Baby Food: The Cost of Convenience 2

Last Saturday I started looking at how much it costs to buy prepared baby food.  I went through cereals, veggies, and fruits.  This week I would like to take a look at foods for older babies.  Keep in mind that I pay no more than $1/lb. for produce and dry goods or $2/lb. for meat.  Therefore, any meal I serve will cost below $2/lb. and often costs less than $1/lb.

Gerber ham & ham gravy:  2.5 oz. for $0.87

Regardless of how much it costs, meat from a jar is just gross.  But then you realize you're paying $5.57/lb. for ham and ham gravy!  Ew!

Gerber Graduates, cinnamon apple oatmeal:  4.5 oz. for $1.59 (sale price)

This is different than the blended fruits with oatmeal that I mentioned last week because it has chunks for babies who are learning to chew.  I can cut April's fruit into chunks and add it to oatmeal for a lot less than $5.65/lb.

Gerber Yogurt Blends, banana:  14 oz. for $2.47

I pay $0.40-$0.50/lb. for bananas and I make my own yogurt.  Much cheaper than $2.82/lb.

Gerber mixed vegetables and chicken:  6 oz. for  $0.80

Now this is a little more reasonable at $2.13/lb.  But it is starting to look like food I would feed the rest of my family.  I may as well just feed my baby the fresh food I'm cooking at home.

Gerber spaghetti in tomato sauce with beef:  6 oz. for  $0.80

Same deal as the mixed vegetables and chicken.  I bet my spaghetti tastes much better though!

Gerber Graduates, mashed potatoes and gravy with roasted chicken and carrots:  5.3 oz. for $2.15

Notice that this meal is mostly potatoes.  Potatoes are definitely not worth the $6.49/lb. that this baby meal costs.

Gerber Graduates, spaghetti rings in meat sauce:  6 oz. for $1.28

My kids won't eat stuff like this.  Which is good, because it would cost me $3.41/lb.

Beech Nut Steamies, macaroni and cheese:  12 oz. for $2.67

Homemade just tastes so much better!!  And doesn't cost $3.56/lb.

Beech Nut Steamies, chicken vegetable stars:  12 oz. for $2.67

Oooo!  Soup with cute little stars that are perfect for baby!  It will cost $3.56/lb.

Campbell's condensed chicken and stars:  10.5 oz. for $1.50

Here's basically the same thing not marketed for babies and it only costs $2.29/lb., but it's even less once you  reconstitute it.

El Guapo star pasta:  7 oz. for $0.25

Or you could make your own soup with cute little stars even cheaper.  These can be found in the Mexican section, right next to the cute alphabet noodles!

This marks the end of my weekly baby food posts.  I will definitely post special diet milestones:  first birthday cake, first cow milk, first peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  So be on the lookout for those.  Thank you so much for following along on our feeding journey.  April and I hope we have encouraged you to save some money by making your own baby food!

Baby Food: The Cost of Convenience

For the past four months I have taken you on our baby food journey with April.  Now that she is basically eating everything, I’ve run out of material to post.  Except for a few additions to her diet that will come later (cow milk, honey, peanut butter, ribs, etc.), there pretty much isn’t anything she can’t or doesn’t eat.  But before I put this series aside until we introduce those foods, I’d like to take two more weeks to look solely at the financial savings of making your own baby food.

I started April on cereals first.  I made rice, wheat, oats, and grits.  I didn’t get to barley before she moved on to veggies, but she does eat it in soups now.  Rather than buying baby cereals, I went to the grain section of the WinCo bulk bins.  You can find all of these grains in the beans and rice section or the hot cereal section.  The average price I pay for any of these grains is $0.50-$0.60 per pound (remember, a pound is 16 ounces).  Keep in mind that this is per dry pound.  One pound of dry grain yields a couple to a few pounds of cooked grain.

Now let’s take a look at packaged baby cereals.

