What to Keep in Mind When Buying Baby Food – My Favorite Brands with Reviews – Tips for Making Your Own Baby Food
Have a little one you’re starting on purées and not sure what’s the good clean stuff and what’s not? Here’s a quick guide of everything you need to know!
what to Keep in Mind with Jarred Baby Food:
- because it’s cooked at extremely high temperatures, to allow for years long shelf lives, a lot of the nutrients are removed in that process (and it also effects the taste)
- there’s typically many additives and preservatives added for a longer shelf life
- they often contain flour or other starches (such as maltodextrin), which serve as thickeners.
What to Keep in Mind w/Pouches:
- many brands use juice from concentrate and have added sugars in their blends
- they sometimes contains preservatives (which isn’t always bad)
- many are made from mostly fruit and don’t have many veggies added to them
- many pouches are BPA free, but that means basically nothing now because it’s often times just replaced with other harmful ingredients
Heavy Metals In Pre-Made Baby Food
By now, I’m sure you’ve seen the big news report that came out about the testing done that found many popular brands containing heavy metals such as lead and cadmium etc…let’s talk about that for a second because I think there’s some application points to be gleaned from here…
This is a GREAT example and plug for why I recommend not just reading labels, but brand researching!! By looking at many of these brands’ labels (that were tested), someone could easily think “these are totally safe!”…BUT when we actually research the brands, what do we find?
- Sprout Foods was recently bought out by Neptune Wellness Solutions
- Happy Baby Organics was bought out by Danone
- Plum Organics was bought out by Cambells Soup
- Gerber is owned by Nestle
- Parent’s Choice is owned by Walmart
- Beech Nut got bought out by Hero Motors Company
- Earth’s Best got bought out by Hain Celestial Group
Seeing a pattern here?…notice that none of these brands are privately owned.
Why does this matter? I have a post here explaining more about what happens when a brand gets acquired.
Unfortunately, most popular/common baby food companies have been bought out by now!! (or just aren’t privately owned) Just a few more examples:
- Ella’s Kitchen got bought out by Hain Celestial Group
- Mama Bear is owned by Amazon
If you ARE buying jarred baby foods or pre made pouches look for brands that:
- use all organic ingredients (the fewer the ingredients the better!! also try to find ones that don’t contain all fruit!)
- contain no starches or thickeners added
- no added sugars or juices
- nothing from concentrate!
- are “phthalate free” and not just BPA free
- are privately owned!!!
- provide third party testing of their baby food to substantiate their claims!!
My thoughts buying pre-made:
- Finding pouches that didn’t contain any bananas, pears, or apples was way too hard. lol I try to not feed my babies purées containing sugary fruits as often because I don’t want them to get used to that sweeter taste and only want foods that taste like that.
- There’s really no reason to not buy organic these days when it comes to pre-made baby food because there are so many great brands readily available at the same exact price pretty much as the “conventional” brands. (Gerber and Earths Best were a few of those brands I was not at all impressed with ingredients wise…even aside from the heavy metals found in them lol)
- Also, DANG buying baby food pouches adds up quick!! I don’t know how people do it! I seriously save about $60-$80 a WEEK just making my own food!!
My very favorite brand was:
Serenity Kids!! Privately owned thank goodness!! This was the only brand I could find that contained only meat and veggies in them, 5g of protein per pouch, which is awesome plus they contained no fruits! My little boy LOVED these the best and was the most filled up after them. I also love that some of them have avocado or olive oil in them.
A Few Honorable Mentions:
I never got the chance to try these brands but I know they are great! (and privately owned!!)
- Once Upon a Farm
- Peter Rabbit Organics (only thing with these is they all contain mostly fruit)
- White Leaf Biodynamic baby food (these are the besttt I’m all about biodynamic farming!! these are next level!)
- Cerebelly
- Yumi
All of these brands mentioned are in my amazon storefront under the baby & kids food section
Tips for Making Your Own Baby Food
If you’re able, making your own baby food is the cleanest, healthiest, and most cost effective!
While pre-made pouches and jarred baby food is awesome and convenient, homemade baby food is my first choice because:
- it’s more cost effective
- typically contains less ingredients
- no preservatives or additives (even the organic, good pre made foods typically still have some kind of preservative in it…because they need to to not go bad lol)
- there are more nutrients retained because it doesn’t need to be cooked as long or high for preservation
- it’s fresher!
Now I know what you’re thinking…”Ain’t nobody got time for that!”Here’s a few tips to help make it easier!!
- Set aside a prep day or afternoon for bulk steaming, roasting and baking a bunch of baby food OR just throw leftovers from a dinner you make in a blender and freeze it
- You don’t need a specific baby food purée machine…any blender you have will do! (My favorite is a vitamix)
- Use ice cube trays (my favorite non toxic silicone ones are in my amazon storefront) to freeze and preserve the purées into cubes.
- Next time baby needs to eat…boom just heat it up! Add in some bone broth instead of water for some extra gut health loving, immune boosting properties!! (how to make bone broth here)
- Need to save on freezer space? Once cubes are frozen, throw all cubes in a labeled freezer bag (my favorite are stasher bags also in my amazon storefront)
- Still like the idea of pouches better? This fabulous infantino baby squeeze machine (above photo) lets you take your homemade purées and put them in pouches!! (guess where you can easily get that…in my amazon storefront lol)
What tips do you have?
(check out that recipe book in last picture for some great age appropriate purée recipes!)
What brands have you loved and tried?? Do you make your own baby food??
Comment below with your experiences and thoughts!
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