Home made foods or packaged foods for your?

babies.....Do you prefer preparing food [stage 1 / 2] for your little ones or buy from store ? If homemade, whats your choice and why ?|||I made the stage 1 and 2 foods only homemade. I thought it'd be healthier, fun to make, easier servings, and cheaper. I stayed home and wanted to really enjoy her being a baby. I just used a food processor and some ice cube trays and that's it. Oh, and some freezer bags to store it in.





Ended up being convenient to mix two flavors together. The ones I remember using a lot were sweet potatoes, carrots, squash both kinds, pes, etc. for veggies. For fuits I just did apples for the freezing part. I had a harder time with them. And bananas I just mushed 'em up.





I didn't give her meat until after she turned one and that she only eats at home which is bonless, skinless chicken and ground turkey.|||I do both. Homemade is super easy, but sometimes I get lazy and don't feel like cookin carrots or whatever it is. lol.|||I did both.





Bought the jarred food at first and then made it after that point. It was definitely cheaper making it on my own plus I could offer him a bigger variety of flavors. He was on table foods at 7 months, though, so I didn't do it very long.|||it's easiest to just serve from the family's food. modify the portion sizing %26amp; blend the food depending on how the child tolerates textures. you'll save tons of money by serving your own food.|||i did the home-made thing - it was a total pita and i didn't save any money either. i just bought a bunch of jars for lazy days and the rest of the time she ate what we were having.|||I have just started my bub on solids and pre make a weeks worth of food- its pretty easy at this stage. I just bake some sweet potato or other foods and mush it all up to a suitable consistancy, stick it in a icecube tray, put it in the freezer then transfer frozen cubes to a freezer bag. Then all i have to do is defrost the amount for the day and serve when he's ready.


I havn't tried jarred foods yet- i haven't needed to. I have enough time to make my own. The nutriotional value is probably the same and all i have to do is make an extra batch when i make me and my partners dinner.


So its all about your lifestyle and what suits you and your baby- some babies dont even like the canned/jarred stuff and some dont like the home made stuff so its just trial and error really.|||I prefer baby food in jars. It has nothing to do with laziness. I just don't want to make my own baby food. I have absolutely no interest in it.|||Im exactly the same as 'abigails mummy', I do try to cook it most of the time, but it's so much easier to get a jar from the cupboard.|||I always fed Sophie what we ate minus the salt. She is now 2.5 and inhales basically everything, even chomped down steak chunks at 10 months! :)|||100% homemade. My husband and I don't eat "ready meals" so I don't let my son either!





On Fridays I make up his "menu" for the week, ie/ breakfast, lunch, dinner, and make sure it's balanced. I plan out how much I will need to purchase, make sure he is eating a good variety over the week, introduce two or three new foods, some favourites and usually one thing that he has tried but didn't like. Then I plan out what I need to buy on Saturday morning. It only takes about 20 minutes to plan out.





I stick the menu on the fridge for the week and start cooking as I go. So I might see that he's having sweet potatoes on Sunday, Thursday and Friday, so I bake my sweet potato on Saturday and freeze three portions so that I know I have it for the full week. I do most of my cooking in the evenings Sunday through Tuesday and by then most of it is done. It only takes about 20 minutes to toss some carrots, peas, leeks, cauliflower etc in pots in the stove, and to bake my fruit (apples, pears, peaches, plums, etc). Once they are cooked, mash them up, put them into one-serving freezer pots, label them, stick them in the oven, and put a checkmark on the menu so I knwo that food is cooked. I also use bananas, avocado and papaya because they don't need to be cooked so they are a good easy one to include in the week.





It takes a bit of organisation but now my husband and I are on a good routine with getting it all done and I find it often helps make sure that WE get lots of our veggie servings as well -- for instance, tonight I need to make cauliflower for my son, so I'll throw in some extra and then he and I will have some cauliflower with our dinner. When I bake the fruit (baked fruit is sooooo much nicer!) often there will be some left over that I am not going to need for my son over the week, throw it in a bowl or on some ice cream and it's an extra serving of fruits for me!





We've just added meat to his diet (8 months) and I don't do it any differently than with fruit and veg