Gerber rice cereal:  8 oz. for $1.88

Gerber oatmeal:  16 oz. for $3.19

"Mixed grain" must be special because 8 oz.
costs $2.15.  Mixing grains at home is easy
and doesn't cost an extra $0.56 per pound.

Beech Nut oatmeal:  8 oz. for $1.69

Cheapest baby cereal?  Gerber oatmeal at $3.19 per pound!

Cardboard boxes taste good too.

Next we moved on to vegetables.  I made peas, corn, green beans, yams, butternut squash, acorn squash, and potatoes.  I generally pay $0.88 per pound for frozen vegetables and never pay more than $1.00 per pound for fresh.

Let's see what Gerber and Beech Nut have to offer.

Gerber peas:  7 oz. for $1.16

Gerber sweet potatoes and corn:  7 oz. for $1.16

Beech Nut corn and sweet potatoes:  4 oz. for $0.55

Beech Nut butternut squash:  2.5 oz. for $0.48

Cheapest baby vegetables?  Beech Nut corn and sweet potatoes at $2.20 per pound.

After vegetables we tackled applesauce and bananas.  First, I cannot believe people pay for baby food bananas...that's just bananas to me!  Second, I also mentioned that I do buy pre-made applesauce.  For me that is the most cost-effective way.  If you have an apple tree or can get them really inexpensively, it may be cheaper for you to make your own.

Let's see what I found at the store.

Gerber bananas:  5 oz. for $0.98

Beech Nut bananas:  2.5 oz. for $0.48

Beech Nut applesauce:  2.5 oz. for $0.48

Tree Top applesauce:  25 oz. for $2.19 (sale price)

Gerber blended fruits with oatmeal:  7 oz. for $1.16
Once again, I can mix things together at home pretty easily.

Cheapest baby fruit (without grain)?  Beech Nut bananas and applesauce at $3.07 per pound.

I can't possibly calculate how much money I have saved over April's solid-food-eating life.  But most of these pre-packaged baby foods cost 2-3 times more than my homemade baby food.  Plus my food was fresh!

Baby Food: Watermelon and Bread

If you regularly check in on Saturdays to see what April’s eating, you probably noticed that there was no baby food post last Saturday.  I didn’t even get an “I’m sorry, I don’t have a post” post up.  My sincerest apologies.  We were very busy entertaining royalty in honor of Keanna’s 7^th birthday.

To keep the party simple, we served PB&J, chips, and fruit.  I chose the fruit based on what was cheapest the few days before the party.  We ended up with watermelon and pineapple.  Watermelons will be coming in season shortly which means they will taste better and be less expensive.

Watermelon is a great fruit for babies learning to chew because it is so soft.  Even babies who do not yet have chewing teeth can mush it with their gums.  Be realistic, though, when feeding watermelon to your baby.  Because it is so juicy, it is messy.  Probably not a good idea to feed it to baby in her dress at the church picnic.  Unfortunately, I did not get a photo of April eating watermelon.  But here is one of her with Cinderella.

You can find Cinderella at her website here.

April has also been eating bread lately.  Be sure to feed baby whole grain bread so she doesn’t load up on empty calories.  I break it into little pieces and scatter them on her highchair tray.  She loves it when she gets to feed herself.

You just have to be sure to keep an eye on your baby while he or she is eating bread.  Babies don’t understand the “chew, swallow, then get more” concept.  If they put too much bread in their mouth and gum it together in a big mass, it could become a choking hazard.

Baby Food: Feeding from the Table

April discovered that she can glean from her high chair
if she gets there while I'm busy cleaning up the other
dishes.

April has now really developed great "chewing" skills!  Of course, she doesn't have any chewing teeth, so I guess she's actually developed great "gumming" skills.  Anyway, because she now knows how to mash food between her gums, I can feed her foods with more texture.  And because she's been through all the food types, I can now feed her the same foods we are eating!

