SOLIDS homemade or jarred

[tracynben]

hi everyone
just wondering what everyone is planning or is doing as regards to solids.
are you making it yourself or buying jarred.
I made some batches the other day and it took me hours to do, dont know if i can bothered all the time, BUT i know jarred is soooo expensive and not as good.

tracy xxxx

[Lateralus]

we're not up to solids yet - but we intend to make our own. Read a report the other day that said lots of the pre-made baby foods have as much, if not more sugars, fats and salt in them as lots of adult 'junk' foods. Would much refer to know exactly what my Bub us eating. :ecomcity:

[parentingrocks]

I'm on the fence becuase the little baby foods ingredient lists seem to be good.. I bought a couple on special the other day the 'organic' range at the supermarket and the pureed apple said in the ingredient list: 100% apple! so doesn't sound like there are any additives in those ones.
I did notice the older baby food was more varied and included flavour like 'beef casserole' or 'pumpkin and cous cous' etc etc.. maybe these older ones with more ingredients may need additives to preserve them in their packaging, but not the more basic foods like apple etc >??

[BellyFruit]

Tracy, I've just bought 1kg of pears on sale for $2.32 a kg... one pear will do about 3 feeds for Chace when mixed with rice cereal (3 parts pear, 1 part rice cereal roughly)... that's super duper cheap... I just steam a pear the day before or in the morning and feeds are taken care of for the next 24 hrs... Chace has solids twice a day... As he gets older, he'll be getting whatever's on our plate but chopped up very small... way better than jarred baby food... however, i believe jars have their place for emergencies and when you're travelling or something... I have a few Tupperware snack cups that are doing the trick famously :yes:... I have not yet gotten around to preparing a whole batch, but what is taking you hours? :confused: Peel, chop, steam, blend, freeze... should take about half an hour to do a big batch!

I'll chat to you about this today anyway...

BF x :flowerz:

[natski]

With DS, I made alot of it from scratch and froze them in little ice-cubes which was really handy. After I had exposed him to a variety of foods and he had no particular allergies, I introduced the canned foods on some occassions. Sometimes they're just very handy if you're going out, if you're exhausted or haven't had the chance to go shopping for fresh fruit & veg to have them in the cupboard.

When DS was 11 months old, we went to the Cook Islands for a friends wedding and I had to really stock up on the canned food because there were certain times he wasn't able to have some of our food and he also wasn't up to the stage of having his own meals entirely. When you're in a resort, you don't necessarily have some pumpkin and carrots or stewed apples on hand. So they did really well for us there.

The fresh is really great and more nutritional, but I don't think you should feel guilty or concerned about some of the foods to give them on occassions.

[Poppetfish]

With my DS i learned that a little from each is a godsend.

I buy quite a few jar foods on special and when my DS or DD was up to eating, we used them first. We then filled the jars up with home made baby food. So now we have the perfect size portion in a convenient jar. Just whip out the jar 12 hours before a feed and hey presto. Baby food.;)

I also always have some rafferty's garden and a spoon in the nappy bag for emergencies.

[Opinionated]

Neither.

I have done baby led weaning with my children. I just make a bit extra of what I am having and cut it into a size they can handle and leave them too it.

Our first foods was steamed vegtables and fruits. They didn't eat a lot in the beginning, just licked, sucked and gummed it to death. As they got older, I introduced more of whatever our meal was. For breakfast they would pick up and eat globs of porridge off their high chair tray.

People often ask how I made my children such great eaters. My answer is baby led weaning. My youngest is just over a year and will demolish a plate of grilled fish, mashed potato and mixed veg for dinner tonight. It's the current favourite.

[natski]

Opionated...I have never heard of baby led weaning - can you point me in the right direction please? Is there a thread on this?

[BellyFruit]

I've also never heard of baby led solids before... interesting...

Just wanted to throw in here that I introduced solids to my twins the "usual" way I guess you would call it - rice cereal, then pureed fruits and veges and then onto chunkier stuff as they got bigger... they are awesome eaters and always have been... :D.. will do the same with DS3 too... works for us...

[sweetseven]

I prefer homemade, and intend to offer primarily homemade food. I dont put a lot of effort into it; just bung it in the blender. The occasional tin may be used when out and homemade is not available; I dont have any little jars left to store it in.

[Poppetfish]

BLW is great if u can do it. Lots of people cant.

My DS has Autism and until he was 16 months old wouldn't hold anything or touch anything.... It has only been in the past few weeks that he has fed himself at all and he is nearing 2.

JUST DO WHAT U FEEL IS RIGHT.

[Bexta]

Typed a post & lost it!!! :hair:

Anyway, I plan to make my own from 6 months as I did with my other 2.

I had bought the odd jar of custard, but also put custard in a reusable container from a 1 litre Dairy Farmers thick... but that's not homemade is it? :laughing:

[sweetseven]

Another alternative I used was not to buy the commercial babyfood but buy commercial ready to eat soups instead. However care needs to be taken to ensure that you choose varieties that dont have too much salt for little ones.

