A practle guide to starting blended food

This is one spoiled kid!  He gets mom and dad, sister and brother, grandparent, aunt and uncle, cousin and friend love... but ALSO gets Sister love!  Here he is being coddled by a Franciscan Sister of the Renewal :)  (notice the blended food in his tube!  We make everyone learn to feed him, even Religous!)

In my last post my goal was to empower momma's (or dad's) to give homemade blend a try.  I wanted to ensure them it is not as hard as they may have heard from professionals who, quite frankly, have never done it but only have read about it.  Today, I want to give a few practicle tips that may be helpful.

First of all, you need a blender.  If you intend to do homemade blends for a substantial amount of time, you need to invest in a good blender.  The two recommended by blending parents are the Vitamix or  Blendtec.  I know the Vitamix has a medical discount where in exchange for a doctors note of medical necessity, they will send you a refurbished one at a pretty good discount.  But, even with the discount, they are expensive. 

If you can not afford one of these high powered blenders, don't fret!  Start saving now and use your regular old blender in the mean time.  You may not be able to pulverize meat like the high powered blender allows, but you can still make a blend for your kidd-o.  I made baby food for all 3 of our other kids with a normal blender... it just takes a little more liquid and a little more patience, but it can be done!

Secondly, if you want to "lazy-blend" like me and make big batches once a month, start saving for an extra freezer (preferably a deep freezer).  You can find used ones pretty cheap on Craigslist.  I know there are many families who make a blend every day for their kids, but I just can't do this for several reasons: #1 I'm too lazy to do all that cooking, blending, and cleaning every day, #2 I have 3 other kids to take care of, #3 I can't get laundry done as it is.. adding one more thing to my to-do list isn't going to help this, and #4 again... I'm lazy.  I like to make one huge batch for the month then freeze it.

Once you get enough freezer space, place the blend in glass mason jars and freeze them without the lid.  After they are frozen, put the lid on to keep them fresh.  Dominic eats enough that every day we go through one mason jar.  I have the night nurse make the feedings for the whole day (or in the rare case we don't have a night nurse, I make it).  It's super easy!  You defrost the mason jar (the day before or in the microwave that day) and pour the right amount into bottles.  We also make all of the milk bottles so all day we just have to grab a bottle out of the fridge when it's time to eat.  Again, a short cut for those who are lazy/busy/whatever.

My last suggestion: recruit help!  I am lucky enough that my momma helps me make Dom's blend every month.  If you don't have a momma or momma-in-law close, bribe a friend with a margarita.  You can easily do it alone, but a friend and a margarita (or coffee before noon... whatever) makes it way more fun. :)  And besides, everyone wants to help these special kidd-o's... this is a practical way they can!

So, go ahead... blend!

In Them,
Chasity