Customer Reviews

KidCo Food Mill

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I registered for this because I remembered my mom grinding my "baby" sister's food 20+ years ago. I figured it could not hurt to have.
My little one is almost 1 year old and still doesn't have teeth. She gums things very well, but meats are a little harder to tear apart. (Note, this was great when we started solids... it mashed bananas and took the strings out of sweet potatoes to give them a smoother texture than just mashing with a fork.) We're introducing her to meats slowly, and anytime I've tried to give her canned commercial meats, she has scoffed at them and pushed them away. Well, tonight she eyed my pork chop jealously, as if her cooked mixed veggies were not enough. I ground up between 1-2 ounces and added some water to it to smooth the texture, and she LOVED it. She could have eaten more, but she had plenty to eat in addition to the meat. Although it took a little longer to grind the meat, I did so sufficiently.

This grinder washes up well.. I rinse it off, take it apart, and throw it in the dishwasher. I have had no problems with this grinder. It does it's job as well as I would expect any non-electrical grinder to work. I wish I had the tote, but a ziplock baggie works fine.

I would also like to add that I had to contact Kidco's customer service regarding finding replacement hardware for a baby gate, and they were prompt and professional.

The first food I wanted to use was broccoli. It would work wonderfully, then seemed to get jammed, work again, etc. It does work, but with more effort than I had expected. I tried preparing the food to be softer, but I encountered the same problems. I tried nectarines another day, and it made it very soupy. I guess I wish there was a way to adjust the mechanism to grind the food to different consistencies. My 9 month old son can handle chunkier foods, but with this mill the food is very liquidy. The size and minimal amount of parts/assembly make it very convenient and very easy to move. Also the entire mill can be cleaned in the dishwasher.

I love this food grinder. It is great because it travels well (to restaurants and outside events) and doesn't need electricity and is great for the home too. This is a great way to use the foods you are already preparing for your baby's meals and a great way to save money from baby food sold in the jar. Growing up we had two of these because my sister was handicapp and could only eat pureed foods.

Please note that this grinder is to be used for first foods (not chunky foods). Because fruit and vegetables naturally have a lot of water some of them might need a thickener add (i.e. Thick-it) if you find it too watery. Also foods with a lot of fiber or meat may need be harder to push through - this is a manual grinder. I find it useful to add some broth/soup/gravy to meat after it has been ground to make it more pleasing to eat.

I also recommend Ellyn Satter's books "How to Get Your Kid to Eat ... But Not Too Much" and "Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family" for guidelines on how and what to feed children.

Every time I pass the baby food display in a store, I think of how many millions of dollars parents could be saving, if they would just make their own baby food, rather than paying top price for those cute little jars! I take every opportunity to tell parents about using a hand baby food mill. The $10 I paid for my baby food mill was definitely one of the best investments I ever made! I purchased it for my first of six children, and just LOVED it! I found that it was much, much more convenient than a blender, for several reasons. A blender is fine for preparing large batches of baby food to freeze, but not a bit practical for making a single serving for your baby. The blender is much more difficult to clean, not very practical to take to the table, and it is difficult to get all of the food out of the bottom of it. The noise of it doesn't make it especially handy for table use, either. The hand grinder is perfectly quiet, makes use of every bit of food that you put into it, and can be taken and used anywhere! It is very handy for feeding the baby out of, directly, and the parts are easy to hand wash or can be thrown in the dishwasher. Also, it is very easy to feed the baby some of the same foods that you have prepared for your whole family. The food does not come out pureed, like with a blender, but I found that my babies preferred to have a little texture. It can be used on almost anything except for hard, dry foods, like chips, or taco shells. Many harder foods, like fresh apples, should be diced first. Some foods come out better with the addition of a little water or other liquid.

My grinder is in retirement now, after 14 years of use, but it is still in good working order. I am saving it for the day when I will have grandchildren to use it for! I just can't say enough good about it, and hope that many parents will try it. It makes an excellent baby gift, too!

