Jar food or home-made?

[Meggymoose]

Ok. I know the answer - fresh is best, but jar food in moderation is fine too. I have 2 DD's 2.5yrs and 8.5 mnths and have applied this principle to both. Both were breastfed until 5.5-6 mnths, DD1 mix fed, DD2 exclusively. I have a good friend who is a GP who also has 2 kids 5yrs and 5mnths. She breast fed 1st child until 11mnths and intends to breastfeed youngest child as long as poss too - which is obviously fab.

So why the question? - My GP friend (on extended mat leave feeds/fed her kids jar food - can't understand why I go to the hassle of cooking food especially when I work full-time. However, she is a very strong advocate of breastfeeding and sometimes (unintentionally) makes comments that I didn't breastfeed for that long. In fact she is a very strong advocate of everthing that is right for a child (and is usually right). Yesterday as she was feeding her youngest jar food she was commenting on how by giving formula milk I had introduced dairy too early therefore increasing my DD's risk of intolerance in the future. Fair comment I suppose, but this is as she is feeding her 5.5 month old jar food?!

Is it me?!
So suggestions on how to respond to comments about my decision to predominantly feed my kids home-made food, without being rude offensive or overly defensive needed please! Thanks!

[Meggymoose]

Clairemow - she always uses jars. Never anything else. Obviously her eldest (nearly 5 now) eats normal food now.

Think I will just get over it. Her kids are healthy and developing so she's obviously doing something right. Mine are healthy and developing too, so I'll carry on with what I'm doing too!

[JoshandJamie]

Sorry - been away for a bit. Yes, the Babylicious stuff is fairly well pureed. But I find I can make it slightly lumpier by adding a few other bits and pieces - like cous cous, small pieces of pasta, peas etc and use the Babylicious meal as the base. Also, I sometimes spread some of the puree on fingers of toast and use it as a finger food.

[KeepingQuiet]

I personally don't see what all the fuss is about jars.
I am a SAHM. My kid gets jars. They are all organic. I don't have a big freezer for loads of pureed stuff/babylicious cubes.

[honeybunny]

I still believe that home prepared food cant be bettered. None of my 3 ate jar food. On the odd occassion I was desparate enough to offer they refused anyway. Well, cant blame them, I wouldnt touch it, it tastes and smells yukky. Now they eat anything and everything, certainly a much widre variety of food than a lot of their peers who come for supper.

[Kiskidee]

jars

[Kiskidee]

\link{http://www.halalbabyfoods.com/catalog/catalog.asp\jars

i saw these at my local asian shop last week. the seem to have less bulking out ingredients than heinz, cow & gate, etc. none have gluten

[thenel]

hi thekidsmum

[thekidsmum]

I have done a mixture of both. I never express an opinion on what other people are doing or not, unless asked. My motto is - you do what you want love its not my business. Since you are asking I would smile sweetly and not take her on, but if she pushes for a discussion on he subject just tell her that this is your decision and you find it easier (if you do thatis) to give your children food that you eat.

[clairemow]

definitely home made - out and about I used to give DS avocado or banana and kiwi often instead of jars (although did use the organics jars sometimes). Thing that most worried me about the jars was when you read the labels (and I don't know about babylicious, as didn't have those at the time), most of the jar is often water, with maybe 8% meat, 10% veg. How can that be filling or nutritious?? I had a drawer full of frozen cubes of all kinds of stuff for ages - every time I cooked for me and DH, I just kept a bit to one side and whizzed it up.

Does your friend always feed her children from jars, or is it just that you see her out and that's just what's easiest on those occasions?

[Meggymoose]

All very interesting and some excellent ideas about how to politely respond next time - thanks !

JandJ - I have noticed that the Babylicious I have bought is very pureed. At nearly 9 months we're doing lumps and chunks?

[TheLadyVanishes]

dd is 13mths and i do freeze things like spag bol or curries (that didn't go down too well tho ) I always worry about her not eating enough at mealtimes and I don't think cheese/yoghurts/toast would be very filling would have done it if she had been younger , she does love her jacket potato's tho. When i first started weaning i did make batches and froze loads and did this for months. Its a personal choice and lifestyle I suppose oh and if your baby is happy and healthy.....

[CarolinaMoose]

TLV, you don't need to cook at every meal - if you cook and freeze in batches, you can thaw small portions quickly enough in this weather, or just give e.g. toast, bits of ham or tinned fish, fruit, cheese, yoghurt etc.

Meggymoose, just say you prefer doing things the way you're doing them - you don't need to justify yourself to your mate anymore than she needs to justify using jars. Although maybe she's feeling guilty about not going to the "bother" of cooking herself .

Personally, I wouldn't give ds jars because they are expensive and weird-looking. I don't live on processed food and I wouldn't expect him to either.

