Some Baby Foods are Worse Than Junk Food

re: Some Baby Foods are Worse Than Junk Food

Carol Morrisey — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 03:16:36 GMT

As a teen I packed pears in a warehouse one summer. The pears that were misshapen or otherwise not good enough to be sold whole

were thrown into a bin to be sold for baby food. While some of them may still have been nutritious, apparently money, not nutrition, was

the deciding factor. I made my own baby food.

re: Some Baby Foods are Worse Than Junk Food

mom2bella — Wed, 27 May 2009 07:58:50 GMT

Yes, baby foods are very expensive and you can't tell the quality of the vegetable and fruit that was used to make it. In Hawaii, we usually start our baby off with poi as the first solid food (not the same as the ones they give to those huge luaus that tourist go to, the poi they use there is yucky and watered down way too much!). Poi is made out of taro which was the life sustaining staple for the Hawaiians and is made fresh, you can buy it the day of or within a few days of making. It's just taro and water. All the babies love it.

re: Some Baby Foods are Worse Than Junk Food

abbasdaughter — Sat, 23 May 2009 09:14:46 GMT

Makes me thankful mum made most of our babyfood herself... I even remember her making her own teething biscuits for 1 of my little brothers.

re: Some Baby Foods are Worse Than Junk Food

babetteq — Fri, 22 May 2009 07:47:49 GMT

If we needed baby food, there would be a babyfood tree we could plant in our garden. We breastfed and when it was time to start introducing foods, they were soft foods that were easily manipulated by hands and easy to eat. No billions of little jars, no added expense, no big companies training the palate of the kids. Next war... training bras. ...

re: Some Baby Foods are Worse Than Junk Food

crunchymommy73 — Fri, 22 May 2009 00:54:00 GMT

I haven't read through all of the comments yet, but I wanted to add a couple of things:

First of all, and very importantly, with all due respect to Dr. Mercola and the Weston A. Price Association, La Leche League emphasizes the importance of exclusive breastfeeding for SIX MONTHS - it is best to allow this time for the gut to mature before introducing anything other than breastmilk to baby's diet. This is accordance with the World Health Organization as well. Some time in the second half of the first year, baby will show signs of readiness for solids (including pincer grasp, teeth, and the loss of the tongue thrust reflex) and these cues tell us baby is ready for new foods.

In harmony with the aforementioned, purees are rarely truly needed, because once the baby is truly ready for solids, baby can easily handle little items he or she can pick up and smoosh against the roof of his mouth. Egg yolks, as mentioned above, are good because they are high in iron and fat, two things baby needs. A couple of other good suggestions are avacado and banana. Plain meats in tiny bits that mommy smooshes between her fingers first are good as well. What MUST be kept in mind is that for the first year, breast milk (or formula as the case may be) is still the primary source of nutrition, and no other food that can be introduced is as calorie dense as breastmilk; therefore solids should not take the place of breastmilk, rather they should merely supplement until baby is at least a year old.

I'm the mommy of three and only really used the organic jarred baby food when we were away from home and I wasn't cooking and therefore not sure what would be available for my little one. On the other hand, sometimes I just carried around an avacado, a banana, and a knife. Worked great!

re: Some Baby Foods are Worse Than Junk Food

Manus — Fri, 22 May 2009 00:18:29 GMT

We keep on being annoyed at being sold a pile of junk by the supermarkets, yet very few of us do anything about it. I do understand that it is difficult to change the agendas of Government and FDA etc. but nothing will change unless we get our Government and the FDA to change the legislation. While the big food and drug interests go about their legitimate business, the junk food and junk medicines will keep on keeping on. There has to be a MAJOR revolt against the big cartels that foul our means of sustainance and demand that legislation be passed that forbids the sale of anything that is chemically altered or denatured. It shouldn't be that hard to implement. They legislate against other trivial matters at a drop of a hat. Unless we demand nutrious food unequivocably, we will never stop this pandemic of chronic degenerative diseases in its tracts. There is absolutely no other way around it but to stop producing toxic food which includes GM food and the use of unbalanced chemical fertilisers.

re: Some Baby Foods are Worse Than Junk Food

curious7 — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:29:14 GMT

Likely were we to choose a jar of baby food at random, read the label, we would find that it is full of HFCS, and or sugar, salt of one kind or another, flavor enhancers, MSG, and food coloring, little if any nutritious food. You know business 101, buy low sell high.

