Once the little ones reach 4-6 months of age, you can gradually introduce new food items to their diet. But the thought of preparing your baby’s first foods can be daunting and overwhelming.
Although there are many pre-prepared baby meals available at local shops and supermarkets, nothing beats a home-cooked meal. Especially when you want to know exactly what your baby is consuming, ensuring top quality food with all the essential vitamins and nutrients.
Many mums choose to make their own baby food from fresh ingredients, but the process of steaming and pureeing, freezing, defrosting, and reheating can be tedious and time consuming.
Baby food makers are a great solution for making the process of cooking nutritious food for your little one quick and easy. They allow you to control exactly what goes in - no hidden stabilizers, preservatives, or flavour enhancers. A good one can save you hours in the kitchen, minimise mess and stress, save you money and reduce your environmental impact, lowering plastic waste.
The best of the best will come with built in food storage, steamer, and food processor for that extra all-in-one convenience. It is important regardless of which model you choose that it is BPA-free and safe for frequent and repeated use.
Below are 6 of our best picks for baby food makers in Australia with a summary of key features, functions, and performance, all of which will bring added reassurance when it comes to feeding your healthy, growing bub.
1. Beaba Babycook Neo
Steam, blend, defrost, reheat - The all-in-one baby food processor
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With a holding capacity of 1.25L, the Beaba Babycook Neo is conveniently designed for all-in-one food processing, eliminating the need for pots and pans, blender, and microwave. It allows you to steam cook, blend, reheat, and defrost all in the same unit.
The Babycook Neo is perfect for our health conscious, environmental warriors out there looking for a baby food maker made from BPA, lead and phthalate free materials ensuring safe, frequent, and repeated use. It is the only baby food maker with a glass bowl and a stainless steel steam basket, compared with other models that use BPA-free plastics.
With a unique pulse-blend feature that adjusts, you can create everything from the finest purée to a chunkier blend and everything in between. It is designed with a helpful, one-handed operation, ideal for busy parents who are used to juggling multiple tasks.
The patented steam cooking system turns off automatically, so you never have to worry about watching over your unit or overcooking your baby's food and the glass bowl is dishwasher safe, for easy cleaning.
The Beaba Babycook Neo finds itself in the higher price range, but delivers in bringing ease and convenience, capable of producing a multitude of baby food options.
2. NutriBullet Baby Bullet Blender
Delivering delicious, fresh food with wholesome ingredients
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The NutriBullet Baby is one of the best baby food blenders on the market with all the power and convenience of the Original Magic Bullet, but now with the all-new baby blend blade, specially designed to refine your baby’s food to perfection. This unit can make and store fresh, healthy, scrumptious foods that are perfect for every stage of development.
It comes as a whopping 20-piece set, including 2 different blade types for refining textures and several serving and storage options, making this model ideal for families with multiple children or parents who take their food preparation seriously, allowing you to prepare multiple meals for the whole week.
We love that Nutribullet has considered all your serving and storage needs, providing batch cups that are perfectly portioned and designed for grab-and-go convenience and comes with refrigerator-friendly Date-Dial storage cups that allow you to keep track of your freshly made baby food. You can also make a surplus of food which can be stored in the flexible easy pop batch tray. All batch cups are BPA and phthalates free, safe for your baby to repeatedly use.
Keep in mind, the steamer is separate from the blender, so it is a two-step, two-dish process when you need to cook and puree. But to minimise clean up time, all components are easily hand-washed or top-rack dishwasher safe, excluding the blades and motor base.
3. Beaba Babycook Solo
A compact baby food processor, eliminating mess and stress in the kitchen
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The Beaba Babycook Solo is one of the best baby food processors on the market, featuring a holding capacity of 1.1L with the ability to steam cook, blend, defrost, and reheat all in the one unit. This is a mid-range model, ideal for families with minimal kitchen space, desiring nutrient-filled baby food. We've reviewed this product here and we think it's definitely worth the price.
The Babycook Solo comes with a stainless-steel reservoir, capturing lost nutrients in the condensation. Its patented steam heating system ensures perfectly cooked, nutrient-filled food for your little one. It comes with a multi-purpose mixing blade which delivers just the right texture, the timer has an alert to let you know when meals are ready, and all of this can be done by one-handed operation.
If you have leftovers, simply freeze them in meal-size portions and when you are ready it will defrost and then reheat to the ideal temperature. Or you can simply use the reheat function on its own.
This is a time-saving system, useful well into the toddler years. The Babycook Solo also includes spatula, mixing lid/smoothie filter and recipe booklet for a little extra support in the kitchen and the bowl is dishwasher safe, for easy cleaning. This unit is BPA, lead, and phthalate free ensuring safe, frequent, and repeated use for your baby.
4. Philips Avent 4-in-1 Healthy Baby Food Maker
Making mealtime effortless with a 4-in-1 baby food processor
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The Philips Avent healthy baby food maker helps you prepare tasty homemade meals, tailored to your baby's needs. This is ideal for parents desiring one pot cooking predominately for fruits and vegetables. This unit can handle meat, fish, and other oily ingredients; however, the unit may be more difficult to clean after use.
