to feed my baby only commercial food?

[duckadeedoo]

She's 9 months. I really cant cook.

FWIW, I only buy Ella's Kitchen and Plum products with the occational organix jars.

You can't feed your little one on these forever. Now's a really great time to learn how to cook.

It's nice stuff, but it's all long life.

No fresh fruit? Fresh veg?

Would you just eat cans of stuff every meal, every day?

YABU.

you might need to start learning to cook now though because she can't eat that food forever? so just try your best to learn then start her on some made by you and some of the bought ones, to get her used to it?
otherwise when she is like 2 or 3 years what are you going to give her?

aren't they really expensive?

nothing wrong with jarred food per se ...

what do you and your partner eat? At 9 months children can eat whatever you do (as long as it isn't overly salty etc)

You really dont need to know how to 'cook', you can just pop a baked potato and some chicken in the oven and some veg in a saucepan and bobs your uncle!

I agree with Belle. You can start with things like carrot sticks, scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, brocolli, pasta and sauce etc.

You really do need to learn to cook some simple things.

You can buy basic cook books from all book stores. Or check out the recipes section here.

What on earth do you eat?

YABU.

you dont need to cook her anytihng special just simple meals would be fine. I know that baby cookbooks have all kinds of complex meals in but really mine have done fine on my (pretty poor) cooking . Ready made foods are fine some days but I would try and start to include other things as well esepcially at nine months where she will start to want "proper" food rather than purree or mashes .

You can't only be feeding her commercial foods, surely- what about fruit, veg etc? What finger foods does she have?

If you are seriously only giving her baby food jars/puree then of course YABU, but I imagine you are exaggerating. It's fine to use some of those products. However, 'I really can't cook' is no excuse.

well i think you are being a bit unreasonable yes

what do YOU eat? microwave meals and tinned food the whole time? if so then i guess it's what she'll get used to
but i think if you're cooking for yourself it relly isn't a great hardship to make it suitable for a baby

she needs some fresh fruit and veg and stuff too

I can't cook, but kids stuff is pretty easy. You just need a basic repetoir of stuff you can add veggies to and a basic cook book. They don't mind if you rotate the same things.

I think I agree with Belle I'm afraid. A bowl of pasta, toast,stewed fruit or roast chicken is hardly cordon bleu...it will save you a fortune and lots of time, especially if you all eat the same.

Try Yummy Baby by Jane Clarke- lots of lovely and very easy recipes.

Cooking is the easiest thing in the world. You just make it hot enough to kill germs and soft enough to chew. Degrees of tastiness can follow as you get experience and confidence.

Well it's your choice, but cooking isn't hard is it?

Presumably you eat? Why not just give her what you eat? Or do you live off pot noodle and findus crispy ancakes?

There is nothing wrong with what you are ffeeding your baby, but she will grow up soon and start needing more than just pureed apples. It might be an indea to start gaining confidence in the kitchen?

There are loads of basic recipes in mumsnet recipe section, you could start there?

I use a lot of Ella and Plum with DC3 - they're fine, very convenient, but if you look at the packets there is very little meat in the stage 2 & 3 stuff compared with anything homamade. ALso, despite the different flavours, the ella pouches in particular all taste the same (probably becasue they all contain a large proportion of apple puree) and have the same smooth consistency. It really is better to get babies used to a wider range of tastes and textures before they get fussy (like my 18 month old who thinks that all fruit comes in an Ella pouch - my fault entirely, I know).

Mashing a banana or avocado, boiling some rice, grilling a bit of chicken, making tuna pasta etc etc barely involve cooking and offer a much more varied choice.

Don't want to sound like I'm lecturing though, if only because DC3 lived on Ella pouches, but i wouldn't recommend them long-term except for occasional convenience.

Everyonbe can cook if they just put some effort into learning. It really isn't hard. The hardest part to get over is often the mental block and the wrong notion that cooking is hard.

yes YABVU - and lazy.

Get a cookbook & learn, FGS.

Also, there is a school of thought that purees etc are actually not good for he baby long term. fine at the start, but they need different textures as they get older to practise using all the different muscles in their mouth - then that in turn helps their speech development. If they are on JUST purees for too long they can be a little delayed in muscle tone and development for speech. (And NOT turning this into a BLW debate, I just meant GENERAL feeding I know nothing about BLW!! )

Yes I agree with those who say that now would be a great time to learn to cook.

At 9mo she can eat what you eat anyway, pretty much.

Try some simple recipes like a meat or tomato sauce for pasta; pasta with cheese sauce; baked potatoes; lots of veg and fresh fruit, toast and sandwiches, doesn't need to be tricky. Good luck

Everyone can cook! You just need to practice. You don't have to cook restaurant quality meals - homecooked pasta or jacket potatoes are healthy and very simple.

My mum never cooked for us because she worked long hours and insisted that she couldn't cook and didn't have time and so we were brought up on ready meals. I ended up obese as a teen, so asked for cookbooks for Christmas and taught myself how to cook healthy meals.

Get yourself some cookbooks - Jamie's Ministry of Food is a good starting point - and keep trying.

YABU and are making more work for yourself as your child will become used to the much in the jars and will refuse to eat real home cooked food.

OH usually cooks but he doesn't have time to cook for DD as he works. Otherwise its ready-made meals for me too.

Will try some of the ideas given, and also start giving her food he cooks. Thanks

Ok I will say this. The odd jar will not kill a child my Mother tried to convince me that giving DS a few jars of organic babyfood when we moved house from Germany to the UK had polluted his body for life... She thought I should fing a oven somewhere along the autobahn I imagine

However, on a long term basis they need more variety and texture than the jars can offer. Just learn a few things at a time.

Im lazy too, so I get DH to cook up a big lasagne/shephards pie etc and frezee it in kid sized portions then get them out the freezer every day, add peas/sweetcorn/carrots/salad etc and bobs your auntie.

Or I keep a portion of the-night-before's-tea in the fridge for the kids lunch the next day.

And summer is great, my kids think its amazing having picnics in the garden of cheese chunks, bread, grapes etc etc. Even wotsits!

I'm no Kitchen Goddess but I will give you 2 "recipes" that my 10 mo loves.

Scrambled egg with courgette.
Peel a lump of courgette as long as your thumb & grate it.
Put a couple of tablespoons of milk and a thumbnail sized lump of butter into a small saucepan on a medium high heat, add grated courgette. After a couple of minutes eat a bit of the courgette to see if its nice and soft.
Crack egg into pan, stir, stir, stir til all liquid gone. Voila!

Cheesy pasta.
Boil pasta according to packet instructions.
Grate cheese with small side of grater.
Drain pasta. Put back in original saucepan on the hob. Good spash of milk, knob of butter, grated cheese. Stir, stir, stir.
Yum says DD. You can add all sorts of cooked veg and meat to this as you get more confident.

Hope that's not too patronising, but a couple of basic things like this can be adapted to suit your/your baby's tastes as time goes on.