Fresh food versus jars

[Catt]

I've been feeling guilty for some months now about the subject of feeding my baby from jars.

Basically, with my first baby (ds) I slogged my guts off cooking and pureeing and blitzing food from scratch. Well, my ds ate really well and it was a joy to feed him - until he hit the 1 year stage and went all fussy. Now, at 2.5 years, he's still a really picky and fussy eater.

So when I had my second (dd) and the time came to wean her, what with being twice as busy and having much less time and energy, I relied a lot on jars, plus baby cereals etc. The only really fresh food she got at first was banana and some other fruits. Well, she eats just as well as my ds did and is the picture of health. I don't know if she'll turn out fussy later or not - but let's face it, she can't be any worse than her brother.

My point - after all this rambling - thanks to anyone who's hung on in there - is that the thanks I got for 'doing it right' the first time was a fussy, c**ppy eater, and yet I feel I should have made the same effort with my dd instead of giving her mainly processed jar food.

What do other people feel?

My dd is 6 months. She's my first child and, like you with your first, I have made lots of home cooked purees and am feeling proud of myself for only feeding her home cooked food and not jars etc. She's also eating all sorts of exotic fruit and vegetables, with the idea that if she starts off on these now she'll always eat a wide range of fruit and veg. However, I do wonder if this is really the case? I have two SILs who both did this with their children and I remember being impressed at the time with the range of food their babies would eat. These babies are now 3 and 4 years old and neither of them will eat such a range of vegetables now. One doesn't like anything green and the other is such an incredibly picky eater that the doctors have put her on health supplements (her weight is off the scale as she will hardly eat at all). Do other people think that the foods you wean your baby on will have any influence over what they eat when they're older?

I don't reckon it makes any difference - as soon as they hit 2 they are likely to be fussy anyway. I have used a mixture of jars and fresh food - I found jars particularly useful for including things like lentils which I'm never going to cook myself, but it allows ds to get nutrients from them.

DS never had a jar. He would eat just about anything pureed but I'm not sure that has much of an influence. Because I am sure that texture/appearance is as important as taste. He still eats fairly well at 20 months so I think introducing different textures etc as soon as possible is more relevent. Of curse, it may be that he will go off things when he gets further into the terrible twos. I try to serve things that he might not be too keen on when he is reasonably untired and hungry. I also find that chopping up things he is not as keen on (eg mushrooms) into smaller pieces helps. His current likes include chicken jalfrezi, raw onion etc so he is doing OK. Went off bananas but might re-introduce them soon.

I try to give ds home-cooked food at home (I include oven-chips & things in that description, although I also make a lot of stuff from scratch) but give him jars if I have to feed him away from home. He used to eat prodigiously but since turning one has gone all fussy. Strangely enough however, he will always finish a jar if we're out & about.

Very much agree with LizC. Went puree making mad when first weaning my twins- even had v embarrassing chart (in retrospect!)on which I drew happy and sad faces according to whether they swallowed some of the conction of the day or spat it out in disgust. They ate pretty much everything apart from my special necterine and quinoa supreme (I kid you not- I really did make such a thing!) But do they do so now, aged 3.5? Not on your nelly, I'm afraid. Sob.

"concoction" I meant!

I very rarely gave my DS a jar - basically I really resent all the marketing hype & the expense of baby foods, however, that's a different argument. After the first couple of months he was eating whatever main meal we had, just blitzed in the blender - so easy. He is now 19 months and eats most things very well so I tend to assume it's because he had a varied diet but it may just be his nature. Another friend has the most pickiest eaters I know, yet she is a fabulous cook & gave them wonderful home cooked food from the start - you just can't win!

With my first I did try to make my own purees but never seemed to get them smooth enough and DS was often sick. Eventually I gave up and fed him jars and he thrived. Second time round, because I was busy making toddler meals anyway I actually found it easier and armed with a new blender DD had mostly left over meals. This included a huge range of flavours and textures so felt quite chuffed. However when they hit the 2 yr mark they both turned fussy. I'm hoping that this will pass with time and my efforts will pay off in the long run but who knows.

I don't think anyone should feel guilty about jars. Their only real drawback is the cost but you have to weigh that up against all the time and effort of making purees that often get binned anyway. Looking after a small baby is a survival issue and you need to do what time allows you to do. Manufacturers are under a lot of pressure to provide high quality decent food so I refuse to belive they are missing out nutritionally and there are such a wide variety of flavours these days. In fact my only criticism of jars is that all the flavours get mushed up. If you do you own you can try to keep flavours seperate which I think helps both the experience and they tend to eat more, but it does take effort and gets easier for the mash rather than the puree stage.

