How is making your own babyfood better than buying from store?

peapine · April 2009

I am planning to make homemade sweet potatoes as her first food. I was on wholesomebabyfood.com to get some ideas on how to do so. Interestingly it said I could just buy natural applesauce instead of making it on my own. So that got me wondering what exactly is in the babyfood in the stores. The ingredients are just the fruit or veggie and water. So, if thats the case- then why bother making your own? I was under the assumption that store bought baby food has perservatives and such. I was planning on getting Earths Best applesauce anyway- so whats the big deal besides the fact you are doing something for your child and it feels good to do so. I am still planning on make some of my own food- but I want to know the logical explanation on why its better to make at home. Thanks

star173 · April 2009

We do both. I make food, but we keep jar food on hand for trying new things and if we're out and about. I think it's fresher...I know Earth's best has more sodium in it than my bag of frozen green beans. I guess that's how they preserve it.

I think of it this way- if I cooked peas, they're good for what, a couple days in the fridge, but a jar of peas is good until 12/09 (I'm looking at one right now). I can't imagine all her meals having such a long shelf life...but some is fine; just like I sometimes eat canned veggies- but I usually don't. Does that make sense?

OUMedBride · April 2009

Well I don't actually make my own, but I can tell you why it's appealed to me and why I would if I had more time. It's cheaper, there's less waste (we throw out over a dozen baby food jars every week), you can start getting baby used to the spices you use at home (store-bought baby food is very bland). Those are just a couple reasons, I'm sure there are more.

quickstepstar · April 2009

The reasons I try to make my own is that it's cheaper and I can have more variety (and my bananas don't look pink...) But I think in general Earth's best is very good, I use that when I am too busy to make my own. But for example I want to introduce broccoli soon and they don't have broccoli in anything and a lot of the fruit contain raspberries which my girls are allergic to.

jculp · April 2009

A bag of frozen veggies around 90 cents makes about 10 feedings. A jar of baby food = avg 60 cents per feeding. So for us it's a way for me to save us some money. Also, I do organic applesauce with no added sugar in a big jar... DD loves it.

babyluv617 · April 2009

If you look at the gerber labels, they add Vit C to some of their foods. It gives it (maybe, it just has) a sweeter taste imo. DS doesn't need help developing a sweet tooth. We do use some of both, but he mostly eats what I make at home. Plus it saves money.

peapine · April 2009

Gotcha- I didnt think about the cost or sodium. That makes sense. I am so new to the solid stuff, I just need to get clarification.

Erin Mary Ackerman · April 2009

babyluv617:
If you look at the gerber labels, they add Vit C to some of their foods. It gives it a sweeter taste imo. DS doesn't need help developing a sweet tooth. We do use some of both, but he mostly eats what I make at home. Plus it saves money.

You are referring to the asorbic acid, right? Vitamin C is a specific type of asorbic acid and I'm not sure that Vitamin C is what is in all Baby Foods. I do know, however, that most of the world's ascorbic acid is made in China. That can be my fun factoid for the day.

babyluv617 · April 2009

BrahimBride:
babyluv617:
If you look at the gerber labels, they add Vit C to some of their foods. It gives it a sweeter taste imo. DS doesn't need help developing a sweet tooth. We do use some of both, but he mostly eats what I make at home. Plus it saves money.

You are referring to the asorbic acid, right? Vitamin C is a specific type of asorbic acid and I'm not sure that Vitamin C is what is in all Baby Foods. I do know, however, that most of the world's ascorbic acid is made in China. That can be my fun factoid for the day.

Gotcha! Still not what I want in his food. And, I've only noticed in a some of the packaged stuff.

zach'swife · April 2009

Ditto pp's: Cheaper, greener, and you know for sure everything that's in it.

It was interesting to make my own green beans and sweet peas and compare the color to the Gerber versions--you'll see the stuff you make is so much brighter and more vibrantly colored.

teacherjess · April 2009

Honestly, we switched back and forth with homemade and Earth's Best jars, and the main reason I made my own is because it's cheaper and because homemade tasted better (for example, the taste difference between homemade bananas and jarred bananas is HUGE-- and DD would not eat jarred bananas once she had homemade!).

However, once we moved on to stage 2, I made fewer and fewer homemades, just because the mixes weren't something I could keep up with. For stage 1, though, it's much, much cheaper to make your own.

middlemarch26 · April 2009

zach'swife:

Ditto pp's: Cheaper, greener, and you know for sure everything that's in it.

