Another option is to use an immersion blender. A quick search on Amazon shows quite a few options with metal shafts (the part that touches the food).

ah, that looks awesome.  my 5 month old will soon be on the path to solid foods and I’ve been amping up to get a small freezer stash started.  it doesn’t look incredibly large, nor does it look full of crevices to clean.  If you need a test reviewer, I’m more than willing!

I also highly recommend using an immersion blender in the kitchen.  Mine (Braun brand) came with a polycarbonate container, but I find it just as easy to use it in a bowl or pot.  If I’m cooking soup that needs to be blended, I just turn off the heat and put the immersion blender right into the pot (carefully keeping the blade below the surface so that it doesn’t splatter hot liquid).  I don’t think it’s necessary to buy yet another kitchen gadget!  I will weigh in; however, and say that neither of my kids liked the texture of homemade baby food.  I tried!  But they both preferred the fine texture of the strained, store-bought variety.  I think I even still have some of the organic, frozen chunky baby food (Plum brand) in the freezer that my daughter wouldn’t touch.

How about the KidCo Food mill? That’s BPA free and much cheaper.

@Laila, I have seen such mixed reviews for the KidCo Food mill - have you used it? Seems like something many users either love, based on the convenience, or hate, based on the required softness of foods to be “milled” or the lack of options regarding how finely processed you want the end result.

Hi Jeremiah,
I use it almost every day. I sometimes only use it for portion of the food if I don’t want the texture to be too fine. My kids are only 9 months old now, so their preferance will change. It has been wonderful so far. You just need to use enough liquid and/or use small portions.

RE: KidCo Food mill, I have one too.  It is NOT as good as a Cuisinart food processor.  It leaks, and does not work well for fine textures.

When we wanted a fine texture, we would often run the food through our manual Munchkin grinder after using the KidCo.

We did not use our Cuisinart for baby food because L had food allergies and we didn’t want to take chances with nut exposure.

Thanks for the BPA tip on the Cuisinart...I guess I should have known, but denial is a wonderful (or not so wonderful) thing, eh? I will only use it for cooled foods from now on...so much for chucking baby’s dinner in straight from the pot!

I bought a Kidco last year and used it 4 or 5 times just because I was stubborn and I really wanted it to work. I then did a little research and found out sometime in the last few years they replaced the blade (circle with holes) that was stainless with a plastic one. Seems folks with the stainless blade rave about how great it is and those of us with the plastic blade rave about how useless it is!

I ended up free-cyclinng mine and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it over a real food processor nor would I claim that it was convenient, simple or easy to use!

I have the one with the metal blade.  It still won’t make green beans with the pureed texture that a manual food mill will.

Do you know if the kitchenaid food processors are made with BPA?

thanks,

mel

Melanie, unfortunately KitchenAid food processors’ work bowls are also made of polycarbonate, and contain BPA.

I’m curious if you have used/tested it yet and what you think?  Thanks.

I use my Babycook weekly to make baby food. It is great for most vegetables and even makes short work of creating very smooth avocado purees. I was not impressed with it’s performance for potatoes, however. A potato ricer works very well for potatoes. I recently started cooking chicken in the Babycook. It works great! The only recommendation I have it to make sure your chicken is cold before you blend it. It makes for a much nicer texture. I have made most types of fruits and vegetables in the Babycook and most of them turn out great! It is also important to dice your veggies/fruits into med/small pieces or you’ll have to run them through the steaming process a couple times.  Creates fairly smooth purees!

Thanks for the review, Paige! We have a Babycook we’re running through a few tests, and will be publishing a review in the next few weeks!

So is the Babycook BPA free or not?  I seem to be finding conflicting information.

@Erika S, there was a lot of confusion that Beaba importer Scandinavian Child’s testing helped clear up. If you’re reading information published later than this post, and it is in a source you would consider reputable, send me a link. The information we have received from Scandinavian Child regarding their own testing of the product is that it is BPA-free.