Unclutterer

1. Posted by John - 07/01/2009

   The name “babycook” has an implication they probably didn’t consider.

2. Posted by Joe - 07/01/2009

   One “pro” for this device is that you don’t have to worry about the possibility of not-yet-introduced foods being mixed in with the baby food. Dad Labs (www.dadlabs.com) has a pretty interesting product review of this device.

3. Posted by mhb - 07/01/2009

   But the description says it’s French! What more reason do you need?

4. Posted by Laura G - 07/01/2009

   To be fair, the coordinating reusable baby-food containers look like they have the potential to be good multitaskers — once the child is no longer eating baby food, you could use them to freeze things like chicken stock, seasonal fruits and vegetables, small portions of sauces, whatever.

5. Posted by PJ Doland - 07/01/2009

   I’m having a hard time trying to decide whether I should make a joke referencing Soylent Green or that “To Serve Man” episode of The Twilight Zone.

6. Posted by Emma - 07/01/2009

   I’m sure my boy was on proper solids by 1 year old… so I’d have used that for 6months max… that’s a lot of money per month!

   While the baby food containers might be useful once the contraption has served it’s single use – it’s an expensive way to buy small containers.

7. Posted by Gretchen - 07/01/2009

   I totally don’t agree! Both my sisters have used this product and love, love, love it for its ease of use and lack of a bunch of different parts. We actually consider it a space and time saver, not a unitasker. If you make your baby’s food and you go on a trip, do you want to take pans, a steamer basket, a handblender or just one thing? It even travels well internationally.

   But, for every unitasker to one there is an indispensable item to another!

8. Posted by Kendra - 07/01/2009

   Wow, I made all of my daughter’s baby food and managed with just a pot and a magic bullet. I can’t believe I missed the opportunity to spend $150 for such a life changing device.

9. Posted by feminaformosa - 07/01/2009

   I know people who have this and LOVE it because you do it all in one thing, which makes the whole process easier, and there’s less washing up to do.

10. Posted by Tammy - 07/01/2009

    Gee, did you see you can even get some really cool spoons (only $19.95) and fancy trays to freeze your wonderful puree in (again, $19.95)? Has anyone ever heard of ice cube trays?

11. Posted by Celeste - 07/01/2009

    I think the price is high, but it seems like a nice product. I disagree about the cost per use being too high; that might be true if you only had one child, but most people have more than one child.

    But I was a slacker mom who was FINE with jarred baby foods, so maybe I’m not the one to ask! I think if food allergies are an issue, making your own would give you lots of peace of mind; this does seem a LOT easier than dirtying up the full size kitchen stuff to both cook and make puree.

12. Posted by Jasileet - 07/01/2009

    If you’re a mom, you’re probably already using the rice steamer and crock pot for dinner. This is a great idea for a family that has (or intends to have) a few kids.

    Washing chopping boards, pots, utensils, etc., 4+ times a day to make fresh, home cooked meals for everyone is a real drag. You’ve kinda got to experience it to understand, I guess.

    I’m a minimalist (a comfort minimalist, though quite serious if you ask the locals). I would still purchase this if I were about to have more children.

13. Posted by Marisa - 07/01/2009

    I made my son’s baby food and when this product came out, I considered it. However, when I factored in the cost – the “chore” of using a baking dish to cook the veggie/fruit and my food processor to whip it up – using what I had didn’t seem so bad. If I worked at a daycare, I could see using this, but for one kid at a time, it would have to be stored in between children.
    I made my own baby food so I could control the spices and save money – 1 organic sweet potato filled more jars than I could on the same $ with organic jarred food. Oh and I managed to store all those jars of food without some fancy baby food jar holder.

14. Posted by Erin Doland - 07/01/2009

    @Marisa — I forgot about the baby food jar holder! Ha!!!

15. Posted by Tawnia - 07/01/2009

    Somewhere out there are parents who find this indispensible–remember the diaper genie???

16. Posted by Rhys - 07/01/2009

    This takes a reliance on appliances to the absurd. People should be a little more “power of small”-conscious about these things. How much money are you going to save over a year by making baby food yourself with an expensive contraption? Buy baby food pre-made and you save time, make it yourself and you save money. With the Babycook, you save neither.

17. Posted by Michele - 07/01/2009

    Not to engage in one-upsmanship, but we never really made “baby food” — we would just set aside a small portion of whatever was going into our meal, and leave the baby portion unspiced, unbuttered, unfried, unsauced, or whatever. Absolutely no extra washing-up to do, because her foods were simply set aside as the adults’ meal preparation progressed.

