Jars - yes? No? Why?

[JoshandJamie]

Wanted to get thoughts on jars of baby food. Do/did you use them? If yes, why? If no, why?

thanks

agree expat, i use the hipp jars and they ain't cheap, I think i need some new lunchtime ideas for dd tbh. Tried her with sarnies and she just squeezed the bread till the filling came out and then threw it on the floor! she has a taste for italian coz thats the only type she will eat out of the hipp range

never use jars - they are revolting and nutritionally inferior to (well-planned) homecooked food. This has backfired on me though - ds will not touch jars EVER which is difficult when travelling........oh well - at least he has good taste I suppose

I don't think badly of people who use jars - they aren't poison after all, but I wouldn't want to eat that kind of food (no convenience food for me and dh!) so why would I expect my ds to eat it?

why did you ask anyway? Just wanting to start another fight about this or allow yourself a few smug moments?

I weaned dd and ds entirely on jars, and ds is still eating them now, he will eat other stuff when I make meals that are suitable.

They are expensive but if you've got a busy timetable then they are fab

Used lots of jars with all 3 of mine.......increasingly so with each one. All now eat more or less normal foods with no big problems. Wouldn't occur to me to feel guilty about it tbh.....

Use them and also do home cooked. DH likes using them (odd as he much prefers cooking to me).

Jars all smell and look quite similar and they are all orange coloured.

I alternate between HIPP organic and home made, if I don't I'm constantly cooking baby food!

not sally preston are you JoshandJamie?

Nope - am not Sally, moomin. Just a fan of the products. And didn't start the thread to cause arguments - just interested to find out what people think about jars. Am doing research on the subject. I did a poll at a mum and baby group I went to and about 90% didn't use jars - which just surprised me because I figured that they have such a presence in the baby aisles, that loads of people must use them.

can't see any arguments, JoshandJamie. you just seemed very keen on the products . they are much nicer than the jars for the most part but i only bought them once as they were too expensive. i think a lot of people buy jars because they either don't think they have time to make their own food, or they don't have the confidence in their own cooking maybe.

when i only had one dd i made everything from scratch, but this was also when the recommeneded age for weaning still came within my maternity leave and i seemed to have more time. this time round (4ys later) i have used more jars. for one reason, dd2 was a bit fussier about homemade stuff to begin with and it took a while to get her to eat the stuff i made by slowly phasing the jars out. plus, i've had less time with 2 kids. when i get round to it i do make big batches of stuff and freeze them, but i probably use jars about twice a week. i've also bought a hand mouli thing so whe we go out i put what we're having minus the sauce/salt etc into that and mush it up for her.

Jars? Phoebe nearly seven months) loves anything from Hipp, never had a refusal, it's organic too so that's how i justify it! Tried the packet stuff from heinz, it looks like gruel and tastes yak! I would highly recommend any hipp products. Have started to do a few annabel karmel recipes and freeze them, but hipp is a brilliant standby..

joanne I see what you are saying and I have absolutely no problem with jars every so often.
But just because things are organic does not make them healthy!
Look at the rachels organic yoghurt the second biggest ingreadient in them is (oganic) sugar!
I do agree that most hipp jars are simply pure vegetables but what worries me is that if I was to make a recipie using all that they state on the back of the jars I would not feel confident about leaving it in a cupobaord for months.
and they are quite bland...

I used jars every now and then with ds1 (mostly pasta/tomato ones) when we were out and about as I knew he'd eat them.

Have never given ds2 any as my rationale was that ds1 was fully b/f till the age of 1 and ds2 was only b/f for a couple of mths so felt guilty and decided to only give him fresh home-made stuff.

It made sense to me . Also ds2 was much easier to feed at the weaning stage and would eat all sorts of pureed concoctions (spinach and boiled egg).

I used jars with dd (maybe twice a week) but ds absolutely hated them, he's probably only ever eaten about 2 in his life.

There was a mozarella and tomato sauce one which dd used to love and until about 3.5 would have it once a fortnight with pasta. The fruit and veg ones were quite good.

In contrast to cupcakes' children, dd is quite a good eater, especially in terms of variety if not quantity, whereas ds is an absolute nightmare.