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Weaning

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Original poster

Why are jars of food bad?

99 replies

riab · 06/10/2006 19:37

I'm interested to know what other mums think about jarred food (babies) and if you think its bad why?

OP posts:
dolly1972 · 09/10/2006 12:06

hi girls,
my twin boys were never too keen on the jars of food.
i must admit they dont taste very nice......have you ever tried the cheesey ones - nasty!!
i must admit though all the desserts are lovely
i still have a couple of dessert jars in my bag for them - 'pancakes in an apple & cinnamon sauce' delicious
although what with them being toddlers now i give them grapes and apples to munch on if they are hungry.

BUT i do think that they are over priced and for the amount you actually get its too much money!
but i suppose thats what you have to pay for convienence.

oh and they should really do jars that are big enough for twins!!
donna.

lilymolly · 09/10/2006 12:14

The reason I use jars of food as stated earlier, is its the only thing dd did not refuse.
I do have the time, inclination and will to cook my own food, but dd does not like it and it was getting to be an issue at the table, since I switched to jars life is sooooooo much more easy. People should not judge us if we use jar I think, we are all just doing the best we can for our babies and what works for some will not work for others. I think I am a good mum, i bf dd for as long as I could, I give her stimulation, love cuddles etc etc, but just because I give her jars does NOT mean I am not doing the best I can for her, as some have said.

ScreamandYellowFeathers · 09/10/2006 12:15

I hate jarred food. It made my dd poorly, even ended up in hospital because of the stuff.
After that she had everything homemade and I have to say going from someone who never really cooked or enjoyed it, I went to throughly enjoying cooking and getting a hell of alot of pleasure out of knowing and seeing what my dd was eating.

It takes very little effort, costs less and is the best.
Having tried the jars I have to say they are so bland. I doubt my dd would have a liking for half the stuff she does if she'd have kept on jars.

Rookiemum · 09/10/2006 12:33

I think ginmummy is right we shouldn't be judging other mums on what they choose to feed their babies.

At the weekend I was talking to a mum who works at a special needs school where a lot of the children come from deprived backgrounds (I appreciate of course that the majority of mums do the best for their children regardless of their income). Some of the kids there came in starving because they hadn't had any breakfast and were in clothes dirty from the week before.

Therefore provided we manage to change, feed and wash our babes on a regular basis then we are doing the right thing by them. Ok it might be marginally "better" to use organic veg and make home cooked food, but then as another mum of older children said once they get to about 18 months all they will eat are chicken nugget shaped items anyway regardless of how many organic parsnips you peel, boil & puree.

At the minute because I am not back at work and I only have one I have the luxury of enough time to prepare the stuff. I am not a natural cook and it is a hassle and time consuming. Once I go back to work I will be looking for the quickest option, luckily financially I am in the position to go down the Plum & Babylicious route, but should that enable me to feel morally superior to people who can't afford it, I don't think so.

Sorry turned into a bit of a diatribe, but I do think we give ourselves a bit of a hard time sometimes for no reason.

ginmummy · 09/10/2006 12:34

Rookiemum - here here!

naughtymummy · 09/10/2006 12:35

How old is dd LilyMolly ? If she is less than 7 months may just not be ready for solids yet.Think it must be v difficult if DC s don't eat. Now i think about it maybe the kids who do n't eat well now (at 2.6) were like that from the start and thats why the mums used jars. Cause or effect difficuly to work out.

it is undoubtedly a wonderful feeling feeding children healthy home made stuff, but if they don't eat it ? Then difficult to continue to put in all that effort i should think.

I don't blame you at all LM. I was the same with expressing breast milk DS completely rejected expressed milk in a bottle. So in the end I decided to give him formula (at about 31/2 months) so if he rejected the bottle it was n't my hard work he was rejecting.

ginmummy · 09/10/2006 12:35

Or should that be hear hear?!
I'm trying to eat an apple with one hand and type with the other and my brain can't do the two things at once!

Amaretto · 09/10/2006 12:44

I think baby food jar have a place in our baby's meals :

  • when out and about at least because some places will not accept to heat home made food
  • as a back up
  • a special word about fruit puree (like organix or cow& gates) made with just fruits. SO convenient and just as good as what I prepare @ home for ds2.
  • they have been 'studied' to please babies taste buds in general so are not rejected and have the right nutrients in them (thanks to the law on that matter) so in a way they are higly suitable to babies.

