Here's the deal: starting your baby on solid food can be both exciting and terrifying. Sure, buying pre-mashed baby foods from the grocery store seems infinitely easier. But then there's the added stress of figuring out what's in the commercial food you're buying—and whether it's actually safe for your little one.
So, to be on the safe side, many parents opt to cook the food themselves. The problem is that, unlike adults, children don't have the teeth to chew that food. Fortunately, there's a pretty simple way around that: getting the best baby food blender for your little one. This gadget is just as important as a baby bottle warmer.
Making baby food that's healthy at home is a lot easier when you have a trusty contraption that does the bulk of the work for you. However, with dozens or possibly hundreds of options out there, each with its own features, pros, and cons, how do you figure out which is the best baby food maker for your needs? If you’re having trouble coming to a decision, we’ve done all the heavy lifting for you so that you don’t have to.
In this guide, we are going to do an expert review of the best baby food makers-slash-blenders you’ll find on the market. Let's dive right in.
1) Braun MultiQuick 5 Baby Food Blender
According to Braun, the MultiQuick is the perfect way to introduce your little one to solid foods (and we agree!). The built-in Power Bell Plus technology provides an extra milling blade that finely chops and evenly blends foods into smooth purees. Because of all that, the Braun MultiQuick is without a doubt reminiscent of any top-rated blenders for baby food you can think of on the market.
It has a Splash control that eliminates splashing to facilitate a rather seamless cleanup time and has easy click attachments that help you whip up a decent mill in just a couple of minutes.
Additionally, you can also make soups, smoothies, and sauces for yourself too. Small in size and easy to store, this is is a great hand blender for making baby food quickly! It's even better suited for these tasks than your average immersion blender.
Main Highlights
- Splash control technology that prevents splashing.
- Ergonomic design provides a comfortable grip and slip-proof operation.
- Large cup capacity that allows you to prepare multiple meals at a go.
- Comes with storage cups that double as a freezer tray, allowing mess-free meal-prep.
2. QOOC 4-in-1 Mini Blender and Cooker for Baby Food
If you want to steam and blend your child's food, you have to get the QOOC Mini Baby Food Maker. You can get it for a very reasonable, affordable price while not compromising in the quality at all.
The compact design makes it a great addition to a small kitchen. It won't take up much room on the counter, but it will still get the job done quickly and efficiently.
In addition to that, it has an ergonomic design that allows for easy one-handed operation when you’re preoccupied with other chores.
Main Highlights
- It is 100% baby safe.
- Ability to function with little or no noise at all.
- Ability to steam, defrost, reheat and blend in a little under 15 minutes.
- A compact footprint that makes it easy to store.
- Easy to clean and use.
- Easy one-handed controls that allow you to prepare food while still holding your baby on the other arm.
- Impact-resistant design that extends its lifetime.
3. Magic Bullet Baby Bullet Care System
The Magic Bullet Baby Bullet Food Blender is an easy-to-use and convenient baby food mill that takes your culinary game up a notch.
It comes with a refrigerator-friendly date dial, which allows you to keep track of when you made your child's food. Additionally, the tip-proof tray is also an incredibly handy feature, allowing for easier storage (and less mess!). Moreover, the freezer batch tray makes food preparation for the whole week that much easier. You'll also enjoy the large capacity this blender boasts.
Plus, since it comes with a budget-friendly, it's a great article to invest in for healthy meals.
Main Highlights
- Easy to use and clean.
- Saves time.
- It has a date dial feature that helps you keep track of your baby food.
- It prepares food in under 5 minutes.
- The dishwasher-safe storage cups and freezer tray make meal prep easier.
4. Béaba Babycook 4-in-1 Baby Food Maker and Blender
Synonymous with quality, Babycook is a one of a kind appliance that doubles up as a blender, steamer, defroster, and warmer to prepare healthy nutritious baby food. Chic enough to pose as decoration atop your counter, this exquisite blender can easily be mistaken for a coffee maker. It has a unique and innovative BPA-free one-hand design and a remarkable sense of convenience which makes it easy for you to whip up a nice meal while holding your baby in your arms.
The Beaba Babycook also boasts of a large capacity of up to 4.7 cups of food meaning that you can prepare several batches of food at a go and then refrigerate or freeze the leftovers for later. Not to mention it has a compact ingenious design that ensures it takes up a small footprint on the countertop.
Main Highlights
- Ability to steam, defrost, blend, and reheat.
- Large capacity that allows you to prepare up to 18 servings of food at a time.
- Easy to use and clean, thanks to dishwasher-safe parts.
- Stainless steel water reservoir.
- Unique one-handed operation.
5. Homia Baby Food Maker, Chopper and Grinder
The last baby food blender on our list is probably the most versatile. It's not just a blender, but also a baby food maker that makes delicious baby food. Perfect for busy moms who still want their bundles of joy to have a healthy diet, the Homia Blender lets you steam, blend, chop, and reheat all types of baby food. It's like a food processor meets blender meets basket steamer. Your toddler's food could be ready in just 15 minutes.
