Make your own baby food and you control what's in it, though she decides how much of it misses her mouth.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS PA—Strained and pureed commercial baby food is a reasonably recent invention, and as far as I’m concerned one of the first mass-marketing boondoggles (along with disposable diapers) to ride into mainstream market acceptance on the wave of the baby boom generation. Before that, babies nursed or drank cow’s or goat’s milk for their first several months, and then slowly started eating tiny bits of soft, mashed adult food as they became interested in it.

That’s still a good plan. The U.S. Surgeon General and other authorities recommend that babies be fed breast milk only for the first 6 months of life. After that, there are other options besides store-bought baby food. Preparing your own baby food from scratch is super-easy, saves you money, and keeps a lot of those tiny glass jars and their lids from being created, shipped around, and put into the recycling stream, all of which will cut down on pollution and greenhouse-gas emissions. Perhaps most important, by buying or growing organic food to feed your children, you can keep pesticides and other toxins out of their diet. Babies are far more sensitive to the effects of toxins than adults are—due both to their size and the rate at which they are building their brains and bodies. There are more organic, toxin-free baby-food brands available than ever; by all means try them. But read on to find out how to include homemade healthy options in your infant’s meal plan.

You and your baby’s doctor will decide when it is time to start introducing solid food into your little treasure’s diet, and which foods to start with. The doctor can also advise you on how to make sure your child gets the nutrition he or she needs. When the time comes, here are some suggestions: