Babble

I made all my son's baby food, except for a couple of times we went on vacation. He ended up spitting up or throwing up everything that came out of the jar, so we're sticking with our own stuff from now on. I love that stores like SuperTarget are now carrying the frozen babyfood though. I'll be more likely to grab those in a hurry than that awful stuff from a jar. I mean, bananas should not be that weird pinkish yellow color, yuck! And don't even get me started on the peas.  

Those bananas crack me up! And we pay 89 cents for 1 jar, when my mom flipped out that we were going to pay 67 cents for 1 lb! (She thought they should be 47 cents, but that's a pipe dream now with inflation). And he's 10 months - why not let him feed himself chunks of banana - no one's going to spoon feed him someday - let him learn to feed himself. Don't get me started on the applesauce, either.

I agree!  I thought I was doing my son a favor feeding him organic jarred food.  I am sure that it is better for him than the non-organic choices, but it is still processed and the color and texture is so vastly different from fresh food.  I live in a state where the only fresher premade option is Happy Baby organic frozen cubes.  They are fantastic and inspired me to start making and freezing my own.  Making your own also offers you the chance to introduce your child to foods, spices and textures that he would otherwise not be introduced to until much later on (jar options are so limited!).  I just gave my little boy curry for the first time the other day (10 mos) and he loves it!  It can be time consuming initially, but now I just steam veggies and mash them up with a fork before his meals.  I still feed him Happy Baby's Chick Chick  which is much easier (and frankly less gross) than making my own.  Good luck in the adventures of baby food :0)

PS - Baby Center and the Parenting websites had a lot of good info on the importance of fresh foods

Yes, it's true! It's gross! Stick to making your own food b/c it's healthier anyway. Jarred generic baby food is freezedried and then reconstituted in boiling hot water, so a lot of the nutrition is removed. Also, with your own baby food, you don't add sugar or salt but you can add spices and herbs. Baby food should not be tasteless, babies from many cultures have food with various spices and seasonings from 6m on. Also the texture of your own food is all part of the baby's food-learning experience, so keep the skins on! That's where most of the nutrition comes from anyway. Just make sure to use organic whenever you can, especially for bell peppers, potatoes, and apples which are some of the highest pesticide/chemical filled produce out there.