I agree with Mama Bear, this is no accident. We see how poor people throughout the world are used as "lab rats" with the governments going along for monetary gain, while reeking below the surface is population control. Start young, and all that.

re: Some Baby Foods are Worse Than Junk Food

Joan Lockwood — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:22:33 GMT

I am a grandmother of four. Yes, it is very costly buying organic baby food. Yes, making your own would be better, HOWEVER, you first must make sure you are buying organic fruits and vegetables.

This can become very costly and do you really know if they were grown organically. Now after you prepare you foods, what kind of ice tray would be safe. Most trays are plastic and definitely not safe, especially for hot foods. If you dont use plastic, then we have the aluminum try....that is a no no.

You try to do the best you can for your children, in this very unsafe world. Where to turn...I just think you must do the best you can, with the little we have at our disposal.

Then after formula, can we hope the organic milk is the best??????

re: Some Baby Foods are Worse Than Junk Food

charmela — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:17:19 GMT

Sadly, I trust the commercial baby food for our twins, and they ate it readily - but it always caused diarrhea, and were terribly underweight. When we finally got them on solid foods, their digestive problems vanished, and they gained weight. That was 26 years ago.

re: Some Baby Foods are Worse Than Junk Food

LeaClair — Thu, 21 May 2009 17:16:27 GMT

4 months to start solids... Most breastfeeding mothers know it's not until atleast 6 months to start any solids and 6-18 months breastmilk is still primary source for nutrition in baby's diet. 4 months isn't even recommended by WHO.

re: Some Baby Foods are Worse Than Junk Food

drjohn — Thu, 21 May 2009 17:09:17 GMT

My wife and I have 2 children 17 months and almost 3 years old. We used the book 'Super Baby Food' by Ruth Yaron (website: www.superbabyfood.com) as a guide as to what they should eat and when. The kids took to food great. Like some of the other comments, we used store bought organic baby food mostly when we were traveling, but can't stress how important it is to to read the labels. Organic sugar is still sugar, and infants do not need sea salt.

re: Some Baby Foods are Worse Than Junk Food

momtwo4 — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:37:57 GMT

Adding solid food at the arbitrary age of 4 months is an outdated and unsubstantiated notion.. Why would anyone wish to feed a baby liver? A filter? Ugh!

I have always followed the guidelines of LLI and waited until the second half of the first year of life....and watched our babies' cues. We started with easy things like organic blueberries.

Babies are more interested in the texture of foods and imitating the eating process. Breastmilk is the superior infant food for the first year

I think many mothers become apprehensive about making their own baby food

We are bombarded with information on how to take care ourselves from pregnancy on, so that many don't trust themselves as their babies natural expert.

re: Some Baby Foods are Worse Than Junk Food

johnfryer — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:30:06 GMT

Be careful about salt if you make food for infants.

I remember one case where a child died and the courts ruled the adult food had too much salt in it.

Looking at the make up of the baby foods it looks as if some of those should go to court as well.

re: Some Baby Foods are Worse Than Junk Food

amyqmaxwell — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:03:50 GMT

Gerber just disgusts me!!! People read the labels! Sugar, high fructose corn syrup, preservatives! Then to sell baby food in plastic containers! Even the little snack foods they sell for toddlers that are supposed to be sweet potato, or vege's have no sign of the sweet potato or vege in it but there's plenty of sugar and other crap! It amazes me how all these companies get away with putting "healthy, low fat, eat right, etc" on their packaging but the ingrediants sure say different.

re: Some Baby Foods are Worse Than Junk Food

Esthetician — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:39:24 GMT

I always keept a small hand crank food mill in my diaper bag. My baby ate the same healthy foods I ate. $7.00 a one time payment for fresh healthy baby food any time anywhere & took 30 seconds to "make".