Beaba Babycook Baby Food Maker

I love this gadget. Compact, all-in-one, easy to use, FOOL PROOF, and ... gives me the CONFIDENCE to make my baby's food.

I've read tons of web reviews and blogs about this product, and detractors seem to miss/misunderstand my 'category' of mom. I cook when I can. I bake when I get the chance but... mostly, I dont have the time or confidence to pull it off anything 'new'... AND clean up multiple utensils!

So many blogs out there chastise the Beaba buyers for wasting money--telling us to buy cheap steamer inserts and dust off our blenders, food processors and food mills... For my first baby, I listened to these moms (and the Beaba wasnt in the USA yet). I bought the food mill; I pulled out the steamer insert... and.. I froze. My baby ate NOTHING BUT JARRED (organic) FOOD! till she could chew the foods in my comfort zone. Baby food, all the prep and the coordination of all these tools was all so daunting. I was terrified I'd get it wrong... or couldnt keep sterile enough... or would get lost in all the piles of things I'd have to clean after each prep!!

THEN THE BEABA! Little to clean, nothing to get wrong, no digging through drawers and juggling appliances in my limited space! I LOVE IT! Call me a slacker mom! But dont call me frivolous with money!! Organic Baby food is $1.10 a jar and my baby would go through 4-6 a day. I've had my Beaba for 6 weeks, and it's already paid for itself.

BTW, you can adjust the consistency to your baby's taste as he grows. I figure soon I'll just be using it to steam, not blend. And... I doubt it will be a permanent fixture in my kitchen! But ... its paid for itself! Carrots smell like carrots!!! and ... its given me a confidence that I hope extends to other culinary projects! Slacker moms, buy it.

PS Careful if you're reading those blogs re: Beaba and BPA. Read ALL the blogs. The most uptodate will lead you to the latest info promising this product IS BPA free. There are blogs that appear current but have not updated this info.

I live in a small apartment and don't have room for lots of gadgets (not even a microwave). I find this appliance to be worth the counter space. I like that you can steam and puree in one appliance, and that I don't have to lug out the steamer and blender to whip up some food.

Some reviewers say your baby will outgrow this machine's usefulness in a few months but I disagree. My baby eats mostly finger foods but still I use the Beaba a lot. I use it to reheat leftovers (again, we have no microwave) and also use it to chop or puree adult dinners that are two hard for baby to eat.

It's not a huge capacity but that doesn't bother me. After spending whole weekends steaming, blending and freezing veggies, just to discover that my kid's taste buds changed and what he once loved he now refuses, I'm over large scale baby food production.

One safety note! There is a little hole that the lid clicks into. That hole leads to the water chamber and I once accidentally tipped the machine over and scalding hot water came out of the hole and landed on my hand. I got a nasty burn. Definitely keep this machine well away from the edge of counters!

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This is the first product review I have been compelled to put on Amazon. Bought this because most prepared baby food is disgusting and I wanted an easy way to serve fresh food to our son. This product was highly reviewed and I like gadgets so it seemed like a good fit. It worked well in the sense that it was convenient and cooked baby food, but after about 3 weeks, I noticed that the water used for steaming was brown and sweet smelling. I looked in the reservoir and noticed brown grime on all of the metal and a sickly sweet smell. I assumed (unfairly) that my mother-in-law had mistakenly put food into the reservoir hole and then was embarrassed to say anything, so I cleaned the unit with vinegar as per the instructions and tried again. We've only had the unit since Feb 2010, use it only 2-3 times a week and now had the same problem 3-4 different times. The water used to cook the food is brown and disgusting and I have cleaned (physically scraped) brown grim the reservoir multiple times. I have contacted Beaba and they have suggested that it's a descaling issue and to descale the unit once a month. I completely disagree as we have had the same coffee maker for three years and never descaled it once. I don't know if food is being spun into the reservoir or what, but at this point, we have a $150 baby food maker that we are afraid to use. What's the point of fresh baby food if it's covered in some kind of unknown detritus? Beaba has so far been unresponsive about a replacement/ repair. Will update with any new developments.

