Ready to get started making your own baby food and looking for the best steamer and blender for baby food? We’ve rounded up 10 great choices.
Best Choice | Best overall | The Best on a Budget |
Evla’s Baby Food Maker | Homia Dansa 8-in-1 Baby Food Maker | Beaba Babycook Neo |
Starting your baby on solid food has to be right up there in terms of exciting first year milestones. Just as seeing your baby’s first smile, watching them crawl or take their first steps, or hearing them say mama or dada for the first time fills parents with delight, so does watching your baby take her first taste of real food.
I was so excited to get our daughter started on solids, and knew I wanted to give her the best possible “inputs” to support her healthy development.
We used a combination of baby led weaning and more traditional baby food – aka, fruits/vegetables purées. And because we wanted to keep unwanted ingredients out of her food, we decided to try making our own baby food using a baby food maker.
Short on time and just looking for a quick recommendation for the best baby food steamer and blender? We think Evla’s Baby Food Maker is the best overall, and think it will work great for most families. If you want something more comprehensive, check out Homia Dansa 8-in-1 Baby Food Maker. Finally, if you’re concerned about plastic, the Beaba Baby Cook Neo uses a glass bowl and stainless steel steaming basket to keep your little one safe.
If you’re still breastfeeding or bottle feeding and are totally new to solids and self-feeding, you might be wondering why a baby needs its own food maker.
The truth is, you don’t actually need one. However, it will make your life a lot easier if you have one.
Baby food makers are basically an all-in-one solution to prepare your baby food in the healthiest possible way. They can chop, steam, and blend the food for you, making the whole process a lot easier and quicker than if you had to do each individual step.
Some baby food makers do all of the above, and some only do some of the steps – a steamer and blender combo is most common. Instead of steaming the fruit, veg and meat on your stove, straining, and transferring to a food processor, the baby food maker takes care of the whole shebang. And it lets you get the consistency right in terms of just the right amount of water.
Obviously making our own baby food took some effort, but in our mind, the advantages of making our own baby food far outweighed the time investment.
- Better Nutrition – So many store bought fruits/vegetables baby food blends contain way more fruit than vegetables. If you use a food maker for baby, you can add whatever proportion of each ingredient you want, upping your little one’s vegetable content and exposing her to a wide variety of flavors and nutritional profiles. Baby food makers are also designed to retain as much nutrition as possible.
- Saving Money – Although a baby food maker definitely involves an upfront investment, over time it can be cheaper to make your own baby food than buy commercial. One analysis suggests homemade organic baby food is nearly 45% cheaper than store-bought, and homemade non-organic baby food is around 43% cheaper.
- Customization – Investing in a baby food maker means you’ll be able to be able customize your recipes to your baby’s taste preferences. If you end up with a coconut lover and an avocado hater, no problem! If you want to use quinoa and farro instead of rice, no problem! You’ll be able to find recipes that your kiddo loves rather than relying on the more limited combinations the big baby food manufacturers put out.
- Avoiding Allergens – If, during the process of introducing food, you discover your baby has a reaction to a certain food, you might feel more confident using a baby food maker to make your own food.
- Waste – Making your own food will cut down on the waste associated with baby food, especially the plastic and food pouches. Win for the environment, right?
To me, making my own baby food is a no brainer with so many benefits.
If you’re ready to get started, keep reading to learn more about what we think are the 10 best baby food makers available now.
Looking for the Best Baby Food Maker? This is Our Top 10 List
- Best Overall Steamer and Blender – Evla’s Baby Food Maker
- Best Overall Multiuse – Homia Dansa 8-in-1 Baby Food Maker
- Best for Avoiding Plastic – Beaba Baby Cook Neo
- Runner Up for Limiting Plastic – Baby Brezza Glass Baby Food Maker
- Most Stylish – BEABA Babycook 4 in 1 Steam Cooker & Blender
- Best on a Budget – Eccomum Baby Food Processor
- Best Large Capacity – Babymoov Duo
- Best Mini – QOOC 4-in-1 Mini
- Best Food Processor – Cuisinart Food Processor
- Best Accessory for Making Pouches – Infantino Squeeze Station
Best Baby Food Makers Reviews
Best Overall
Evla’s is our winner out of all the baby food makers we considered. A family-run company, this system gets it right on the important details that will make a new mom and dad’s life easier.
The water tank has a wide mouth, making it easy to clean out and preventing mold from growing. And the steaming and mixing cup can self-rinse and sterilize, making cleanup effortless. It is also dishwasher safe if you encounter some more challenging stains.
Evla’s baby food blender can steam and blend almost any kind of food from start to finish within 15 minutes. The control panel allows you to choose the consistency. For little ones, it makes purees. As they get older, you can add in some lumps. And when they’re ready for it, it’s an easy way to steam veggies for them.
It is made out of completely PBA-, phthalate and lead-free materials.
The Do It All
This machine is much more than a basic baby food maker, and can steam, sterilize, juice, warm, defrost, puree and chop. When your kiddo is ready for chunks, you can simply steam and chop the food instead of making a puree. And it serves as a quick way to defrost and warm up food you’ve previously made and put away.
