As a mother or father feeding your baby, you may be interested in the cost of baby food. When it comes to baby foods, you must have basic knowledge about them. Basically, there are three primary baby food manufacturers that control over 97% of the baby food market including beech-nut, Heinz, and Gerber.
Many parents use baby food products and simply shop around to find the best prices, while some are actually making the baby food at home. The costs are related to each situation. By the way, let’s see How much does baby food cost per month?
Average Cost of Baby Food
Roughly, the average cost of baby food is $500 or more dollars per year. Most probably, it is higher than that, because most parents prefer to offer lots of snacks and a variety of foods for their babies. But some people, spend less than $500 a year, by offering the babies homemade baby food or table food. However, $500 is to buy all the fruits, vegetables, and meats necessary for one year.
Cost of Baby food per month
When you are considering the cost, you must have to consider the age of the baby that you are feeding. Because, they are eating a variety of amount of foods, according to their age. Further, you have to consider the juices and drinks as a part of the budget. According to the researches, baby food cost per month ranges from $41 to $100. Simply, you can get it by dividing the annual amount by twelve. But, remember, it depends on the age of your baby, the foods you choose, and the amount of baby eat.
Ways to save money from Baby food cost
When babies grow day by day, it is very important to give them a proper nutrition. Giving a proper nutrition, not means that you spending a lot of money to baby foods. There are ways to spend less on baby food while giving a proper nutritional foods to them.
- Make your own Baby food
- Careful in buying and making food
- Buy smartly
- Store them smartly
- Feed the baby with breast milk as possible as you can
- Mash up dinner veggies
Make your own baby food
All you need is a hand grinder, to make your own baby food. If you have a hand grinder, you can make the baby food you need to offer for your baby. Making baby food is not a difficult task.
When your little one is ready for solids, you may want to consider making your own baby food instead of buying commercially prepared brands in order to save money from baby food costs and to keep the baby healthy. Actually, homemade baby food can be just as delicious and nutritious. Not only that, if you enjoy cooking, this is a great way to expand your culinary skills. Additionally, you can expose your baby to a great variety of healthy, fresh foods.
In fact, no matter which type of food you serve, if you prepare food healthily, your baby will grow and thrive.
Careful in buying and making food
If you are buying food, try to go with cheaper brands and lots f coupons always. Expensive brands didn’t mean they are high in nutrition. As same, there are lots of cheaper brands, which are high in nutrition. So, consider this fact if you are buying food.
Following tips will help you to prepare and cooking food, in order to serve a great meal for your baby.
- Buy the best quality and freshest fruits and vegetables, and meat that you can afford.
- Wash your hands thoroughly with hot, soapy water and rinse carefully before handling any raw or cooked foods.
- Clean and wash foods thoroughly before cooking.
- Remove any blemishes and bad spots from vegetables as you prepare them. Trim excess fat from meats.
- Use one clean cutting board for chopping fruits and vegetables and another for meats. It will help to crossover contamination.
- Remember to keep your clean utensils and supplies clean, including sponges and tea towels.
- Be aware that fruits don’t need to be cooked before pureeing.
- Keep foods at a safe temperature. Refrigerated foods should be 4-5 C or slightly below that. Frozen foods should be 0C. It is better to buy thermometers for both the refrigerator and freezer and keep them there permanently.
- Avoid overcooking, because it will remove crucial nutrients.
- Save the cooking liquid from vegetables and meats and use it to thin the baby food mixture, if necessary.
- Grind foods to the desired texture and consistency. No need to add salt, sugar, or seasonings.
In fact, these facts will help your baby to learn to love the flavor of fresh, unseasoned foods.
Buy smartly
When you are buying foods, or ingredients remember to buy them smartly. Consider the price, ingredients, and nutrition. Remember to choose only the freshest fruits and vegetables for making baby food, and try to use what you buy within a day or two. If the fresh isn’t available, frozen is a fine option.
Store the foods smartly
Homemade fresh baby food can store like any other fresh fruit or vegetable. After cooking and processing your purees, vegetables and fruits can stay in the refrigerator for up to 48-72 hours and in the freezer for a maximum of 3 months.
Be sure to refrigerate freshly cooked baby food within 2 hours as bacteria will start to grow at room temperature after those 2 hours are up. Not only that, note your refrigerator should be kept at or below 40 degrees F.
Rule of storing food
Actually, label baby foods is a good option to ensure their safety. When you are in a doubt with the date of child’s food, throw it out. According to USDA, you may keep safely baby foods,
You can store your baby foods by,
- Freeze purees in ice cube trays or on a cookie sheet
- Consider a deep freezer if you want to store purees long term
- Throw away leftover food that’s already been reheated
- Never feed baby straight from the storage container
There are several options for warming refrigerated or shelf-stable foods and thawing frozen foods for your baby.
- Microwave:
Heat stored food directly in a glass jar or transfer food, including pre-frozen juices, to a separate glass jar. Remember, never heat clean food in a plastic container or bag. Reduce the microwave to 50% power and heat the juice in increments for 15 seconds. Then, inspect carefully and store the food at all times to ensure even warmth and remove heat pockets that can ignite your baby’s mouth. - Stovetop:
You can use a stovetop to warm your baby’s store-bought food or throw frozen food by placing the food in a small saucepan and warming on low heat until the puree is the same consistency. In order to preserve the nutrients, heat only as much as is necessary. - Submersion method:
Many parents, use this type of warming method to thaw frozen breastmilk. This will warm your baby’s food, but it will take some time. Thaw frozen food by placing the pureed cubes in a small glass bowl inside a larger bowl filled with hot or warm water. - Refrigerator:
Homemade frozen baby food that’s been thawed can safely stay in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours.
Accordingly, you can use these ways to warmup your baby food, after they stored.
Feed the baby with Breast Milk
When researching the commitments of mothers, we can strongly believe that breast milk is the best for babies. It can give lots of benefits for both mom and the baby, then providing nutrition.
Breast milk provides the ideal nutrition for babies. It gives benefits for mom and babies as,
- breast milk protects your baby from infections and diseases
- breastfeeding prevents the mother from diseases like breast cancer, ovarian cancer, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and obesity.
- It is available whenever the baby needs breastmilk
- Breastfeeding can build a strong emotional bond between you and your baby.
Mash up dinner veggies
Vegetables are a must in a meal for a baby. So, when you making your baby’s meal, add some extra vegetables at least for one meal in the day.
Accordingly, these are the tips you can follow in order to save money from baby food. If you follow them, you can supply proper nutrition for your babies while saving money.
