Should You Buy a Baby Food Maker?

Get the scoop on the pros and cons of a baby food maker, along with our top picks

Your baby is six months old. You’ve made it through the newborn stage, and maybe they’re sleeping through the night. It’s time for you to tackle another big milestone—solid foods. At this point, you’ll need to decide whether or not to buy pre-prepared purees or make homemade meals, and if you ask other parents if you need a baby food maker, be prepared to get some strong opinions, both for and against. But have no fear, we’ll help you with the answer. Read on to find out if a baby food maker is right for your family and which brands we recommend.

Why Some People Love Their Baby Food Maker

1. Making your own baby food is cheaper than buying store-bought baby food, and more environmentally friendly since there are fewer jars and pouches to throw away.

2. You can control exactly what your child is eating, making sure you give them a variety of nutrients and limit sugar, salt, and preservatives. You can cook up fruits, veggies, meat, and fish in your baby food maker, with any herbs and spices you like.

3. By pureeing foods that the rest of the family eats, you introduce your child at an early age to flavors they’ll be eating as they grow up.

4. Baby food makers are built with busy parents in mind. Some operate one-handed, and they have timers so you can set them to steam or blend and walk away until the food is ready to eat.

5. They have more longevity than you might think. You can use your baby food maker even if your child doesn’t eat baby food purees. Use it to steam veggies or make mashed potatoes or applesauce for your baby or the whole family. You can also use it to reheat chilled foods.

Related: Why Baby-Led Weaning Was One of Our Best Parenting Moves

Why Some People Skip It

1. Buying, washing, chopping, steaming, pureeing, and storing baby food takes time, and not everybody has that. You also need to carve out time to clean the baby food maker and the reusable containers you store the food in, as well as plan out your menus and find baby food recipes.

2. Baby food makers are usually compact, but they’ll still take up space in your cupboards or on your countertop.

3. If you spend a lot of time outside your home on errands or adventures, you need to find a way to pack and refrigerate the foods you bring with you and heat them up when it’s time to eat. Store-bought foods are often shelf-stable and you can buy more as you’re out living your life.

4. If you already have a steamer and a blender or immersion blender, you can perform the same functions of a baby food maker, just with a bit more clean-up since baby food makers let you steam and blend in the same container.

Related: Baby’s First Foods: The Best Ways to Introduce Solids to Your Baby

Three Baby Food Makers We Love

BÉABA Babycook Baby Food Maker and Blender, $160
This powerhouse prepares up to 4.7 cups of food in 15 minutes or less, so you can bulk-cook or prepare food like soup or applesauce for the whole family. In addition to steaming and blending, you can defrost and reheat foods to a comfortable temperature for the baby. The unit can be used one-handed if you’re holding your baby, and it comes with a spatula, mixing lid/smoothie filter, and a recipe booklet. The Babycook Neo ($260) comes with a glass bowl and stainless steel basket and holds 5.2 cups of food.

Baby Brezza Glass Baby Food Maker, $173
The Baby Brezza has a 4-cup capacity and three modes: steam, blend, or steam automatically followed by blending. For convenience, you can steam and blend in the same glass bowl without any transferring.

Tommy Tippee Quick Food Baby Food Maker, $80
This compact, budget-friendly option lets you steam and blend up to 7 ounces of food in the same container for convenience. There’s also an included basket you can steam in if you want to remove the steaming liquid and blend up a chunkier puree for your child.

Make sure to capture all those adorable first-food moments—and share them with your family and friends near and far—with the Tinybeans app. The secure platform puts parents in total control of who sees and interacts with photos and videos of their kids.