Organically Inclined

But those little jars aren’t that expensive, are they? Oh yes they are and they aren’t very good for our little ones either! Consider that babies should start eating solid food around 6 months of age – give or take. Also consider that most baby food companies make their most nutritious foods for babies under six months.

Only “First foods” are true purees. After that, according to Cheating Babies: Nutritional Quality and Cost of Commercial Baby Food by Daryth D. Stallone, Ph.D., M.P.H. and Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D., “Gerber and Heinz replace real food with water and thickening agents in many of their products for children over six months of age. Such adulterated products are nutritionally inferior to products made with more fruits and vegetables.

“The single-ingredients foods made by all the companies differ only modestly as a result of adding somewhat different amounts of water. However, 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. Gerber and Heinz’ bananas with tapioca, for example, contain less than half of the levels of nutrients found in their plain first-stage bananas.”

A wonderful Web site, www.wholesomebabyfood.com, compared different brands of baby food to homemade and found that on average, homemade baby food cost about 4 cents per ounce compared to between 20 and 30 cents per ounce for a jar of prepared. If a baby eats three, 2.5 ounce jars of baby food each day, she is eating about $60 worth of jarred food every month. Wow.

I do very little to make baby food for my 9 month old. First off, she still nurses quite a bit. Anything that needs to be “mushed” like veggies or hard fruits like apples, get steamed and then either placed in the food processor or spun up with the hand blender. She eats organic yogurt, french toast (without the crust), homemade jam sandwiches (organic, of course), graham crackers, baked apples, mashed potatoes, smashed sweet potatoes, rice, peas, corn, oatmeal, organic cereal “o’s” - you name it. We recently introduced her to pasta (pastina) and she loves it. Over vacation, I bought a few jars of organic baby food, and frankly, I’m sorry I wasted the money. I thought in a hotel, it would just be easier to have something to grab, but Kiara liked everything we ate and was munching on little pieces of chicken and whatever else! OK - Alex snuck her some French Fries, but really, who can deny someone so cute one of the Boardwalk’s greatest treats?