Should New Parents Make Their Own Baby Food or Should You Buy It?

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After 6 months of breastfeeding, most parents are often ready for an exciting milestone: the first spoonful of some sweet solid food for their baby! Once they reach this stage, you must decide whether you should make your baby food or buy it.

The idea of giving your little one homemade food is a personal decision for most parents out there. Some feel that making food for infants gives you a chance to know exactly what goes in your baby’s mouth; it’s cost-saving, healthier than store-bought meals, and could help with the kids’ changing appetite.

However, some will lean on purchasing store food since it’s convenient and less aggravating than cooking at home. The central aspect is the nutritional value. Some people believe that store-bought foods have contaminants and additives that could be a health hazard for your baby. For this reason, some parents will choose organic brands which lack chemicals and harmful ingredients. To make the best choices about store-bought foods, read the ingredients and nutritional labels.

Homemade vs. store-bought foods

According to research, commercial baby meals are not advisable for any toddler. It confirms that store-bought foods contain vital nutrients. Thus, kids who solely rely on such meals are deprived of essential nutrients for protection against diseases, development, and growth. However, let’s delve deeper into whether you should make your baby food or buy your baby food:

Nutritional value.

When it comes to homemade foods, their nutrients are at par as compared to pre-made baby food. Most manufacturers have one major priority: to make profits. Some mothers claim that such brands will cut costs by thickening the starches by adding more water. It’s surprising how some jar foods will read water as the main ingredient.

These foods are cooked using very high temperatures and a method known as sterilization for an extended period. It’s cooked to death! It’s for this reason that pouches and jars last longer in your pantry. This cooking process will kill all the critical nutrients valuable to the baby; the color, aroma, and taste fail to exist. There are reports that claim jarred foods have small amounts of heavy metals.

On the other hand, homemade foods are the best since you know what the baby is eating; you don’t have to worry about any other “surprise” ingredients. For you to retain the nutritional value, you should light steam and not boil the food. Keep in mind that you can make puree out of fruits without cooking them, a great approach to having the required nutrients intact. Take an avocado as an example, it’s nutritious, and you don’t have to cook it. Its creamy texture is an excellent meal for the baby.

Although store-bought food is not the worst meal globally, homemade baby food offers an unbeatable nutritional value.

Time

Preparing a homemade meal is simple. However, most mothers are under the impression that it’s incredibly time-wasting, especially the impatient parents. They argue that shopping for baby food, getting in the kitchen to chop, cook and store takes a lot of their time. Not to forget the mess that comes with pureeing and mashing the food. But the truth is, with a strategic plan and preparation, the process is fast and smooth.

Most parents prepare baby food in huge batches over the weekend and freeze every serving in little containers for the whole week. Also, it’s easy to make puree from the meals you prepare for the family. But the thought of quickly and easily unscrewing a jar of baby food makes people impatient and can’t afford the time to cook a meal from scratch.

Taste

When Preparing your homemade baby food, it’s okay to add some herbs and spices for it to taste great. On the other hand, commercial foods are not as sweet as the food you prepare yourself. You can easily add the flavors to enhance the taste that is good for your growing baby, but it’s hard to tell what they use for the store-bought meals. Some appear tasteless and could be a waste after the baby denies it.

When it comes to herbs and spices that are safe for babies, you should be creative! Homemade baby food looks, tastes, and smells better than mass-produced ones.

Cost

Buying store baby food is pricey! Even organic foods don’t come cheap; some will have half the ingredient as water, yet so expensive. The jarred food ends up more expensive than the homemade alternative in the long run.

Overall, preparing homemade food is less expensive, even though you will need to purchase a food processor or blender at the beginning. The baby puree is expensive at the store, so it’s far cheaper to make your versions using a combination of the same ingredients at your home.

Convenience

The most significant benefit of buying your baby food is convenience! With that, you will have less careful cleaning and preparation, less freezing, less waste, and less pureeing. Some manufacturers are at their best and constantly create the latest products that allow lighter and easier carrying.

Companies are now packaging their meals in pouches, a more straightforward way to carry instead of using the glass jar. Others are packaging the baby meals in a design that allows parents to advance the kid’s diet while at different ages.

Nowadays, popping some sealed, no-refrigeration-needed pouches or jars of the baby meal in a diaper bag is more accessible, neater than having to pack and tot your own. With this convenience, you might be confused if you should make your baby food or buy your baby food.

Storage

Homemade baby food tends to go bad faster than jarred food and might require refrigeration that may use a lot of your room in the freezer or fridge. Suppose you make a lot of small servings ahead of time. On the flip side, prepackaged baby meals will not need the fridge until you open them.

Remember that the homemade food lacks preservatives, so it will not stay off the fridge for long. You can freeze the food, but you make and store it in small batches.

Safety

All the jarred foods are pasteurized, thus, killing off harmful bacteria in the final product. Unfortunately, the food you make at home is not. It is not taken through the quality checks and safety as the store-bought meals.

There are kids under five years that are especially susceptible to foodborne diseases. Therefore, before handling homemade foods, you should watch out for cleanliness and hygiene; for instance, make use of clean kitchen utensils, wash your hands, and it’s necessary to thoroughly cook meals such as poultry, meat, and eggs.

Easy transition to table the foods

It makes sense! If your baby gets used to the taste of fresh ingredients in homemade foods, transitioning to table foods becomes a breeze. Store-bought food has very little taste and has a minimal variety of flavors for the child to explore. Therefore, when opting for homemade baby meals, you will have endless possibilities. You tend to expose your baby to various flavors that build the chances of making the kid a better eater in the future.

Note that your baby will be spoiled for choice with the available different kinds of foods now and then. The taste buds will be more flexible and make the baby more adventurous when it comes to eating. So, should you make your baby food or buy your baby food?

Consistency and textures

If you ever take notes, almost all commercial baby meals have similar texture and consistency. A sweet potato store-bought puree will have the same taste over and over. However, pre-made jarred foods are packed in “stages” which nervous parents feed their babies if they are not comfortable with the food they make at home. The foods come in stages one, two, and three to help determine the right time to feed the little ones with thick textures.

However, you can prepare a homemade sweet potato puree and play with texture to make the food thicker or add some spices. It gives you a chance to blend fruits and veggies well at the start and then add little milk or water to make it thicker. This variation gives the babies vital lessons on the various food tastes; such minor variations are allowed.

Which is better?

The most important thing about feeding the babies solid meals is understanding the food you need to give them. Though there are so many healthy jar foods, homemade foods are a popular alternative for mothers who are attentive to what exactly gets in their kids’ mouths. Making it is easier than you might think.

With all that said, at the end of the day, you are the person to make a correct decision on whether you should make your baby food or buy your baby food. All this will need to suit your lifestyle. The main thing is to offer the baby a healthy, proper-rounded diet, and you will never go wrong with the baby’s growth and development.

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