Beaba Babycook Baby Food Maker
by Beaba
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Our Price: $114.49 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: Baby Product See more product details |
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Baby Products Reviews of Beaba Babycook Baby Food Maker
Customer Review: Beaba Babycook makes family meal time easier
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Customer Review: Great customer service
Summary: 5 Stars
I read many reviews on the beaba and other products similar to it, also spoke with my cousin who has used the beaba for two years on both her girls. She also writes for a baby site where she does extensive research on baby products. She told me she has never had any issues with mold or other problems that people report. I wanted to make sure I was buying something that was going to be worth it especially for how pricey it is.
I'm sure you are worried about the mold problem and cleaning it out. This part is not as troublesome as I envisioned. After a couple of uses I cleaned it according to the directions which say to pour 100ml of water and 100ml of white distilled vinegar which can be measured using the blending bowl. After pouring the vinegar and water into the compartment it says to leave for the night and empty then you run it through a normal cycle w/water. I found that this did a great job. I also made sure that every time I was finished I would take the lid off the heating compartment so it can air out I don't really ever put it back on unless I'm steaming or it has been off for plenty of time to completely cool off.
Another part of cleaning it that I learned is essential is taking the blade out and removing the gasket to clean. The gasket is a little sort of suction cup rubber thing that prevents everything from leaking out of the bottom of the bowl. The first couple times i didn't do this partly because I thought I could clean it good enough just left inside the bowl. I was wrong food gets stuck in ridges of the blade that are hard to clean unless you remove it. I had messed with the blade a couple times trying to figure out how to remove it. Later I found out in doing this I had left the blade a little lose. It started making unusual grinding noises and then at one point almost wouldn't work at all. Finally I took the blade off and found out the plastic part of the blade had melted due to it not being on tight. I called their customer service and left a message that evening. They called me back promptly the next morning and agreed with me on why this had happened. They are mailing me a new blade for free and i dont have to pay shipping even though my husband got it working smoothly with the blade I already have and are sending an extra gasket which I requested and am paying $2.00 for. The beaba comes with two gaskets anyway because it is made of rubber and is a material that can brake down easier than the rest of it (their words) they told me to throw away the other one because it was covering the part that melted and put on the extra one.
I do love the beaba and think it is a great product. The cons: lots of parts to clean, I only use the beaba a couple times a week since I freeze the food so not a big deal to me ( i recommend the oxo freezer trays.) Pros: you can buy all of the spare parts online. con: shipping can be pricey about $5.00 for even a $2.00 item. The biggest pro for me is I get to feed my son healthy fresh food. I can tailor the food to his needs. Also I can control the texture by using the water the food was steamed with. Great product, great customer service.
Customer Review: Very small capacity, takes too long to use, hard to clean.
Summary: 2 Stars
I won the Beaba from a blog giveaway, but I don't think I would ever spend the money to buy one. I only used mine about a dozen times before passing it on to a friend.
It did everything it was advertised to do. I don't think it saves on time and effort, though. You still have to clean, peel, and cut your fruits or veggies into chunks, so no time saved there. If anything it takes MORE time to prepare baby food with the Beaba simply because it has such a small capacity. You can put about a cup to a cup and a half of chopped raw food in the steamer, which seems like a good amount of food. However, by the time you steam and puree your food, you end up with only about half a cup of baby food, maybe a bit more.
Let's say you're going to make some sweet potatoes. Always a great food to start babies on because it's mild and sweet and can be pureed really smooth and creamy. The Beaba can only cook about half of an average sweet potato at a time. I can cook four LARGE sweet potatoes and puree them in my 7-cup food processor all at once. With the Beaba, start to finish, from peeling to chopping to steaming to blending to cooling, you're looking at around 30 to 45 minutes before you can feed your baby. Also, food coming out of the Beaba is EXTREMELY hot, rightly so, but you can't feed a baby food that hot so you have to let it cool, which just adds to your food prep time.
Anyone who is serious about making most or all of their own baby food is going to want to make baby food in BULK. Most busy moms don't have time to waste on a product like the Beaba that makes such a small amount of food at a time. Just one hour in the kitchen on Sunday and I had enough baby food to last all week, if not longer. I have a KitchenAid 7-cup food processor which I found on sale at BB&B for around sixty bucks. I would steam my veggies and fruits on the stove or even in the microwave, then puree them quickly in the food processor, usually making about 4 cups of baby food at a time.
Also, one pot, one steamer basket, and one food processor was MUCH easier to clean than the Beaba. The Beaba streamer basket was stained orange the first time I used it and I didn't care for all the little parts and pieces I needed to clean on the Beaba.
Don't waste your money on fancy or expensive baby food storage containers. Gladware makes small 4-ounce containers. I believe a pack of 8 is under 3 bucks. I would fill about a dozen of these at a time with 3 or 4 different foods and pop them in the freezer. Each night before I went to bed, I would pull a couple of containers out of the freezer and stick them in the fridge for the next day. Come mealtime, it was fast and easy to scoop out what I needed and warm it up in the microwave.
After several months of freezing and heating the little blue lids of the Gladware containers would crack, but they're so affordable that I didn't mind tossing some in the recycling bin and buying another set.
Customer Review: Worth every cent!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I first used this product in 2005 when I lived in London and I used it until I moved to the US at the end of 2007 when my son was almost 3. I found it to be absolutely invaluable. My son never ate a jar of baby food - not once, because of this handy gadget. All of his food for the first year was made in this and he was still eating food prepared in it when we left the UK.
The pros for us was that it eliminated the need for 2 separate (and usually bulky) appliances (very handy in our Central London apartment) and it allowed us to prepare food for our son when we travelled which we did extensively. This item travelled (and cooked) in Morocco, Amsterdam, New York, Washington DC, the Caribbean, the Alps and many other places. Wherever there was an electricity socket we could use it.
The best thing about it though is that this appliance is BPA and PVC (phthalate) free. I know that many American parents are not as across this issue of toxic chemicals as the Europeans and the Canadians but it is a hugely important topic for young children. Heating food in plastic is something you have to be very careful about, especially if you are feeding young children. I'm simplifying this but in a nutshell BPA and phthalates have the ability to mimic the female hormone estrogen and interfere with the production of the male hormone (testosterone) amongst other things. These chemicals are implicated in diseases such as breast cancer, testicular cancer, lowered sperm counts and defective sperm and diabetes. Studies have shown that plastics, when heated, can leach (pass on) these chemicals. Food and fluid heated in plastic containers or devices that contain these chemicals, will contain these chemicals in them also. Chemicals that you (or your child) then eat.
If your family eats lots of steamed vegetables etc then you will probably have a steamer that you are already using and I agree if you are steaming for a family then this is simply too small, but it worked perfectly for us and I would often steam food for us (spinach, baby carrots etc) from time to time.
I never had a problem with mold or brown fluid!! (Also I am not sure you can blame an appliance for mold!)
In a nutshell if you can afford it and want to make your own baby food, I cannot recommend this more highly. I am pregnant again and am so happy that this is now available in the US. I cannot wait to use it again.
Customer Review: Had a bad problem - now it's solved and the Babycook works fine.
Summary: 4 Stars
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 2/25/11- this 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.