To wonder whether people get their knickers in such a twist over bought baby food

[pleasethanks]

I was pondering this as I watched the Jo Frost thread spiral into a ff/bf argument at points. It is clearly a very emotive topic and as someone who reluctantly formula fed, I clearly understand the health benefits of breast feeding. But this is again and again a topic which causes arguments on here and flinging of insults.

I really just wondered whether those people who get high and mighty about breast feeding and look down on those who didn't breast feed (and I know lots of people are pro breast feeding without being high and mighty) hold the same superior views when it comes to weaning on to solids. For example, do they all feed their children purely homemade food, rather than shop bought etc. I really just wondered whether homemade v shop bought baby food is the subject of such strong views, and if not, why not?

I am mahoosively unfashionable in the weaning department (weaning has fashions? Who knew?) Dd was weaned at 17 weeks because she was losing weight and I weaned her on puree . I made them myself because we had NO money and I resented the amount you had to pay for the pouches. Batch cooking was a total arse and I don't miss it at all, but it saved me a fortune. The only pouches I've ever bought were for long haul flights and the little bugger wouldn't eat them!
She now eats everything she can get her hands on (17 months) but gives preference to chicken katsu curry or sand

I used disposable nappys too

well not for my first DD ,they weren't invented then

i dont think giving babies pre prepared food can be likened to giving formula milk as food jars are still made with food iuswim but formula isnt made with the same stuff as breast milk. I ebf my 8 month old but hav tried many times to get her to take a dam bottle of formula but she wont, i also mix pouches and homemade food n wouldnt judge what others do. i just dont know if the two are comparable?

Le Queen I'm with you :)

I EBF for 6 months (partly because it took me that long to get on a bottle). Weaning to begin with consisted of EK pouches. Couldn't be arsed pureeing every frigging vegetable under the sun. Also because I started working from home at 3ish months, so figured any spare time outside of that I had should be either spent having fun with my son or sleeping. Once he got started on meat and stage 2 stuff, I must admit the pouches were less attractive. You can't really fake chicken casserole, but the initial fruit and veg ones were great and lifesavers. Yes apples do cost 20p, but that's just a matter of how you want to spend your time and energy! Have you tried AK's chicken, courgette and grape recipe - trying to peel 16 grapes making in bulk did my bloody head in last week!

I FF'd because BF'ing didn't work for some reason. I had so little support I don't even know what went wrong .

At the puree stage I just used jars. I started by trying to make my own but they tasted bland and just plain rank. So I bought some jars and DD much preferred them. I LOVED the Hipp chocolate dessert jar. Just tasted like regular chocolate dessert.

I don't consider myself a bad cook. But I just can't make yummy baby food!! Once DD was on to regular food she was quite happy just eating the same as me.

I don't really care how people feed their children. What I did worked for me. I can honestly say DD will eat almost anything she's given depending on her mood.

It is another box to tick in the best mum competition from what I've seen. You must breastfeed and use washable nappies and cook up an organic storm with which to baby led wean...

I don't know where people get the energy from. Breastfeeding I can do. It shuts them up and sends them to sleep. The thought of washing piles of shitty nappies and slaving away doing home made food makes me want to pull my arms off though.

a few years ago when I had ds (now 6 yo) I knew of quite a few people in RL and came across similar ideas on here that essentially jars were very inferior to home cooked food and for those who couldn't be bothered. You might use one if you were in an emergency and were out but that was pretty much the only acceptable situation. I also knew people who wouldn't use them because of the glass in baby food scandal of the late 1980s - so didn't view them as safe. The arguments were very much along the lines of those against ff - inferior, could be potentially unsafe, common, expensive and just not what you would do if you really wanted what was best for your baby.

Having had dd (now 11 months) the argument seems to have moved from jars/homemade purees to purees vs BLW. There also seems to have been a rise in more socially acceptable bought baby food - i.e. the pouches (which I suspect are essentially the same thing with fancier packaging and better marketing).

BTW I have done both bf and ff. I have done homemade purees, jars and BLW. I have no specific preference for any of them. It just comes down to which suits you/your baby/your lifestyle best.

I'm clearly of the LeQueen school of parenting. I can't be arsed to cook only for DD to turn her nose up at my efforts. I love the pouches as I don't even need a spoon and they leave relatively little mess.

itsastrawpoll : I am not sure. I'm only relaying what I consider a very good pediatrician told me when I was about to wean my first DD. He basically said don't worry about the home cooked stuff because the organic baby food is just as good, probably better than you can make yourself and also made in highly sterile conditions that you cannot reproduce at home (don't know why you would want super sterile cooking conditions anyway though).

What I ended up doing was home cooking and then when out and about, which was fairly often, I usually used Ella's pouches for convenience and the sooner my DD's can suck it out themselves the better
I also did a lot of finger food but don't really go for full blown BLW, find it's actually more hassle in fact as sometimes my kids liked to be fed porridge & yoghurts (usually they had one spoon and I had the other and helped along). Like many Mum's I took a little from each philosophy and technique. I would say however that I am strict about always giving them 'good' food, try to keep it organic and now that they are a bit older really limit sweet treats etc.

Pouches and jars are great - good quality (well - the better ones....) and usually lovely flavours. I used to use them here or there.

