Baby Food Suggestions/Pricing

SJFTCA

Does anyone have a go-to store or place to find coupons for baby food? I'm serving LO Gerber stage 1 foods, and they come w two 2.5 oz packs. The cheapest I've found is 98 cents. Doesn't seem too bad, but if LO ends up going through a pack of veggies and a pack of fruit a day, that's $2 a day, for about an extra $60 a month in addition to the cost of formula. Does anyone know where I can find it cheaper, or somewhere that frequently has coupons for it? 

I realize that pricing is relative to where we live and cost of living, but I still just wanted to see if anyone had any ideas. Thanks! 

rachswi

I'm planning on making as much of my baby food as possible- not for the health of it but for the price! Most foods are really easily purrèed once you soften them (like steaming broccoli or cooking carrots) and you can freeze them in ice cube trays. It's not too time consuming either - I made large batches of carrots and sweet potato simultaneously in the space of 10 minutes. 

Benefit of making your own- since the ice cube trays are smaller you can mix foods together (like I'll probably serve sweet potato and peas together eventually)

MoRay05

Everything the PP said. The only time I used store bought purees with my first child was when we went Somewhere last minute or kept one in diaper bag for emergencies. If you really don't want to make your own I would look on Amazon. Some of the purees are sold in bulk and are subscribe and save items. 

Ceridwen77

Another vote for homemade baby food. I basically plan to blend up some of whatever DH and I are having for dinner. Just be sure to read up on safe storage (refrigeration & freezing), to prevent build up of nitrates and bacteria. 

gumby22c

Yup we are doing baby led weaning here too. So far the only baby food I've give him is rice cereal. I plan to give him appropriate table food as we go along. We introduced avocado this week as his first food aside from cereal. I put it in his mesh feeder and he sucked on it for awhile.

GoogleMD

We are also skipping purees. It is just much cheaper and easier to give him what is alreafy being prepared. Not to mention we avoide foods with preservatives and canned veggies/fruit for ourselves so i didnt think it really made sense to give it to Lo.

VexedMommy

Chalk another vote up for making it at home.  As @Pontot31 says, food before one is just for fun so I see no need to keep one or two containers in the diaper bag since she will be getting her nutrition from the bottle. 

kmd91

We are doing a mix of homemade and store bought. Since you've gotten a lot of feedback on the homemade front, I'll say one thing about the store bought option. We are also doing stage one gerber in the 2.5 oz two pack and getting them for roughly a dollar. While I do see the concern in regards to when baby is eating more, however I just wanted to note that stage 2 foods come in 4 oz 2 packs that are literally 3 cents more where we shop. So that helps. I don't know about the best ways to get deals or coupons on baby food, though

SJFTCA

Thanks @kmd91. I appreciate all of the homemade suggestions; I have a friend who suggested the same. But I'm probably the least domestic person ever, so I'm likely going to stick with store bought :-/. 

MiMary80

The cheapest I have found around my house for Gerber 1s is also 98cents. I have been keeping my eyes peeled for sales. Right now Meijer has $5 off $25 of Gerber products so I stocked up on a variety of 1s. I know they have other sales on buying 8 or 12 and getting certain $ off. I was kinda price shopping around months ago just to see who had better sales! Good luck!

cdepperschmidt

I've been buying purée and have not seen them cheaper than 98 cents. We only give DS about ounce a day so I was not thinking about costs. I have wanted to read up on baby led weaning, but I have not time. Time is why I definitely will not be making my own purée lol

MoRay05

SJFTCA said:

Thanks @kmd91. I appreciate all of the homemade suggestions; I have a friend who suggested the same. But I'm probably the least domestic person ever, so I'm likely going to stick with store bought :-/.

QBF

its really not that hard. Most fruits you don't have do anything other than peel it and purée if you want. You don't have to buy a fancy machine. Just use a regular blender or food processor. With my first child I would take an hour once a month and make a bunch of food. I would put it in ice cube trays and once frozen pop them out and put in a ziplock bag. Anyone can do it! 

rubirubi89

Vitacost is advertising organic baby food for $.80- $.89 cents. 

