Cooking from Scratch?

[joanne1982]

I want to start weaning my son soon and could do with some advice. How much of the time do you cook from scratch or do you buy pots etc. and what do you see as the advantages/disadvantages of each? I need to decide how I am going to approach weaning so any thoughts you can give would be appreciated.

At home, always home made. Out and about sachets and now he is over 1 those pot meals. He doesn't eat out and about that often so its mainly home made. I batch cook and freeze.

I batch cook and freeze mainly as this is cheaper and healthier. I do have jars in for when we're out and about. I would recommend doing a bit of both.

Initially I just cooked up lots of fruit and veg, pureed and freezed it then I gave DD this as well as lots if finger food (fruit,veg,toast,rice cakes etc.) to play with.

She is a good eater now at 8mo.

I cook everything for DD2. If we have something mashable, she'll have the same as us, if not, I'll boil up some potatoes and carrots and cauliflower (eg) and mash with cheese. Then that does for the next time we eat something she would struggle with. Breakfast is ready brek or weetabix, lunch is finger food.

DD2 is 7mo.

From scratch. We started DS on pots and they were fine, especially when we went on an aeroplane with him ... but they were pretty flavourless (from my point of view) and he soon started refusing the spoon, so the point became moot.

Now, we cook finger foods from scratch (DS is 7.5 months). We don't tend to freeze anything. Takes no time at all to steam some veg, grill a bit of fish or meat and make some rice. And things like rice cakes, cheese cubes, tomatoes etc just need breaking up/slicing and they're ready!

I have just started with my DD at 5.5mo. I cook the veg we are eating, puree them to build up a freezer stash. I found she only like them when mixed with milk and baby rice. And she just takes about 2 tsp of food. If you use a jar I think most will end up in the bin initially.