This delightful tool, a gift from my husband’s sister, will get a lot of use once the baby begins to eat solid food. It is an all-in-one wonder. It steams food, chops and purees it to various consistencies, defrosts frozen foods, sterilizes small items, and takes care of the laundry. Ok, so it doesn’t do the laundry, but it is a pretty remarkable piece of equipment. We will use it first for steaming vegetables. Since we are using baby led weaning, we’ll introduce pieces of food that baby can hold and chew at around six months of age. When the baby can hold a spoon, we’ll use the chop/puree function of the machine. This may seem backwards, as most often babies are first fed purees by their parents and only later given pieces of food. With baby led weaning, though, children are first given foods that they can hold and eat themselves. There are some delicious sounding purees, though, and I think they will be perfect when the baby is learning to use a spoon independently. We have two baby food books: Top 100 Baby Purees by Annabel Karmel and Baby Love by Norah O’Donnell and her husband Geoff Tracy.

I would like to eat many of the foods in these books! Here is just a sample:

From Top 100 Baby Purees:

Trio of Root Vegetables: Sweet Potato, Carrot, and Parsnip

Banana and Blueberry

Tomato, Cauliflower, and Carrot With Basil

From Baby Love:

Baby Guacamole

Strawberry and Fig

Roasted red Pepper and Pomegranate Hummus

As you can see, these foods are a far cry from what is available in jars from the store. They are less expensive, too, since the baby eats the same foods that the family purchases anyway. I am looking forward to using our wonder machine to make delicious, healthy foods for our baby!