Organic jar food vs Non-organic home-made baby food

C

clowe77

Registered User
Hi All,

I'd been planning to start feeding my baby home-made purees made in a blender; however, I was shopping at 360 the other day looking at all the organic jar baby foods out there and some of them seem to be really high quality - ie, ingredients are pure organic fruits and veggies, no added sugar or other additives. My question is - is it better to feed our babies non-organic home blended purees (made from non organic produce as it's not easy to find organic pears, carrots, etc etc here) or organic jar baby food that seems to be made of nothing but pureed organic fruits or veggies? The brand I looked at, "ONLY", contains purely organic fruits or veg with nothing else except in some cases purified water.

Interested to hear all your thoughts...
 
i made my own bb food using organic produce. i felt the selection of fresh organic produce at 360 is quite good. city super and GREAT also carry organic produce. (i've made apple, pear, potato, sweet potato, spinach, baby carrot, congee and banana)

after pureeing, i put it in an ice mold so i'd have cubes of bb food. then poped them out when they're ready and put them in ziploc bags and stored in the freezer (and put them on a different shelf so it doesn't touch any raw meat). when i'm ready to feed, i just microwaved the food cubes in whatever combo i liked.

jar food is very convenient for going out.
 
My daughter is now almost 2 years old and when she was weaned, I fed her only home-prepared purees, etc. - for nutritional and financial reasons (home-prepared stuff was much cheaper). As a result, when we travelled it was a nightmare as she would refuse purees in jars and only wanted freshly prepared food. If I had it to do again, I would do a mix of organic fresh purees and jars as this way you have more flexibility when you travel.

Just my 2 cents worth.

CK
 
Hi Clowe77,

Although I am a few weeks behind you and haven't actually started solids yet, I think I am going to try CelticKiwi's approach. I want to do mainly homemade (as much organic as possible) and then occasionally mix in a jar of puree so she is used to that for going out/travel.

I am really looking forward to making homemade purees and I think you just can't beat the nutritional value of a fresh puree over jarred food. Homemade should also be cheaper although I haven't figured out all the math yet of having to buy organic produce here in HK.
 
The taste of fresh purees is also usually much better than the jars. I think the fruit purees in jars taste pretty good and often use them to mix with yogurt or as dessert for my LO, but the jars with veggies and meat don't taste like real food to me and my LO didn't like them much (although I would use them once in a while when we go out if I couldn't be bothered with bringing fresh purees in a thermos flask). You may want to actually taste the food in the jars.

Also, when you are looking at the ingredients, just check where water appears in the list as the closer it is to the first ingredient, the more water is in the puree. I think that homemade purees are more nutrient-dense than the jars.
 
I agree with Portia, fruits in jars taste pretty good so I tend to use these. But the veggies and meats don't taste as good as a homemade puree (not sure why, carrots, say, should just contain carrots and a bit of water), though I do tend to use them for travel and when out and about and for emergencies. It's definitely a good idea to get your baby used to some jar food, as it's much easier if they are used to it if you travel.
 
Thanks everyone. Totally agree with all of you that fresh is best. It's just that I was walking through my local Wellcome this morning and the produce just looked so dismal (wilted and not very healthy!) and then I thought about pesticides and apples from China and... got pretty paranoid about feeding this stuff to my little one! I guess I'll have to make regular trips to 360 once I start my baby on real food! It's the only way I think. I do believe some of the non-organic veggies and fruit being sold in local Wellcomes and P&S's look just plain depressing.
 
Just make sure that you steam your fruits and veggies as it is the best way to keep the nutrients. If you boil them, don't put too much water and mix the water when you blend.
Jars are interesting also because they contain vitamines that you sometimes don't have in some home made purees, and some tastes (like Panais, leeks or fennel) that you sometimes don't find in a shop.
I give both to my 10 months son, it's easy when we go out to have a jar. He also loves a lot the Vanilla custards and rice pudding, I usually mix them with banana.
Easy tip to have some banana ready : cut a banana in pieces and put in on a flat dish (a plate for example) and put it in the freezer. When it's frozen, put them in a ziplock bag, and you can pick a few pieces when you need them ! :)
 
I make batches of stocks and freeze them. I normally make fresh meal for my LO everyday, just need to steam the meat or veggie then just mix in stock to dilute and use hand blender. It's not time consuming at all (btw, i have no helper). Agree with Frenchy, it's always handy to have banana. I also buy frozen organic veggies like pea or spinach since i can hardly find fresh (non-China) ones. My LO doesnt like jar baby food but she's fine with cereals. Hence, when we go out i just bring along egg yolk and parmesan cheese then mix them into her cereal.
 
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