Baby food questions

maryh01 · April 2011

We aren't quite there yet, but I have started thinking about what we'd like to do when it comes time for solids and not just formula. I'm sort of up in the air about making v. buying. I'm not sure if I'll have the time, but I'm also not sure if it's even economical to make my own. So...do you make your own or do you buy it? If you buy it, what brand do you/LO like the best? Where do you get the best deals?

Meritage · April 2011

DH and I were all gung ho about making our own baby food with our first child. He didn't like it at all! Turns out he prefers the canned baby food - or maybe we just really sucked at cooking baby food. With my older son, I was all about the organic baby food they sell at Whole Foods - I think the brand is Earth's Best? Something like that.

Anyway, with #2, we were much more laid back, and went straight to Gerber - organic Gerber if I was feeling like spending a bit more, but straight up Gerber most of the time.

I think most of the moms on this board are all about homemade baby food and will give you lots of great advice and tips! For me personally, it wasn't worth the hassle. Canned baby food is just so darn easy!

Mrs.K&C · April 2011

Making baby food just wasn't an option for us with DD or DS. I work full time (and then some) as well as DH. It's typically about $5 per week for solids in the puree stage. Considering the ingredients are sweet potatoes and water, or peas and water...i'll go that route. DS does get home made baby food at his daycare. But I simply don't have the time and don't make that a priority.

maryh01 · April 2011

Thanks ladies...I'm leaning toward buying it. I think I'd much rather spend that time with DH or LO, but DH wants to try making the food. Maybe I'll make that his job...LOL!

Structenggal · April 2011

I didn't have enough time in the day to make DS's food, either. When he was eating baby food, we bought the jarred stuff and mostly purchased it at Target. Unless it was on sale at the supermarket, Target was the cheapest.

Mrs.BoomBoom · April 2011

Q didn't like homemade food. I could never get the consistency smooth enough for him. He loves the Earth's Best. (and we added 'easy' things as we could.)

alyssa7 · April 2011

For what its worth, I made Charlie's food and he liked it. I enjoyed doing it and it didn't take me too much time at all. If it did take a lot of time, I probably wouldn't do it. I would typically just have 4 different varieties in the freezer at all times and do new batches when needed. I didn't however do meat purees. To me, that was too much work. So he got jarred Earth's Best meat puree and I did the veggie and fruit purees. Do what works for you.

NorcalLinds · April 2011

With Logan I did a combo of making/buying. This time I'm just buying. I started the amazon mom suscribe and save with baby food. It's a darn good deal and hassle free.

ZoeMay06 · April 2011

I started off making Kyva's baby food and I really enjoyed it. I didn't think it took much time, I just made a little extra of whatever veggie we were having with our dinner (usually steamed, sometimes roasted) and pureed that using my immersion blender, which was great even for really small quantities. Fruit was mostly raw, sometimes baked. Whether she ate it was hit or miss though since like PP she had issues with too much texture. So we ended up doing a combo of homemade and jarred once I figured out which of the homemade foods she'd eat and which ones she wouldn't. If you're looking for inspiration, www.wholesomebabyfood.com is a great resource.

ETA: For storebought, I used Earth's Best, Gerber Organics and the Happy Baby, Plum Organics and Ella's Kitchen fruit and veggie pouches (still do actually for snacks on the go).

Lesley423 · April 2011

I bought food for L. We mainly bought Earth's Best but sometimes Gerber Organic. I liked the variety at BRU the best so we'd buy either there or Target.

AnyaBella · April 2011

I tried making it a couple of times and he wasn't interested. We mostly buy Earth's Best but also Happy Baby and Plum Organics.

MommySteph2009 · April 2011

I made mostly my own, unless I was on the road or in a pinch. I tried to get Earth's Best brand for organic food if I bought.

I was a SAHM when DS was little, so I had more time. I usually would steam or cook the food after he was down for the first part of the night (after dinner) and it didn't take too much extra time.

SarahCee · April 2011

I made it all in the beginning and towards the end I was buying it. The best deals I found were at Safeway and Raley's/BelAir (their organic store brands)

abell77 · April 2011

I made 90% of my son's baby food and found it to be more economical and less time consuming than I thought. I would take one night each week after putting ds to bed, and make 2-3 different foods and freeze them. A few hours one night a week and then I always had a variety of options available to defrost. I would buy earth's best brand food for when we were on the go and I would be feeding him away from home.

amyfelice · April 2011

We did a combo. Bought Earth's Best jar food, but the jar foods are not super tasty in general and they are very low in calories. As our goal was basically just to get her to eat something and gain some weight, we made our own to get it to be tastier and more caloric. DH would cook up ground turkey with peas and carrots and I think olive oil or cream or something fatty and then some dried apricots to make it a little sweeter. It was pretty delicious actually. We would also do other combos eg, yams with cream and butter, etc. But for some reason the nanny would get her to more of the jar food.

SFAug07 · April 2011

Didn't have the time to make our own food, we both work full time. We fed her Earth's Best or Plum Baby which I bought online at diapers.com. She still eats the fruit and veggie smoothies from Plum Baby now and so do many toddlers I know.

DandaLion · April 2011

I went back and forth as well. We ended up buying organic baby food. He ate (and still does) earth's best (not much more expensive than gerber and can get it everywhere, plus it tastes ok-yes I have tried some). Plum organics pouches, sprout organic pouches, and the happy baby/tot pouches. Occasionally if I find them on sale I get him the Ellas kitchen organics. I usually stock up when I found things on sale. I did about 2 major baby food buys when they were on sale and just stocked up on favorites as we ran out. My big thing was I wanted his food organic without any extra stuff in it, and all those brands lived up to that.

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