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Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

To think that weaning with baby food from jars is fine?

173 replies

joannita · 20/04/2013 23:54

It's specially developed for babies right? So how come everyone is dead against it? I don't think 50p a jar is that expensive either. Baby led weaning ain't going to work for my twins. They choke alarmingly as soon as they bite a piece off anything. Pureeing stuff is a pain. So I'm doing jars.

OP posts:
Original poster
joannita · 21/04/2013 09:22

Not a fan of Ella and her kitchen! May not have refined sugar in but some of it is hyper sweet. Also v expensive

OP posts:
Dawndonna · 21/04/2013 09:23

I'm Spanish. I don't use salt. My twins were weaned on Albondigas, Potaje Patatas Bravas, Torta potata when old enough for eggs. I had a two year old and twins. Just whizzed up what we were having. Compota de Manzana take a couple of minutes in the microwave.

pigletmania · 21/04/2013 09:24

You know te answer make your own it's not as hard as it sounds and you can freeze loads

PMMummy · 21/04/2013 09:25

You do what is best for you. PFB I would never have given jars to, along comes DD2 and out came the Ella's Kitchen - with a 2 year old I just didn't have the same amount of time, energy blah blah blah. And DD2 survived !

SomethingOnce · 21/04/2013 09:27

I bought loads of Hipp and Ella's and I didn't notice all these disapproving glances at the checkout, which is surprising as I'm not a very thick-skinned person...

Tbh, I think these might be the same imaginary disapproving glances that FF mothers talk about Smile

Original poster
joannita · 21/04/2013 09:30

Ff?

OP posts:
SomethingOnce · 21/04/2013 09:31

Formula feeding.

GirlOutNumbered · 21/04/2013 09:31

I do Ella's kitchen pouches and home made.
Seriously, have you tried the jars, they taste shite.

Scheherezade · 21/04/2013 09:32

Formula feeding

Original poster
joannita · 21/04/2013 09:34

Aha! Doing that too!

OP posts:
jacks365 · 21/04/2013 09:36

It is a lot harder when its basically someone else's kitchen as here. Much as i love my mum and dad they are a bit stuck in their ways so yes food there has copious amounts of salt added so not suitable for my dd4. I used ella kitchen touches when there and cook at home but batch cooking never worked for me as we simply wouldn't get through 30 portions of mashed sweet potato. I found mine moved so quickly through weaning that the only effective way was to mash what she could eat of ours and if say a sauce was unsuitable i could make a small potion of a cheese sauce in seconds instead.

I have nothing against jars i just don't find them practical, too big if just introducing foods, too small if its a meal and you get stuck into thinking this is how much they should eat but ask yourself would you eat convenience food every meal.

Original poster
joannita · 21/04/2013 09:37

Yes I have tried the jars a bit bland but not gross. But I eat anything.

OP posts:
teacher123 · 21/04/2013 09:39

DS has both jars and homemade food. Jars are convenient, I only give him the pasta ones, and they don't taste too bad. The rest of the time he has normal food with us, or left overs mashed up a bit.

TheBookofRuth · 21/04/2013 09:40

I did BLW and make all my DD's food from scratch.

But I have a single solitary baby. You have a three year old AND twins. Feed 'em whatever's easiest for you, and hats off to you Missus for remaining vaguely sane in the process! Grin

NorthernLurker · 21/04/2013 09:42

This thread is full of metaphorical disapproving glances and it's so rude. Why not save your ire for parents who feed four month old babies mashed spuds and adult gravy?

I liked the Plum porridge with dd3 btw but found Ellas Kitchen too runny. Perhaps it's better now?

featherbag · 21/04/2013 09:42

I used jars sometimes, but mainly just blended what we were having! Couldn't do blw as DS was prem, sometimes jars were easier. I preferred to give him home made stuff as I really wanted him to get used to a lot of different flavours - we're quite adventurous with food and I desperately didn't want a picky kid, the jars all tasted pretty much the same! He's 18mo now, the occasional jars did him no harm, and he eats absolutely EVERYTHING. Job done, but whoever said earlier that no one really cares how you feed your DCs but you was right!

DumSpiroSpero · 21/04/2013 09:51

I weaned my DD on baby rice and fresh pureed organic veggies (my dad has an allotment - it was cheapness not smugnessWink ).

Once she'd got the hang of more solid food I used a mixture - usually porridge with fresh fruit for breakfast, one jar meal and 1 fresh one i.e. potato with cheese and broccoli or baked beans.

I didn't find it much of a faff to cook 2 or 3 different veg, purée and freeze them - about an hour once a week - but I only had one baby!

Weaning on jars is not going to do them any harm, but I would try and get some fresh fruit and veg in there too.

FlankShaftMcWap · 21/04/2013 10:08

DS2 ate a guinea pig poo the other day. DD2 once drank a puddle at a bus stop through a manky MacDonalds straw. I could go on, but point being there ain't nothing I could spoon from a jar that would horrify me as much as some of the things they put in their own mouths.

SomethingOnce · 21/04/2013 10:09

NorthernLurker, I disagree. I see a thread full of people giving their solicited opinions.

Standing at a checkout with jars/bringing out a bottle is not soliciting an opinion and I think it is vanishingly rare that people express themselves by means of these disapproving looks.

TreeLuLa · 21/04/2013 10:11

I have twins too. We did BLW. Easy.

They never had a jar. I tasted what was in one once that my cousin was eating. Foul.

KirjavaTheCat · 21/04/2013 10:11

So how come everyone is dead against it?

The OP asked!

PhylisStein · 21/04/2013 10:16

The standards of hygiene and testing for harmful pesticides and chemicals, other nasties and food poisoning bugs is very very very high in UK baby food manufacturers (saw a programme about it once).

I know that the hygiene standards in my kitchen, while good, are going to fall well short of those high standards. So I think jars of babyfood are probably safer.

Squarepebbles · 21/04/2013 10:22

Phyllis most parents I know have high standards of hygiene when preparing food for their kids and families,even more so re baby food.

shellshock7 · 21/04/2013 10:25

I chose hipp jars for my DS, together with finger foods, mashed fruit etc. because I didn't think he should have the same every day, which if I made a batch and froze for the week he would of? Bit pfb maybe but I want variety myself and wanted him too...he eats anything now at 13m so it's done him no harm Smile

And agree with the choking thing, had a few close calls...pulling him out his high chair over my knee etc. its very scary, blw was not for us...no way I would do it with twins who choked like my DS

CecilyP · 21/04/2013 10:25

It's specially developed for babies right?

Not really. Certainly not in the way that formula has been specially developed to replicate breast milk. When DS was small, they struck me as an expensive way of buying cornflour (which seemed to be the main ingredient) but the main advantage they have, apart from convenience, over one's own cooking is the low salt content.

Honestly though, if they suit you and your twins, just go for it. Really don't worry about others' pious attitude to pureeing their own homemade food. In my case, DS wasn't keen on either, so BLW was the way to go (though it didn't have such a fancy name in those days).

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