Homemade Vs Jars

[Lulu_Laroo]

I'm going to hold my hands up and say that I don't always give Poppy homemade purees and am finding myself giving her more and more jarred food. At the moment it's about 50/50 with the amount of homemade and jarred food she eats. Is it really such a bad thing? I do still make batches of food for her and freeze it, usually things I've made up from the Annabel Karmel book, or sometimes I just whizz up a little of what me & OH are eating, but the problem is, these days I'm making more of our meals with ready made sauces for convenience and having no time, and I know they are too salty for Poppy. Sometimes I feel like we have to give off this 'SuperMum' image all the time, and tell everyone we always do everything from scratch and buy everything organic blah blah blah, but I am dying to scream out that I'm not one of these people and don't want to be made to feel like a bad mum because of it! How many of you actually give jarred food to your LO's? Honestly?
I mean, I do ENJOY cooking for her and try to do it as much as I possibly can, but sometimes all I want to do in the evenings is flop in to bed. Does that make me such a bad person?

 

[pinkyprincess]

I would LIKE to BLW and/or make my own purees BUT i'm taking a year off work maternity leave and im finikity about my own food and cook it all from scratch anyway but I do know how easy that is to say when you're not weaning yet!! I might keep a jar of something in the changing bag incase we're caught short but I certainly wont think bad of it itkwim?

 

[AugustMum]

I really wouldn't worry. I couldn't give my lo jars most of the time because they made her sick so I moved into blw as it was so much easier! My SIL pretty much used jars all the time as I'm sure many other mothers do as well so don't feel bad. No ones a supermum after all

 

[Belfast girl]

i have the opposite problem! i would like to give a pouch or two sometimes, when we are out for instance but my lo won't take them at all. they are kinda bland compared to homecooked i think!

i think the only thing would be the texture - there is no way you could puree your homemade stuff as smooth as shop bought and you would have to make sure she didn't get used to ultra smooth stuff.

 

[tinks77]

I used jars or the powder you mix up, I did make my own but couldn't quite get it right for what she liked. I figure we've only got a month before we can do combination weaning anyway and she already happily chomps away on toast or a rusk so I'm not stressing myself out over it

 

[Franna75]

I don't think there is any right or wrong, do whatever you are comfortable with. There is nothing wrong with giving the jars/pouches. Happy Mummy is a happy baby

I've been giving Thomas bits of my food when i'm out and have been making purees myself. Luckily he eats anything. I find Ready Brek mixed with banana or apple sauce is a great breakfast. I also use lentils a lot as they are so good for them and easy to cook. He has roast veg with most meals, i find roasting gives a lot more taste to them and it keeps a lot of the goodness in. If you cut them up small they roast really quickly.

Also barley is another simple and very nutritious food. Here's a good recipe

Barley and Sweet Potato Balls
1 cup soft cooked pearled barley (not pureed.)
1 cup cooked sweet potatoes
1/2 cup applesauce or peach puree
pinch of cinnamon.

You can cook her food when you feel like it and use jars when you don't

 

[Amy_J]

Dont worry! Iwhen i first started weaning it was all homemade, but i used jars quite alot mipainly for convenience hen out and about or if i hadnt pre-cooked! Now at 18months my lo has th odd toddler meal everynow and again (mainly when i havent cooked, he loves them and they take one min to warm up!) home cooking and lots of finger foods. Doesnt make u bad at all, i didnt feel guilty and my lo is perfectly happy and healthy, we cant be superwomen all the time!

 

[Lulu_Laroo]

Thanks. She usually has weetabix or ready brek for breakfast with mashed banana and I sometimes use the Organix fruit pots to mix in with it. We did start off with BLW but it wasn't for us so we moved Poppy straight on to lumpy purees as she's used to handling whole food in her mouth. She has lots of finger foods like steamed veg, fruit, toast etc.

Thanks for the recipe, Franna! I've added it to my shopping list

 

[pinkyprincess]

Thanks. She usually has weetabix or ready brek for breakfast with mashed banana and I sometimes use the Organix fruit pots to mix in with it. We did start off with BLW but it wasn't for us so we moved Poppy straight on to lumpy purees as she's used to handling whole food in her mouth. She has lots of finger foods like steamed veg, fruit, toast etc.

Thanks for the recipe, Franna! I've added it to my shopping list

What was wrong with the BLW? Im interested to hear a not so positive side before I make a choice.

 

[Lulu_Laroo]

Thanks. She usually has weetabix or ready brek for breakfast with mashed banana and I sometimes use the Organix fruit pots to mix in with it. We did start off with BLW but it wasn't for us so we moved Poppy straight on to lumpy purees as she's used to handling whole food in her mouth. She has lots of finger foods like steamed veg, fruit, toast etc.

Thanks for the recipe, Franna! I've added it to my shopping list

What was wrong with the BLW? Im interested to hear a not so positive side before I make a choice.

