Donna Gialo’s business might be half the age of her twin daughters, but her baby business is growing at twice the speed.

Gialo, the owner of A la Mode in Lombard, also owns GaGa Gourmet, an all-natural baby food company. She said she came up with the idea for the business after making her own baby food for her twin daughters, now 4 years old.

“They responded to it well, so I started to make it for friends,” Gialo said.

When her friend’s children thought the food was a hit, the business was created. All the food is made in a kitchen inside A la Mode. The fruits and vegetables are steamed, frozen, pureed, packaged in 3-ounce and 4.5-ounce containers, and shipped nationwide.

Foods include peach and carrots for ages 4 months and up, and minestrone soup and banana bread muffins for children 12 months and older.

“We want the people that we feed to have natural ingredients so when they grow up, they will want to eat broccoli and carrots and other (healthy) things,” Gialo said.

After seeing GaGa Gourmet at the Natural Living Conference held at Navy Pier, Linda Riha became a customer for her son Nathaniel.

“I really didn’t want to use the store brands,” Riha said. “And it was really tough to constantly come up with new and creative recipes.”

Riha said Nathaniel, now 11 months old, has been eating GaGa Gourmet’s creations for three months and especially loves the cinnamon apples and raisins compote. She said she loves it because it saves her time of making her own food.

“I get to spend to more time with my son and that makes me happy,” Riha said.

Through her networking at conferences such as the one Riha attended, Gialo recently was invited to California to showcase her product at the Silver Spoon Dog and Baby Buffet’s expo in Hollywood Hills, Calif.

She said she had a very nice time chatting with celebrities including cast members of “Dancing With the Stars” and actress Tori Spelling and her husband, Dean McDermott.

Gialo said their child, Liam McDermott, is a huge fan of GaGa Gourmet.

“(Dean) said, ‘I’ve never seen Liam eat like that,’” Gialo said.

Some customers pick up their orders at A la Mode, but most orders are shipped. During the summer months, Gialo said she expects anywhere between 30 to 200 orders a week to come through by phone and on the Internet.

“Locals can come in, pick up their order, and pick up a cup of coffee,” she said.