Would you prefere making your own baby food?

If YES why?

If NO why not?

By Palmbchprincess on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 06:28 pm:

I answered this under your other question. I feel it is cheaper and better for the kids to make my own.

By Feona on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 06:30 pm:

Is this a school project?

By Autumn on Monday, February 17, 2003 - 11:11 pm:

With my second and third children both, just about everything we ate went into the blender, and they ate that, too. Much cheaper. And they get all the same nutrients.

By Familyman on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 07:50 am:

We made it too. Cheaper, really easy, we made a bunch one day a week and it went into ice cube trays for later in the week so supplement what we were eating that went into the blender. It also made the transition to solid foods really easy as she was used to all the tastes. As soon as she could pick it up she was off and running. We didn't end up making it for very lond at all, 4 months maybe. A drop in the bucket.

By Kittycat_26 on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 01:22 pm:

I always thought it was so much easier. Timmy eats just about anything and loves it all. Daycare has tried jarred baby food on him once or twice and he just turns his nose up at it.

By Palmbchprincess on Tuesday, February 18, 2003 - 03:55 pm:

I agree about it not lasting long. I've been making food for 2 months, and have a freezer full of bagged cubes. Now my kids eat more finger foods, and not as much purees. When Maddie was teething really bad she only wanted juice and crackers. I recently made them kidney beans, and sweet potato wedges for them to pick up.

By Valentina on Thursday, February 20, 2003 - 09:09 pm:

Hi,

Thank you all for your comments. I’m really impressed with your answers.

I always thought that most people wouldn’t bother wasting time making baby food, when they can just go to the local shop and buy it!
It’s really good that all of you take time to prepare your own baby food. I would do the same thing (if i had time), but at the same time I would still feed them with ready made organic baby food because that’s the only baby food that I fully trust.

Another interesting point was when some of you mentioned that you freeze the baby food that you prepare!

For how many days or weeks do you keep the food in the freezer?

Do you think that the baby food would still taste nice if you freeze it?
Did you try it yourself? Did you like the taste?
What was your childs reaction?

Looking forward to your comments!

Thank you so much to all of you for taking your time to answer my questions!


Regards,

Valentina

By Palmbchprincess on Friday, February 21, 2003 - 12:57 am:

I've tried most of the stuff my kids eat, and keep the cubes in the freezer until they are all used up. Freezing hasn't affected the taste as far as I know, and my kids love most things. My son eats anything and everything, but my daughter makes faces the first few times she tries something new.

By Dana on Friday, February 21, 2003 - 08:18 am:

I always made my own baby food as well. Since I never added sugar or salt, I can't say it really tasted that good to begin with, so after freezing it still wasn't all that tasty LOL. I never noticed a difference, and DD loved it regardless.

I would purchase the standard baby food at the supermarket just to have some on stock. Usually the yummy the stuff. I made the veggie stuff, but bought the fruity stuff. She was much older when I started her on the fruit stuff. I wanted to make sure she liked the veggies before knowing there was something that tasted better.

Today, she loves all sorts of fruits and a wide range of veggies. Getting her to try new foods or retry foods she doesnt like is not an issue.

I never read lables on the baby jars. I just knew she wasn't getting extra sugar or salt in the stuff I gave her, so whatever was already in the jarred stuff wouldn't be overkill in her diet.

By Kaye on Friday, February 21, 2003 - 10:01 am:

As far as freezing goes, I make ahead lots of meals for us and freeze them, most things taste the same. So I would assume baby food did too. However, my question to you, if you are only going to use/eat organic non GM foods, are you also getting rid of your microwave? Lots of studies show that by nuking your food you really cause chemical changes in the food. If you have a colicky baby that takes a bottle, often if you quit heating it via the microwave the colic clears up.

By Mommyathome on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 - 12:43 am:

I've never made my own baby food. We've always just bought it at the store. Gerber brand from the teeny little jars right on up through the gerber graduates. We've done this with all 3 of our kids.