[JoshandJamie]

Babylicious are suitable from when you start weaning till about 12 months. Then they have Kiddylicious meals suitable for 12 months plus - they are also frozen but are proper little meals in little bowls - like cottage pie, lancashire hotpot, chicken and tomato rice, salmon and broccoli with pasta etc

They are also one of the very few kiddy meals that are actually designed for children under 36 months. There are very stringent EU laws about what can go into food for kids under 36 months and many manufacturers actually only make food suitable for kids over the age of three - but label it as 'suitable for kids' which is misleading.

[Iklboo]

oh - just like to add that we do give DS jars now & again, that we get bags of frozen veg to whizz up for him and give him a chip to suck on if we go out for a meal. On sunday I gave him a chunk of nan bread with some tikka massala on. I'm not a rabid "you MUST make your own" mum IYKWIM. Whatever you find easiest!

[TheLadyVanishes]

what age do the babylicious meals cater for (does that make sense ) is it just early weaning food or do they do toddler meals??

[JessaJam]

Majority home made here. DH does occassional batch cooks for him, or just ups the amounts of whatever he cooks each night and we either stick in fridge for next day or in the freezer...Tinned fruit is great, and ds feeds himself the chunks.
If we run out of home made stuff, ds gets a jar.

I would do that teeth-gritted smile that as mums we have to perfect fairly early on the next time your friend says something about formula...

[JoshandJamie]

A few more things:

Babylicious is no more expensive than jars and in some cases cheaper. You waste less as they come in frozen cubes so you only need to defrost what you need and not open a whole jar.

I personally made my own food but while making it thought - there must be people who really can't be bothered about doing this and I thought it would be a great idea if someone made it for other mums. After researching the space, I discovered that people like Babylicious did exactly that. There are quite a few other frozen baby food makers out there but very few are available in supermarkets and most are more expensive.

[TheLadyVanishes]

i give dd jars and homemade and i've stopped beating myself up about it now (used to give myself a guilt trip everyday) 1. i don't want to be slaving over a hob/oven twice a day especially in this heat and 2. I do cook a fresh meal almost every night so we all sit down and eat together, obviously there are days when we are out and about and jars toddler meals get used. Oh and i do generally use all the organic jars

[expatinscotland]

I do use tinned fruit from time to time. In its own juice. It's easy peasy to whizz down.

[Iklboo]

Home made. DH & I make up a week'd worth for DS every Saturday and it only takes us half an hour to do fish, meat & veg for him

[expatinscotland]

I don't find it a faff to do homemade myself.

Now as dd1 is nearly 8 months, she just has whatever we are having for tea, whizzed down w/a hand blender and as much water as needed for her (she has 2 teeth).

Horses for courses.

[JoshandJamie]

More on Babylicious:

It uses only kitchen cupboard ingredients - so nothing that you couldn't buy and use yourself at home. No added salt, sugar, preservatives or additives. They taste and smell yummy and are the closest thing to homemade food that you'll find. You can buy them in the freezer section of Tesco, Sainsbury's and Budgens. In the baby aisle at ASDA. Also available online at www.babylicious.co.uk or www.ocado.com

More about jars:

1. Jars of baby food have to be cooked at temperatures exceeding 121◦C to kill any bacteria to give them a long shelf life. Cooking at this temperature wipes out the nutrients contained in the food, with manufacturers often having to add vitamins back in artificially.
   
2. Jars of baby food don?t look, taste or smell like real food. That?s because the extreme cooking temperatures cause the fruit and vegetables to caramelise, making the food turn orange and giving all foods the same unnatural flavour and smell.
   
3. Many jars of food have added sugars, water and starchy fillers. While these aren?t nutritionally bad for you, they dilute the nutrient content of the actual food.
   
4. Transitioning your baby off jars of food and onto food that the rest of the family eats can be difficult, as they?re unused to the natural flavour and texture of real food.
   
5. It?s suggested that babies who eat jarred food regularly or exclusively are more likely to become fussy eaters and may lean towards processed foods in later life.
   
   I'll admit to why I know all this stuff - I write their newsletter and do their PR. Why? Because I believed so strongly in the products that I wrote to the founder of the company and told her I wanted to work for her. PS - if you want to get the newsletter, please sign up for it on their site.

[Meggymoose]

Thanks CorrieDale - will look out for it. have found the website too.

I'm a very defensive person and have to work hard at not being confrontational which is why I'm giving thought about how to appropriately respond next time. Thanks for your suggestions!

[gothicmama]

it is better to give formula than to struggle bf and have a miserable child and mum, good attachment is as important as nutrition lack of both leads to failure to thrive
I use jars and homemade it depends on what we are doing and where we are

[CorrieDale]

you can get babylicious in most supermarkets now, in the freezer section. Costs an arm and a leg. Other ready-made baby food is sealed then heat-treated to very high temperatures.