When a food blogger has a baby, I guess it’s inevitable that the blog start featuring baby-friendly food and what to feed a baby upon weaning. I am no different I guess! I weaned Sameera at 5.5 months and two months down the line, I have a happy baby who loves her solids, sometimes even more than milk.
I was not planning to get here a dedicated machine for making baby food. In fact, I had plans to introduce baby-led weaning which doesn’t believe in pureed food as such and is based on feeding baby whatever the adults eat but minus the salt, spice and sugar. While I had good intentions, it didn’t quite out that easily. Sameera would play with the food and cry from hunger. When this continued for a few meals, I caved and started feeding her.
I have been using the Tommee Tippee baby food steamer cum blender for Sameera exclusively for three months now and wanted to share all the details including pros and cons with you.
Justification
So, do you really need a baby food maker? The need for a dedicated baby food steamer/blender is debatable and as someone who was just going to use her Indian mixie, I can definitely tell you that I am super glad to have this nifty device.
If you were to use your current mixie or blender, you would need to steam the vegetables/fruits/meat/seafood separately and then blend it. This device does everything in one shot.
This also cuts down cross contamination. If you are an Indian household like us, you would be using your blender or mixie for spicy masala pastes, Indian chutneys, and such and this can leach into your baby’s food if the blender jars are not washed thoroughly or handled properly.
In fact, my mom was saying how she used to wash hers in boiling water three times before preparing anything for us when we were babies. Seriously, how much time does that waste in a day?
Size
As far as baby food makers go, the Tommee Tippee steamer blender has a very small footprint. It sits neatly on my countertop and takes up around the same space as my rice cooker.
Ease of Use
Doesn’t get much easier than this to make baby food puree. You plug-in the machine, chop up the ingredients and add to the steamer blender bowl, fill the adjoining compartment with water, set time, and let the machine run. In about 30 minutes, steaming hot food is ready.
You can choose to just steam the ingredients, only blend cooked ingredients, or do both together. I usually steam and blend but have on occasion used just the blender, like to make mashed fruit which doesn’t need pre-cooking.
You also need to measure out the water that goes into the compartment in the machine (450ml) and with some trial and error, also figure out how much vegetables need to go in for you to get the consistency you are after. This is fairly quick to figure out though.
Price
At SGD 199, it’s not cheap. I anticipate we will get a good one year’s use out of it if not more. Even when Sameera moves on to eat everyday food with us, I still hope to make sauces and mashed vegetables for her in the Tommee Tippee steamer blender just because it’s guaranteed safe from contamination, mainly from hot chilli and spices we tend to use in our food.
When it comes to your baby, things do tend to get expensive. I would say it’s worth it but of course, it’s a personal call and once you need to do after you take all the pros and cons into consideration.
Safety
The machine won’t turn on unless you’ve put the blender in the right way and locked both the water compartment and the blender in. You also need to ensure cleaning and assembling the machine is done in the right manner and all should be well.
What I love about the Tommee Tippee Baby Food Steamer Blender
- It’s compact
- The blender jar is just the right size and the blade is very sharp and good
- It’s hygienic
- You can make a small quantity for single serving or a larger batch for freezing
- It steams and mashes even dal and rice which works well for Indian-based baby weaning foods
- A dedicated baby food maker takes care of any contamination risks/allergies etc
- It’s easy to clean and store away
- It’s great to make a batch of baby food which you can store in small containers and freeze for later. The device comes with two freezer pots which are very handy
What I don’t love about the Tommee Tippee Baby Food Steamer Blender
- It’s hard to control the texture of the food. The steaming and mashing is quite uniform and fairly smooth. If I blend for lesser time, I get non uniform chunks. It’s easy to mash this with a spoon and serve though so not a deal-breaker
- It’s hard to control how thick the puree is. This really depends on the amount of ingredients you add. Typically, a single batch of food will come out very watery because the machine uses the same amount of water to steam no matter how much you add. I generally thicken by adding rice cereal or powdered oats
- The price can seem high to some
Overall, I would say this machine is TOTALLY worth it. I am glad I have one and we use it multiple times a day. Everything Sameera eats is prepared in this and I have found quite a few hacks to make Indian friendly food in a baby food maker. I will share a few ideas in another post so stay tuned for that.
Disclaimer: This Tommee Tippee Baby Food Steamer Blender was sent to me for use and review. All opinions are honest and based on my actual use so you can trust me on that 🙂 If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.
If you are in Singapore, the Tommee Tippee Baby Food Steamer Blender is available at Agape Babies (online), Kiddy Palace (retail), Mothercare (online/retail) and Pupsik Studio (online).
Amazing blog! The blender you described in this blog is so wonderful, small in size, easy to use and also fits in the budget easily. It is safe to use, easy to clean and easy to assemble. Thanks for sharing.
its water compartment detachable for cleaning ? are parts from where stream goes from compartment to blender are detachable for cleaning ? is there anyother measure to keep compartment clean against bateria / mould .
i didn’t use it long enough for mould to form.
I want to buy a baby food maker for my twins. Do you think this can make enough to feed two babies at the same time?
Hey Lena, yes absolutely! You can adjust the quantities although there’s a minimum quantity with which the product works better. It should work just find for two babies and you can make extra too as needed.