Baby food maker, blender or food processor?

[Southern Momma]

I wasn't really sure where to post this thread....

With DD we bought jarred baby food. Lots and lots and LOTS of jarred baby food. This time we want to make our own baby food. The three main reasons we want to do this are to 1. save money, 2. reduce waste and 3. have the comfort of knowing exactly what is going into our baby's food.

So my question is what's the best method for making baby food at home? I've seen the baby food makers but they seem a little gimmicky. Couldn't I just steam the food and then use a blender or food processor to puree it?
We have a very small kitchen so I'll need something that won't take up a lot of space and can preferably be left on the counter.

I'm leaning toward a blender, I figure we'd get a lot of use out of it and it wouldn't take up that much space. And I'd really like to start drinking some smoothies....yummy.... but I'm getting off track....

Since I've never made baby food before and I've never actually owned any of these small appliances I wanted to get some opinions first

What would you/do you prefer? Baby food maker, blender or food processor?

Thanks

[Hungry Caterpillar]

I really liked the Baby Brezza. I liked it because it was very easy to use, and generally one step, because you set it according to the time it needs and it steams it and then auto blends it when finished steaming. Then it sits there and waits for you. It's incredibly easy to clean.

I thought it was unnecessary and I could just steam and then blend but I found that the consistency of my blender (which is just a Kitchen Aid one) did not blend fine enough and my son wasn't into it. He liked the smooth purees when we first started.

[Pixi6s]

I've heard that the magic bullet is a great way to make baby food - the regular one the special baby one is not needed. We had a kidco and it did fine.

We kinda skipped-ish the baby food stage. With breastmilk being the primary food "real" food was only an after thought for quite some time. We started 6-7 months and maybe had a consistent single meal every day a few months later.

Though I ended up making some purees we also tried to go the "real food" route and gave things softened that he can pick up, like banana and soften carrots, apples, etc. I can't for the life of me remember what the practice of skipping baby food is, but it has a group of followers.

[Joyful Tie Dyes]

I used a fork lol

[graceworks]

I have the mini food processor (cuisinart I believe) that I got for my wedding and it works well for this. I either steam or roast veggies or fruit and then puree them. I live in a tiny apartment so having a dedicated babyfood appliance wasn't practical but if I had a lot of room (or $ to buy it) I think it would be neat to have it steam and puree in the same container. I also use the food processor to chop veggies for things like meatloaf where its nice to have very fine chop, also for making homemade breadcrumbs and hummus.

You can also just mash soft food up manually...that's what I do with bananas or if its something we are eating that is mashable.... and when the baby is a bit older. We move past purees quickly though and are pretty much 100% into "real" food by 9 monthish

[Shimpie]

At first I used the same Cuisinart mini food processor, but I also use it for various herbs, pesto, chilli spiced curries. I didn't want trace amounts of nuts (allergy potential) or chillis contaminating her food. Those little food processors are hard to keep clean. Even after soaking in soapy water, the bowl would smell like peppers.

I ended up using a hand blender for purees and it worked great.

[mgmsrk]

I mostly used a immersion blender or a fork. I mostly did(and will start again next month) servings of 2 or 3 at a time if I was doing a bigger batch to freeze I nay use my blender.

[newbiemama]

we have a mini food processor. it worked SOOO much better than the blender. it was smaller, WAY easier to clean, and much more convenient to store and use. I really wanted a Baby Bullet for DS, but we couldn't justify buying one when we have a food processor.

[Southern Momma]

Thanks mommas! I have a mini chopper, it never gets things very smooth though. Maybe it's just my chopper? When DD was a little older I did use a fork for things like bananas, potatoes, avocado but she never liked the texture.

I'm still researching, haven't picked anything out yet, so I'd love to hear anyone else's input

[Hungry Caterpillar]

I wanted to add that we were also given a Baby Bullet as a gift. I hated this thing, and it was ridiculously designed. It leaked pureed turkey down into the motor, which cannot be (obviously) submerged in water, and was impossible to clean. The ONLY option was to throw it out. Total waste. I would NOT ever recommend Baby Bullet.