Now, this time round, I haven't used a lot of them because ... I was at home until ds2 was 12 months old so I had TIME to do it. Then he just ate the same than ds1/us.
Have used much more of them with ds1 and I was working full time.

Dowsides IMO, the cost and the taste (I wouldn't eat any of these myself - excpet the fruit puree) + baby doen't get used to the taste of the food prepared as a family meal. Could be difficult to get them used to it after if you cook with a lot of garlic/spices etc...

lilymolly , dont' get upset about it. You certainly are not a bad mum if you are using aby food jar. I know a lot of children who have started on them and have grown to be heathy children, eating a wide range of food. You are just doing yur best and people saying that you are not are just very judgemental. Forget about them!

Amaretto · 09/10/2006 12:54

Also cost point of iew : I agree that home cooking is cheaper .. when you use non organic fruit/veg/meat.
When you start using these, the difference is not so great and most of the baby food jars are now made with organic products. (at least when I did the calculation mysel on how uch apple purre I could make, the cost and compare it to the cost of bought fruit puree).

So now a question : is it better to use homemade food prepared with non organic products or organic baby food jars ????

fluffyanimal · 09/10/2006 13:09

I made some batches of vegetable stuff at the weekend. I did mashed potato - one spud made loads and took up nearly all my ice cubes. Peas - a lot of effort rubbing through a sieve to get rid of skins, to produce only 2 cubes. Added a little unsalted butter to make more tasty (so I thought). Tried to feed fluffybaby a mix of peas and potatoes - he hated it. Now half the peas are gone and I'm left with loads of potatoes which he might refuse again. At that point I said, hooray for jars, as I had one handy, baby was hungry and at that stage you don't say oh well, I'll just go and cook up a sweet potato instead.

Just as I'm sure nobody on the breast/bottle message board would criticise anyone for doing one or the other, we shouldn't get into a jars/homemade war. Parenting is not an exact science and every baby is different.

moljam · 09/10/2006 13:42

i dont think any one should be made to feel bad for how they feed theyre baby,atleast they are feeding them.i use homemade but thats my choice,others use jars.parenting is about making choices,this is one of them.

MargotTenenbaum · 09/10/2006 13:58

I prepare all of my ds' meals and have done from day one. I tend to make meals for him and freeze them. I found that he was such a fussy eater that he would eat some meals one week and then in another week he would refuse them. I had to start keeping jars and Hipp organic growing up meals in case he wouldn't eat anything else.It is so difficult to make this decision and it doesn't help when people judge you and sneer because of the choice you've made. Unless you've been in a situation where you're child won't eat and has refused food for days on end you shouldn't criticise. There have been times when I have cried from frustration because I can't get my son to eat anything at all-not even jars.

accessorizequeen · 09/10/2006 14:03

I really don't see the problem with jars. I had no idea how to cook & puree anything, totally stressed about it all and it DOES take extra time fgs when you're getting little sleep & have poss. just returned to work. I used lots of them for the early days when you're meant to be introducing lots of stuff (new food every 3 days blah blah). I usually bought the age up so it was lumpier, problem solved. DS ate half jars, half homecooked, he was happy, well-fed, full of energy and eats anything now.

I see no point whatsoever in making new mums feel guilty about it as people made me feel - it's a timesaver, it takes some stress away & it's much easier when away from home. I won't hesitate to use them again with ds2 if the time comes and this time will not feel guilty.

3catstoo · 09/10/2006 14:09

ginnmummy and riab - I was not putting down people who choose to give jars of food to their children just simply stating what I did with my babies and why.

I was merely answering the question !!!!!

My babies did not miss out on spending time with me as I cooked whilst they slept. I would do a months worth at once. Mine didn't eat huge portions so I was able to spend an hour in a month chopping and cooking apples, sweet pots, butternut squash and the rest.
No great hardship in the whole scheme of things.

I guess I was lucky to have a shop that sold organic veg. We were quite poor but it was not expensive to buy a few extra bits of veg, believe me.

Now go get on your high horse somewhere else !

3catstoo · 09/10/2006 14:24

riab - don't ask such a question if you are going to slate peoples answers.

