to think that commercial baby food is mostly complete rubbish?

[AKMD]

DS loves breadsticks so I've been spending what I consider to be silly money buying branded organic ones (10 tiny sticks in a box?!) for him to have out and about. The last time I went to get them, they were out of stock at my usual supermarket so I looked at the alternatives available. The other pack of breadsticks, whose manufacturer says that their snacks contain 'nothing but wholegrains and natural flavour', had added salt. The other packs of biscuits had sugar as the second ingredient. The shelf above the snacks was dedicated to bottles of fruit juice aimed at babies aged 7 months+.

DS was BLW (or finger food weaned, whichever you prefer to call it :o) so I haven't delved into the mysteries of 'jars' too deeply but I was quite shocked that baby food manufacturers make all sorts of claims about how great their foods are for babies when actually they contain all sorts of rubbish and are even, as a concept, actually a bad idea to give to babies (i.e. fruit juice to a 7mo?!). It concerns me that mothers think that they are making good choices for their children but are being misled. AIBU?

Sorry Leonie excuse my ignorance. I have zero experience with SN! I thought it may be a toddler tricking scenario! Would getting her to prepare the food help? Recently when my DS went through a picky faze we just put everything (no matter what we ate) onto a platter in the middle of the table in a help yourself way, it helped. Sorry again. I'm useless!

My sister still ate baby food at the age of bloody 6 years and she's normal enough, well some of the time.

Oh, I can take this debate to a whole new guilt/virtuous level.

When my husband is away for a week ( he does all the cooking) I go out stock up on M&S kids meals for my kids and ready meals for me. It's hard enough to look after 3 kids under the age of 5 on my own for a week let alone cook from first principles. I don't see it as a problem one little bit....apart from having too many cardboard boxes in our recycling bin!

Did you read where Leonie mentioned the gagging problem?
You'd never get cauliflower or broccoli past that whatever it was dipped in.

And I won't eat them for the same reason!

When a thread is discussing that it is bad to give kids fruit as snacks, I start to shake my head, I really do

I know someone whos baby has only ever eaten jars of baby mush, every meal, the odd yoghurt/custard/jelly thrown in. Said child is now 2 and cannot chew, i cant think why.

And no i havent silently judged, Ive stood up to be counted, made no difference to this mom, feel sorry for the kid though. a muh diet has seriously affected him

:( I'm sorry I've made people feel guilty. That wasn't at all my intention; my intention was to question the double standards applied to manufacturers.

AKMD...I regret my earlier post. It's true that this thread doesn't help my guilt feelings but I was wrong to say that it makes me feel guilty. I feel guilty about all sorts of parenting choices I've made. Other people don't do that to me, it comes from within. Feeling judged doesn't help but I probably need a thicker skin and to accept that I did things the way I did for a reason and that's that.

My DD, as a 5 year-old, can chew. Her speech is also beautiful, as are her table manners. She eats a wide range of foods. She eats like a sparrow but that's because she's tiny and has an appetite to match. I should spend more time looking at her as my proof that I have done ok as a parent so far, rather than worrying about others' judgements.

Of course jars are not bad. The only difference is that some of the nutrients may be lost due to the high heat preservation techniques. Not the same as bf/ff imo. Though I have to say, saying 'it doesn't matter' and 'you can't tell what they were fed on' are straw man arguments generally. You often can't visibly see health differences. Not saying there would necessarily be much difference - but if there was, it wouldn't be visible! This argument is often used when discussing bf/ff and it makes me cross!