Have you ever gone on a trip with your baby and looked at what you packed and thought “how does such a tiny little human require more gear than the rest of the family?!” It’s true that babies require a certain amount of investment in new gear but it’s also true that the baby marketing world would have you believe you need so much more than you truly do.
This marketing doesn’t stop when it comes to feeding your baby solid foods!
We’re Jess and Nita, Registered Dietitians, friends, moms of two boys each, and aspiring minimalists. We’ve gone through transitioning our babies to solids and have learned a few tricks to saving money when feeding them.
Learn how to save on the everyday so you still have room in your budget for that fancy jogging stroller you’ve been eyeing up!
1. Use frozen fruit and veggies. These guys get a bad rap for not being as nutritious as fresh but this is a myth! The nutrients in produce actually get locked in when frozen, preserving them for when they’re defrosted. Not only are frozen fruits and veggies more economical gram for gram, you’ll likely waste less food because you only defrost what you need. Our favourites for babies are frozen avocado chunks, butternut squash, beets, and berries. As a bonus, the texture of defrosted frozen fruit is perfectly soft and squishable for feeding to babies!
2. Batch prep and freeze. They say to “sleep when the baby sleeps” but I think whoever “they” are have never actually been parents! We all know that naptime is a power hour for getting things done! If you set aside an hour, you can easily make a few different recipes to freeze.
Our ebook, Whole Food Recipes for Your Baby contains a little legend to show you which recipes are freezer friendly. Some of our favourites to freeze are the Basil Beef Kebabs, Sweet Potato Salmon Patties, and the Peanut Butter Chickpea Waffles.
3. Feed baby components from your family meals. Even easier than preparing special baby food to freeze is to feed your baby from the meals the rest of the family is eating! This is possible whether you’re feeding your baby purées or handheld foods baby led weaning style. You’ll want to make slight adaptations to ensure it’s the right size, shape, texture and doesn’t contain added salt. We’ve made adapting your recipes to be baby friendly easy with this six step framework.
4. Skip the pouches. Yes, those pouches sure are convenient – so save them for when you’re on the go and need a shelf-stable snack to stash in your diaper bag. But, when you’re at home it’s easy to mash up a banana or defrost some baby food you’ve batch prepped and frozen.
On the plus side, when you make your own baby food you can customize the texture to match your baby’s skill level. Those pouches only come in one texture – ultra puréed! This is a great beginner texture but once your baby has mastered this, it’s time to challenge them with the next level.
You may also be interested in: Baby Food Pouches: for better or worse?
5. Use your everyday kitchen tools. Your kitchen is likely stocked with everything you need to prepare food for your baby! You certainly do not need to buy specialty baby-focused blenders or gadgets. Some of our favourite kitchen tools for feeding babies include:
Stick blender – great for making a small amount of puréed food
Mandolin – perfect for thin slices that baby can self-feed
Instant Pot (electric pressure cooker) – works great to steam veggies, make hard-boiled eggs, cook tender meats, and cook dried chickpeas and lentils. For full instructions on using your Instant Pot for baby food, check out this article.
You may also be interested in: Feeding Baby Made Easy – our top 6 must-have kitchen essentials
6. Invest in education. You can’t add a day to your child’s life by worrying whether you’re feeding them well! By making a small investment in learning how to start your baby on solids, you will reap tremendous rewards in feeling confident. Your sanity and time are valuable commodities! Our Start Solids Confidently e-course has helped guide thousands of families through this (sometimes) confusing transition.
7. Use canned foods. A lot of families are misled to believe that canned foods are solely for adults, but that isn’t the case. Depending on what you purchase, canned foods can be full of nutrition and in some cases may be more nutritious than their fresh counterparts. Canned tomatoes for example contain more antioxidants than fresh tomatoes! The bonus is that canned foods are extremely inexpensive, shelf stable, and readily accessible. Look for low sodium varieties. Some examples of canned foods you may want to purchase for your baby include: salmon, chickpeas, tomato sauce, and peaches.
8. Utilize lentils and beans that are dried. While we love the availability of canned whole foods, we also love dried legumes! A lot of people are intimidated by large packages of red split lentils or chickpeas. But have no fear! They’re pretty simple to prepare, especially if you have an electric pressure cooker. Plus, you’ll only spend 1/6th of the cost of canned legumes, which is money back in your pocket!
Legumes in particular are a great first food for babies–they contain iron, a key nutrient babies need to grow and develop optimally.
You may be interested in: Beans for Babies- how and why to introduce them
9. Forget special baby rusks, puffs and cookies. There are so many other inexpensive options available! If you’re a few months into parenting you’ve probably come to the accurate conclusion that anything labelled as a “baby food” will come with an inflated price. Lucky for you, we know of several alternatives to these foods that give you more volume for a lower price.
Want a dissolvable rusk? Look for Ryvita snack bread.
Want your baby to enjoy some puffs? Purchase a bag of plain puffed wheat.
Want to offer your baby a teething biscuit? Make our Gingerbread Teething Biscuit.
10. Use pumped milk for the liquid when making purée. When you’re batch prepping purées, you’ll likely need some type of a liquid to help you obtain a desirable texture. Instead of using special broths, consider using expressed milk. We often meet parents who are finding they can’t use their freezer stash of milk fast enough so this is a great way to put it to use!
11. Buy a “catch all” bib so you can rescue dropped food before it hits the floor. There are sooooo many bibs on the market. Finding one with a “catch” will be easy. We have fond memories of our boys peeking into their bib only to nibble on a few extra pieces of food that didn’t quite make it to their mouth.
And there you have it, 11 trusted ways you can save money when it comes to feeding your happy healthy eater. Take it from us…as moms who’ve been there and done that, we want you to be able to enjoy the weaning journey without dishing out money that can be spent in other joyful ways.