If you re read peoples posts you will see that they were just saying what they did and no one made any judgements on anybody else.

It's personal choice and whatever suits your child and your lifestyle.

hulababy · 09/10/2006 14:26

Not read all thread.

I don't think jars are bad. However homemade food for baby is much better for many reasons - cost, nutrion, etc. However the odd jar for convience is perfectly fine.

Mumpbump · 09/10/2006 14:55

Jars are convenient if you're out and about, but I tend to put home-cooked food into a jam jar which is just as convenient. But, if I don't have time to cook veggies, I will add some jarred veggie stuff to the meat (batch cook the meaty stuff and keep in the freezer) so it's not too dry. But I wouldn't give him the jars alone as there is no texture and ds might not have teeth, but he does a pretty good job of chewing meat, bread, etc. with his gums!

ginmummy · 09/10/2006 15:09

3catstoo - it was your statement 'I think it is my duty as a mother to give my children the best I can' that inferred that because I, like many other mothers, have given my ds food from jars I'm not giving him the best that I can!! It's your personal choice one whichever way you choose, but that statement and the way you came across was the bit that got to me!

dinosaur · 09/10/2006 15:11

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

ginmummy · 09/10/2006 15:15

And whilst I'm on my high horse, one hour a month for a whole month's worth of food?? It took me one hour just to push a pan of carrotts through a seive!

And whilst my baby slept, I slept, what with having suicidal postnatal depression and the resulting anti-depressants that left me so tired that I operated like a zombie for the best part of 18 months.

KathyMCMLXXII · 09/10/2006 15:19

Anything involving a sieve takes ages, Ginmummy - I spent ages peeling and sieving tomatoes only to produce a pathetic half ice-cube tray of red slop.... Get one of those cheapo handheld blenders from Argos for a fiver and only do the veg that doesn't need too much skinning - much quicker.
(Or just use the jars, of course. )

Astrophe · 09/10/2006 15:44

I don't like shelling out money for jars of orange flour and water! And they were/are not very popular with my two (esp the stage one liquified ones) who both stubbonly refuse most food off a spoon (including, often, my home made purees). Having said that, we do always have a jar handy to throw into other foods (eg, scammbled eggs, pasta etc) or to spread on toast when we are having a 'lazy' night.

I really object to the dessert ones, which are full of added sugar, flour, water and who knows what else, but mine both have a pot of pureed fruit pretty much every day - its pretty much the only spoon food they will eat.

I think I would feel sad for a baby who ate only jar food, but I don't think there is anyone so far who has said they do this. And really, if we are honest, we can all think of much wore things than being given jarred food can't we?

charliegreensmum · 09/10/2006 15:53

With DS, we started with home cooked food, then used jars on a foreign camping trip (no freezer, blender etc available). He liked the texture of the jars so we carried on with them and now at 18mo he is now eating exactly what we have every night, chopped up a bit - including chilli con carne and curry (though perhaps not as spicy as we would have had it pre-DS!). I don't think it really matters whether you use jars or home cooked food, as long as there is lots of variety and a reasonable mix of protein/carbs/fresh veg & fruits.

For us it was a consideration of available time (I work full time), DS's preference and convenience. He is now an extremely good eater, willing to try anything and eating loads most nights. We eat a reasonably healthy home-cooked diet and I'll be happy if that continues!!

CGMum

lilymolly · 09/10/2006 17:38

agree with gin mummy, three cats it was your statement about doing th best for your child, and I took that to mean you where suggesting that I was not doing my best, beleive me if dd eats from a jar I am delighted to get any food in her!!
She does however eat loads of finger food......

Can I let you into a little secret......

someone I know runs a fruit and veg shop and sells "organic" things which are not really organic I know this is not right, but how many of us are getting conned into buying this stuff, and getting a little bit high and mighty about giving our kids organic food???

becaroo · 09/10/2006 19:31

I was determined to make all my sons food when I weaned him - organic of course! - but unfortunately I could not get him to eat my fruit puree. He would eat everything though. So I used HIPP organic fruit purees and he loved them. (He still has them now if hes ill.) I also used the jars to introduce him to pasta which he also loved. Mind you...my sister fed her eldest son NOTHING but jared food and his peadiatrician told her off because it was turning his skin orange! Maybe, as with all things, moderation is the key!!