I thought about making my own, just never followed through with the idea. Now my DS is just over a year and just eats whatever we eat. We still buy the jars of fruits for him to snack on etc.

By Familyman on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 - 10:31 am:

I tried all the baby food we made. (We never bought any so I don't have any idea how that tastes) Mostly it was out of convience that I tasted it. The easiest way to determine if it was the right temp was to take the first spoonful. All the fruits and veggies are good. Rice cereal not so much.
Incidentally, this is how I tested to make sure the milk was heated up to the right temperature when DD was really little too. Weirded out my DW at first being that it was breast milk but I really couldn't tell worth a darn any other way. DW couldn't check temp of milk by tasting, it made her sick to her stomach.

By Palmbchprincess on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 - 11:58 am:

LOL at Familyman! My DH kissed one of the kids right after they ate, and got some breast milk on his lip. He looks at me and goes "It's sweet! No wonder they like it so much!" Men crack me up.

By Riola on Friday, February 28, 2003 - 04:43 am:

Well, i always buy the food for my 5 months old baby girl. She loves it. I give her Cow&Gate, Heinz and Organix jars for breakfast and lunch, and I also buy her baby food deserts, she loves them.
In Italy my sister make her own baby food for her 8 months old baby boy, she sais that it's cheaper.
I think that it's important to give my baby all the vitamins she needs, and if i make my own baby food I wouldn't know if I have cooked it too much, or left it uncooked, so i'll just buy it.

By Riola on Friday, February 28, 2003 - 04:53 am:

Hi Dana

You said that you always make your own baby food, and it wasn't that tasty, i am surprise your child liked it.
When you froze your baby food, and take it out of the freezer and give it to your child, do you think that is healthy?
You can lose all the vitamins when you freez your baby food?

By Dana on Friday, February 28, 2003 - 08:58 am:

Riola, it wasn't "tasty" for my taste buds. I'm used to herbs, salt, butter...all the "good stuff" added

For DD, she had never tasted sugar added, salt added or butter added, so she had nothing to compare to. It was still tasty to her.

She loved all sorts of squash, brocolli, sweet potatoes, black beans, bananas, mango, avacodo...there's more, just can't think right now.

The stuff I froze was usually the orange colored foods (squash, carrot, swt pot) I never had so much that it wouldn't get eaten right away. So no, I never worried about lost vitamins.

I never went out of my way to do something special for DD. She always ate what we were eating (still does) except I would grind it before the "good stuff" was added.

She will be 5 in May and still is a well rounded eater. She loves all sorts of foods! People are amazed at how happily she will try new foods and the fact that hotdog, hamburger are NOT eaten very often by her. Her favorite is spinach quiche.

By Lisa on Sunday, March 9, 2003 - 08:06 pm:

Riola
It's impossible to lose all the vitamins when food gets frozen, as long as you don’t overcook the food it should be fine.

By Riola on Monday, March 10, 2003 - 04:23 am:

Lisa

I just can't cook. I've tried so many times but my child doesn't like the taste, he just won’t eat it.

I’m left without choice.

By Anuncia on Saturday, March 15, 2003 - 12:48 pm:

Of course i make my own baby food, ready made baby food prices are high.

By Valentina1 on Friday, March 21, 2003 - 07:21 pm:

If buying ready made baby food was cheaper than home made food?

Whould you still prepare your own baby food?


PS. Kaye I'm not getting rid of my microwave!!! ;)

By Lisa on Sunday, March 23, 2003 - 02:42 pm:

I've just started weaning my baby and planned to make my own baby food. My reasons are:

1. You know the quality of the ingredients
2. You know the nutritional content
3. You can make and store the quantities required and avoid waste
4. You can introduce foods that you eat yourself, so getting baby used to your own menu for later meals

Having said that I will probably keep commercial in stock for if I was going on holiday or for emergency trips out.

By Lisa on Sunday, March 23, 2003 - 02:52 pm:

For all those who want to feed there kids and babies home made food, here is a useful website.
Check it out.

www.recipegoldmine.com/baby/baby/html