Why wouldn't you?
.. Make your own baby food.
I'm not trying to be snarky or judgmental or anything, I am legitimately curious at the reasons why not.
To me, it seems that it's not all that time consuming. You can mash up or puree a little of what you're having that night anyway. Or you can spend 1 hour a week making up a bigger batch of a few different foods for freezing and thawing later.
It seems more healthy since you know exactly what is going into it and there are no preservatives, etc. (I honestly don't know that much about jarred baby food though so correct me if I'm wrong) And I've heard that once you advance to "stage two" or "graduates" or whatever there's a lot of filler stuff.
Plus the obvious - cheaper!
I suppose we might have a few jars on hand for travelling and stuff. Kind of like even though most of DH and my meals are homemade we do buy convenience foods for nights when I'm lazy or don't have time, or for travelling, etc.
It's honestly never occurred to me to buy jarred baby food, it's not like I am "choosing" to do homemade because of some environmental or deep-rooted belief system, it just seemed obvious that that is what we'd do.
So for any of you ladies that are for sure not going to make your own baby food ... please do share your reasons. 
Oh! I just thought ... since I know not everyone will want to comment, maybe a vote so we can get an idea of how many July mamas are doing one vs the other.
[Poll]
Re: Why wouldn't you?
With DD, we bought jarred food. I said I wanted to make baby food from day 1 & then came the time to actually do it. I was working, DH was working, & while we would make dinner every night, the last thing I wanted to do was to make more food to puree. I wanted to spend my time at home with DD, not in the kitchen cooking. I don't like cooking to begin with. So I guess that just makes me lazy.
This time, maybe I'll do it since I SAH. But really, I doubt it. There is just something about the convenience of buying a 15 cent jar of food. Just like I use disposable diapers to make my life easier, jarred baby food makes my life easier.
I guess I'm lazy...Sue me!
Meee tooo
I feel like babies don't actually eat baby food for very long. We didn't start until 6 months and my son was done with it and wanted finger foods by like, 10 months. I didn't want to spend $30-40 bucks for a baby food maker that I'd use for that short of a time. My food processor was too small.
Plus I feel like I had enough to do on the weekends in between nap times without making my own baby food.
well I know there are a lot of moms that just don't know that they could make their own. This might sound strange to you but especially in lower income areas, people just assume that the only thing to do is buy jars of baby food. With DD we would just take whatever we were eating and put it in a blender. She has never had jars of baby food.
You might think making the food is cheaper...but I bet it might be cheaper to buy it. Think about it, there is a reason why people don't buy fresh fruit/veggies and instead buy junk...it's cheaper.
The meat ones are gross...I just squished up some of whatever we had once we were at that point because I couldn't get past the nasty smell or texture of those.
ITA. I will buy some in jars for traveling and such (except the meat ones PP mentioned YUCK!), but for the most part I plan on making it myself. I love to cook anyway so I will have no problem cooking for LO. And I don't plan on buying baby food makers (no extra cost there), my steamer/blender/food processor will work just fine.
I expect to make all of DD's food, but (in my totally inexperienced FTM opinon) I expect that lizlep is right on the money here.
I cook for myself and my husband, why wouldn't I cook for my child?
We're going to puree what we eat and do bulk cooking on Sundays.
Great points. I'm glad you ladies are all so forthcoming, you're definitely satiating my curiosity!
I get that as a full time working mom the last thing you probably want to do is spend extra time cooking when you could be cuddling the LO!
For my family, I still think making it will be cheaper. We have a big garden of veggies that will provide us with fresh food options well into the autumn. And we also have several fruit trees we enjoy all summer long. Plus, DH and I always spend tons of time in the produce section of our grocery store and even at the farmers markets, so I don't think an extra couple of pieces here and there will noticeably increase our food budget.
I did both with DS. I would take 1/2 a day and puree a ton of different foods (fruits, veggies, chicken and even pasta) and then make different combinations of them. It was really labor intensive (I'm talking big batches) and it didn't last all that long. Some of the items didn't re-thaw so well so I had to toss those. I don't have enough free time to exclusively make the food, but I do plan to make some of it again.
I also agree with PP's about the meat in a jar lol. Nasty and we avoided those. Chicken purees suprisingly well in a blender!
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I haven't really looked it to it, but I would like to try to make my own and if I feel its not cost effective or too time consuming then we will go with jarred food.
so.many.decisions.
Wow. I know you're not trying to be snarky, but for me it really came down to time. I had the highest aspirations of making DS's baby food and it's one of the only things I feel let down about.
I'm a FT working mama who also operates a small business and unfortunately, it just didn't happen.
We're eating very differently than we did when DS was an infant, with a lot more meal planning, so it just may happen this time.
I plan on doing some of both. I'm not morally opposed to food in a jar it's just that I don't really see the need.
I plan to keep homemade baby food as simple as possible. A few times a month do the ice cube tray thing. The rest of the time whatever fruit/veggie/meat we have I guess that's what baby is getting in the blender. I'm not too worried.
I will have jar food on hand though for really busy days/when I don't have backup in the freezer and we're having pizza or something I can't mash or for nights with the babysitter. I fully expect it'll happen.