There are a few simple guidelines that must be followed when feeding baby from the table:

• Small bites are a must!  Without teeth, babies only mash food while chewing, not tear it into little pieces like we do.  Don't feed her anything larger than she can/should swallow.
• Be sure everything is soft enough for their gums to mash.  Try mashing it between your fingers.
• Continue to watch for allergic reactions.  It is recommended that babies do not consume eggs, peanut products, cow milk, or eggs until they are at least one year old.*  Never feed babies honey during the first year as the spores it contains can make them very ill (see Infants and Honey).

In the past couple of weeks, I have been able to feed April without having to prepare separate meals for her.  She has had black beans and corn, taco meat, white bean and barley soup, taco soup, fried rice, and pancakes and sausage.

She also discovered a treasure trove of
Cheerios under the high chair.

*Regarding the issue of food allergies, there is research on both sides of the argument as to whether or not feeding babies foods too early causes food allergies.  If you have questions or concerns, always talk to your pediatrician.

Baby Food: Yogurt

My family loves yogurt, but I rarely buy it because it costs so much.  For years I’ve been thinking about making homemade yogurt so we could keep it in the house without paying the high price.  I finally tried it a few months ago and am hooked!  And April is hooked too!

It’s actually very simple.  There are yogurt making machines out there, but they are completely unnecessary if you have an instant read thermometer.

I try to avoid giving my babies pre-flavored yogurt because it has so much added sugar.  By making plain yogurt and flavoring it myself, I can control their sugar-intake.  And I don’t add any sugar that isn’t from fruit.

Plain Yogurt

1 qt. milk

½ c. plain yogurt with active cultures (store-bought or from previous batch)

On stove or in microwave, heat milk to 185° in an oven-safe dish (this takes 8 minutes in my microwave, but times will vary).  Cool to 110°.

Stir in yogurt.

Place in pre-heated 150° oven overnight or for about 6-8 hours.

I advise employing an oven thermometer.  To get my oven
thermometer to read like this...

...the dial has to be set like this.  If your oven gets too hot,
you'll end up with really gross custard.

Remove as much of the whey (liquid) as possible.

I start by pouring as much off as I can
without dumping the yogurt down the drain.

I then spoon some off.

I then use a tea towel or paper towels to soak
up the remaining whey from the surface.

Once it's stirred a little, more whey will come out.  Just
spoon it out and mix in what you can't get.

Whisk smooth.  Refrigerate.  Yield:  1 qt.  Cost:  the same as 1 qt. of milk.

Because it is plain, it is a bit on the sour side.  April will eat it about half of a serving plain before she starts to reject it.  I then mix in some bananas with the rest of it, though any puréed fruit would do.

Yogurt face!

Baby Food: Beef and "Casseroles"

April’s been eating chicken for a few weeks now.  I can tell you I have definitely noticed a change in her diapers.  Fortunately God created a mother’s love stronger than the smell of a poopy diaper.

Since she has now successfully gone through all the food groups, I can start making baby “casseroles.”  Not only does this get multiple food groups in one bowl, but it also allows me to feed her from what we’re eating.

The other day I made taco salad for dinner.  Obviously, April can’t eat taco salad.  But she can eat parts of it.  I threw some black beans, corn, and chicken into the food processor attachment of my immersion blender along with some of the corn cooking liquid.  She devoured it!

April thought it was finger-lickin'-good!

One of the great things about homemade baby food is that you can tell what it is by smelling and tasting it because everything is fresh.  One sniff of April’s dinner and you’d be able to tell that it had beans and corn in it.  Not so with jarred baby food.  Keanna and I recently went to a baby shower.  We played a game where we had to smell six jars of baby food and guess what they were.  I only got one right.  Keanna put pumpkin for just about every one.  She was wrong on all of them.

This past week I introduced April to beef.  I had cooked a cross rib roast in the crock pot to make chili, so I kept some cooked meat aside for April.  I tossed it into the food processor attachment with some pasta, peas, and pea cooking liquid.

Another feeding success!