Update 2/25/11this is an update to the review above. I'm not sure, but now think the problem of the brown water had to do with not properly using the plastic cover when blending the food (aka user error) allowing particles of food to enter the water chamber and be subsequently reintroduced into the baby's food. I say this because while no one in my family would admit to not using the plastic screen when blending, as soon as I reiterated that everyone should be using it, the problem stopped and we have used the Baby food maker without incident since. So not sure what caused the problem, but it seems to have gone away recently and we are now happy with the product again. I revised my rating to 4 stars.

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After reading some of the reviews, I almost got scared off this, and am glad I didn't.

I did batch cooking for my first two kids, who are now 3 and 4. When it came time to move my 6 month old into solids, I wanted to home make his food also. But since I have less time and freezer space, batch cooking just wasn't feasible. I wanted to make his foods from the ingredients I was using for the family meals. Trying to puree small amounts in a regular size blender or processor is impossible. I saw this and though it would make meal time easier and it does!

Now the baby eats what we are eating, just steamed and pureed. I can make 3-4 servings at a time and just put the extras in singe serve containers in the fridge. I cooked a whole chicken, pulled off the meat and out it into small snack sized bags and put them in the freezer. Now while I am cooking for the older kids, I put one serving of chicken, with some veggies and/or fruit in the cooker and it cooks away while I am making dinner for the rest if the family. E.A.S.Y.

-The mold issue other reviewers shouldn't be a problem, if you make sure the reservoir is empty and leave the top off so that it can air dry. Same for the blender/steamer parts. Just dry them between uses. I use water from my Brita to reduce build up between descaling. If your reservoir in a regular steamer isn't emptied all the way, it will do the same thing.

-The counter top footprint is small, about ¾ of the size of my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. It's small and does small amounts, it doesn't say that it does large batches. So I'm confused as to how people are disappointed that it doesn't do large batches. It states it has a 2 ½ cup bowl.

-The Beaba website sells the replacement parts all separately which I liked, just in case something needs replacing. I cook a lot and have has to replace blades on my large processor, so I'm glad that the parts are so easy to get.

-The steamer does shut off automatically and the light goes off, but just like a regular steamer, if you leave food over boiling water, it will continue to soften. The booklet gives you the times for the steamer, so timing it is actually pretty easy. (Level 1 on the bowl is 7 minutes, level 2 is 10 minutes, level 3 is 15 minutes).

-The Beaba website has more free recipes. (My kiddos fav is 2/3 pumpkin, 1/3 pear and a dash of pumpkin pie spice)

-The blender part worked great for my 6 month old, totally pureed the pumpkin, carrot, sweet potato, pear, nectarine, banana and butternut squash that I pureed in there. I thinned with water or pear juice.

-You hold the switch to the right to puree the food. For me, it's not a big deal to hold a switch for 30-60 seconds. So I don't see this as a design flaw.

-The top and bottom don't line up perfectly they can't or else too much pressure would build up in the steamer and it would pressure cook the food, not steam it.

In short, This is my 3rd baby that I've cooked for at home, and I love this. Some of the design flaws others talked about aren't really flaws at all. I have to cook a meal for the kids at 5 and one for my hubby and I at 7 when he gets home. This makes it easy to make the baby's food at the same time with the same ingredients.

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I got the Beaba Babycook as a gift, and adored it for several weeks. I work and have very little spare time to spend in the kitchen, so I loved being able to steam and puree my baby's food without having to clean multiple pots and pans. Then, after about a month of regular use, I noticed a foul odor coming from the well where the water goes. I looked inside and saw that a brown crust had formed there. I figured it must be lime deposit that had turned brown from being exposed to the hot temperature of the babycook, but when I tried to descale the well, the vinegar did almost nothing to remove the brown deposit, even after several attempts. I was also very worried to see that the water that ended up in the steamer basket was brown, thus suggesting that if I tried steaming more veggies, the deposit would end up in my baby's food.

I contacted the manufacturer, and they recommended using distilled water (although there was no mention of this in the manual). So, I exchanged my now completely dysfunctional Babycook for a new one, and tried again. Within two days the brown film had developed, even though I was using distilled water. I don't know much about appliance design, but I figure there must be something really wrong with this gadget if it takes only a few days for such a deposit to form. And the odor is truly foul no way I want my baby's food within a foot of whatever it is that collects there.

I don't see any mention of this problem in other reviews, but at the same time, I can't imagine that I am the only person this has happened to, given that it happened TWICE to me. Too bad I really loved the idea behind this product!

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