    It also helped that our daughter didn’t like to eat pureed foods. She always wanted to grab a hunk of food and feed herself with it, and she would fuss if we tried to put something in her mouth for her. Since I figured that was less work for me than my having to sit down and feed her with a utensil all the time, I let her do what she wanted.

18. Posted by momofthree - 07/01/2009

    Oh man, yet again, I find that I am a horrible mom by not spending big bucks to feed/clothe/diaper/entertain/educate my three kids.

    Back in 1990, for my first child, I received a MANUAL baby food grinder from my aunt, who got it from my mom’s other sister, who like my own mother, have the pack rat gene firmly implanted in their beings. (I am fighting the gene full force by the way)

    I, too, set aside a portion of the meal and ground up whatever the food items were, adding–OK–beware–not for the faint hearted—hand pumped breast milk if I thought the consistency was a bit thick or gritty or coarse.

    That only lasted for a couple months per kid, for once the teeth took over, the kids were so eager to be eating what the rest of the family were eating. I would always keep a bit unspiced/unseasoned for them to each while we ate heartily.

    Keep up the great work. Not everyone will always agree about a unitasker, but, in the long run, I always ask myself if I have lived my life this long (almost 50 years now) without this particular item, can I live even longer without it? If the answer is yes, I feel fine about laughing about it.

19. Posted by Jill - 07/01/2009

    I didn’t do baby food either, preferring to introduce real foods through self-feeding.

    But seriously, I thought the whole point of a baby shower was to make your friends and relatives buy you really expensive unitaskers. The only one I was talked into was a diaper genie – but it didn’t take long before I was recycling grocery bags for that purpose so they could go straight to the trash.

20. Posted by SandyO - 07/01/2009

    I don’t have any babies around but being basically cheap wouldn’t even consider something like this. It does say in the description that it “multitasks” though.

21. Posted by Sammy - 07/01/2009

    I never bought one of these, but I’m with Gretchen.

    Look, even if you think the thing is a waste of money, how can you call it a unitasker? If you intend to make a lot of baby food, it replaces in one device what you’d otherwise need several comparably-sized or larger devices to use and clean – range, pot, steamer insert, blender.

    I think what you don’t like about it is that it’s expensive and limited in its application, but so what? My metronome is very limited in its application too, but it sure helps when I’m practicing.

    If you want to beat up on a catalog for having a bunch of useless stuff, I recommend starting here. But

22. Posted by Sammy - 07/01/2009

    (oops. hit submit too soon)

    …But lay off W&S for a while, because this thing has genuine utility.

23. Posted by Karyn - 07/01/2009

    @ momofthree – re: manual babyfood grinder, that reminds me that a nice stainless steel food mill (crank it by hand) can be found for $10 to $20. So if people want to use a separate device dedicated to food for teh beebee, at least the food mill is cheap–and it can later be repurposed to grind, rice, and mash other foods as well.

24. Posted by Olga - 07/01/2009

    I think this might actually be a nice item to have, if someone gives it to you. I can’t see myself spending $150 on it, that’s just too much. But if someone passed a used one to me for free, I would use it and pass it on to someone else. When my son was little, I would just steam some veggies for him and mash them up with the fork. He liked it just fine. And then it was onto regular foods. Kids grow so fast, a lot of things for them are better to get used since you’ll only use them for a bit.

25. Posted by Sandra - 07/01/2009

    I have one and I consider it to be a multi-tasker and not a unitasker. I now cook my own veggies in there if I want to have a quick meal and don’t want to stay in the kitchen till it’s ready. I just pop everything in there and come back after 15, 20 or more minutes. I don’t have to be there when it’s ready because it will switch off automatically.
    Oh, of course I used it for my son who was a very late eater. I am glad I could get him to eat some fruit puree that I made (and make) with it every couple of days (and I do use a simple ice-cube tray to store the food I make).
    Also, I love it because I did not have a food mill or processor or anything to puree things enough for my son to eat. A true multitasker for me.

26. Posted by Another Deb - 07/01/2009

    I am wondering if this might serve to perpare food for elderly people who are unable to chew/swallow properly.

27. Posted by Leah Goodman - 07/01/2009

    I microwave sweet potato, apple, pear, etc and use a fork to mash them.

