Is a baby food maker necessary or can I use a regular blender to make baby food?
Some parents will happily steam fruit and vegetables and mash them up with a baby fork – and to be fair, in the early days of weaning when your baby has very limited tastes, this is a perfectly sensible idea.
But when it comes to making more complex purées, as your baby’s weaning journey progresses, a baby food maker, steamer or blender can make mealtimes much easier. Leaving the hard work for a nifty gadget also frees you up for other baby-related tasks, such as settling your baby into their highchair ready to enjoy their meal.
Plus, if you want to make small quantities of baby food for your baby (which happens a lot in the early days of weaning when they're trying out new flavours), you’ll find an ordinary-sized blender won’t puree it consistently, which is where a dedicated baby food blender comes in handy.
What to look for when buying a baby food blender
It’s important to know exactly what you’re looking for when you start your search for the ideal baby food maker. Here are a few things to consider before you buy:
What does it do? Some baby food makers simply blend food. Others steam and blend it too. All-in-one steamers and blenders are really useful but they are more expensive, so that might be a factor for you. Obviously some things, like fruit, don’t need cooking first anyway, but if you want to do puréed sweet potato or chicken, you’ll need to cook it before blending. Steaming is also a really good way to keep in as many nutrients as possible, so that’s something to consider too.
Do you want to cook in bulk or not? It’s worth remembering that lots of baby blenders and baby food makers don’t allow for cooking in bulk quantities, so if you know you want to fill your freezer with carrot and cauliflower purée to feed an army, look for something with a large capacity or consider a stick blender. But if you like the idea of smaller quantities and being able to cook fresh food every day, you’ll easily find something to suit your needs.
Space: Most baby food makers are fairly compact so are ideal if you need to save space in your kitchen or want to take your baby food maker with you on days out or holidays. The more substantial models will take up more space on your kitchen worktop, but are also capable of producing large volumes of baby purées, making them ideal for batch cooking. It’s swings and roundabouts but do just measure up before you buy.
Portability: There are travel baby food makers on the market, such as the Itsy Blitz Portable Baby Food Blender we’ve reviewed above. If you know you’re out and about a lot, it’s worth looking at these.
Power: Check the model you’re looking at will plug in where you need it. Some use batteries, others use USB, while most just plug into the mains.
What to look for in a baby food maker
The baby food makers and blenders we recommend come with all manner of gadgets and extras. Generally, the more you pay, the more you'll get, but here are a few features to look out for that you might find useful.
Incorporated steamer: All-in-one models are really useful but you do pay more for a blender that steams too.
Speed settings: If the blender has more than one setting, it will make it easier to power through tougher foods and get a smoother blend.
Pulse button: This gives you a bit more control and is handy for when you start making your baby’s purees a little chunkier.
Hygiene and ease of cleaning: Look for models that don’t have narrow openings so you can really get the cleaning brush inside. Those that are dishwasher-safe will be a big boon if you’re using your baby blender every day. Some even have an auto-clean mode, which can make life a lot easier.
Size and shape: Be sure the cup or jug is big enough for your needs but look for compact models that squeeze into a corner of the cupboard easily or at least don’t take up too much kitchen worktop space.
Safety features: Bottom-heavy designs and non-slip feet are less likely to be knocked over.
Additional functions: Some models reheat or defrost already puréed baby food - useful if you don’t have a microwave.
Extras: Look for things like free recipe books, spoons, bowls and the like.
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How do I make homemade baby food?
Many parents feel daunted by the task of starting to wean their baby but it’s a lot simpler than cooking for grown-ups. There are a few basic rules, such as not including sugar or salt in your baby’s diet, and introducing new foods one at a time so you can watch out for any allergic reactions. The NHS website has good advice on this.
Other than that, start with simple foods like sweet potato. Cut it into cubes or fingers and steam it, then either let your baby have it as finger food or blitz to a purée with a little water or some of your baby’s usual milk to spoon-feed it to them. You can start off with a fair bit of liquid to make the purée quite thin and then make them thicker as your baby gets used to it.
Once they've got the hang of that, try two and then three vegetables mixed to a purée. Then you can move on to including meat and fish (watch out for bones). Chicken is a good one to start with as it shreds easily while leaving a bit of bite. Don’t forget that you can add in fresh herbs for flavour and texture too.
