ok so who gives jars?

[wizadora]

ok so im a WOHM and really struggle to find time to cook so tend to guiltily give jarred food to my 9m dd.i give savoury jars with fresh fruit and yoghurt for afters and try to make the odd bit of veg for finger food or toast or pasta etc but i feel like a failing mum because i would love to make all these amazing dishes! i did spend one day making up loads of veg/cauli cheese/courgette gratin you name it i made it.but i tbh i havent really used much of it as im paranoid that i didnt make it right ie i boiled the veg then realised i shouldve steamed it for more nutrients etc, i dont want to give her food poisoning etc because im paranoid as some contain chicken etc and i dont want to reheat it for being paranoid.god im neurotic!! ive posted a few times about various things to do with this and people tell me to give her what i eat.i do give the odd bit but tbh we dont eat until late and when we do its usually crap or unsuitable for dd but again this is due to being busy etc.are jars really that awful? ok so i know they are.
i would love to give her more fresh meat but for example if we were to have steak how could we give it to dd? in chunks? or what?
im a 1st time mummy.can you tell?

oh and would agree with others that say it's not that hard; it's just a baby. for example, my Ds loves hardboiled egg yolk mixed with tomato, yoghurt and bits of bread, like an egg and tomato sandwich but just squished. that takes about 45 seconds to make but is really nutritious..

I don't think you should feel so guilty. My friend is a paediatric dietician and she says jars are fine and they are nutricious. She gives her DD a mixture of jars/home cooked food. Also, there are very strict controls over the ingredients that go into foods for under 3s. She does say that the downside of jars is the transition to family meals, but if you feed a mixture of jars and homecooked, it would be fine.

Some jars do taste manky and I agree with the poster who only gives her DC food she would eat. There are some jars that taste fine, though.

For the steak, once you've cooked it, cut it up quite small, put some veg with it, pour full fat cow's milk on and blend it with a hand blender. Depending on how many teeth she has, it is fine to blend meat at this age IMO. If you get a hand blender that has a diswashable detachable end, then this cuts down the hassle. Mine was around £14.

You can also get (from some Asdas and Sainsburys) Babylicious and Kiddylicious meals. These are cooked from fresh, good quality ingredients and snap frozen. See link:

www.babylicious.co.uk/Home/tabid/131/Default.aspx

Also, if you consider a homecooked meal that an adult might eat, it may not be all that "homecooked". eg what if there is a jar (like ragu or something) of red sauce on the meal? If you get some chicken breasts from the supermarket - they must have been preserved in some way to give them a sell by date of a few days because fresh chicken does not keep that long. Do not feel so guilty

i'm a sahm and i give a mixture of jars and home made. nothing wrong with jars imo. wouldn't feel guilty about it for 1 second.

I second crokky's suggestion of Babylicious/Kiddylicious stuff - always great to have on standby and they smell yummy and aren't orange.

Some the ideas on this thread are great. Mash your own (unsalted stuff) with a potato masher and your dd will love it.

Also steam bags of frozen veg in the microwave. We go through loads and they've got all the vitamins without any hassle at all. Most supermarkets have them on a buy one get one free or 2 for 1 type offer, so you can stock up. There are also bags of rice for steaming too. Our freezer is packed

I sometimes use jars (DS is 10 months). To me they don't taste great, but are handy when I don't have anything else in, and DS depressingly wolfs them down (must have his father's taste buds ).

However, I do try mostly to give a bit of what we're having. For example, tonight I'm cooking up a big vat of veggie and green lentil sauce. I'll eat this with pasta tonight, DS will have some for his lunch tomorrow and DH will probably take some to work. Might even be some left over for tomorrow's dinner. Preparation time about 10 mins and then it sits and bubbles on the stove. Another quick meal DS loves is scrambled eggs. Like you I give lots of fresh fruit - he will usually gobble this down, but bits of veg usually just get licked once and then thrown around.

My dd is 14 months and I am a SAHM. When I started weaning I was very worried about food poisoning, her choking etc so even though I am a good cook I started her off on jars. There were some she loved and some she wouldn't even consider. The recycling bin was filling up way too quickly though so I got Annabel Karmels baby and toddler book and I really got in to cooking her lovely little meals. Then one day i thought to myself 'what am i doing cooking two seperate dinners a day' so now she has what we are having. It has been great for us - no more jars of sauce, I'm doing everything from scratch now bolognese, curry, lasagne, stews, gravy etc. Both dh and I have lost a bit of weight without even trying and I'm sure our salt intake has reduced. I think it is a matter of confidence. I have relaxed so much in the last few months.
I still use the occasional jar though. They are handy for out and about.
I always struggled to get that creamy sauce she loved in the jars but then I learned a secret - make up a plain white sauce with flour butter and milk and stir it in. If you add it to a tomato sauce it makes a sauce very like the orange one my dd loves in jars. hth