Jars - yes? No? Why?

[JoshandJamie]

Wanted to get thoughts on jars of baby food. Do/did you use them? If yes, why? If no, why?

thanks

[desperateSCOUSEwife]

yes for convenience really
but only used them when couldnt give baby homemade stuff
like vindaloo, chillis etc

[jessicaandrebeccasmummy]

have their purpose when homecooked cood is not available such as weekends away

[Iklboo]

Don't use them cos frankly it's cheaper to cook up a batch of stuff and freeze it. Half an hour on Sat afternoons and we've got DHs meals for a week. Won't write off EVER using them. Sometimes good to have a couple in for emergency.

[cupcakes]

I always used them for ds - for almost every meal. Don't know what I was thinking of. It really limited his range of meals and took ages for him to get a taste for variety. I was the crazy mum stocking up her trolley with jars for the week.
Cooked everything for dd from scratch (had to go to the other extreme) and it has helped all of us eat better. No cutting corners anymore.

[lazycow]

Yes but only if out/on trips etc as home cooked food can be a pain to heat up etc.

I probably also give a jar at home about once a month or so when feeling really really lazy or if ds is off his food as I don't get annoyed about throwing most of a jar away.

I do use the puree fruit jars/cartons a lot though to sweeten cereal and plain yoghurt.

[nightowl]

no, never used them except for going out and about. too expensive, too hard to get out of clothes and they taste awful. dont know if they are full of rubbish but i had it in my head that they were, plus i liked cooking baby meals...i must have been crazy!

[suzi2]

Have bought loads and tried them with DS. Although he hates savory on a spoon so generally a NO. I do think that they're mostly full of water too. Perhaps not the pure purees but some of the meals are more water than anything else. And they're expensive.

I am a fan of little fruit puree pots (the long life ones) and rice pudding pots. They make great puds for DS, are handy when out and about and I also add them to other things such as breakfasts.

[Filyjonk]

not really. have you tasted them? I think they taste foul, so avoid. Never had a situation yet where something couldn't be found for the baby. Maybe luck, don't know. My kids do eat anything though, unlike dh who was weaned on (bleurgh) powder.

[Filyjonk]

Ooooh except those fruit purees.they are delicious.

[expatinscotland]

We used them when we went out w/DD1 and plan to do the same w/DD2. But they're too damned expensive to use all the time. Like Iklboo said, it's cheaper and takes next to know time to cook up a batch of stuff and freeze it in ice cube trays.

[suzi2]

I'd never give DS those powdery packets though. They look and smell foul!

[peaches27]

I steamed a load of carrots and a little bit of lean lamb, put it in a blender with a little cooking water, wizzed it, it tasted lovely. I froze loads of it. She hated it. Gagged on it. Tried twice, not having it. But my DGD loves Hipp organic carrot puree. So now I buy all their jars. I decided it just wasnt worth it!

She wont eat the Cow and Gate dried food even if mixed with milk. The only dried food she will eat is baby rice. So its a big yes to jars!

Mind you my first born son, now a big lad of 24 was raised on Heinz tins and did well on them. He would eat pureed sunday dinner, but if I made macaroni cheese he wouldnt touch it.

[purplemonkeydishwasher]

I was adamant that I would make all the food for my DS but we're on hols right now at my parents and so i tried a jar. Little monkey LOVED it! Gobbled it up! He doesn't eat my stuff like that!!

[cornflakegirl]

has anyone found jars that taste good? we have a couple in the cupboard that we were given - heinz "like mum makes" or whatever they're called - tried one the other day as ds was off his food - dh said it looked and smelled gross, and ds wasn't really impressed either. it was a 9m+ one - ds is 11m.

[Bozza]

Personally I have never used one for either of mine. I originally though - yes for out and about but never got round to buying any. It annoys me that places won't heat homemade baby food but will jars and bottles. It's supposed to be health and safety but I don't get the logic.

[expatinscotland]

this time round, we'll wait till she's old enough for finger foods. then i can just make stuff for going out and we won't have to bother w/those jars at all.

they're just too dear when you have two and one of them needs shoes that cost about £40 a pop and goes to TumbleTots and dance class.

[Bozza]

The other thing that works well when you are out is a banana which can just be mashed there and then.

[PanicPants]

Give ds homecooked food at home and the odd jar if out - although now I do tend to take fod I've prepared at home out with us now.

We've just got home from a 5 day holiday where we fed ds completely on jars and it was a nightmare, his appetite was poor, the food looked, smelt and tasted awful, and i just felt so bad giving him such rubbish day after day. I can't wait until tomorrow where I can give him fresh, homecooked food.

[expatinscotland]

going to go home cooked on our self-catering holiday, pp.

that is, if dd2 is ready for weaning then. she'll be 6 calendar months then. we'll just play it by ear.

[JoshandJamie]

Thanks for all the replies. Am just keen to see what people think of jars so this is great.

I make my own food too and only use the jars when we go away for a holiday - but they invariably block my baby up and they just look, smell and taste gross.

Just some info on jars in case you weren't aware: the reason they look, taste and smell funny is because they have to be cooked at temperatures over 121 degrees celcius to kill any bacteria so that it can have a long shelf life. Cooking at that temperature causes the food to caramalise and go brown/orange. It also wipes out a lot of the nutrients, so lots of manufacturers add them back in artificially. Many also use water and starchy fillers to bulk them out - which aren't nutritionally bad for your LO but they dilute the nutritional value of the meal.

Just a thought - but if you can't make your own food and don't want to use jars, try using frozen baby food instead. There are quite a few manufacturers out there, like Babylicious www.babylicious.co.uk. Also Truuuly Scrumptious and Fresh Daisy - although Babylicious is the only one in the supermarkets I think. These products taste, look and smell like real food - a million times better than jars.

[jessicaandrebeccasmummy]

i tried Jess on babylicious - was not impressed - ended up chucking the whole lot in the bin!

Although I now avoid jars as much as possible, Jess was fed jars all the way through, and i vowed i would never do it again. It is the feeding of non-homecooked food that i think has led to her being an extreamly picky toddler.

[PanicPants]

I've tried babylicious and I like them, but they are expensive. They were great when I had a lot of plain veg purees in the freezer I wanted to use up, so I would use 2 cubes of babylicous to 4 cubes of my own veg.

Now I make up 'proper complete' meals i.e., casseroles I don't tend to use babylicious.

We are going away again in the may bank holiday and I definitly wont be taking jars again!

[expatinscotland]

i would just split a butternut squash in two, brush it w/olive oil, and roast it.

scoop it out, bung it in ice cube trays and freeze.

did the same w/sweet potato.

less time than it took to go to a shop and stump up 50p for one jar.

was browsing around Sainsbury's today and saw the organic stuff is about 53-55p/jar !

[shellybelly]

I use jars, not all the time and i certainly don't feel bad about doing it. I cook from scratch (no tins or ought) every day for tea so if dd has a jar at lunchtime well thats fine, somedays for lunch i will do things like jacket tatties, dd eats everything we do now so I don't freeze up batches of veg puree

[expatinscotland]

i've got nothing against 'em, shelly, just find them amazingly expensive.