Preparing and cooking food for your baby

Making your own food not only often works out cheaper, but, more importantly, will be of great nutritional benefit to your baby. And it needn’t be fiddly or time-consuming if you make up large quantities at a time and store mini meals away in the freezer (see here). Keep sterilised feeding equipment, ice cube trays and freezerproof containers at the ready and follow the general instructions below.

Sterilised feeding equipment

All feeding equipment should be sterilised for the first six months and bottles and teats for as long as they are used. Sterilise ice cube trays or freezer containers by boiling them in a large saucepan of water for five minutes, or soaking them in sterilising solution for 30 minutes. Use a steam steriliser, if you have one, for small items such as spoons or serving bowls and follow timings recommended in the manufacturer’s handbook. Wash cooking utensils as usual in a dishwasher, or rinse handwashed items with boiling water from the kettle.

Packing food for the freezer

Make suroon as it is cool enough.
Never put we cooked puréed food is covered as quickly as possible and transfer it to the freezer as s
arm food into a refrigerator or freezer.
Check the temperature of your freezer on a freezer thermometer. It should read –18°C. If you don’t already have a freezer thermometer they can be bought from good hardware shops or the cookware section in large department stores.
If using an ice cube tray, fill with puréed food, open-freeze until solid, then pop the cubes out of the tray and into a sterilised plastic box. Non-sterilised items such as plastic bags can be used from six months. Seal well and freeze.
Label items clearly, adding the date.
Use food within six weeks.
Never refreeze cooked food. Food can only be put back into the freezer if it was originally frozen raw then defrosted and cooked – a raw frozen chicken breast, defrosted, for example, can be frozen as a cooked casserole.

Defrosting tips

Defrost frozen (covered) food in the fridge overnight or leave at room temperature if you forget, transferring it to the fridge as soon as it has defrosted. Make sure it is covered at all times and stand it on a plate to catch any drips. Never speed up defrosting by putting food into warm or hot water. Always use defrosted food within 24 hours.

Reheating tips

When batch cooking, take out a portion of food for your baby to use now and freeze the rest. Don’t be tempted to reheat the entire mixture and then freeze what is left.
If your baby has only eaten a tiny portion it can be tempting to reheat and serve the leftovers later. Please don’t – babies are much more susceptible than adults to food poisoning so get in the habit of throwing leftovers away immediately.
Reheat foods only once.

Introducing solid food

Quick links to important information

Introducing solid food

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