CheeseSticksfor4

Our pediatrician said we could start trying foods at our 4 month appointment. LO is now 5 months and I still haven't done it. My mom can't wait to feed her "real food" but I'm still hesitant and want to wait until 6 months when her gut is more mature.  Am I alone in this thought and just overly paranoid? 

rachswi

CheeseSticksfor4 said:

Our pediatrician said we could start trying foods at our 4 month appointment. LO is now 5 months and I still haven't done it. My mom can't wait to feed her "real food" but I'm still hesitant and want to wait until 6 months when her gut is more mature.  Am I alone in this thought and just overly paranoid? 

You aren't alone! It's your job to feed your baby and you know your baby. If you feel it best to wait till 6 months then you should wait. No one can make that decision for you. 

My pediatrician also gave us the green light at 4 months and we decided to go ahead and start him because he's been so eager to eat. He only gets 1 ice cube size amount of food a day (and sometimes he isn't even hungry for that since I nurse first) and he's handling that well. We don't plan to increase the amount he gets till 6-7 months 

GoogleMD

CheeseSticksfor4 said:

Our pediatrician said we could start trying foods at our 4 month appointment. LO is now 5 months and I still haven't done it. My mom can't wait to feed her "real food" but I'm still hesitant and want to wait until 6 months when her gut is more mature.  Am I alone in this thought and just overly paranoid? 

Nope, Grayson is 5 months and is still just getting BM. We offered him bannanas a couple times just to see his reaction, i dont think he actually manages to eat any.

helsbels222

CheeseSticksfor4 said:

Our pediatrician said we could start trying foods at our 4 month appointment. LO is now 5 months and I still haven't done it. My mom can't wait to feed her "real food" but I'm still hesitant and want to wait until 6 months when her gut is more mature.  Am I alone in this thought and just overly paranoid? 

We got the green light too and haven't started yet. Hell I just ordered her high and she doesn't sit up yet. The dr was okay with us waiting when I told her. You're not paranoid. You should do what you feel is best for your baby.

@SJFTCA, I'm not domestic either. SO cooks more than I do. You don't have to know your way around the kitchen to make your own baby food. I received the baby bullet at my shower and I cannot wait to use it! 

Ceridwen77

CheeseSticksfor4 said:

Our pediatrician said we could start trying foods at our 4 month appointment. LO is now 5 months and I still haven't done it. My mom can't wait to feed her "real food" but I'm still hesitant and want to wait until 6 months when her gut is more mature.  Am I alone in this thought and just overly paranoid? 

Our pediatrician doesn't recommend that we start until 6mo of age, and that's also the AAP's recommendation. You're not alone or paranoid at all. 

elbou

SJFTCA said:

Thanks @kmd91. I appreciate all of the homemade suggestions; I have a friend who suggested the same. But I'm probably the least domestic person ever, so I'm likely going to stick with store bought :-/. 

I'm pretty undomestic myself and I pretty much loathe cooking most of the time, so I generally use the store bought purees as well. I found with DS1 that the fancy squeeze pouches were more expensive than the plain jars of baby food, so look into that. (The jars lasted for 2-4 meals when we were first getting started as well.) Also, try looking at the store brand. I didn't like Gerber baby food (I can't remember why though) so we usually bought an off brand instead. I believe the jars were something like $.66 each, but I could be wrong. Finally, as with everything baby related, keep your eyes open for sales, and stock up then.  

wimamaof2

@Sjftca, Target is having a sale on Gerber food.  It's regularly  $1.02 and there's a 5% off Cartwheel coupon.  If you use your red card, you get an additional 5% off.
With Cartwheel, you can only do 4 at the time.  I asked the cashier to do separate transactions.
Also, there's a variety of coupons on Cartwheel for baby items.  I went and stocked up today.

nycmommy13

I'm planning on spending a half hour on Sundays pureeing stuff and putting it in containers ready to go in the fridge for the week. If time allows, I think that's your cheapest option. If time doesn't allow, spend a half hour one day pureeing and put it in those ice cube trays to go in the freezer. That way you just pop one out and put it in a container for daycare or wherever you're going.

AmoLovesAud

SJFTCA said:

Thanks @kmd91. I appreciate all of the homemade suggestions; I have a friend who suggested the same. But I'm probably the least domestic person ever, so I'm likely going to stick with store bought :-/. 

