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Original poster

tempted to use jars

54 replies

emz31 · 05/01/2005 10:32

i started weaning my 6mo at 4months and am getting a tad fed up with the pureeing lark as it seems to take up massive chunks of my day! - i use jars on days out etc and must admit DS seems to prefer these to my loviningly hand prpeared veggies. it's tempting to ditch the liquidiser and use jars instead (leaving me free to get on with my life!) but i was just wondering if anyone knows how nutririous these are and if DS will be missing out on vital nutrients because of my laziness?

OP posts:
NotQuiteCockney · 05/01/2005 12:04

Freezing and thawing does destroy some nutrients. But putting food in jars on a shelf for ages does much worse - clear jars are particularly bad, as light destroys many nutrients.

I tend not to eat food that's been sitting on a shelf, in a jar, so I wouldn't feed it to my kids.

DS1 only had jars when we were travelling, and even then, not much. I used to take a bottle, with a cover on it, with some cubes in it. Restaurants won't heat it for you, but they will happily bring you a big jug of hot water to thaw the food in, or warm it. I never had any problems doing this.

My plan to make weaning earlier, is to do it later. Why have 8 months of faff, when you can have 6?

Pidge · 05/01/2005 12:06

Wish I could have persuaded my dd to eat from jars - very handy for holidays and going out - but she wasn't having any of it. And having sneaked a taste of a few I can't blame her!! She never rejected anything else - just jars!

Some kind of combination seems ideal to me. I pureed and bulk froze - the deal was I did purees and dp cooked me supper! And I didn't find it too hard. Plus if we were steaming veggies for us I would just leave some for dd steaming a bit longer and then puree them up with the water.

Twiglett · 05/01/2005 12:09

"light destroys many nutrients" ... can you point me in a direction where I can read up on that please

handlemecarefully · 05/01/2005 12:20

Must say I wouldn't loose too much sleep about using jars if that's what you want to do (but then I am coming from the perspective of an 8 month old baby who consistently refuses all food except fromage frais, biscuits and sweet jars (not savoury), despite offering all manner of lovingly prepared home cooked food.

Twiglett · 05/01/2005 12:24

My DS .. who was probably exclusively jar fed for about 3 - 4 months (weaned at 4 months back then) has just polished off his entire lunch of cooked brocolli, raw carrot, cucumber, left over chicken breast (marinated in chilli and lime and grilled last night and just re-heated) .. and then asked for an apple for pudding

Jars do not picky eaters make

(I am loving all the unsubstantiated research BTW .. I think maybe this one could rival GF debates)

walliamsbabysmum · 05/01/2005 12:30

Good grief, if we believed all the 'research' we'd live on water (purified naturally through reeds, of course) and fresh air (filtered through organic-grown-without-the-use-harmful-pesticides charcoal)

Twiglett · 05/01/2005 12:42
motherinferior · 05/01/2005 12:43

Twiglett, just to pick a fight , light does apparently leach vitamins out of some foods I deduce from notes I made for an article on food storage and freshness a while ago.

But personally, I'd go for whatever you can face.

weightwatchingwaterwitch · 05/01/2005 12:47

We've used (all organic, mixture of Hipp/Organix/other) jars mostly for dd (13 months) although now she's eating more normal food and having what we have sometimes. Oh well. She looks ok. I did always think they were ok though and no worse than making it yourself so I sit corrected. Pants.

Twiglett · 05/01/2005 12:48

fisticuffs at dawn MI

yeah .. but how much .. and is it more than leeches from home-cooked veg?

that's the thing .. one takes these 'research' notes as facts but isn't it all relative

oh I dunno .. maybe I'm overcompensating for being a lazy-ar$e mum who doesn't stress the food stuff (then again I don't really have a particularly picky eater in either of them)

LapsedGymJunkie · 05/01/2005 12:51

I started with ice cubes and very swiftly went on to jars, and no, he is not a picky eater, some days he has very definite ideas re: what he will and won't eat, but to me that doesn't make him picky to me it means that he has given his next meal some thought. Sometimes, I try and say to him, tonight you are having XYZ and the answer sometimes comes back would rather have ABC thank you. Not bad for 3.5

I also had to bottle feed him, for medical reasons. the first thing I did when I discovered this was go out and buy the cartons of formula and the Avent feeding bags. Anyone want to talk about lazy ?

P.S He had chorizo and olives and anchovies for his supper last night.

NotQuiteCockney · 05/01/2005 13:46

I've had a bit of a websearch and found lots of references for light damaging nutrients, particularly Vitamins A and E, and riboflavin. It doesn't make food completely worthless, it's just not particularly good for some nutrients. (I can't find any primary source material for this online, and most discussion is about milk.)

Obviously, using jars isn't disastrous, I just prefer to avoid it. There's a very good English book that talks about how to make your kids eat well, that argues that jar food can easily lead to a processed-food diet. It obviously doesn't have to, but it seems more natural to go from home-made mush to home-made food.

GreatBigFatHeiferEnid · 05/01/2005 13:49

But they taste disgusting

walliamsbabysmum · 05/01/2005 13:56

I quite liked some of them - and I have a penchant for v. strong foods, so it's not that. Over-ripe stilton anyone?? Mmmm!!

aloha · 05/01/2005 14:02

I think jars are a great invention. Ds had both jars & homemade food (sweet potato primarily if I remember rightly) plus meals consisting of, say, a banana and a fromage frais. He's not particularly picky at 3. Loves chocolate though! I think you can drive yourself insane about children's food.

aloha · 05/01/2005 14:03

I used to order Babynat - a French organic brand - online. They just looked really nice to me and ds liked them.

lowcalCOD · 05/01/2005 14:04

you dont have to do one or hte other do you?
i did bits and bobs so i dinbnt have to cart ice cubes around.

its all a phase htat ends pretty soon anyway

OldieMum · 05/01/2005 14:24

DD had a mixture of jars and home-cooked food. Now she she loves everything - green veg, all kinds of fish, garlic, the lot - and never is never given processed food. So I don't feel guilty.

PlainFlum · 05/01/2005 14:37

Now what was that article about the sealant on the lids of baby food jars being carcenogenic......................

I kid you not, my mum told me about it.

Run for the hills, save yourselves...........

lowcalCOD · 05/01/2005 14:39

Oh fgs
how caome theya ll arent dead then?

PlainFlum · 05/01/2005 14:42

Well the ones who are dead can't tell their story can they...............................

colditzmum · 05/01/2005 14:55

Jars do taste a bit naff to adults, but our palettes are weaker through years of salt, alcohol etc. Plus if baby doesn't like it, baby doesn't eat it. They must taste ok to babies. At that age they still get the vast majority of their nutrients from milk.

jane313 · 05/01/2005 18:31

Boots used to do a creamy salmon mash with dill one that smelled lovely. The organix blackcurrant puree thing also smelled wonderful.

iota · 05/01/2005 18:39

there was a thread on this a few days ago here

Original poster
emz31 · 06/01/2005 10:45

thanks all for your advice and opinions. after much deliberation i have decided to go half and half as i just feel too guilty using jars all the time. have just nipped out and bought annabel karmels book, so will be cooking up a few batches this weekend - although i'm sure laziness will eventually prevail and he'll end up mainly on jars again!!

OP posts: