cooking for baby or jar food?

gladyswly

gladyswly

Registered User
Hello mums,

Do anyone of you give your baby jar food everyday? Or give them jar food more than you cook food for them?

My baby is 10.5 months old, I tried to cook different kinds of food for her but she just wouldn't eat. I even bought the Annabel cookbook and tried to cook those fancy meals (yet she said it's easy and quick) but she still wouldn't eat. Everytime it leaves me frustration and disappointment because I spent quite some time and money to prepare her the food but she wouldn't take a sip. I cried for this many times. But I found out she likes jar food. She eats the whole jar everytime. I don't know what I should do now. Should I keep giving her jar food until she is one? Should I keep trying to make her food? What kinds of food do you cook for your baby? Is it just because of my cooking? But my husband says it tastes good... I hope it's not out of obligation he says so...
 
i would keep trying to give her "real" food. afterall, she's going to have to eat it eventually. it can be very frustrating, i know, but bear with it. shewill eat eventually.
 
Jar food contains vitamins that you don't find in home meals, and eventually you know exactly what you put in home meals... so, both are good ! It's good also if she likes jar food, as it makes it easier when you go out or travel, not to have to prepare home meals for a whole trip !
There is nothing wrong with giving jar food, but as Carang says, you can keep trying giving her your home food. Kids are going through phases concerning the food, what she likes today is not what she will eat in a few months, and she will enjoy later what she refuses today. Don't stress too much about it, I've thrown away a lot of food too !
 
So the next question is what should I do if she refuses to eat the food? Should I give him milk instead? Or give her other food? That is what frustrates me too because if I cook and my baby doesn't eat, should I just let her starve until the next meal time or give her milk? But if I give her milk then she would rely on milk and gets lazy to chew and eat. But I don't want her to starve either, and yet she wouldn't eat! What should I do?
 
First of all don't stress. We've all been there! My baby eats a mixture of home made and jars. It can be very convienient for travel that the do like jar foods. It's not a bad thing.
What I found useful was to look at the list of ingredients on the jars and try to cook home made stuff similar to this. The pasta recipes work pretty well. I've also got the Annabel book but I simply don't use it any more. My baby often goes off food that I know she likes. Just keep trying different things. Try to make small batches. When you find something that she likes then freeze some. I make fresh chicken stock and cook pasta in it, this is really tasty!
 
My 9-month old used to prefer jar food over my Gina Ford/Annabel Karmel home-cooked food which left me *really* frustrated as well.. so I started mixing jar food with my own and gradually 'weaned' her off jar food. It took less than a week actually and she eats my food quite well now.

You can also try mixing a little bit of grated apple/pear on top of your food and that might work too. Jar food is ok (great for travelling like Frenchy said) but they do tend to mix quite a lot of 'sweets' like fruits which is not ideal as the baby may develop a sweet tooth.. not to mention a lot of water which means they need to eat a lot to fill themselves up.

Good luck!
 
i was going to suggest mixing them, too... LOL! just like we do when we change the dog's food!
 
I usually do half and half. My son has rejected both from time to time. I don`t know which makes me feel worse - the homemade stuff that I go to the trouble of making, or the expensive organic jarred stuff that goes to waste.
I`ve also got Annabel Karmel`s cookbook. I agree, some of the recipes are a bit fancy and/or time consuming for the average mom with ANYTHING else to do. I do try to cook them sometimes though, and my 9 month old prety much likes them. I often adapt them to my own ingredients or style though.
Is the stuff you`re cooking too chunky for her? The jars are so easy for them to eat, even the chunky ones. And what is different about your ingredients vs the jars?
Do you give her finger food too? I have started giving it to my son, with varying degrees of success, like french toast (eggy bread), little sandwiches, steamed veg and chunks of fruit. It not only keeps him occupied but it also lets him eat real food.
The mixing idea sounds good too. Or just putting your food in the jar and feeding it to her from there:)
 
My girl is 13.5mths and had never taken any jar food before. She was on exclusive breastmilk till 6.5mths, then I slowly introduced pureed fruits to her very gradually and even when she was around 11mths, her main food was still breastmilk (5-6X a day). Before she was one, I gave many types of home cooked stuff, like congee, bread, macroroni,lots of different pureed fruits/ soft fruits bits, veg.
She took varying amounts except congee and bread which she liked.During those few months, I practically threw away most of the food I cooked as she will only eat so little bit or totally reject. But I read its normal that some babies will reject a food 7 times before finally accepting it! Then she gradually hated congee, during the time when she was sick around 11mths, she basically just drank milk.After she recovered,so we switched to soft rice with minced meat , steamed fish, pumpkin, sweet corn, carrots, veg, cheese etc
Recently she is starting to take regular 3 meals, bread or pancakes,in the morning, and 2 meals of rice. She drinks milk only once in the morning when she wakes up and once at night before sleep. And having said that, I realised after I semi weaned her of the breast, she started having a more regular meal routine, she is finally able to sleep through the night at 13months now! Good luck and don't stress, we have all been there before.
 
My 10 month old has rejected both homemade and jars. Although I rarely give him jar food. I found he was more interested in desert/pudding which is usually yoghurt mixed with fresh fruit. So I started offering one spoon of dinner followed by a spoonful of yoghurt. But if he starts to refuse his dinner and just wants more yoghurt I often dip the end of the spoon with his dinner on it in the yoghurt so when it touches his lips he thinks he is getting what he wants!
 
yep, i did the same thing! ithought it fairly gross! spag bol with strawberry yoghurt! i mean... ewwwww! but it worked a treat!
 
I never bought jar food for my daughter. When she was young, I just pureed steamed fruit and veggies, then I started giving her small pieces of stuff... and I also do the "put something they love with something they hate" trick too.

These days I give her 100% big person food. I did that since she was about 9-10 months old. On days where our food wasn't really suitable, I just cooked macaroni and put some sauce with it, maybe some cheese, some veggies... something like that. But now, I give her practically everything except for seafood... (she's nearly 1 now)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top