QUICK SURVEY, home made or jars?

[lucykate]

don't want to start a big debate but am just interested to know how other mums go about this.

am about to start weaning ds, he's 24 weeks tomorrow. have obligingly waited until now following the new guidelines (dd was weaned at 16 weeks, as she was born when guidelines said 4 months, not 6 - funny how the guidelines change at about the same time as they increase maternity leave ever so slightly , but thats another debate!)

Jars with Jess until 8 months.... then finger food and whatever we were having - mashed potatoe was her fave.

Hope to feed home made stuff from the start with Rebecca, but got a few months to sort that out yet, she's only 2 weeks old!!

Purely homemade food.

I had to use jars when we were on holiday now and then, but other than that home made.

I did use the odd shop bought organic fruit puree now & then.

Food in jars smelled gross to me, tasted nasty imo and stained as well.

all home made so far - 5 weeks. but make and freeze as much as poss in advance, even fruit porridge. did feed a jar once but ds was sick some hours later and it didn't seem to have digested at all, yukko.

All home-made; tried to give ds jars a couple of times when in a hurry, but he refused to eat them - can't say I blamed him really!!

Jars once a week, on the night when the rest of the family eat ready-made junk too. Not that the jars are necessarily junk, but the stuff the rest of us eat is . Although he is looking longingly at our chips now.

And I buy one with blueberry fruit puree in cos I cannot be bothered with doing blueberries myself (and I've tried it and it tastes nice).

I'd go homemade - but it's a good idea to have the odd jar then at least ds wont pull nose up when a jar is the only thing you have (stuck in traffic?!?)

Best thing I did with my ds was not to heat food - he'll eat homemade or a jar just as it comes. Whilst dd needed everything warm which was a nightmare on our first holiday away when the water in the flask had gone cold and no other means to heat her food!

mixture of both for me depending on time limits etc

Did some home made in the beginning
Now 100% jars

I started off with home made, intending to use jars when we were out or away for the weekend. However, dd was having none of it and wouldn't touch anything in a jar. I was delighted as a) someone actually like what I cooked and b) it was very cheap.

LOL! gobble oooh we are a pair!

Homemade then frozen have you ever tasted the stuff in jars
I wouldnt eat it so I didnt see why Much should
[huey]
Did use babylicious (frozen stuff) as it actually tasted like real food and seemed to be additive free ish

No jars here (dd is 14 months) - I can't stand non-fresh food myself.

We cook every day so it's easy enough to cook for dd too. Different I guess if you hate cooking.

all home-made. dead easy as ds usually has & likes our meals, even chilli tofu.
he does however have a thing for cow&gate organic choc mousse - looks/smells/tastes vile (to me - dh likes it!) which i ration to 1 jar a week

not my choice but dd only eats jars, could say 99% as she loves banana purees, and potato mash mixed with jar cassarole.
tbh, nothing works as i wanted. i wanted breastfeed but we ended up bottle feed 1st week. i wanted cook, but ended up with jars
i always buy organic jars, at least i feel better she is having organics.would love to cook for her, so looking forward she will eventually start eating my own meal.

Did a mixture tbh but mainly homemade to begin with as then I knew exactly what he was having in case he reacted and could control the ingredients when I mixed them and consistency as he developed. Used jars occasionally out of convenience and at one point ds would eat only fruit or veg blends containing fennel which Boots did (teething I think!).

With dd we were living abroad so tended to stick to homemade as didn't understand the list of ingredients in jars ("rogue" ingredients such as fillers, all types of meat (ie. veal) and flavours like chocolate in from 4 month jars!). Also it was much easier to get really fresh, seasonal fruit and veg to use than here.

Why buy expensive jars which are full of sugar / preservatives etc when you can make purees quickly and easily and for a fraction of the cost which you can be sure are not loaded with crap?

neither ds has ever had a jar (as far as I know). With ds1 it was cos I was bored at home with him so tried out being a supermummy. With ds2 we're skint, so he has homemade too.

It isn't even once a week - maybe every 10 days or so that I make up a big batch. Yesterday I got one of those "paaand a scoop, luv" off the market. My £1 got me 21 golden delicious apples! That will do him for about 20 meals. 5p a meal - I reckon that's pretty good going!

Home made - dd2 won't touch jars, which I suppose is good but it would be handy if she would sometimes when the freezer is empty and I haven't got time to cook!

I started weaning onto h/m single-ingredient purees, to check tolerance.
A few months on, I wish I could always make h/m stuff but reach for a jar every day or so if we're out/in a rush. Have noticed a clear preference for Cow and Gate Organic over the other organic ranges.