How to Preserve Homemade Baby Foods in Two Methods (a Guide for Nigerian Moms)

Photo Credit: wivestownhallconnection

This article is for Nigerian mothers with little babies and toddlers, as well as busy working moms who make semi solid baby foods by themselves at home. If you are tired of preparing baby food many times a day, this article is for you. In this post you will learn the two different methods of safely preserving your homemade baby food using a refrigerator and a freezer to avoid harmful bacteria on your baby food. Read on

NOTE: Before you use any container for your baby food, wash the container thoroughly with warm, soapy water and leave it to dry before filling it with your baby’s food. After you are done, you can now throw the food into the refrigerator.  

Method #1: How to Store Homemade Nigerian Baby Food Using a Refrigerator

• Do not store cooked or pureed homemade baby food in the refrigerator.
• Store your prepared baby puree in single serving containers.
• Make sure to use any baby food you place in the refrigerator within 48 hours. Anything that sits in the refrigerator past that amount of time may start to develop bacteria.
• Do not re-freeze any baby food that you have defrosted, as this may result to food poisoning thereby affecting your baby’s health.
• Label each batch with the content, date and time before preserving it 
• Store in a plastic wrap or an airtight container 
• Store open jars in the refrigerator for 2 or 3 days
• Already Prepared baby food shouldn’t be left sitting  outside the refrigerator  at room temperature for more than two hours.
• Already prepared food should not be left in the refrigerator for more than 24 hours

Method #2:  How to Store Homemade Nigerian Baby Food Using Freezer

Freezing your homemade infant food is easy and absolutely safe; I bet it will also help you cut down on waste. As long as electricity is stable, your baby’s food stays fresh and safe from bacteria.  

Keeping a Trail of Foods You Kept in the Freezer in 10 easy steps

• Make baby food in batches
• Labeling is very important. Ensure your homemade baby foods are labelled correctly. Label each bag or container with contents, date and time of production with expiration dates.
• Take note of the dates by using older batches before new ones. 
• Store baby food in the freezer not longer. than three months  
• Put the most recently frozen food behind the oldest food in the freezer. 
• Observe to see if your baby reacts to a particular food – if the food seems to upset your baby’s digestive system- identify and remove that particular food.

• Some baby food containers are designed for freezing foods with a writeable space, where you can you can write on.
• Pour the pureed food into a container but leave an inch of air in between the food and the rim to give the baby food room to expand as it freezes to avoid freezer burn. Just try as much as you can to remove air in the container to prevent  freezer burn
• Do not put back in the freezer any leftover food after feeding your baby directly from the container, Bacteria from your baby's saliva will be transfer into the food making the food unhealthy for your baby. Such food should be disposed in the trash
• Swap Your Stocks by placing the containers with the earliest expiration dates outward the front of the freezer door each time you restock. By so doing you will be able to use up foods stocked earlier before it expires.

Other Related Topics:

Infant Weaning: Food: When to Should I Introduce My Baby to Solid Food and Signs of Readiness

Homemade Food: How to Make Infant Rice Cereal

Homemade Foods: How to Make Vegetable Puree for Your Infants

Infant Weaning Foods: How to Prepare Rich Homemade Infant Formula

Now you know you don’t have to make your semi solid homemade baby in bits. Prepare your baby food in large quantity and store it in refrigerator or freezer. Do not forget the rules as regards to timing and labelling each batch with the content, time and date of manufacturing and expiration date.  Disregarding the above rules may put your child at the risk of food poisoning.