Bumblebee’s Mama

I have a six month old son. In case you are not aware of it, most babies begin eating solid foods around six months old. There are two camps on feeding babies solids. The first thing most people think of is feeding your baby pureed foods from a jar. The second option is to feed your baby pureed foods that you make yourself at home using a blender. I have done extensive research on the second option, and after hearing the reasons for it, I have decided to feed my baby pureed foods from a jar. Here are some of the reasons that people want you to feed your baby home made foods right from the get go, and why you shouldn’t buy into it.

Myth 1. Jarred baby foods are made to last on the shelf for up to two years, which means they are filled with preservatives and other icky stuff that you don’t want to feed your baby.

Whoever started this rumor probably has no idea of the wonderful science behind canning and jarring. There are no preservatives in jarred baby foods. This is because canning and jarring foods is an all natural preservation process that mankind has been using for nearly 200 years, well before we began tampering with our foods through preservatives and additives. Another example of a natural way of preserving foods naturally is freezing, which is the one you will probably utilize if you decide to make homemade baby foods (more n that later). Here is some more info on the jarring process, taken from Wikipedia.

“Canning is a method of preserving food by first sealing it in air-tight jars, cans or pouches, and then heating it to a temperature that destroys contaminating microorganisms that can either be of health or spoilage concern…”

“ In 1809, the French confectioner Nicolas François Appert observed that food cooked inside a jar did not spoil unless the seals leak, thus developed a method of sealing food inside glass jars. The reason why food did not spoil was unknown at the time, since it would be another 50 years before Louis Pasteur demonstrated the role of microbes in food spoilage.”

For more information on canning you can go to the Wiki article, or even do a bit of research yourself, either online or at your library. The process and science behind it is not a secret, and it’s not even hard to understand. You can even do it yourself at home.

I think that most people assume that long names they don’t recognize in lists of ingredients are preservatives or sweeteners. I know my husband did on a jar of baby food, which I quickly pointed out was added DHA, which is naturally present in breastmilk and has been shown to improve the development of the human eyes! Another one I see on these is ascorbic acid, which is plainly explained to be Vitamin C. It takes about two seconds to read the ingredients, and I have yet to find a baby food jar that does not explain what everything is.

For example, on my jar of Beech Nut tender sweet carrots the ingredients read, “Carrots and water necessary for preparation.” The Beech Nut jar of Apples, Mango, and Kiwi reads, “”Apples, mango, kiwi juice from concentrate (water and kiwi juice) and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C).”

I have noticed that Gerber sells stage two foods in plastic tubs. I have never bought these because Beech Nut is cheaper by 5-10 cents. I don’t know if these plastic tubs contain preservatives or not because I don’t know the process behind packaging them.

Two more points before moving on: The reason the safety seal on jars works is because of the canning process. When the jars of food are cooling after being boiled, the lids seal with an audible ping. When opening the jar (breaking the seal), the button then pops up. If it doesn’t make an audible popping noise when opened, then the jar did not seal correctly and the entire thing should be thrown out. The last point is that on the labels of these jars it clearly states that any unused portion can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Surely if there were preservatives in the food, it would last a week or more when refrigerated.

Myth 2. If you make a special meal out of feeding your baby by preparing something different than what you are eating, you will raise a picky eater.

There are many reasons why this doesn’t make sense when talking about a baby. First of all, and most importantly, you should wait at least three days before introducing your baby to new foods. This way if the baby has an allergic reaction to something, you will know what exactly is causing it and you will be able to eliminate that specific food from his or her diet. I don’t know of a single family who eats the exact same meals three days in a row.

The second reason this doesn’t make sense is that when you make homemade baby foods, you are instructed to freeze them and pull out one serving at a time. This is essentially the same as opening a jar, except that if the food is frozen you must warm it up first. Warming is not essential for jar foods because babies haven’t developed a taste for hot foods yet. Warming up a frozen serving of baby food is a lot more like cooking them a separate meal than opening a jar. You will also have to spoon feed your baby at first, ether the food is homemade or store bought, so it’s likely that you won’t be having a meal with him.

A third reason is that babies under the age of ten months have no long term memory. This is why it isn’t recommended that you start disciplining your children until they are at least ten months old. Your child isn’t likely to demand a special separate meal because you gave him some between the ages of six and nine months. It is much more likely that he will demand his own special meal because he had one yesterday, or last week, or the last time you made meatloaf.

Finally I will relate a more personal reason I have to not believe that feeding your baby jar foods will cause picky eating. My parents had a total of five children. At one point or another, we were all picky eaters. Some were more than others. We outgrew it with encouragement to try new things and positive reinforcement when we did. So the odds are that your child will snub certain foods at one point in life, whether you feed them jar baby food or not. Most of the time it is just a phase (though one that can last years).

Myth 3. Baby food is expensive to buy. It might not seem like it, but those jars really add up over time.

While this isn’t exactly a myth, it does seem a little silly. Your baby will only be on pureed foods for a few months at most. Yes, it can get expensive, but here on out it will only get more expensive. I’m sure that the $.60 or so per jar is comparable to buying a little extra meat and veggies to puree at home. You can often get coupons in the mail for these jars, and you only need to buy about ten at a time. No one has a baby expecting it to be free, or cheap. I can assure you that when you have a teenager, you will wish that you could spend less than a dollar on each meal they eat!

Anyway, that’s just my point of view on the homemade baby food. It seems unnecessary to me when I am already so busy just trying to keep up with the house and baby without collapsing. It’s not like I am getting a full night’s sleep yet. Once Bumblebee graduates to finger foods, I will probably start giving him more of what I eat. In the meantime, I’m enjoying finishing off his half eaten jars of rice cereal and apples with cinnamon! Yummy!