What's the best way to store homemade baby food?
You can store baby food in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 48 hours. If you want to freeze it, either freeze in individual containers so you can take one out to defrost and reheat for each meal, or freeze purées in ice cube trays and then pop them out and put a couple into different freezer bags.
You could even mix and match different purées this way, with one carrot and one apple purée block that you defrost and reheat together.
What’s the best blender to blend baby food?
The best baby food blender if you're on a budget is the easy-to-use Tommee Tippee Mini Blend Baby Food Blender which blends home-made purées in a trice without taking up too much space in your kitchen. It also happens to be our choice for most budget-friendly model, retailing at under £30.
Which baby food steamer and blender is best?
The best baby steamer and blender is the Philips Avent 2-in-1 Healthy Baby Food Maker – and it’s a favourite with Mumsnet parents too. This versatile steamer blender will cook and blend healthy meals for your baby from around six months.
Related: Discover the best reusable nappies for every stage
How we chose the best baby food makers
Before we began our product research, we consulted health organisations in order to get the latest official weaning advice, particularly the NHS and the WHO, to ensure the baby food makers we recommended complied with safety and child health advice.
Most of our baby food maker and blender suggestions came from recommendations on the Mumsnet forums where real parents offering honest reviews are always in abundance.
We also analysed consumer reviews on the web - everywhere from Amazon to Currys - to find out what customers were recommending. And we consulted independent review sites, such as BBC Good Food, for opinions about each product to ensure we were bringing you an honest, detailed summary of baby food steamers and blenders.
Finally, we looked up advice from baby weaning experts such as Annabel Karmel, to find out what the purée gurus looked for and what they advised on cooking for your baby, so we could be sure the products we recommended would be up to the job.
What age do babies start eating food?
Official advice from the NHS is to start weaning your baby from milk onto solid foods at around six months. This is based on research reviewed by the World Health Organisation which shows that, until six months, babies need nothing other than breast milk (or infant formula).
Should I purée or do baby-led weaning?
Once you’ve decided the time is right to start weaning your baby onto solids, there are other options to consider – finger foods, purées or a combination of both?
For parents who choose to get their little gourmet started with spoonfuls of puréed vegetables, fruit and other foods, a baby food maker can be an invaluable addition to your kitchen.
As to which foods to begin with, baby food guru Annabel Karmel has this advice: “First foods should be simple and easy to digest and unlikely to provoke an allergic reaction. Start with single ingredients with a nice soft texture; root vegetables and ripe fruits are popular as they are naturally sweet and can be easily pureed to a smooth texture. Mixing them with a little breast or formula milk can ease the transition.”
Other parents decide to go with baby-led weaning instead. For first BLW foods, Annabel Karmel suggests: “Start with softer fingers foods such as cooked sticks of carrot, broccoli and sweet potato, and chunks of banana, avocado and cucumber. First tastes like steamed carrots should be cooked until soft but not too mushy so that they can grab it with their fist. It’s best to wait until your baby has teeth before you offer harder foods like raw carrot.”
If you’ve decided to go the baby-led-weaning route exclusively, you likely won’t need a baby food blender, but you may still want to invest in a baby food steamer for softening crunchy veg while keeping the nutrients in. And of course, there’s no need to choose just one route or the other. Many parents make purées with the odd bit of cooked pasta or a banana finger on the side, and just let their baby try a bit of both.
When it comes to buying a baby food maker, there’s a somewhat bafflingly amount of choice available – from simple blenders for baby food to clever multifunction steam and blend gadgets that allow you to create healthy baby meals from raw ingredients.
About the author
Poppy O'Neill is a Content Editor at Mumsnet and a mother of two. She's been researching and reviewing baby and child products for 2 years, with a particular focus on baby essentials, toys and books for toddlers and outdoor play equipment. From potties to paddling pools and bunk beds to bedtime stories, she loves to deep-dive into research and find the best products out there.
Poppy is also an award-winning, best-selling children's and parenting author of books such as Don't Worry, Be Happy, The Extraordinary Book That Makes You Feel Happy and Mother Power. She specialises in children's mental health and her books are used by therapists, teachers and SENCOs across the UK. She won a The Week Junior Book Award in 2023, her books have been translated into several languages and she's been featured in The Guardian, The Sunday Times and The Sun.
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