The compact design is another massive plus. Since the cooking containers can be stacked on each other, you can do a bunch of tasks with an appliance that doesn't take up much counter space. When you're done using it, clean up is easy—thanks to the many removable, dishwasher-safe parts—and storing it is a breeze.
Lastly, the interactive LED screen lets you take full control of the food prep. Use the touch buttons to defrost, sterilize, cook, and blitz up your child's food in a heartbeat. Additionally, you can even adjust the timer and track it, thanks to the large display screen.
If we had to pick just one baby food maker, we'd go with this one. It's the best all-in-one option.
Main Highlights
- Easy to use and clean.
- Ability to steam, reheat, cook, blend, and chop.
- LCD display that shows all working status.
- Multiple program settings for streamlined cooking
Why Buy a Baby Food Blender?
Still on the fence about buying a baby food blender? Here, let's discuss a few things that might just change your mind.
Saves Time
In the absence of the blender, you'll probably need to use a ton of appliances to get the food done. A pot, a steamer, and even an immersion blender. All of which could take up a chunk of time to whip up a decent meal. With baby food makers and blenders, however, you can perform all steps in one place and end up saving yourself both time and energy.
Far Less Clean Up
This is pretty simple really. Without baby food makers, you’ll have to use a set of different appliances before you can get the food ready. Meaning you’ll have more utensils to clean too.
Completely Specialized
Unlike a food processor or a smoothie blender, baby food blenders are designed especially for small batches of food. With those other appliances, you'd need to bulk prep your meals. But with a baby food blender, you can focus solely on what your little one will eat for one or two meals.
Not to mention that these appliances double as baby food makers, since they can also steam fruits, vegetables, and meat—something no other appliance can do in addition to also chopping and puréeing!
They're just as handy and worth the investment as a baby bottle warmer.
The Best Baby Food Blender Buying Guide
Even though they share a common purpose, different baby food blenders have different features making them stand out. Here are a few things to consider when looking for the best blender for your baby's food.
Cleanup
Blending food is a messy affair. And between taking care of the baby and cooking food, the last thing you want is to have to deal with a blender that just doesn’t seem to get clean. Not to mention, hard to clean models can also become a breeding place for bacteria.
Hopefully, keeping your new appliance clean won’t be too much trouble. A thoughtfully build blender won’t have too many crannies, ridges, and nooks for dirt and debris to collect inside. Or worse get stuck. Some blenders even feature an automatic cleaning mode, perfect for easy cleaning.
Therefore, when making a purchase decision, check to see that the baby food maker and blender you’re going for is easy to clean and has easily removable parts so that you can wash the blender from the base up. Bonus points if the storage cups and blender cups are also dishwasher-safe.
Power
Pretty much any blender can blend soft foods into a smooth puree. However, tougher items (such as healthy leafy greens with lots of fiber) require an appliance with a powerful motor and well-designed blades to get that smooth lump-less puree. Invest in powerful baby food makers to make the most out of your investment.
Price
How much are you willing to spend? Baby food makers and blenders vary widely in price. You'll find blenders priced anywhere between $100 and $1,000. Many fancy baby blenders will even come with a gourmet treatment with recipe books and extra features but at a much higher price. However, if you can do without the fancy lavish perks choosing a more mundane baby blender will save you tons of cash.
Technology
A lot of baby food makers and blenders these days try to incorporate sophisticated technology to help prepare food automatically. So, you might come across a blender with buttons to blend soups, smoothies, or crush ice at the press of one key. You definitely want to make sure that your baby food blender offers maximum convenience to take the hassle out of cooking.
Materials
Most baby food makers and blenders are made of plastic. Now, while this is not much of a problem, there’s the risk of some plastics containing Bisphenol A (BPA), which can leach into the food you are preparing. And while there’s no proof that BPA is indeed bad for your health, the mere fact that it can leach into food and drinks is cause for alarm. As such, it's best to invest in BPA-free baby food makers
Capacity
The capacity of the blender is an important factor to consider because it dictates the portions of food you can whip up at a go. If you only intend to make a single portion at a go, then a smaller capacity would be more suitable for you. On the other hand, if you intend to cook several batches at a go and refrigerate them for future use, you’ll want a blender that has a larger capacity.
Durability
A well-constructed baby blender gives you a longer shelf life for years and years to come. Which is perfect, especially if you're planning to have more children in the future. A flimsy model, on the other hand, will cost you far much less but will have higher chances of giving in to wear and tear. Not to mention the fact that there’s the risk of a part breaking off and making its way into your little one's food, therefore, causing more harm than good.
Consistency
When babies first start off on solid foods, you want to ensure that the food is completely smooth to avoid the risk of choking on the lumps. However, you and I both know that at some point you’ll have to increase the lumpiness of the food so as to get the baby used to different textures. As such, the baby food maker you opt for should be capable of producing foods for varying consistencies.
Bulkiness
If this is going to be a permanent addition to your kitchen, you need to check that its footprint won't take up too much of your kitchen counter space. In Addition to that, its height should be reasonable enough to allow it to slide into a cupboard when you need to store it in between uses.