A few different reasons; We had a couple of scary choking incidents which OH just couldn't handle. We went to baby sensory classes and Poppy tried some purees and seemed to love them, so I felt bad depriving her of food she can eat easily, and other peoples attitude towards BLW was just downright pissing me off and I just couldn't be bothered to have to explain EVERY single time. Like I said, we still offer plenty of finger foods that we both feel comfortable with, we just offer lumpy purees too. She still doesn't eat a great deal - I offer three meals a day but she still only manages two at the moment.

 

[littlemiss83]

I've yet to go thro weaning with LO but thinking of starting soon. With my 1st, she had a normal breakfast, mashed fruit, weetabix, readybrek. Lunch a bit harder til they get older & can have sandwiches ect. I'd normally use a jar at lunch time. And for dinner it would be whatever we had but mashed up & I always had reserves in the freezer, or another jar if need be, I never felt bad for giving her 2 jars in a day or whatever, coz majority of the time it was healthy anyway. I'm excited about weaning Kayden but dreading having to decide what to give him, & actually having to start properly cooking everythings been on standstill with moving house ect.

Good luck

xxxxxxxxxx

 

[pinkyprincess]

Thanks. She usually has weetabix or ready brek for breakfast with mashed banana and I sometimes use the Organix fruit pots to mix in with it. We did start off with BLW but it wasn't for us so we moved Poppy straight on to lumpy purees as she's used to handling whole food in her mouth. She has lots of finger foods like steamed veg, fruit, toast etc.

Thanks for the recipe, Franna! I've added it to my shopping list

What was wrong with the BLW? Im interested to hear a not so positive side before I make a choice.

A few different reasons; We had a couple of scary choking incidents which OH just couldn't handle. We went to baby sensory classes and Poppy tried some purees and seemed to love them, so I felt bad depriving her of food she can eat easily, and other peoples attitude towards BLW was just downright pissing me off and I just couldn't be bothered to have to explain EVERY single time. Like I said, we still offer plenty of finger foods that we both feel comfortable with, we just offer lumpy purees too. She still doesn't eat a great deal - I offer three meals a day but she still only manages two at the moment.

I'm worried about the choking thing! I'm surprised at people's reactions tho, I obviously thought it was more common than it is!

 

[cosmicgirl]

I always made my own puréed food. I found it cheaper and could make it in bulk.
You shouldn't really give babies weetabix or ready brek because of the salt and sugar content. Maybe try baby porridge or breakfast rice instead?? x

 

[Me, My Girls & I]

The choking thing, it's actually very rare for them to truly choke! Their gag reflex is further down their Tongue than ours is, so they wretch and gag before we would iykwim? Touch wood, I only ever had 1 true choking moment and that was thanks to a pear!

Anyway, I made all Ks food for the first 6 months or so and then had to have something to give her on holiday so didn't really have much choice but to do jars, I swear it physically pained me I just couldn't get my head around how they stayed fresh etc! After that she had the odd jar, I remember wanting to punch a work friend in the face when she turned round and said how it was so much easier to just cook up some fresh stuff!

E was mainly jar fed, but I did a lot more of the blw side cos I was to exhausted to cook all the time!

Bollocks I've gone off on a tangent and can't remember the original question now

 

[Lulu_Laroo]

I always made my own puréed food. I found it cheaper and could make it in bulk.
You shouldn't really give babies weetabix or ready brek because of the salt and sugar content. Maybe try baby porridge or breakfast rice instead?? x

This is another thing.. there is just SO much conflicting advice I don't know who to listen to anymore. Annabel Karmel book says there's no need to buy special baby cereals or porridge (they're more expensive) and that ready brek is fine?! And all BLW support forums reccomend weetabix

I'm making up a big batch of star pasta and butternut squash and veg combination today so she's got plenty of that in the freezer. She had mashed banana in some porridge this morning.

 

[Belfast girl]

yes a bit suprised at theat as i always thought that ready brek was just 100% oats? i ahve been giving my lo that for a while now as i thought it was ok. i did know about the salt in weetabix so was going to wait until 1 for that.

 

[Franna75]

Readybrek is no added salt or sugar - it has a minimal amount. I find it easier than oats as its finer and doesn't take as long to cook. I also eat it, so he just has some of mine.

As for BLW, i'm the same as you Lulu; i really wanted to do it but Tom just wasnt ready, he's only just started putting things in his mouth (now everything goes in) his favourite is mobile phone. I started on puree at 5 months because he was just so hungry. I haven't looked back. I've started introducing finger food in this past week and its working really well. I'l try and post a great strawberry photo.

 

[Franna75]

 

[Lulu_Laroo]

Just for the record (after researching) Ready Brek and Weetabix are both fine.

This past week I've not used any jars at all, only homemade things. Poppy handles food in her mouth so well that she's already eating non-pureed food by spoon (for example, tonight she had sweet potato and vegetables mashed with a fork with no water added, and flaked fillet of salmon).

 

[Franna75]

Hi Lulu - how's it going?

Tom has been doing some excellent finger foods recently - im at my parents and they just give him stuff even a ginger biscuit today and he ate the lot (i was pretending not to watch because i dont agree)! Still giving him Readybrek and Weetabix every morning..

How is Poppy?