Baby food - stem from post on general

holley79 wrote: When do you start using stage 1 baby food?

What brand of baby food do you prefer or do you make your own?

Just wondering...

MomToJade&Jordan replied: I just started giving Jordan Stage 1 baby food after she turned 6 months. I usually get Gerber. I will probably switch her to stage 2 in the next month.

MyLuvBugs replied: Started with smashed up peas (stage 1) by Gerber at 4 months. To be honest the brand doesn't matter much to me. Cheaper the better, and home-made is great too. But then you have to watch what spices and stuff you cook with, and I'm horrible with the salt and stuff. lol

luvmykids replied: I did a lot of home made just because it was so easy, I'd microwave baby carrots, peas, green beans, sweet potato chunks, you name it, smash it to smithereens and there you go! You can add a little formula to thin it out if you need to. But I also used Gerber and Heinz.

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied: I know all the books these days say to wait until 6 months before starting solids, but at the time, my ped recommended starting at 4 months, so I did. I started by making my own. I bought dried organic peas from the HFS, boilled them and then put them through a food processer. It's sooooooooo cheap because you can buy the peas in the bulk section! Did the same with sweet potatos and squash (fresh). But if I had to buy it from a jar, I bought Earth's Best organic. They run for about .59 per jar, which is a bit higher than others, but if you compare the ingredients, I think it's worth it. I have used Gerber too (they have an organic line).

My3LilMonkeys replied: We used Gerber for stage 1 just because I didn't want to have to clean the blender so often and didn't trust myself to mush it up enough . Everything after stage 1 was just whatever we were eating smushed up with some of the spices omitted.

kayla's mama replied: We used Gerber all the way. We started around 6 months or so

ediep replied: we used gerber, and we started cereal about 4 months. He didn't really like it and since I didn't know any better, i kept offering. I think if I could do it over, i may wait until 6 months

3_call_me_mama replied:
Yeah that!

Pretty much exactally what we did. As tehy got older everythgin we ate went into teh blendar or mashed up. I didn't buy any jar food for cameron and Kathleen ate some of teh earths best or teh Gerber Healthy Harvest.

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied: Holley, just wanted to post a link to Earth's Best website if you're interested. I sometimes receive coupons in the mail from them because I registered through their site. Check it out! Earth's Best babyfood Also, stores like Whole Foods will give you a case discount. Just go in and ask.

Lynda836 replied: I started offering cereal at 4 1/2 months...he seemed to be interested in our food, and he was nursing a lot and still hungry. I use commercial baby food cereal, but mostly everything else I make myself using a blender of food processor. I decided to do that because it's cheaper, I know what's in it, and DS would become used to the taste of the food we usually eat. I've tried some of the veggies....some of them have no taste compared to the homemade. I do use bottled food for some stuff that it harder to puree...like raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, prunes. And I keep a couple of bottles in the diaper bag just in case. I think it's just gerber that's in our grocery store, and nature's best for organic.

holley79 replied:
Thanks Rae. I just went to the link and signed up. It said that our natural food store carries that brand and also it said that Toys R Us (?) carries it. I will have to go into Toys R Us and see.

Thanks everyone for the insight.

ilovemybaby replied: We started at 16 weeks so just over 4 months. We don't have any allergies in our family so I wasn't too worried about that. She just seemed very interested in our food and would even grab for the spoon. It didn't help that my mother, father and sister would give her stuff without asking like cream puffs and chocolate biscuit pieces.
This time round I'm specifically going to have a rule that they don't give her any food until I say ok. I'm the mother here!

hollisterluva92 replied: I started using stage 1 food's when my dd was between 3-4 months old. She took to it very easily and now she is into the stage 2's. I love gerber, but I've also used nature's goodness.

holley79 replied: Annika is grabbing everything she can get her hands on. It's crazy. I did give her a little bit of baby food the other night (she's 5 months) and she wanted more. I know everyone has told me to hold off but I feel so guilty. Guess we will see how things go. She has only had baby food about 3 times now. It everytime was after I nursed her then offered up the baby food.

loveucrazy replied: I started foods at 3-4 months, with Gerber stage 1 Peas, Carrots and Squash. Since he has had a few food allergies I gave one new food every 3-4 days and he tolarated everything really well.

I am now feeding Gerber or Beechnut, and making him at home stuff, a little rice, squash sweet potatoes. He will eat everything! Especially loves brocolli and mashed potatoes

lisar replied: The dr told me to start with veggies not fruit so I done that. She was about 4mths old.