Ready made baby food: Heaven sent or easy way out?

Question

In a little while my little one will be ready for solids. I am fully prepared, have bought a baby cook

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/sku5279732/index.cfm

and am very excited to start using it soon.

I simply can't imagine raising my child on preservatives packed jars of which I can never be sure what's inside exactly. After all, when I am hungry, I do not open a jar or can of slush. I have real food.

I'm not saying I would never, ever buy it for my child (I'm sure it's dead handy on e.g. road trips, flights etc) but even then I would only buy preservative free organic brands.

What do you think: Could you not live without baby food in jars or will you never go near them?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The baby food we used didn't contain any additives or preservatives at all.  Just the veggies or fruits and water.  When I made homemade baby food at home with the food processor, it was the same ingredients.  The packaged kind are a lot more convenient but also a lot more expensive than doing your own.  That's why I used both.  My baby was able to get a wider variety of foods by having some homemade and some packaged baby food.  Just don't buy the ones that say they are desserts or a whole meal in a jar.

Answer 2

Jarred babyfood does not contain preservatives, and the law requires that each jar have an ingredients list that tells you EVERYTHING that's in it.

(Stage one foods are ALL just 'the food' on the label plus water.  Stages two and there may contain other ingredients, but still no preservatives, salt  or, except for a few desserts, sugar.)

Whether to make  your own or use jars is 100% your own choice.  There are pros and cons to each, so you do what works best for you. Both are healthy, and babies are on purees for such a short time anyway that it really doesn't matter.

EDIT:  Looking at this again, this comment made me laugh:

"After all, when I am hungry, I do not open a jar or can of slush. I have real food."

So you really make EVERYTHING from scratch? Bake your own bread?  Grind your own flour? Make  your own peanut butter and applesauce?    No canned tomatoes or tuna,  or beans?No  frozen veggies when fresh is out of season?

Packaged foods are not necessarily c**p, or bad for you, just because they are packaged.

Answer 3

Unless you are going to buy tons of raw stuff, cant use what you eat with alls the chemicals and salt ! You would have to buy a lot to have a variety

Answer 4

If you look on the label of a baby food jar, preservatives are not listed (on mine anyways). All it says on mine are the fruit or vegetable and water. I bought a little food chopper & I intended on making my own baby food. But I never did. It is just so much easier to open a jar..if you feel that way then you should consider all the preservatives that are in the food you eat..it's not just in jarred foods. it's in almost everything you buy at the supermarket. But you should save money making your own babyfood.  

Answer 5

I don't think I could have lived without jarred baby food! But I did do both jarred and made some stuff at home like mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, really cooked veggies and what not. I bought Gerber and my son did fine. I trust their products. I did spend more money at first and bought the organic stuff but if you read the labels they have basically the same ingredients. I just didn't have the time to do all the foods by myself. My husband was deployed for a year and I was basically alone. Good luck!

Answer 6

I make my daughter's baby food because I think it's better. I don't care if it really is or not. It helps me sleep better at night. I'm so tired of hearing people being all mean to parents who want to make baby food. I say more power to you. www.wholesomebabyfood.com has a ton of information that you may or may not need. I wish you all the luck in the world and hope you enjoy making baby food as much as I do.

Answer 7

*lol* They aren't even the easy way out... join the "baby-led weaning" err throwback (its an old thing, not a new thing -really).

Make food for family, put some on plate for baby or let baby eat off your plate.  Problem solved.  Works great in restaurants too, though of course then you must pick wisely to avoid overly salted or overly sugared choices.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/676279...

Solids best

After six months, Mrs Rapley said babies were capable of taking food into their mouths and chewing it.

Therefore, feeding them pureed food at this time could delay the development of chewing skills.

Instead, she said, they should be given milk and solid pieces of food which they could chew.

Mrs Rapley argued that babies fed pureed food had little control over how much food they ate, thus rendering them vulnerable to constipation, and running a risk that they would react by becoming fussy eaters later in life.

She blamed the food industry for convincing parents that they should give children pureed food.

She said: "Sound scientific research and government advice now agree that there is no longer any window of a baby's development in which they need something more than milk and less than solids."

http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintro...

Won't he choke?

Many parents worry about babies choking. However, there is good reason to believe that babies are at less risk of choking if they are in control of what goes into their mouth than if they are spoon fed. This is because babies are not capable of intentionally moving food to the back of their throats until after they have developed the ability to chew. And they do not develop the ability to chew until after they have developed the ability to reach out and grab things. The ability to pick up very small things develops later still. Thus, a very young baby cannot easily put himself at risk because he cannot get small pieces of food into his mouth. Spoon feeding, by contrast, encourages the baby to suck the food straight to the back of his mouth, potentially making choking more likely.

It appears that a baby's general development keeps pace with the development of his ability to manage food in his mouth, and to digest it. A baby who is struggling to get food into his mouth is probably not quite ready to eat it. It is important to resist the temptation to 'help' the baby in these circumstances since his own developmental abilities are what ensure that the transition to solid foods takes place at the right pace for him, while keeping the risk of choking to a minimum.

[...]

Understanding the babies motivation

This approach to the introduction of solids offers a baby the opportunity to discover what other foods have to offer as part of finding out about the world around him. It utilises his desire to explore and experiment, and to mimic the activities of others. Allowing the baby to set the pace of each meal, and maintaining an emphasis on play and exploration rather than on eating, enables the transition to solid foods to take place as naturally as possible. This is because it would appear that what motivates babies to make this transition is curiosity, not hunger.

There is no reason for mealtimes to coincide with the baby's milk feeds. Indeed, thinking of (milk)feeding and the introduction to solid foods as two separate activities will allow a more relaxed approach and make the experience more enjoyable for both parents and child.

Answer 8

Please make food for your baby yourself, buy organic. And you will know exaclty whats in there. Anything that has shelf life 3 years or more does not sound healthy. I make my sons food and on occasion buy organic jarred food. Good luck.

p.s. making food for your baby is so easy and fast and it tastes so much better!!!