It honestly is way easy.  I made banana and sweet potato puree with one arm, carrying kiddo around the kitchen.  Just steam anything hard first (sweet potato went into the microwave.  You can get a microwave steamer, or use a rice cooker or crockpot.  None of these options require much babysitting.  No cooking required for soft foods like banana, avacado, and most fruits), then toss into the blender.  Add a little water if it's too thick, then pour into ice cube trays.  They don't eat much to start, I got about 8 servings out of one sweet potato, 4 servings out of one banana (would've done 2 bananas, but I was reserving the rest for smoothies, since I had the blender out already!).  Add in baby oatmeal, and I've got 2 weeks worth of food already.

We only just started trying solids today, but I can already tell I'd go broke if I relied on jars.  LO snarfed her oatmeal and cried when I took it away!

mrsaragon

CheeseSticksfor4 said:

Our pediatrician said we could start trying foods at our 4 month appointment. LO is now 5 months and I still haven't done it. My mom can't wait to feed her "real food" but I'm still hesitant and want to wait until 6 months when her gut is more mature.  Am I alone in this thought and just overly paranoid? 

I'm the same way. Our ped said at his 4 month appt we could give him anything including peanut butter but with the exception of honey. Everything in me screamed. I can't imagine giving him food let alone peanut butter with him being that little. We're waiting until at least 6 months. I'm looking into BLW so we may do that with a mix of puréed solids around that time. 

mrsaragon

I also wanted to mention that after introducing solids, If your baby mouthed the spoon and you put the spoon in the food at any time, it cannot be used the next day. Saliva is a part of digestion, so it will actually start to break down the leftover food. As well, bacteria can grow. Always put the desired amount of food into another bowl using a clean utensil to be safe! I learned this from our birthing class and had no idea! 

Ceridwen77

mrsaragon said:

CheeseSticksfor4 said:

Our pediatrician said we could start trying foods at our 4 month appointment. LO is now 5 months and I still haven't done it. My mom can't wait to feed her "real food" but I'm still hesitant and want to wait until 6 months when her gut is more mature.  Am I alone in this thought and just overly paranoid? 

I'm the same way. Our ped said at his 4 month appt we could give him anything including peanut butter but with the exception of honey. Everything in me screamed. I can't imagine giving him food let alone peanut butter with him being that little. We're waiting until at least 6 months. I'm looking into BLW so we may do that with a mix of puréed solids around that time. 

I thought peanut butter was off limited due to the risk of aspiration? I know that doctor are no longer recommending people avoid peanut products in the first year, due to recent studies, but I thought pb was off limits??

kmd91

Ceridwen77 said:

mrsaragon said:

CheeseSticksfor4 said:

Our pediatrician said we could start trying foods at our 4 month appointment. LO is now 5 months and I still haven't done it. My mom can't wait to feed her "real food" but I'm still hesitant and want to wait until 6 months when her gut is more mature.  Am I alone in this thought and just overly paranoid? 

I'm the same way. Our ped said at his 4 month appt we could give him anything including peanut butter but with the exception of honey. Everything in me screamed. I can't imagine giving him food let alone peanut butter with him being that little. We're waiting until at least 6 months. I'm looking into BLW so we may do that with a mix of puréed solids around that time. 

I thought peanut butter was off limited due to the risk of aspiration? I know that doctor are no longer recommending people avoid peanut products in the first year, due to recent studies, but I thought pb was off limits??

We were given the go ahead to try peanut butter whenever we feel comfortable with it. However I wouldn't necessarily give straight peanut butter because of its consistency. So I'm thinking possibly mix a little into a purée like bananas or baby cereal to introduce it. 

hlz128

We were told to wait until 6mo but DS wasn't having that. He wants and reaches for everything we eat so he started tasting a few things around 3 1/2mo and then we started a few solids at 4mo. He loves to eat food and would choose it over the boob if he could. We do the Gerber s1 ($0.98) and have tried rice cereal(I think $1.98) a few times(sometimes he likes it others he refuses it) we also let him suck on/gnaw on harder fruits or veggies such as watermelon or carrots and he loves that. I havent tried homemade baby food but after reading this I may try it. 

Squirtgun

At big lots today I saw that they have a wide selection of baby food at 50¢ each. 

VexedMommy

Squirtgun said:

At big lots today I saw that they have a wide selection of baby food at 50¢ each. 

That's awesome, but be sure to check expiration dates.  Most of Big Lots food is near or at their expiration date on the date of purchase.