Feeding infants prepared baby food ?

Question

I don't understand why new mom's today don't feed their babies foods like Gerber's or Beechnut. They have been around for more then 40 yrs and have raised many happy and healthy babies. Why not make your lives easier without having to worry if baby is getting the right nutrition and vitamins. Nutritious, portioned and portable too! No need to warm the unopened jars

Answer 1

The same reason why I dont buy stuff like "flake instant potatoes" or those cheap dollar frozen quick meals. I don't buy them because i don't like them and I would rather eat REAL fruits and veggies and meat by preparing food myself. Thats like saying, How come "new moms" nowadays buy that crappy formula when women have been breastfeeding for 40 years Plus... Its a stupid question. People have their own parenting, and who cares what you feed your child as long as its healthy and your child thrives. I am proud to say i have a 9 month old who eats anything and everything i give her and she has never had nothing But organic, She is happily breastfeed and has never had "pureed" food and thats how i like it..

Answer 2

I agree. Baby food is expensive though, which deters a lot of people....but Gerber didn't kill my kids! LOL. It is also so much easier than trying to puree the food from the kitchen. I prefer gerber, but my son likes it warm, not cold!

Answer 3

"feeding baby "table foods" pureed or not like roast beef, sausage etc. Is not healthy for an infant baby.Their digestive systems cannot process these foods well"

...because the stuff in the jars is magically different somehow?

The fruit I eat at breakfast is somehow different fruit from the processed stuff in the jars? Etc?

"Why not make your lives easier without having to worry if baby is getting the right nutrition and vitamins."

I don't see buying separate food and feeding baby separately from the family as a convenience, and I really don't think jarred food is as healthy as you imagine it to be.

Would you eat every meal in a day from a can? Of course not; for one thing, it'd be disgusting, taste-wise. And you'd miss out on all the nutrients destroyed in the canning process...

"Experts seek to debunk baby food myths

Little evidence supports ‘any particular way of doing things’

....experts say 6-month-olds can eat many of the same things their parents do.

Ethnic foods and spices are mostly ignored by the guidelines — cinnamon and avocados are about as exotic as it gets — and parents are warned off potential allergens such as nuts and seafood for at least a year.

Yet experts say children over 6 months can handle most anything, with a few caveats: Be cautious if you have a family history of allergies; introduce one food at a time and watch for any problems; and make sure the food isn't a choking hazard.

Parents elsewhere in the world certainly take a more freewheeling approach, often starting babies on heartier, more flavorful fare — from meats in African countries to fish and radishes in Japan and artichokes and tomatoes in France."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9646449/

"Cheating Babies: Nutritional Quality

and Cost of Commercial Baby Food

Gerber and Heinz replace real food with water and thickening agents in many of their products for children over six months of age. Such adulterated products are nutritionally inferior to products made with more fruits and vegetables.

The single-ingredients foods made by all the companies differ only modestly as a result of adding somewhat different amounts of water. However, Gerber and Heinz add substantial amounts of water and thickening agents (flours and chemically modified starches) to more than half of their twenty-five most popular fruits, mixed and creamed vegetables, desserts, and dinners for babies over six months (second- and third-stage foods). Not only are those products a monetary rip-off, they are also nutritionally inferior to similar products made without fillers. Gerber and Heinz' bananas with tapioca, for example, contain less than half of the levels of nutrients found in their plain first-stage bananas. Gerber and Heinz' regular dinners, which contain at least two types of refined flour as thickeners, provide less than 50% of the nutrient levels found in comparable dinners made by Growing Healthy, which are made from whole foods and contain no starchy fillers. Many fewer products made by Beech-Nut and Earth's Best contain starchy fillers.

Baby foods are very high priced compared to similar regular foods. Baby foods cost far more per ounce than conventional national brands or supermarket brands. For example, parents often pay more than double for baby food fruit juices and applesauce. Gerber Graduates diced fruits and vegetables are also more than twice the price of comparable products available in the canned goods aisle. For the majority of puréed baby foods, there are no comparable regular products. However, judging from the instances in which direct comparisons can be made, these baby foods are also priced far higher than they would be in a competitive industry.

Makers of baby food encourage a mystique about their products. They want parents to think that commercial baby foods have special properties that make them particularly appropriate, if not essential, for infants.