Exactly. Plus, I am definitely exposing DS to a much bigger variety of tastes, flavors, and textures. A lot of the time, I just take our leftovers and puree them. Last night I made fajitas (beef, onion, green and red peppers, garlic, cumin, and red pepper), and that's also what DS had. He loves it.

Califlorida · April 2009

if you taste a jar of sweet peas (earths best, gerber organic, etc) they don't taste as good as when i make some peas and puree them.

i buy fresh when i can, but i love buying frozen organic fruits and veg so that at any meal i can just dig out what i want from the freezer and heat it up.

mlf625 · April 2009

have you smelled that stuff? ?it makes me gag. ?carrots don't smell like carrots (even earth's best- that's what we've used when we're traveling)- nothing tastes or smells like it should. ?i want ds to taste real food, not some jarred, 3 year shelf like version of food.

rowanthefrog · April 2009

I suppose it depends on your definition of better. ?Personally I just like doing it, I like knowing what I'm feeding my baby and knowing that its fresh.

Its MUCH MUCH cheaper to make your own baby food....for the same price as 5 jars of baby food I can make several weeks worth of sweet potatoes or other food.

I make my own, but I do keep a few jars on hand if we are on the run, and to get ideas.

I do buy natural applesauce and freeze that bc its a bit of a pain to make my own applesauce.

A?

?

Jenn478 · April 2009

I am not going to get into the debate on which is better, I personally feed my daughter jar baby food from both Gerber and Earth's Best, but I am a Food Scientist and can provide some insight on the questions I saw above:

Sodium content in green peas is higher in the jar food because it is more concentrated than the bag of frozen peas. If there were salt (sodium) added to the jar food it would have to be labeled in the ingredient statement. Jar baby food (glass or Gerber plastic) is not preserved with preservatives, it is processed with heat and filled into the glass jars hot or processed and packaged under very clean aseptic conditions for the Gerber plastic containters.

Vitamin C is added to alot of the jar food to help maintain the color and prevent oxidation, this helps keep the color of apples and bananas from not turning brown like if you cut open the fresh fruit and let it sit on your counter open to the oxygen in the air. Have you ever seen that Fresh Fruit powder you sprinkle on fresh fruits to keep them from getting brown when you make a fruit tray or the sliced apples or fruit trays already prepared in the grocery store, the color of this fruit has been maintained with ascrobic acid. I can assure that it does not make the food sweeter it is an acid although a more mild one. I can confirm what the above poster said that a lot of ascorbic acid does come from China.

The color of jar food is not as vibrant or bright as fresh homemade baby food because it has been heat treated to stay preserved in a jar, this treatment will destroy some of the natural color components in the food.

Hope this answers some of the questions I saw above and if you have anymore please page me or email me at jennifer.beagle@gmail.com.

agmaso · April 2009

What we do is feed DD what we eat... the first thing she ever had was potatoes and we just set a couple of pieces aside so they wouldn't get mixed up with the gravy.

Same for everything else. As we make it that day, we just set a bit to the side if it's going to get mixed in with something we don't want her to have yet.

It's way cheaper and more convienient since you aren't making a special meal for her.?

*Bre* · April 2009

^ sweet! good to know

I make my own because I can make 2 months worth of food in a weekend and throw it in the freezer. I don't have enough cupboard space for that many jars...and the jars are wasteful to me. And I can mix foods how I want. And its fun!

chadandamy · April 2009

I am cheap and I have a food processor that I like to play with. Oh, and when I am working in the kitchen DH has to take care of DS without bugging me! Those are good enough reasons for me!

boo-bitz · April 2009

starrynight62:
zach'swife:

Ditto pp's: Cheaper, greener, and you know for sure everything that's in it.
Exactly.? Plus, I am definitely exposing DS to a much bigger variety of tastes, flavors, and textures.? A lot of the time, I just take our leftovers and puree them.? Last night I made fajitas (beef, onion, green and red peppers, garlic, cumin, and red pepper), and that's also what?DS had.??He loves it.

This is exactly what I do for Madi. She is a big fan of stir-fry, garlic mashed potatoes, home-made spaghetti sauce, and the list goes on. She is also a huge fan of Quaker oatmeal (the plain quick oat kind) mixed with yogurt.

In the long run it is cheaper and if you have the tools in your kitchen you are off to a good start?

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