Mini food blenders

Once you start to make your baby home-cooked meals you'll need to get food to the right consistency - runny to start with, then like a thick sauce, next a slightly chunky texture like cottage cheese.

Forks, mashers and sieves are the conventional kitchen tools for doing the job, but you can also buy hand blenders, which are simple devices that grind the food down to the required consistency, or mini electric food blenders which do the job more efficiently and are time saving.

Once your baby has no need of pureed or blended food, mini electric blenders become a useful kitchen gadget for chopping small food items. Your normal kitchen blender may already have a mini blender available as an accessory.

Look for:

• Designs that are easy to take apart and clean
• Electric blenders with variable speeds, so that you can get the desired consistency for your baby