Advertising campaigns promote the myth that commercial products are especially good at meeting the nutritional and developmental needs of infants. Gerber's public relations and advertising machinery has cultivated an almost sacred image in people's minds of Gerber products. Those perceptions are clearly untrue. Parents, armed with a food processor, blender, or mashing fork, can easily prepare safe, nutritious, and economical food for their infants at home. Of course, many commercial products are nutritious and do fill a need when convenience is desired."

http://www.cspinet.org/reports/cheat1.ht...

"I think you might have misunderstood my question because you all seem to blast me."

I think you misunderstand some of the 'blasting.' Your theories are wrong. A peach is a peach whether it's been put in a jar at a factory or just been yanked from the fruit bowl on the table. Babies can't better digest something just because Gerber sold it to their parents.

As for nutrition, no way is processed stuff healthier. Sorry. Plenty of nutrients are destroyed in the canning process; even the single-ingredient baby foods aren't so great, and loads of them are _garbage_ with added sugar and starch.

I also think it sets up bad habits, for both mother and baby. Baby gets used to eating bland, processed food. Mom gets used to offering convenience foods. Then you have a toddler living off those "Gerber Graduates" _junk foods_, refusing to eat anything decent...

Answer 4

ummmm, because i don't eat every meal out of a jar or tin, so why should my baby.

It takes no time at all to prepare a homecooked meal for your baby, and you can always make extras and freeze.

Who knows what the h**l they put in those jars of food to keep the long shelf life on them...i know i wouldn't feed that c**p to my kids.  

Answer 5

I personally make homemade baby food because it is cheaper, and I can have a wider variety of veggies and fruit. I do have a couple of jars in my pantry for outings though. I find jars are always the same veggies, beans, peas, squash and carrots. I make pumpkin, beets, kale, turnip, avacodo etc. I just find I can give more choices to baby, and hopefully broaden their taste buds. I also find jar food to be very watery and messy. Years ago jar food had a bad rap because the companies were using fillers and sugar, but since then they now use just veggies, fruit and water.(and stuff to keep the color) I don't care what people feed their babies, every mom is different. Homemade just works for us.(plus I get such satisfaction knowing I made it for them:)

Answer 6

yes but not every parent uses jars either a lot of my kids ate what we were eating roast dinners casseroles sausage and mash fish pie spag bol because all u have 2 do is blend it and usually u allways cook 2 much anyway so it saves u money 2 . also any i had left i use 2 freeze in ice cube trays 4 another day wen we might be having take away or something that couldnt really be blended

Answer 7

Well my daughter had prepared baby food plus finger foods and now she is 10 months old and doing just fine!  Maybe some mums like to do that little bit extra for their baby by cooking their own food - it makes them happy. I guess it's up to them really but I found I was already very busy without adding to it by cooking seperate meals for my daughter!  She's nearly old enough now to eat what we eat so once that happens I will stop giving her prepared baby food.  In the meantime it's a great help!    

Answer 8

I use beechnut.  We don't eat very healthy in my house so I let my son get what he need from baby food.

Answer 9

Some parents prefer to make their own babyfood for a variety of reasons:

1.  Cost -- it's much cheaper to puree a fresh carrot than to buy a little jar of pureed carrots.

2.  Awareness of ingredients.  While it's possible to avoid fillers and additives by reading labels, some parents prefer to make their own, to be certain of what they are feeding their babies.

3. Desire to feed all organic.  There are few commercial organic babyfoods.

4. Baby doens't like the jars.

BTW, while sausage isn't great for a baby (usually has a lot of sodium)  roast beef is fine.  Jarred food is not more digestable than home made food.  If a baby can eat 'gerber pureed beef' he can eat a piece of roast beef that mom has pureed or (once baby is old enough) minced or cut up small.

Jarred food is fine. (If you read labels.)  Home made food is fine.  Whatever works for you and your baby.

Answer 10

Because they are expensive and unnecessary, and for a baby who is only just starting weaning the portions are ridiculously large.

Seriously, take a look at the ingredients. They are exactly the same as those you can cook at home. I don't know what your definition of "table food" is, but mine includes lots of fresh fruit and vegetables prepared without salt.

Sure, a baby who is just starting weaning shouldn't have processed food like sausage. They shouldn't have jarred food intended for an older child either. There's nothing magical about putting food in a jar.

If you really don't know what to feed baby then look it up - most mums can read, and anyone posting here can not only read, they have access to the internet. Throwing money at the issue rather than educating yourself is a very poor solution.

Answer 11

For the same reason I don't eat pre made food from the supermarket. I like to cook, I like to choose my ingredients, I like to know what my daughter is eating. Each parent decides, no wrong no right