It has three-tiered cups in three different sizes that stack on top of each other so that you can cook three different items at once, saving a ton of time when compared to standard food blenders for babies.
It is BPA-, lead- and phthalate-free and is dishwasher safe for easy cleanup.
Best for Avoiding Plastic
This machine can steam, puree, reheat and defrost baby food, giving it a multi-functional quality. And the reservoir is over-sized with a large opening that makes it easy to clean out.
One of the best things about this machine is the capacity. It can hold up to 5.2 cups of food at one time, making it ideal for food prep and stock-piling instead of having to make one serving at a time.
The parts that touch your baby’s food are plastic-free, and therefore free from harmful chemicals like BPA. After a previous design issue that resulted in a recall, the glass has been redesigned to be extra strong and resilient.
Limited Plastic
The water tank can be removed for easy filling and cleaning, and the LCD control panel looks less like a cockpit and more like a blender with just a few settings.
The steam/blend combo setting will automatically steam the food to perfection and then blend it, requiring no extra steps for busy moms.
The glass container holds up to four cups of food which is ideal for moms who like to food-prep. While the blending bowl is glass, the steam basket is made of plastic, as opposed to stainless steel as with the Beaba Baby Cook Neo.
Most Stylish
This food maker can prepare both solid foods and purees, making it a great tool to grow along with your little one. It has an automatic shut-off for simplicity and a timer that will let you know when your kiddo’s meal is done.
It is BPA-, lead- and phthalate-free and has a large 4.7 cup capacity that is great for making large batches of food for setting aside.
Additionally, this set comes with a spatula and a recipe book to help guide you according to whatever food you want to prepare.
Budget Choice
An affordable steamer and blender with some extra bells and whistles. The bowl of this baby food maker is just wide enough that your baby’s bottles of milk fit in. As such, you can use it as a baby bottle warmer, heating them up quickly with steam.
There is a simple LCD control panel that shows your preset time along with real-time and just one command button for each of the four functions.
It also features a premium precision blade for quick and efficient blending. And the wide opening of the water tank makes it easy to fill and clean.
Best Large Capacity
This clever design has two sides. One is a multi-level steamer and the other is a powerful blender to make smooth purees for your little one.
The steamer has two large, separate baskets so that you can make a large portion of more than one food type at a time. Once the food is steamed, it can be processed in the blender that has a nine-ounce capacity.
As a bonus, this baby food maker can also be used as a bottle warmer and to safely sanitize baby bottles.
Best Mini Baby Food Maker
Once the food is in the bowl of this system, the simple commands are chosen using a dial that makes working with one hand effortless. You can reheat, defrost or steam and process fresh food.
It is made out of Tritan material, which is BPA- and Phthalate-free. And the motor is incredibly quiet which is invaluable if you decide to use nap time to get some food-prep in.
All of the components of this machine are dishwasher safe for easy cleanup.
Best Food Processor
This machine is simple to use. It has only an “on” and an “off/pulse” buttons for simple control. It has a 14-cup processing bowl and both a small and large pusher to feed the food into it.
You will find this processor useful because it goes beyond baby food and will serve well for your basic cooking needs with a slicing disc, a shredding disc and a stainless steel chopping/mixing blade.
It comes with a spatula and a recipe booklet and the components are all dishwasher safe for simple cleanup.
Best Accessory for Making Baby Food Pouches
This system comes with one station, three tubes, one rubber press and ten pouches. Each pouch can hold up to four ounces of pureed baby food, and you will be able to fill up three pouches on the filling station at one time.
It can be used to make baby food for infants and would also work great for healthy preschool or school-age snacks to pack in your kiddos’ lunches.
The components of this system are dishwasher-safe and it contains no BPA, phthalates or PVC
What to Look for When Considering the Best Baby Food Makers
If you’re ready to pull the trigger on making your own baby food and have decided to invest in a steamer and blender for baby food, there are a few things worth considering:
- All-on-One vs. Multipurpose: I think getting a specific baby food making machine will save you the most time, as you won’t have to fuss with steaming on your stove and then transfering. However, getting a more generic device (aka, a standard food processor) will last much longer.
- Safety of Materials: Look for a steamer and blender for baby food that’s made by a trusted manufacturer, and ensure it’s BPA, BPS, Phthalate, Lead free.
- Footprint on your Countertop: You’ll be using it every day, or at least a few times per week, so it’s likely going to live on your countertop. If you have a lot of space, a large device is fine, but many of us will need to consider the footprint vs the space we have.
- Volume of Food: Smaller capacity means making more frequent small batches, and a bit more work. A larger capacity means you can make larger batches to last you a few extra days.
- Cleaning: A simpler device with fewer parts and something that’s dishwasher safe is going to be your best bet. When hand-washing, I recommend using a specific baby bottle safe dish soap to ensure there isn’t left over residue, flavour, and fragrance.
Final Thoughts
Choosing from among the best baby food makers really comes down to preferences, budget, and space. In our view, you can’t go wrong with Evla’s Baby Food Maker or Homia Dansa 8-in-1 Baby Food Maker. However, we also like the Beaba Baby Cook Neo as it keeps your little one’s food away from plastic, which is a plus in our minds.
We hope this article helped you make up your mind. If you know another family getting started with baby food making, please share this post!