Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

DD is just starting solids and I planned on making all her baby food because I believed it to be healthier than jarred food. Then I went to Fairway to get organic carrots and squash in order to start this journey. While I was there I perused the baby food aisle (this is all new to me) and saw brands like Earth's Best and Happy Baby that had a bunch of organic options with the ingredients being only the vegetable/fruit and water. No preservatives or additives etc.

So now I'm wondering if I should still make her food? I was under the impression that the only options in packaged foods were loaded with preservatives and other crap.

But if a jar of Earth's Best carrots really is just organic carrots and water, isn't it just as healthy as if I made it myself?

So I guess I'm wondering why so many people choose to make their own food. Is it more cost effective? Is it just a preference? Is it actually healthier?

Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

I bought the jarred organic for the reasons u mention.

Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

I gave DD a mix of homemade and jarred. I found the homemade to taste better for me but I had no issue with jarred. As far as cost, it depended on the fruit or veggie. For example, a bag of frozen peas cost me $1 and made something like 10 or 12 ounces. A butternut squash is also cheap and makes a ton. Something like organic peaches were more costly to buy fresh or frozen than to get jarred.

Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

I never made her food to be organic or healthier that something else.

I did it because it was:
Cheaper
Easier (its not like she was on it forever)
Made more sense (things tasted right so the move to table food was a breeze)

Hubby tastes ANYTHING and EVERY THING before she ate it. It had to clear him first. If it was bland, tasteless or unrecongizable, she didn't get it.

And to me.. it WAS easy. She was a great baby. We'd put her on the table while he and I crammed into that small kitchen. Him making dinner, me making her veggie and setting it up to cool or while I fed her. We'd rotate who ate. For us it was simple, easy and fast. So why bother going to the store? Litter all over with tiny jars? Nah. Picking what she liked and if she didn't? then what? Oh well WE can eat it! LOL stick it into meatloaf! Though that never happened. Grocery shopping? Never went out of our way. She ate veggies we ate. He ate peas and green beans, I prefer carrots and broccoli.

Plus one Yam seems to last FOREVER!

Then like 4m later she's barely on that stuff and onto table food? Fine by me. She was eating salmon and asparagus off my plate by 8m. Noshing on strawberries at 7m. Pasta and meats by 10m.

Still loves her carrots and broccoli, tho these days she prefers cauliflower. LOL

But if you want to go for orangic baby food, why NOT? seems fine. I just prefered my way. To each their own.


ETA: Oh and we tried to give her jarred food and that was a huge fail. Actually any and all jarred food (other than applesauce) was rejected. Orangic or not. She just didn't like them. *Shrug*

Message edited 5/13/2013 4:56:52 PM.

Re: Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

Re: Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

I did it because it was cheap and I was way into reducing my kids' carbon footprint.
All jars and containers that are made and manufactured, tossed,
Baking sweet potatoes seemed like such a better solution then supporting factory manufacturers. A baby's footprint can either be huge or non existent. Bfing, cloth diapering' hand me downs, and making your own food.
It isn't for everyone, and maybe that is why I am stopping at 2 because that sh!t was exhausting ;)

Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

For us it came down to being cheaper and made more sense. They both ate the food that they were going to be eating growing up. It's great that they make a mango-plum-yogurt grain whatever, but we don't eat mango really. Plus like a pp said 1 sweet potato at $0.20 lasted about 5-7 "meals" for our new eater. Once they were both around 8 months old or handling Cherrios good we just put our meals in the food processor and they ate that. I guess my thought was also, I don't eat peas out of a jar or a can so why would they?

Re: Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

I never really got into making my own baby food. I made a few batches here and there for each kid, but I would say about 2/3 of their baby food was organic jarred, not homemade. My kids did not seem to have a preference between Earth's Best and the stuff I made.

Overall I feel that homemade baby food is turning into this new badge of honor in the mommy wars. I have heard a lot of holier-than-thou "My baby has NEVER eaten food from a jar!" claims. Like there was rat poison in the jar.

Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

i've made a lot of my own and i also give earth's best to supplement some of the stuff that's hard to make...like i made a beef stew, chicken with sweet potatoes etc....but lentils and turkey, its much easier to just get the jarred. she loves both and either way i feel like she's getting good stuff.

Re: Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

We buy some in the store, more fruits than veggies.

We do mostly homemade. Any leftover veggies get made into baby food and frozen. Any leftover meals that are appropriate the same thing. The foods taste sooo much better and my DS loves them! His favorites are asparagus and peas.

I buy mostly pears and apples in the jars in the store, very rarely anything else.

I love taking our fresh fruits and veggies and making foods for him.

Re: Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

I thought making my own food for DD#1 was a major PITA and waste of time, so I knew I wouldn't do it for #2. The only non-jarred food #2 gets as of now is bananas and avocado (apple sauce is from regular jar that the whole family eats). Not sure what I will do about meats, though (#2 is 7 mos). I may make that on my own and just add it to the jarred foods, just bc jarred meat grosses me out a little bit.

Re: Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

I did jarred organic veggies and fruits!
But made my own proteins - chicken, beef, ect... The idea of jarred meats was just gross to me.

Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

I think making your own is cheaper. But I buy organic because I just don't have the time to make my own...

Re: Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

i give my kids the preservatives and other crap bc i have twins and barely find time to pee

Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

I did both. When i had time to make it i made it... when i didnt i gave my dd plum organics and she loved it! And if there are certain foods i dont eat doesnt mean my dd shouldnt eat it. And now shes eating table food so i just give her what were eating and i still give her plum organics. She enjoys them and i enjoy them because it gives me more time to do the things i love doing with her.

I even tasted it and some of them are deliciousss. The only thing i never gave her was the meats. That just seemed a lil gross to me.

Message edited 5/14/2013 2:36:44 AM.

Re: Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

I did a mix, but mainly organic jarred foods. Honestly, one time I made a batch of applesauce and I accidentally left some hard apple chunks/pieces in the mix where DS could have choked, and well, that was that... I pretty much used organic jarred food from then on.

Re: Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

Message edited 5/14/2013 8:10:53 AM.

Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

I did it because:

1. It's much cheaper. Yes, organic fruits and veggies can be pricey, but one batch would last a long time.

2. The taste is different and I wanted DD to know the real taste of fruits and veggies vs the jarred taste.

Re: Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

Re: Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

Re: Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

Posted by JDubs

Posted by gina409

i give my kids the preservatives and other crap bc i have twins and barely find time to pee

same here. minus the twins.

Re: Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

Re: Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

Yep. No real advantage for me save the cost to make your own food.

The other advantage of jars is that you know it's not spoiled or contaminated. That, and it's mobile.

I work full time. I don't often cook for us, never mind a baby!

Making your own baby food vs. buying organic jarred food... Am I missing something?

We did mostly all organic store bought fruit and veggies. . I loved the pouches when we were out of the house. I ALWAYS bought them on sale at BRU (10 for 10 or 15 for 15 etc. so they were never more than $1.00 each) I did a lot of bananas at home because that was easy enough to mash.

I always did meats at home though because like PP's said... kinda grossed me out.