Mums are under so much pressure to do the right thing, feed on demand, use reusable nappies, spend hours of quality play time, go to all the toddler, swimming, music, tumbletot groups etc, make your own food. I sometimes think its a conspiracy - its hard enough isn't it. Not that I criticise anyone for doing these things. I'd hate you to think I never bother. I just feel we shouldn't be made to feel guilty about not being supermums all the time. Phew..... don't know where that little outburst came from but there you go!

I find that jars, esp baby organix and hipp, etc, are handy for first weaning as they get it so nice and smooth. However, past 7 months, I made my own for ds1 with a blender and just gave him family meals. He's not a fussy eater (now we are past the fussy 1- 18 month phase), but i think that's just the luck of the drawer. I was hoping someone would start a thread on this as I've been feeding ds2 organic jars and wondering if I should be.!

I used a mixture of jars and home cooked. I bought a 'Babycook' at an NCT sale (I think they are quite expensive new) and it was wonderful. It is a steamer come blender and makes very smooth puree. I still use it for small amounts of things - like breadcrumbs, and fruit purees to add to natural yoghurt. Well worth looking out for.

Thanks for all this advice - it does sound like what I feed my dd now won't make a lot of difference in the long run! I've got a freezer full of home made purees at the mo', so will keep on with them, but won't feel so guilty about using the odd jar here and there too. Thought Bozza's comment on textures and appearance made sense, as this is probably why children take a dislike to a lot of foods. Will try to make sure I introduce mushrooms early, once we get beyond the puree stage -not sure about raw onions though!

I did things the other way round, 1st time all I fed was jars (Hipp or baby Organix) as, like others, I couldn't get a smooth enough puree for a difficult to feed baby. I was also working full time by the time weaning happened. WIth no2, like others I was already making toddler meals, so pureeing one extra seemed easy. I also did fruit and veg purees etc. The second only really had the odd jar. Also this time around I had a nanny, so part of her job was cooking for the girls and she used to (Still does) big vat loads of stuff and freezes portions. I am so lucky I can raid this sometimes at the weekend when I don't have time to cook.

As far as fussy eaters go neither of mine have been bad, now they are 3.5 and 1.5 and they both eat veggies and fruit realy well (although chocolate and crisps are still favourites!) Their favourite foods are bacon, pasta, carrots and yoghurt - something from every food group, so I'm not complaining!

God Catt, it seems I am reading my own story, when I read yours...

I fed my ds only homecooked foods until he was 18/19 months. He was also at nursery which required a packed lunch every day, and I worked full time.

He would eat anything, caulifower, broccoli, curry every!

Now he is 2.5 and is a real fussy eater, as soon as he saw a loop in my armour, when i gave up work at 18/19 months he went for it, and now we are having a struggle to get him back eating proper food.

I would still say that home foods are best, and hope to do same for #2

DS had home cooked food mostly but did have the occasional jar, especially the dessert ones. Still loves vegetables and fruit and will eat these aboove all others, with the latest exception of fromage frais and ice cream! Some days he eats great, other days he's not interested, we feed by his mood (he's nearly 2). This morning it was a case of holding things up (cereal, yoghurt, apple) to get something for breakfast that he said yes to (yoghurt!). The offers generally are 'good' foods rather than junk (which he is allowed but I had to draw the line at ice cream for breakfast!).

Not sure what aboove is! Adding another thing, my boss once fed his dd fish fingers for breakfast as this is what she asked for! You can tell he doesn't do most of the looking after in his house!

Funnily enough, I did it the other way round to most of you. When I had d.s. #1, I was working f.t., completely knackered, didn't know the first thing about cooking and fed baby almost completely from jars and thought nothing of it. When d.d came along, I was not working until she was two, had bags more confidence on the cooking (and baby rearing) front and fed her mostly home made stuff. With baby # 3, I was well into it and made loads of lovely (and some foul!!) stuff and had loads of fun doing it.

All my kids are great eaters and I honestly don't think it makes much difference to babies' health. Go with the flow - good luck

I've just been reading all the postings over the past few days here and on other threads and I've come to the conclusion I need to chill a bit. Too many dilemmas, worries, concerns...

Oxocube has expressed my philosophy for the next few days (until something happens to wind me up again)- this week, I will mostly be going with the flow.