is home cooked food better for weaning compared to the organic jars you can buy off the shelf?

[spogs]

I am about to begin weaning my 5 month old I am hearing mixed views on cooking weaned food from scratch and jars which is beat please help

some say a child fed on jars is a fussy eater in the end.....is this true?

I think the prob with the jars is that the stage 2 ones all seem the same consistency (quite runny) and the lumps are not very lumpy - just tiny bits of pasta that would just slip down. So I can imagine that a child who ONLY had these might not like too much texture and I think a lot of fussiness is about texture rather than taste...

I had a few jars but didn't like them because they were so runny (and all the same - tomatoey pasta under many different names)

Just my thoughts - no real experience on this though.

I cook my own stuff and limit jars to days out. Even then he mostly ears off my plate. Much cheaper to do your own, they eat hardly anything in the beginning. You just need to cook a few extra veg from your own meals.

Or do BLW, then you don't need to faff around at all.

With regard to jars, would you want ready meals everyday?

you know exactly what is going in your home cooked stuff ad it isnt packed with fillers

I used plum organic a few times but it was much to runny. Hipp jars aren't anywhere near as runny but still the same sort of orange gloop.

Jars have a shelf life of months and months, that's what always put me off them.
Home cooked = cheaper, and gives you the opportunity to give your baby exposure to a range of tastes, textures and colours. Jars tend to have very similar of all of these, and that can lead to fear of new foods in older children.

I always taste the food I give DS and won't give him anything I don't think tastes nice. I think most jarred food tastes awful, really bland and processed. For that reason I give him home cooked food at home and limit jars to days out too (well, actually Plum Baby as I think it's the only thing off the shelves that I think tastes half decent). I can imagine how kids who only taste bland jarred food get fussy about stronger tastes later.

I agree with TheDuchess.

I homecooked all DS's meals, not because I'm a martyr or that I think I'm superior, but I had a taste of the jarred stuff, and thought it was inedible. As food is incredibly important to me, I couldn't bring myself to allow my son's first tastes of food to be that mushy, bland paste.

You don't have to make a production out of it. I'd just set aside things I was cooking anyways, omit salt and any strong seasoning, and puree it.

I would bring jars (organix was the best, but I don't think they do jarred savories anymore) for long trips.

yes have looked at the plum products they do look very good........so i get the feeling I am best to do my own,,,,,,what age can they have our meals to eat but obviously food processed down?

At 6 months they can have your meals and not food processed down! (With certain caveats such as honey, peanuts and watching them like a hawk).

so what is best way to start? my daughter has a bottle every 3 hours so what time do i introduce food and what?

The nice thing of cooking the food yourself is that the transition to more adult food is slightly easier (in terms of you being ready to keep cooking for the family as you are already used to do it).

I found that in terms of flavour there was no point of comparison between food freshly made and a jar. The only ones that tasted relatively fine were not exactly terribly healthy.

I have also always wondered if by using jars you find it easier to rely in ready mades and tinned/frozen food for their food in the future.

god this whole thing scares me i desperatly want to do this right......so she is 5 months so i should she can have our meals but dont wisk it down will she not choke

Well spogs that's a whole new debate!

I started weaning DS at about 18 weeks and after about 2 weeks of pureed fruit and veg I started giving him a whole range of stuff. He's now about 23 weeks (I lose track) and he's eating most things - tonight he had chicken and sweet potato casserole and a yoghurt, for lunch he had cauliflower cheese. My HV advised that introducing a range of things early would make it less likely that they were rejected later. Made sense to me but I know a lot of people won't agree with that approach.

lunchtime feed - baby rice/grated apple
this first feed is really only to introduce new textures and tastes, so don't worry about qty's just now, and give them their usual milk feed after the baby rice.

and do you finely puree it all ? after the two weeks

I did: 6-8 months: baby rice, pear, apple, carrot, broccoli etc purees

8-12months start introducing casseroles, rissotos, fish pies etc..(puree to begin with then just lumpy.) At about a year my two were are on our family food (underseasoned salt wise)

introduced bread and weetabix at about 8 months. Cows milk as a drink at a year, well cooked eggs at about 10 months.

Do give the odd jar though...so handy if they will eat them when you're out and about...

what raw apple?

Sorry - should clarify - I am still pureeing his food.

Spogs, I may have sounded a bit flippant - apologies. I was referring to baby led weaning (BLW), where you wait until the baby is capable of picking up her own food and eating it, and they then essentially eat what you eat. There's loads of stuff on the web on it if you want to look into it (www.babyledweaning.com). This ability doesn't usually happen until around 6 months, so if you do want to wean before that, then you will have to mash/blend the food a bit. I've only weaned 1, and did BLW, so can't be too much help otherwise. I'm sure loads of people will be able to give you good advice. Just don't worry too much - you will both be fine!

It's all so hard with a first baby... don't mean that to sound patronising but I remember being freaked out about it all.
Is your health visitor helpful? The NHS guidelines are here which may be a good start for you. You'll often find people here talking about baby led weaning BLW which is a way of weaning babies from six months without the need for purees (as at six months they are felt to be mature enough to handle finger foods and self-feed). Some information [www.babyledweaning.com here]]
It's your choice, but don't worry, the fact that you want to do the best for your baby means that of course you will.

so at the lunchtime feed give her baby rice and fruit or veg puree mixed together????? and then offer her bottle after???

so am I best to put weaning on hold till 6 months

as long as apple is grated its ok. a little baby rice on its own to start with, then gradually add some grated/pureed fruit to introduce some taste.

didn't the HV give you a "recipe" booklet?

That is the current advice.