    If I make a chicken soup for the family, I mash up some of the veggies from that too.

    then again, I got my kid on canned peas and carrots and canned corn and teeny bits of tomato, cucumber, apple, etc as soon as she could pick up food herself, so it was maybe 2-3 months of mushy food.

28. Posted by Kelly from Almost Frugal - 07/01/2009

    I’m American but live in France, and this thing is *the* go to baby gift for new parents. In fact this is the best known of a whole variety of brands’ offerings; I’d guess that there are at least 10 different kinds on the market.

    In fact, I think it is a useful appliance, especially if you’re going to have more than one child but you buy it for your first. Then at least you’ll get much more than the 6 months’ use out of it. That said, as a mother of 3 kids, I always just steamed veggies and then blended them with a hand blender… and on trips I used the jarred stuff.

29. Posted by mbm - 07/01/2009

    Someone gave a used Babycook to my sister in law and she likes it, but admits she wouldn’t have paid full price for it.

    I just use a pot and a Magic Bullet, because that’s what I had around. In fact, the Magic Bullet was a gift, and I thought it was kind of silly until I started making baby food!

30. Posted by hmt - 07/01/2009

    I am a crazy-get-rid-of-all-the-extra-stuff minimalist. I drive my husband crazy with my miserly tendencies and under most circumstances I would never consider owning a $150 single use kitchen gadget. But, I love my little Babycook machine! The amount of money spent was quickly justified when we realized how expensive organic jarred baby food is.

    It is so much more convenient to use than dragging out a pan and food processor (and we don’t own a rice cooker or a microwave). I can chop up some veggies, toss them in, and go tend to the munchkin. I don’t have to watch the boiling pot on the stove, etc. Plus, it’s much easier to wash the tiny little machine versus the large pot and large food processor (picture the image of woman hand washing food processor with one hand while tending to four month old baby with other hand. The scale of the items you are washing is an important factor!) We also happen to have the smallest kitchen in Southern California, making it near impossible to have a pan and a bowl and a food processor in use at the same time, so score another point for the Babycook machine.

    Another surprise use we found for the machine was a pet food maker. Our little cat had a bout of the flu and wouldn’t touch any of her normal canned food. The vet suggested we make some home cooked food (gave us a few good recipes). We used the Babycook to prepare a warm meal three times a day for our ailing cat (she recovered just fine, loved the food).

    okay, I’ve blathered on for a while now. I love my “unitasker”! And it takes up less cabinet space than an ice cream maker or a juicer (ha-ha, jab at Erin, sorry )

31. Posted by lindsey - 07/01/2009

    Fed my first daughter by crockpotting stuff and smashing it with the side of a fork- all sorts of baby fruits-veggies-meat that way. Easy stuff.

    My second sort of just skipped baby food. From breastmilk straight to food off our plates (fork-chopped) in about a week’s time. The only things I delayed were common allergens (peanut butter, eggs, cow’s milk). Even easier stuff- especially since we never had to give her a spoon, she went straight to stuffing her face on her own.

    So yeah- I’m currently biting my tongue while my friend gets excited over this thing, which she got for a shower with her first baby. As neat as it may be, can’t possibly beat the neatness of not even worrying about what/how you’re going to feed the baby, since the baby eats whatever you do!

32. Posted by Jen - 07/02/2009

    I made food for my preschooler and am currently doing so for my 11-month-old, and I would LOVE one of these. I use my food processor, but it (as well as the Magic Bullet) contains BPA, so it’s not a great solution. A blender doesn’t get the food chopped fine enough for us…we need it chopped finely but not pureed (my little guy just had his first tooth pop through at 11 months, and he gags on anything that’s not chopped finely). Not to mention all the dishes from cooking and pureeing separately, meaning extra time, water, dish soap, etc. to wash. And as hmt mentioned, anything that lets you set it and forget it is a huge bonus when you’re trying to look after kids while you cook!

    I would never spend $150 on this, but if money was no object I would have bought one in a second and then passed it on so it would get lots of use.

33. Posted by Josh - 07/02/2009

    In general, I’m reluctant to spend cash on “things”, and initially scoffed at this device, but within very few uses, I was hooked, and now swear by it. While I understand the convenience of precooked food, I prefer to have a degree of control over the ingredients my daughter eats. On the other hand, as any parent knows, time becomes very valuable. The Babycook is, as the USAF would say, “fire and forget”. (In other words, put the food in the basket, turn the machine on, and go back to your regularly scheduled life.)