[Bexta]

Yes, would probably be very salty.

[Ollibot]

Heya tracynben,
I have just started making home made food myself in the last 6 wks or so (baby is 9 mths now):rolleyes:
I was afraid with what to give him at the start, but having switched over he LOVES it, he has a much healthier appetite too.
Oh the other hand, when out and about I find the Raffertys Garden pouches a God send, you don't even need a bowl, just pour onto the spoon...really handy when yer stuck out on the road and need to pull over to feed :)
plus their foods are very clean, no additives and a really good variety.As i said though, best for quickies and home made when at home in my opinion.

[tracynben]

i am gonna do them myself too, i think it took me ages cos i did about 5 diff batches and i only have a little blender, plus i was distracted when dp came home with the kids.
tracy xxx

[Seacretsquirrel]

I did my own with DD (sort of) I found that it was heaps cheaper and easier to buy the tinned fruit - in natural juice (NOT Syrup) and puree that. This cut the prep time heaps no steaming just open tin and puree I was given a stick blender and that whipped through a tin of pears or apples quick smart. The only tinned veges I did was the corn (with no salt) as it was the only no salt vege available and carrots, pumpkin, sweet potato etc were easy enough to do. - I often used the steamer bags (like the glad ones) and used them a few times to do batches of veges too
I'd do big batches of each type of fruit and vege and put them into icecube trays then pop them out and put them into labelled ziplock bags this made it super easy even when going out (although for travelling the tins were great but I only used a couple of tins of plain fruit as I didn't really like the ones that were bulked up with rice) and I could give her some interesting variety (not that she cared but it got boring for me :laughing:)

She also had heaps of finger foods too you can buy these neat little things that are like a little net bag with a handle to put food into so that they don't break bits off and choke but a little piest of muslin works just as well.

She used to eat really well but now at 2 1/2 she is a fussy little bugger but I am hoping it is just a stage and that soon she will eat more veges than raw carrot (not cooked) lettuce and mashed potato... and some fruit would be nice too. sigh

[natski]

SS - DS is the same - ate really really really well when he started foods and had a wonderful variety of vegetables, but now is very fussy too. Still loves his meat, but that can have it's days! He does love a good strawberry, grape and banana though so that is good. And of course, he eats well for my mum...and if I cook the same....not interested! Ah well!

[honeydew]

I will be making all of Layla's food myself... except for things like the rice cereal & yoghurt etc. I made all of Mason's in the beginning, but I do admit I got a bit lazy towards the end & used to give him jarred food before he started eating what we were having.

I used to spend a couple of hours every few weeks steaming a whole heap of vegies & cooking meat. I would then freeze them in icecubes & pop them into labelled zip locked bags once frozen. It was sooo easy and convenient.

I used to use the jars of food when we went out but I think this time I will just take homemade food with me. The taste of some of that jarred stuff is FOUL :barf: Besides, its just as easy to pop a banana & some yoghurt (for example) in the nappy bag as it is to grab a jar of pre-made food.

One tip that I was told was if you need to mix some extra water into the pureed vegies, use the leftover water from steaming as it contains a lot of the goodness. Not sure if this is true but I used to do it anyway :)

My DS is the same as a few of the previous posters- he was an excellent eater when he was little but once he hit 18 months he was so fussy. He still is and is nearly 3 :hair:

[Seacretsquirrel]

Phew I am so glad that I am not the only one with a fussy ratbag!

I would often take my own purees when I went out I think the only time I didn't was if it was going to be a long day and when we went to the snow when DD was 6 months and so I took a couple for tins of pears and she loved them.

[LivingINhope]

With DS1 I did homemade food the only bought food he ate was banana custard. When you do it you freeze and end up with so much food I used to cook a new dish everyday 2nd day and freeze we never ran out of food. When you first start its all simple stuff anyway like rice ceral, pears, apple ect...

I am not a fan of bought food it has so much stuff that I have never herd of in it and I figure it can't be good. But each to their own

[Ashi]

With my kids I only offered them baby cereal made with either breastmilk or formula untill about 8+ months, then i started to mix it with some pureed fruit as well and that was all they had for solids till 12 months, then i started to give them finger food like cut up fruit and veges

all my kids are Excellent eaters.. never been fussy, i call them my little garbage disposal units as they will eat ANYTHING lol

i think its personal preference.. but some of the jar stuff smells disgusting..

on the occasion i used jarred food i always avoided anything tinned as they always smelt worse than the jar ones.. and i always try to get organic where possible

[brocknjakesmum]

i have just started making my own home made meals. i use to make my other son his meals as well when he was little. i just buy the tin fruit and then puree i can't always find the natural, so i do buy the syrup ones but don't add the syrup. i cook all the veggies and then put them in ice cube trays and then put them in glad lock pages and freeze them. i also cooked up chicken mince and spaghetti. the other night we had deviled sausages and rice. and then just pureed it up as well. but i am ruining out of ideas. would be open for suggestions.