Starting weaning, are jars really that bad? Advice please

[sparkleandsunshine]

Ok so my girl is only now 4 months, and I'm going to wait a little bit longer, but I've been given lots of jars of organic baby food for free (mostly Hipp) and a few Heinz. I've also been given some Aptamil (her milk brand) porridge and baby rice.

But then I'm getting loads of people saying to me "you shouldn't give baby any jars or premade stuff, they should only get homemade food because jars have no goodness in them"

Am I wrong in thinking this can't be true? I mean, surely these companies have to go through testing and they have to have some nutritional value to be allowed to sell them?

I've also had people gasp when I said in a few months I can't wait to let her try a rusk!

But then I spoke to my health visitor and she said to start DD on bland food like baby rice and porridge. Then a friend of mine was told to start on veggies, and do one veggie a week.
I'm seriously confused. I'm not wanting my DD to live on jars, I thought we would do the rice and porridge for a few weeks then move onto homemade purees and just use up the jars when we are out for long periods at a time. I couldn't afford the jars all the time anyway. But now I'm wondering if I should never have accepted the jars if they're that bad.
Advice please x

Well she has pretty bad reflux, and we're told by one HV (not our regular one) that early weaning might help. But then I've heard from other people it doesn't help at all.
But then we were told as long as we wait until past 17 weeks and she can sit up (she's super strong, happily sits up for 15-20 mins if she can lean her hands on the floor and I've now tried her on baby rice and she doesn't do the tongue pushing thing at all, went crazy for it, when we had finished she put her hands in her mouth and squished her dribble all over her face with a look of bliss on her face!
Very nearly 5 months now, so not long to go until 6 months

There's emerging evidence that waiting until 6 months can be detrimental in other ways - for things like preventing allergies and expanding palates it may well be better to go earlier. Its hard to call, which may be why there's conflicting advise from midwives.

After 17 weeks seems safe if you want to start at that point. Most countries have 4-6 months as the recommended starting point and some European countries have recently revised down from 6 months.

I'm not a fan of jars, mostly because they taste rank. I got an annabel Karmel book for some initial ideas, but DS mostly ate what we were eating, mashed/puréed or as finger food. There's no need to over complicate it.

A mixture - a bit of mangled dinner/fruit etc. and a jar (guilt free) whenever you feel like it.

My DD would never eat jars/pouches. I puréed everything! Freezer was full of tiny tubs. It made life difficult when we went on a long haul holiday at 7-8 months. Was really difficult to feed her on the move! If I had to do it again I'd strike more of a balance between the two, for the sake of convenience. In retrospect now she eats anything and everything it's hard to believe I was so precious about it just a few months ago!

Ditch the baby rice. A baby's main source of nutrition should still be milk for the first year. Baby rice is empty calories. It'll fill baby up but they get nothing good from it. I went straight onto pureed fruit and veg with ds (BLW was literallt vomit inducing for ds until he was about 9 months old...). I did my own purees as well as giving some pouches etc. Pouches are so handy when you're out and about. Just please, avoid the baby rice.

If you have a reluctant weaner (my DD was extreme in her resistance to solids) who refuses most things you try to feed them/offer them to eat (I tried both), then the advantage of jars/pouches is that you didn't spend ages preparing it, which means that when they refuse it yet again, it feels like less of a rejection of you and the work you put into it. Ella's Kitchen pouches definitely helped me keep a little bit of sanity.

Before you chuck the baby rice out, I found a spoonful of it useful for thickening up dishes, particularly those made from very watery veg.
As others have said, the pouches and jars are great for out and about as you don't need to worry about keeping them cool, defrosting or reheating. However, they are not as nutritious as homemade food as they contain a higher proportion of water, very little meat (around 10-12%) and if preserved using heat this can kill some vitamins. Also the early baby ones lack texture and are very smooth and it can be difficult to get some babies to move on to lumpier food if they get too used to them. That being said, they are not poison and are really handy, just use as part of a balanced diet.