    While the machine may seem pricey, if we assume an average use of one year and 3 meals/day, each use adds $0.13 to the cost of the food being prepared. So, convenient, inexpensive, and of a quality equal to of better than that of prepared food? Sounds like a good choice for my daughter.

    My criticisms of the machine include the difficulty of cleaning the overflow valve in the handle and the base of the blades, as well as the lack of a bell warning that the cooking cycle has completed. Also, like seemingly every other modern electrical device, the cord is too short!

34. Posted by Amy - 07/02/2009

    My only problem with this is the cost. I think it seems like a great product. Especially of it gets things (like meat)smoother than it would be in a blender. I do not own a food processor, only my blender, and my blender does not seem well suited for baby food. I’ve tried. It seems smaller and easier to manage than a food processor too. Plus it steams. It doesn’t seem like a unitasker to me. I have 3 young children and could see using this. My oldest son in particular has some texture aversion so to try new things, I sometimes have to make everything into soup until he gets used to it. If I had this all along, I would probably even pay the price.

35. Posted by Waileia - 07/02/2009

    One word – TWINS! I have twin boys and this fabulous piece of machinery has saved me time, money and mess! I love it! The basket and bowl go right into the dishwasher and the rest I soak and hand wash. No pots, steamer baskets and cuisinart – just one lovely beaba. I love my beaba! It ROCKS!

36. Posted by Nat - 07/02/2009

    I made baby food using pots we already had or just by microwaving the veggies in a bowl. Then I used a food mill that we already had that my hubby got at a garage sale for $5 before we were married. So I disagree with the person who said this replaces other equipment. Chances are if you cook at all, you already have the equipment anyway.

    Every baby is different, but I made pureed food for all of 4 months. I also only made one fruit or veggie in medium size batches about two to three times per week. You only need the super smooth stuff in the beginning. At a certain point, if it’s mashable by fork then it’s soft enough for baby.

    Equipment like this IMHO seem to cater to the parents that think baby food is supposed to come from a jar. I kid you not, I had friends who didn’t want to make baby food because they didn’t think they could get it smooth enough.

37. Posted by Marie - 07/03/2009

    I’m always surprised when people mention the Diaper Genie as extraneous. I don’t have human children, but my cat version, the Litter Locker, is a godsend. I can’t imagine filling holey grocery bags three or four times a day, then having the trash can bake in the sun for a week until pickup. Yarf!

38. Posted by Leigh Ann - 07/03/2009

    I never really understood why we feed our babies baby food anyway. Everything I read said that babies get everything they need from breast milk/formula and not to introduce other foods too early due to the potential for allergies, basically 6 – 9 months. My son was ready to feed himself little things he could pick up and shove in his mouth – banana chunks, green beans, etc. I think I feed him baby cereal a few times, but he hated it. He’s now eleven years old and has a great appetite for a wide variety of foods and is not overweight.

39. Posted by Lyrehca - 07/04/2009

    Ditto on Marie’s comments about the Diaper Genie. We have two–one upstairs and one downstairs, and believe me, it’s worth its weight. Where we live, we put out our trash once a week. The one time I emptied a diaper into the trash where it sat for a few days, the smell was overwhelming. The Diaper Genie keeps the house smelling fresh and allows us to just empty them with our regular trash.

40. Posted by L. - 07/04/2009

    Wait, so the Diaper Genie (same size as a regular diaper pail, less stinky) is a foolish cluttery waste of space, but you recommend $300 electronic cat boxes? (http://unclutterer.com/2007/05.....s-clutter/ ; http://unclutterer.com/2009/05.....cluttered/ )

41. Posted by L. - 07/04/2009

    Oh, I take it back. I see that Unclutterer.com didn’t actually knock the Genie.

42. Posted by lvana - 07/06/2009

    My kids never had baby food, they didn’t start solids until they could eat lightly mashed foods and then they got whatever we were having for supper, spices and all. This whole make special food for baby in a special little contraption thing seems a litte silly.

43. Posted by Sarah - 07/17/2009

    Someone gave us a Magic Bullet for our wedding in May 2005. It sat in our cupboard for two years. Then, we had two babies ready to eat, and we planned to make baby food.
    It was easier to clean than a blender, and we could store baby food in the containers.
    We could have just mashed it up with a fork, but the machine let us make a lot of food – quickly – and freeze it. It made meal planning for the babies very easy.
    It really helped us stay on track and not resort to jars.
    When we were done making baby food, I threw it away.

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