Baby Food (Part I)

Erin @ 7 months, eating mango

One of the things Sean and I got better about with each of our kids was making our own baby food. Our first born, Erin, had probably 85 to 90% of her baby food come from jars, and the rest was mashed up fruits from whatever we had.

Noah @ 4 months eating rice cereal

Our second born, Noah, started out with mostly jars, but as he got to the 9 to 12 month range, we started making batches of food at a time (but still had jars).

Luke @ 6 months eating
purple sweet potato

Then came our third, Luke, and I am proud to say that he is 13 months old and has never had a single jar of store-bought baby food.

So which is the better route to go? Of course pre-made meals in a jar are convenient (especially since babies eat so often). Not every mom has the extra time to make her own, especially for those who also work. But from my experience, it's not really that big of a deal to throw some food together and store most of it in the freezer for later. It's quite simple actually.

It's definitely cheaper to make your own, and you know exactly what you're feeding your baby. No preservatives and no added sugar or salt. Just fresh food.

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I came across an article on the Center for Science in the Public Interest website entitled Cheating Babies: Nutritional Quality and Cost of Commercial Baby Food. It's from 1995, so of course things could have improved within these baby food companies since then. But for the most part, I bet it's mostly the same. The article looks at the nutritional value and cost of commercial baby food within the top 5 companies at the time (one has since gone bankrupt). Here are some statements from the article (it's worth reading the whole thing if you have a baby):

• Gerber and Heinz add substantial amounts of water and thickening agents (flours and chemically modified starches) to more than half of their twenty-five most popular fruits, mixed and creamed vegetables, desserts, and dinners for babies over six months (second- and third-stage foods). Not only are those products a monetary rip-off, they are also nutritionally inferior to similar products made without fillers...Many fewer products made by Beech-Nut and Earth's Best contain starchy fillers.
• The use of starchy thickening agents can mask the addition of a good deal of water. As any cook knows, a little bit of flour or starch can thicken a lot of liquid. The presence in a baby food of one or more fillers, such as rice flour, wheat flour, or modified starch, is a good indicator that the food is a dilute and nutritionally inferior product.
• Gerber and Heinz' cereals with fruit all contain added sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. The addition of refined sugars to cereals is unnecessary. The added sugars may encourage a preference for heavily sweetened foods.
• Baby foods are greatly overpriced compared to similar regular foods. Examples include applesauce and fruit juices, as well as diced fruits and vegetables for toddlers. The nutrient content and physical characteristics of those baby foods do not differ significantly from those for adults. However, the baby foods cost up to several times as much per unit weight.
• Four million babies are born in the United States every year. By the time they reach twelve months of age, each of those infants has consumed, smeared around, or spit out an average of 600 jars of baby food.

Assuming all those statements are true, do you think you can do a better job? As long as you're not adding flour, sugar and salt, I think you will be.

Making your own baby food does not require a magic formula. Or if it does, then it's: Cook food. Puree.

To be continued...