I never bought baby food, I always make it. I just feel safer knowing what my little one actually eats. It's easy because I do it once a week, and just freeze it. It will be reheated in the microwave whenever its time to feed him. It made me save a lot of money too. How about you, moms out there?
I think baby-led weaning is a really neat. It's essentially the method of offering children bit sized pieces of whatever you're eating after the baby is capable of eating solids. There's the old saying that food "under one is just for fun," but it gets children used to the idea. If not this, I think making your own baby food is infinitely preferable for health reasons.
I'm not a mom, but there are a lot of babies around me. I do make their food when ever I am babysitting. It's very easy to make, and they seem to enjoy it a lot more than some of the can baby foods. I think that the nutrient value should also be a lot higher - which is why I love creating different recipes (and following some as well). My nephew really loves the combination of banana and blueberry.
We practiced baby-led weaning with our daughter starting at 6 months. For a while, she would just gag or swish the food around in her mouth, but I think it was beneficial to helping her learn about different textures. However, the gagging made me a little nervous, so I am not so sure that I would use this method with our next child. Knowing that solid foods are "just for fun" until they are a year old, I will be a bit more lenient about offering the next baby solids if he/she is gaining and developing well.
I always bought baby food. I wouldn't have minded making my own, I didn't know how and I didn't take the time to find out. We were super busy at the time so I never got around to looking it up. I'm not the best in the kitchen so I wasn't sure how hard it would be and if you needed certain tools to make it. My mom never breast feed and she always bought baby food. My sister and I were the healthiest kids in town too. We were very rarely sick. I still have a good immune system. So I guess I figured buying baby food was healthy for my baby too.
We buy it around here and that isn't a problem. I mean you have the organic stuff as well as the less-organic stuff, but the little one seems to love it and she is getting vegetables, fruits, and cereals. She is a healthy, active, intelligent child - and until that something happens to change that I don't see the problem with store-bought food.
I make my own food, I don't really eat a lot of packaged food myself so I'd rather not buy it for my child either. It's so much cheaper to make my own too, I use organic fruits and veggies and puree them to freeze in ice cube trays. It hardly takes any time and effort for loads of meals, and I know exactly how it's all been processed. I also sometimes do a child version of whatever we are eating for dinner, I like to have proper family meal times and it's nice for us all to have the same thing.
I made my baby food, it was easy, to me it was healther for the baby. I did not have to worry about the amount of sugar or salt in the food. This was before microwaves.
I had so much fun making my own baby food. Wouldn't you rather have your child eating healthy fruits and vegetables that you picked out yourself and prepared, rather than something that was prepacked eons ago? Making your own baby food allows your child to eat locally and with the seasons. I made pureed apples, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin directly from my Uncle's garden during fall harvest time. I bought other fruits and vegetables from our local coop and prepared them as well. The cool thing about it is that you can make a large quantity at a time - freezing it in ice cube trays and taking out one per serving. A 6 month old baby only needs a tablespoon at a time anyway. Empower yourself to make your own baby food. It's fun and rewarding!
I'm not a mom though but I moms should love their own baby. Their are just lazy moms that depend to those instant food and never mind reading some contents of them. Do you breastfeed all the time or you also provide your baby with mild from supermarket?
I only buy baby food when in a rush and or if I haven't planned things out and need something portable and quick. For the most part I make it all myself. Not only is it cheaper, but it is better for your baby and you know what is going into their food instead of processed junk! My friend bought me a great recipe book on amazon!
I am expecting my first daughter in November and I'm really excited about making her food. I like the fact that you can freeze the pureed food in ice cube trays and then tell your partner, "feed her a red cube and 2 green cubes!" Heated, of course! I'm excited to make the food because I love to cook anyway, and I'll feel better knowing exactly what is going in to my baby's little belly.