This isn't the best for babies under 6months... it doesn't get foods as smooth as the step 1 foods you buy in the store. But keeping that in mind...

This comes in very handy. I started grinding foods in this with my 6 month old. It is easier for me to grind some food for him right at the table so he can eat some of the things we are eating, rather than prepare and store his food in advance.

I decided that one isn't enough. I prefer to run things through the dishwasher so they are more sterilized than washing by hand and I tend to use this for two meals a day. I don't like to feel pressed to load and run the dishwasher before dinner... It usually isn't a problem, but things are hectic at times. Its also nice to have one clean for traveling.

A tip - we mix whatever we're having for dinner, and if it's too dry or doesn't grind well, we add some cottage cheese. It helps it go through the grinder, and makes it stick together so it's easier to handle the food.
I notice one review found the unit hard to disassemble. It *is* a little confusing at first (you unscrew the knob at the top and the crank fits on a spline, which is counterintuitive), but once you get the hang of it I found it to be straightforward. We have never bought any baby food (have you ever tasted that stuff?) and always gave our daughter what we were having, including all the spicy stuff! Now she is a great eater and shies away from very few foods.

This mill is too weak to puree anything but the softest of foods, and it's much easier and faster just to mash those with a fork. For anything of any substance (including very well-cooked broccoli, very well-cooked carrots), the mill just pushes the food down and extracts liquids and I end up using the Cuisinart instead. Also, the design is such that it is very easy to spill food all over the counter as you attempt to remove/add food to the mill. I've had this food mill for 5 months, hoping to use it every day, but have found it so disappointing I have only used 3 or 4 times. Definitely a waste of money.

My sister-in-law used one of these with her children and loved it. So, naturally when we started having kids she gave one to us. It is GREAT! I was able to feed my children whatever we were eating. Not having to buy baby food saved a lot of money. I didn't have to worry about carrying heavy jars of food around and worrying that they might break in my diaper bag. This grinder is so durable. I used it with both of my children who are 3 years apart in age as well as now having gone through 4 neices and nephews. My oldest is now 10. It will even grind meat. Most other baby food grinders only do cooked fruits or vegies. I am currently looking for another one for a nephew. My old one is still being used by another nephew.

After feeding my first child store bought baby food I was on the hunt for a product that would soften my budget while being moderately easy to operate and clean. I went for this one because I didn't want to be making big batches of baby food at a time - way too busy for that- and wanted to be able to just pop in something from the table for my baby girl to eat. My first try was strawberries and while it seemed to work it really just pressed all the juices out of them and really did little to the berries other than press them and leave them under the plastic grate. I added some rice cereal to the juice and pressed on determine to make it work. My next try was some spinach pasta with sauce. I first tried it with the pasta just the way it was and all it did was twirl the pasta around the blades. Next, I tried cutting it into about one inch pieces and added a couple of the red peppers that were in the sauce (and very soft and well cooked). After pressing down with all my might while trying to spin it without snapping the arm off all I again got was very pressed food and little 'ground' food for my baby to eat. I pressed on with chopped and peeled apples, finely cut up into about pencil eraser size. I was rewarded with several spoonfuls of apple sauce but when I went to clean the device I found that about 80% of the apples I had put in had just been pressed, had the juice squeezed out and were still in the tube below the blades. NOT worth the trouble for a busy mom. May work okay if you steam and peel all fruits and veggies but I was looking for something to make my life easier, not create more work. I read so hopefully the reviews about this product grinding meat and just can't make it come anywhere close to producing an edible result. Busy moms beware!

This grinder was recommended to me, but I have to say I find it frustrating to use. Juice leaks out the bottom when grinding steamed vegetables or juicy fruit, and grinding some things (e.g., green beans) takes a lot of force. While the price is fine, the high cost of "shipping and handling" to purchase one unit made me angry; had I noticed before I bought it, I wouldn't have! Since then I've noticed that this is sold at most local grocery stores.