The Crib: A Blog for New Parents

Buying food for your baby is not supposed to be a luxury, yet the price for a jar of the stuff is ridiculous. And the different kinds, wow, who knew that babies had such discerning palettes?

Proper nutrition is important to growing a healthy, happy little person, but does it really have to be so complicated and expensive? It never used to be, and in my humble opinion, it still shouldn’t be. There really is no reason that your infant has to have food that contains ingredients you can’t pronounce, and costs $3.00 a jar; they really would rather have whatever the rest of the family is having anyway.

I’m not a pediatrician, but I have fed and cared for more little people than my own pediatrician has. All of my kids are perfectly healthy, never had a food allergy, and are not fussy eaters.

So here is my “expert mom” advice. Don’t bother with the expensive brand baby food; just make sure that your baby is getting all the required nutrients that he or she needs. You can do that just by feeding them naturally.

When my kids were small, we were pretty hard pressed income wise, so I made my own baby food. When I would cook, I wouldn’t season until the food was done, I would put portions through my food processor and freeze it. It actually was a good way to make sure that the whole family ate better. I was more careful about the proper values that we needed of all the basic food groups, and less likely to include too much chemically preserved food in our diet. I really think that they liked it better than store bought baby food, which is actually pretty gross, lol. Homemade baby food has more texture (less runny and watery), more flavor (store bought tastes so bland), and is a whole lot less expensive. Actually, it will encourage him to be more willing to try new foods as well.

As your little one grows and learns to chew, it is easy enough to decrease the water you add to the food (to make it easier to swallow and digest), and to change the thickness and texture of the food.

When I was working, and making dinner was a “hurry, I’m starving” affair, I would just pop the leftovers into the food processor, and add more water and some rice cereal to it, to decrease the seasoning levels.

Baby food producers today are really big on advertising “All Natural”, and they want you to pay an arm and a leg for it, when you could buy fresh fruits and vegetables for the whole family for what one itsy bitsy jar of baby food costs.

Recipes for making your own baby food are available all over the web, and don’t be afraid to ask your pediatrician about the subject in relation to your child’s needs.