Thinning Your Baby Food

Thinning your baby food (particularly purees) is a very important step in the baby food making process because:

• It gives you the opportunity to add additional nutrients by adding breast milk (or formula)
• It helps the foods be easier to digest due to the extra liquids in it

Here are a few tips that may be help as you thin your foods:

• Water can be used to thin, however avoid using water that ROOT foods were boiled in (i.e. carrots). There could be traces of nitrates in them. See this article for more information on nitrates: Myths and Facts About Nitrates and Homemade Baby Food
• I prefer to use breast milk when I thin foods since its filled with all sorts of good nutrients. The only down side is this requires you to pump and some women do not yield much when pumping. Formula may be used as well.
• I have learned over time, it is easier to thin during the reheating process versus the cooking/freezing process. I thin the foods enough to make it fairly easy to place in the ice cube trays and that is all. When reheating, it is easy to get the foods too hot. I use refrigerated breast milk to thin and cool foods at the time I serve---it has been working great.