Introducing unique technology that lets the steam circulate upwards from the bottom, making sure all the ingredients are evenly cooked. No need to wait or watch. A distinctive beep will tell you when your baby’s food is cooked to perfection. All you need to do is flip the jar, blend and serve or store for later use. You can serve the food immediately or store it in the container included and reheat it later with the easy-to-use reheating or defrosting functions.
With a 1L capacity, dishwasher safe jar, you can cook up to four meals at once, aiding the beginning of your baby’s culinary journey.
The Philips Avent 4-in-1 can be a great addition to your kitchen delivering quick and easy cooking, just keep in mind there may be extra time required for cleaning the disassembled parts (blade, cover, fence). In fact, based on our research we have found some users find it especially difficult cleaning out the water tank.
 Best For TwinsÂ
5. Cherub Steamer Blender Baby Food Prep Unit
Designed to cook your baby’s food in the healthiest way possible
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The Cherub Baby Steamer Blender is perfect for bottle feeders or any family with twins or multiple children. This unit will steam, cook, and blend your food as well as sterilise and warm your bottles and accessories. It comes with 2 steaming chambers, allowing you to steam 2 different meals simultaneously, saving you even more time and catering to those fussy eaters.
This compact all-in-one baby food processor includes a built in LCD screen that programs different meal types giving you control over how you prepare your baby’s food. The alarm will let you know when the food is ready, so there is no need to constantly watch while it cooks.
The Cherub Baby Steamer Blender is the best puree machine with 2 blending modes to choose from enabling you to produce chunky or smooth meals for your baby. It can produce smooth fruit and vegetable purees in seconds, and the blades are sharp enough to blend tougher foods like meat.
We love that it can also steam sterilise items including large baby bottles (all major brands), pacifiers, teats and so on. You can also defrost and warm your bottles, baby food pouches and breast milk bags via the warming function.
All food prep components are BPA-Free, and with a safety OFF mode feature and an automatic overheating cut off, it is one of the safest options for the whole family. This model is a worthy companion for busy families and great to take away on holidays for healthy food, sterilised bottles, and warm milk on the go.
6. Chicco Easy Meal Steamer Blender 4-in-1
Cut your prep time in half while still producing delicious, healthy baby food
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The Chicco Easy Meal Steamer Blender is ideal for busy or working parents, featuring a unique switch system, making food preparation quick and hassle-free. Simply tilt the basket to easily switch from steam cooking to puree with just one hand, without losing any time or making any mess.
This versatile kitchen appliance is suitable for chopping, steam cooking, mixing, and warming healthy baby food. The Chicco Steamer Blender 1L capacity bowl has been designed to ensure even and effective distribution of the steam promising quick and optimum cooking, while preserving the nutrients and flavour of the foods.
This Steamer Blender has also been designed with an innovative slicer which easily cuts through all ingredients and cooks in time, without making any mess and without using cutting boards, knives, or other bowls.
This unit is a more affordable model on the market, which is easy to clean and capable of multi-functions and produces nutrient-filled baby food.
How to choose the right baby food maker
As you can tell from the brands featured on this page, there is a wide selection of models with different features to choose from. Here is what to look for when considering buying a baby food maker. Ultimately your pick will come down to the preferences that are most relevant to your home and lifestyle.
- Function and Size. It is important to determine what use you want out of a baby food maker. From something quick and simple to mash and puree, to an all-in-one food processor that can do everything – steam, blend, reheat, defrost, keep warm. Some baby food makers are versatile and can even be used for regular home cooking. Consider your kitchen space and storage to determine an appropriate size.
- Easy to Use. At the end of the day, regardless of which brand or model you choose, you want something that is easy to use, something that is going to make your life easier.
- Power and Durability. You want a machine with enough power to seamlessly cut through a variety of ingredients and endure frequent and repeated use. Keep in mind, a more powerful motor is likely to produce a lot more noise, which can be a little disruptive and alarming to sensitive hearing, especially for the little ones. Look for a quality build and check the warranty that comes with your chosen model. Most should come with at least a 12months warranty, with more premium models being covered from 2yrs.
- Cleaning. Cooking is only half of the job. Then comes the cleaning up. You want a baby food maker that is quick and easy to clean. One pot cookers eliminate the need for extra pots, pans and utensils, while certain models come with different blade types, minimising the use of extra chopping boards and knives. Also consider whether your baby food maker is dishwasher safe, are the attachments and accessories dishwasher safe? This can save you a lot of time and make cleaning up a breeze.
- Safety. It is important, no matter which brand or model you choose that your baby food maker is good quality, adhering to safety standards and regulations. You do not want to sacrifice your baby’s health for the sake of convenience. Look for durable and shatterproof material so you don’t run the risk of bits of the device ending up in your little one’s dinner. And look for plastics that are BPA, lead and phthalate-free. Some models also come programmed with extra safety features like auto cut-off for overheating motors, safety modes, cooking timers, and alerts.
