Feel guilty for giving my son food jars

[mammycb]

So when I started weaning my son, I made it all myself. Then my MIL went crazy in Sainsbury’s and bought 2 bags worth of jar foods. He’d only ever had a pouch before because we went to the beach on the hottest day of the year and his home made banana went manky.
I decided to give him a jar today just because I didn’t have any made up and I completely got lost with time and before I knew it, it was free time.
He loved it, didn’t phase him that it wasn’t home made. He just loves anything food like his dad.
Because he liked it, I thought “oh I’ll give him the rest of what mil bought until they run out and then go back to home made”, just because he obviously didn’t care and I love my mil, I wouldn’t want to waste her money.
Now I feel so guilty because I’ve been thinking about when I went to baby clinic and the health visitor showed us how much sugars and preservatives are in tins and jars. I some how feel like a terrible mam because I’m not home making his food.
How bad are the jars or have I just been scared into thinking they’re terrible?

You've been scared into thinking they're terrible.

There are far, far worse things. Swathes of us on here will have been raised on jars.

Cut yourself some slack. You're doing great - because you care.

Read the jars. They aren’t all equal and some HV spout rubbish about them. My HV’s weaning expert said to me that they are full of preservatives. When I said that the ingredients didn’t list any preservatives she said, “well they must be or how do they last so long”. I stopped paying any attention to her after that as she clearly doesn’t understand what she’s talking about as heat treated preservation for jarred foods has been around for ages.

Not all jars are equal - I think that some are full of sugar, some are full of naturally sweet ingredients that might as well be sugar.

I’d also think about how much protein they contain. Protein is the expensive ingredient so they keep is low and probably don’t match what you’d make at home.

Honestly, don't worry about it. I see babies on social media tucking into happy meals and they aren't even one! My 10 month old currently will only eat crackers and soft cheese, no matter what I put in front of her but if I could get a jar into her I definitely would! Very few people have time to prepare fresh homemade food for every meal, don't worry about it.

You've been scared into thinking they're terrible. Perhaps alternate some jars with home cooked food though - it can be hard to get them used to different flavours and textures if they only eat jars of food.

Oh and my ds1 got lots of specially prepared 'baby' meals. Ds2 and 3 got what we were having whizzed or mashed and jars or pouches if they couldn't eat it for any reason. Guess who's the fussy eater...

Don't worry about it. Jars don't contain anything terrible, most don't contain preservatives and most don't add sugar. I agree with PP, just read the ingredients and see what they actually do contain to reassure yourself. The main issue with relying on jars all the time (not using a few like you have) is that they are often packed out with water and thickener, and contain less nutrients than fresh food. But it's still fine for a now and again thing, it's not like there's no nutrients in them.

Have a browse through this

www.firststepsnutrition.org/pdfs/Baby_Food_in_the_UK%20_2017.pdf

If you ultimately decide you don't want to feed them, you don't have to waste them. Give them to a local food bank. I'm sure there's a young family out there who would appreciate them.

Please don't waste time feeling guilty. Some babies eat nothing but jars and are fine. They are safe and won't harm your baby. Personally I used them when out and about for convenience and gave fresh food at home. Obviously fresh food is better but a few jars here and there won't hurt.

Thousands of babies have eaten jars and it's never hurt them. I've used them for my children - a mixture of both home made and jars etc.

Parenting is tiring enough, to be feeling guilty for giving your baby a jar of food.

It's fine, they are safe..

My children are slightly older now but it's a similar situation. Most nights I cook a good meal but some nights I have no energy and my children eat pizza or chicken nuggets 🙈

Just read the labels. A lot of jars are organic and made without preservatives or sugar.
Jars are such good quality that the thought of cooking ice cube sized meals never even entered my head!
Call it “continental diet” and be done with it!

I gave my dc jars as I could t get the right consistency with the blender. He’s now 1 and eats everything in sight, but doesn’t like anything sweet.

Some brands will be worse than others. Just read the labels and this will probably give you an idea of salt etc.

There’s much worse things you can do but give a Baby jar food.

Mine has about 60% jars because I hate cooking and live off mostly ready meals myself. I couldn't give a fuck.

I thought I’d make all of my own food for DS (I generally don’t like processed food for myself) but in reality half of his food is a pouch, half is stuff I make. I read an article in the Guardian I think, that said a university study (maybe Queen Mary Univ) found that there was nothing bad in the shop bought stuff like Ella’s Kitchen, it’s just that you have to eat twice the amount of fresh stuff to get the same nutritional content. So nothing bad per se, just fresh is better. But you trade that off against how pressed for time you are. But don’t feel guilty even if you go for 100 percent shop bought stuff. There’s too much to feel guilty about as new mums.

Link to the article I mentioned (sorry got it wrong, it’s a Univ of Glasgow study):

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2013/sep/10/truth-about-baby-food

Guilt is a waste of energy. It doesn't rewind time, it doesn't change anything. So forget it. Seriously, a few jars is not worth a second thought. I was a teen mum when my eldest was born and I was absolutely clueless. I thought jars was how you fed babies so that's what he had. He's 12 now and totally fine. Normal diet, not a single health issue.

We did baby led weaning so no jars but occasional pouches. Most have no preservatives (read labels!) But there's often a lot of sugar even if it's just from apples or pears. But seriously not worth beating yourself up over!