I think it's only a problem sometimes when they end up being the only solids a baby is getting. The textures are nothing like normal family food so it can make it difficult for some babies to be weaned onto what everyone else is eating.

The easiest weaning experience was with my youngest, who I weaned at 6 months straight onto family foods. Just used to flick a bit of whatever off my plate onto his tray.

I don't care in the slightest was other people do. They can choose (those who do have that choice) to bf or ff.. It's their life.
I EBF my Tarquinius, then only did/do homemade food .
To make it easier we all eat baby food, just not pureed.
And of course I keep plan to look after him myself till about 3

But again, I don't look down on anyone

I also BF'd by the way but use disposable nappies. The thing that makes me shudder is when I see parents repeatedly allowing their toddlers eat some crap after they have refused eating the proper meal they were given first and then hearing from the parents how they just won't eat anything. I understand children who are fussy eaters but just don't give them cookies to fill up their bellies! Sorry for ranting.

Definitely, lequeen! I call it can't be arsed parenting. I baby wear too- so I can browse the sales more easily!

With DD1, her being my PFC and all that, I spent a small fortune on organic produce and several hours that I will never see again pureeing it, only for my daughter to spit it back out at me. I vowed never again and weaned her on Hipp Organic jars. She also had a cows milk protien allergy so I was restricted to what jars she could because many contained hidden milk in them. She is nearly 4 now and eats whatever we eat and has done since she was 12 months. With DD2, when I started weaning, I did do very simple purses like carrots and potatoes but that was it, I just cdidnt have the time and frankly I couldn't be bothered! She is 8 months now and is on Hipp stage 2 jars. I breastfed dd1 for 12 months mainly because of her cows milk allergy and the fact that i didn't want her on soya or that horrid hydrolysed formula that the pead recomended when she was 6 months. DD2 is also breastfed mostly cos it's free and I am rather lazy! Therefore, I don't accept the assertion mentioned earlier that those who exclusively breastfeed also don't do jars . Most people I know in RL breastfed exclusively and weaned on jars. Some didn't even bother with organic ones, shock, horror! Live and let live I say.

"And also, shouldn't the government spend money to encourage people to cook food for their babies"

Only if - like breastfeeding - there are clear and measurable health benefits.

And I don't think there are. Good quality ready made foods aren't nutritionally inferior to home made food in the way formula is nutritionally inferior to breastmilk, or associated with higher rates of hospital admission. Probably if you really looked into it ready made food results in fewer admissions for food poisoning..... (thinks of own dodgy kitchen hygeine......)

PFB not PFc, stupid autocorrect on iPad.

I breastfed and my DC have had home made food. Not that I had any high and might ideas about it but it's not heard of where I come from, so it wasn't really a decision as such.

Having said that I have used jars a few times when out and about purely because it's convenient, but I don't think it's healthy to eat shop bought 24/7, child or adult; there is no way on earth I'd do it to myself so no reason I'd do that to my babies. They look pretty horrible too .

I bf, BLW and use washable nappies.

All because I am POOR and can't afford formula, jars or disposables!

I think it's possible that the pouches are better nutritionally, in the same way frozen fruit and veg maintains more vitamins. If EK/plum get fruit/veg straight from the field, cooked, preserved and packed (or whatever order they do it in) it's probably better than fruit/veg which sat in the supermarket for a week, sat in your fridge for a few days, cooked, left in the pan for a while before remembering to freeze and then defrosted.

My problem with the pouches is that they all contain sweet ingredients which wouldn't be in normal food, for example concentrated pineapple juice in a casserole. I don't think it's a good idea to set up tastes for overly sweet foods.

I did BF and BLW but only because I'm lazy and it's easier!

"I breastfed and my DC have had home made food. Not that I had any high and might ideas about it but it's not heard of where I come from"

Look - let me explain the mn 'rules' on this. If you exclusively breastfeed, use cloth nappies, make your own food or do blw, (or - god forbid - all of them) and are foolish enough to admit that you do these things primarily because you think they're best for your baby, then you are categorically going to called a SANCTIMONIOUS GIT.

Get savvy. If you breastfeed you need to apologise for finding it easy and ALWAYS acknowledge a) many other people can't b) you don't care how other people feed their baby and c) you only do it so you can eat one extra mars bar a day and not get fat.

Re: disposable nappies - you DON'T do it out of environmental concerns. You do it because you want to save money to spend on getting bladdered or buying shoes.

BLW: you do this because you're lazy and tight-fisted.

OK? Remember - never, ever, ever suggest you put yourself out unduly for the welfare of your child. It's simply not cool.

The only exception to this rule is when it comes to education. It's quite acceptable to work your fingers to stumps in a high intensity job you dislike so that little Tarquin doesn't have to mix with oiks at the local secondary school. It's quite ok to admit to epic snobbery and elitism in relation to education but not anything else.

Would like to point out that the four posts that preceeded mine were written while I was typing. Uncanny though - talk about proving a point.....

I only ever feed my precious angel foods I puree myself. You can't get more nutritionally balanced than a pureed Greggs sausage roll.

The food in jars that I've given my dcs don't look any different to the baby food I've made them to be honest.

My lot have had a mixture of home made, jars etc. I've met a couple of parents who have said to me, "My Callum never had a jar. I made all his baby food." And what? Show me the science.