Thickening & Thinning Baby Food

Sometimes when you make baby food it's not quite the right consistency and it may need to be thickened up or thinned out. Some baby foods thin out when they are frozen and thawed and need to be thickened up before feeding.

Thickening
1. One of the easiest ways to thicken baby food is to add baby cereal to it. This is what I do quite often.

2. Another way is to add a "meatier" fruit or veggie to it to make a tasty combo! Sweet potatoes & avocados & bananas are good examples of these "meatier" foods.

3. Add yogurt when it is age appropriate. (7-8 mths +)

Thinning
There are various things you can use to thin out baby food.

1. Breastmilk : this is what I use frequently since I express it for Toby's bottles. It's super healthy and it is a bit of added sweet too since breastmilk has so much milk sugar in it.

2. Baby Formula : This is the same premise as the breastmilk. Adding breastmilk or formula can also help babies get used to the taste of the food while still having something familiar.

3. Milk : You can use this option when it is age appropriate. (12 mths +)

4. Fruit Juice : While not the healthiest option it is still perfectly fine. I would only use 100% juice. Use only juice you buy from the store. NO HOMEMADE JUICE!

5. Cooking Juice : You can use the juice the fruits are cooked in. These can add some of the sweet flavor back to the fruits. Peaches make a great juice when they are baked! It's pretty much like syrup. Do not use the juice from a lot of your veggies because it can contain too much nitrates. While it is rare that nitrates will affect your baby it is always best to ere on the side of caution. You can read more about nitrates here Nitrates on WholesomeBabyFood.com. Also, using the cooked juice is very different from using homemade fruit juice because the process of cooking it has killed a lot of germs and bacteria and pretty much effectively pasturizing it. You can find out more about this here Juice for Baby on WholesomeBabyFood.com.