it comes to feeding his own kids. The Food Network veteran and father of three — Miles, 14, Hayden, 4, Dorothy, 3 — is making it easier than ever for parents to cook healthy, veggie-rich meals for their kids. I sat down with the chef to discuss his new family cookbook, Start Fresh: Your Child's Jump Start to Lifelong Healthy Eating, and learned a little more about his one family meal concept. Here are some more excerpts from our conversation:

On why he's making children's food his new mission: If you think about most baby foods, at 33 cents a portion — and that’s two different companies making a profit on top of that — you have to wonder, what kind of quality is really in that jar. I’m a dog lover, and our pet food costs more per portion than the jarred [baby] food you find at the grocery store. When we start to piece this whole thing together, we started to realize that there was a market for super-premium baby food.

On avoiding the creation of picky eaters: Dr. Alan Greene writes in my book that if you don’t introduce children to foods by the time they’re 2 or 3, there’s a syndrome to protect themselves from experiences that may harm us. So if you think about that from a primate state, that if your mother hadn’t shown you something to eat by the time you’re 3-4 years old, maybe you shouldn’t eat it . . . they look at it like it will harm them.

On sending kids to bed without dinner: Sure, [we do it] all the time. They’re not going to die. If it gets to a point where you’ve had enough of them throwing the plate on the floor, then you have to remove them from the situation. Because they’re just destroying the experience for everyone else. It's really about knowing in your heart that you’re creating a well-balanced adult, and that you’re not going to create that child that is still eating chicken fingers when they’re 16 years old.

Keep reading to see what Tyler recommends parents keep in their freezers and whether or not he's opening a baby food truck!

Get ready to puree! In addition to learning Top Chef host Tom Colicchio's tips for throwing together a last-minute meal at the Electrolux/Ovarian Cancer Research Fund event, I also sat down with the dad of three – Dante, 18, Luka, 21 months, and Matteo, 8 weeks – to discuss the secret to getting kids to eat virtually anything. According to the chef, early introduction is key! He also shared his pick for best store-bought baby food, how to cook with kids in the kitchen, and what new projects are on the horizon for him and his growing family. Check it out!

Editor’s note: The following is a guest post written by Annabel Karmel, the British children's chef and kiddie cookbook author. This week Annabel shares an easy first fish puree to help increase lil ones' fatty acid intake.

The old saying that "fish is good for the brain" is absolutely true. Oil rich fish such as salmon, tuna, and sardines are rich in omega-3 essential fats, which are vital for brain function and visual development. Our brains are made up of 60 percent fat and eating the right fats – omega-3 and omega 6 found in fish and seeds – makes us smarter. Introducing oily fish, like salmon, around 7 months will get them used to the taste from an early age.

To see the entire recipe, read more

Editor’s note: The following is a guest post written by Annabel Karmel, the British children's chef and kiddie cookbook author. This week Annabel shares some tips, tricks, and recipes for creating purees for the littlest eaters in the family.

The transition from milk to solid food should be gradual. Purees are a great way to introduce baby to a balanced diet, particularly for foods that can be difficult to eat, but provide important nutrients such as red meat or ones that are too soft to be held such as fish. You can’t rush meal time with a baby and remember at first, if they only eat a couple of spoonfuls of puree you are doing well!

To see Annabel demonstrate making stage two fruit and veggie purees, read more

Fish is what's for dinner. A new article on Time.com suggests that moms should introduce omega-3 fatty acid-rich fish to wee ones' diets at the same time as chicken and beef to boost a child's brain power and get her accustomed to the taste.

According to Susan Brewer, a professor of food science at the University of Illinois, ingesting omega-3s, particularly DHA, will provide infants with the levels they need for proper brain development. She's developing a fishy baby puree that combines wild salmon, salmon bonemeal, and roe (to boost nutrient levels) into a meal that "tastes more like salmon and cream-cheese dip than plain salmon." It may be a while before her creation hits store shelves, but Happy Baby ($17 for 16) currently has one on the market. When did your children start eating fish?

Keep reading for a basic fish puree recipe.