I used jarred food with my first two (I was a single working mom and going to college full time). So I had food stamp assistance for a little while with both. So i didn't think about cost. Just bought the jarred.
With my last one, I was married, making decent money, and no assistance. So i was VERY conscience of my food budget. That, along with the fact that he had a MUCH BIGGER appetite than my 1st two. When I calculated how much it would cost to buy food and puree it vs TONS of those little jars...it was a no-brainer! Making my own WOULD be cheaper (in my case). I don't go all out and do organic, etc (that would've made it more expensive than jarred).
I had a pear tree in my yard (free pureed pears!), and he LOVED sweet potatoes (the HUGE ones were dirt cheap in my area). I even would get frozen veggies on sale if they were cheaper than the fresh at times.
He just never would've been satisfied with one jar per meal (he still has an appetite that rivals ANY teen....and is thin as a rail!). SO mine was for expense rather than health benfits.
Yes, it is time consuming (IMHO....).
I will have 3 kids under the age of 4, I work part-time and I have a DH who works 70 hours a week.
Couldn't pay me to do it. I do about 10-12 loads of laundry a week, have a 3500 sq. ft. home to clean and (soon) 3 kids to take care of.
I use Earth's Best jarred food and think it is great and healthy
I made all of DS's food . . . until the pregnancy made me too exhausted to keep up with it all. Also, sometimes it's just a challenge to find a good enough variety of foods. My son also has difficulties chewing and such, otherwise we would have done BLW/BLS, but we need to buy the jarred foods with the little chunks to keep him going now.
With DD I hope to make her purees to introduce flavors until she gets the hang of BLW. Also, I won't be as worried about getting food in her because she won't be preemie!!! DS is small, so really we just feed him whatever the heck we can get in, and though I'd love to make all of his food, too, I am simply overwhelmed. Sigh.
I bet it is healthy! I didn't mean to imply at all that jarred food is not healthy.
And you sound like you have a super busy household as is! wow. More power to you, I don't know if I could do it... I'm in awe.
Before I even got to that sentence I thought you sounded a bit overwhelmed. I've got a couple of cousins that were preemies and are still super teeny to this day (one is a toddler, the other is in elementary school) and their parents say the same thing "we feed him/her whatever we can get in." HUGS to you!
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I don't make all of DH's and my food now, I can't imagine that it will change for LO. My hope is to be 50:50 with what I make and what I buy.
BFP #1 March 24, 2010; missed m/c May 26, 2010 @ 12w 4d; D&E May 28, 2010
BFP #2 Oct 20, 2010; My little boy was born on July 5, 2011
BFP #3 April 30, 2013; Chemical Pg May 5, 2013
BFP #4 Aug 22, 2013; It's a boy. Loss discovered at 24 weeks on Jan 15, 2014 (cause CMV virus)
BFP #5 April 6, 2014; missed m/c May 15, 2014 @ 9 weeks; Misoprostol May 15, 2014; D&C May June 3, 2014
10-12 loads of laundry?!?! oh noooo
I agee with you.
With DS I was working a full time job and a part time job as was DH. I really looked into it and found it to be a lot cheaper and healthier. The farmers markets are awesome for cheap fruits and veggies. If I was it was something out of season or too time consuming (peas and green beans) then I would buy frozen.
I would set one night a week to make a different puree after DS went to bed. I had a great stash going on and I can't wait to start doing this for DD.
Pureed food grosses me the eff out. Esp when it gets all over their face. Makes me want to hurl just thinking about. I can deal with a poopy diaper, but I lose my lunch when I see pureed food all over a kid's face. Esp if it's green, orange, or brown.
Wonder if it's possible to just go from breast feeding to finger foods?
BFP #3 via cancelled IUI ~ C (2lb 3oz; HELLP) 5/16/11
BFP #4 via the natural (free!) way ~ E (8lb 11oz) 9/13/12
LOL!!! And yes it is totally possible. And some babies refuse pureed foods anyway. I don't plan on 100% pureeing everything anyway, I'll be using various textures depending on the food. But, omg you make me laugh.
It sure is! Check out kellymom.com for information on Baby-Led Weaning and Baby-Led Solids. That's what we did with DS and will do with DD as well.
This about sums it up for me. I had every intention of making home-made baby food prior to my son but once you are taking care of a baby...all the time you think you have to puree,blend, boil and what -not goes right out the door.....there will be a milion other things on your list to do.....but good luck with that.
Yay! Thanks for the website tips!
Now to get the image out of my head of a kid covered in pureed food. ::shudders::
BFP #3 via cancelled IUI ~ C (2lb 3oz; HELLP) 5/16/11
BFP #4 via the natural (free!) way ~ E (8lb 11oz) 9/13/12
Wow! where did you find baby food that cheap!
We made some and bought some with DD. Some foods just process funny and are really watery so it was trial and error. She ate purees and very soft foods forever. She only had 2 teeth till a couple months ago so when people say they only in purees for a short time, that's not always true.
I am REALLY hoping it works like this for us with this LO. The weird staggered development of my preemie and his struggles specifically with chewing have of course changed things, but I have dreams this time of BLW and my whole family eating all of the same things at the same time, together! Quite frankly, I find it hard to stomach eating while I'm feeding DS jarred food!