Which Ones Better?

I made baby food with my son and bought it with my daughter. I didn't notice much of a difference health wise, but money wise I noticed a big difference. Making the food was a lot cheaper, AND some of it was coming out of the garden so it was just about free.

It's healthier and cheaper to make your own. It's fairly easy and there are a lot of easy storage options too.

But buying it is more of a convenience food.

Making it.
Cheaper.
Healthier.
More control over quality.
Pretty easy.

Well, clearly making it is "better" as it is fresher, cheaper and has absolutely no additives.
But a lot of babies go straight from breast to table and skip the whole baby food phase.
That's pretty much how it was for my three kids. I just started out by mushing up whatever we were eating (and no, not in my mouth!)

Make it for sure. It is super easy, cheaper, better variety and easier transition to table food. If you need to transport it, I used the Advent plastic containers with lids. Worked great...no leaks.

I think making it, mostly b/c it's just so darn easy and cheap!!! I did buy some baby food, especially if we were traveling, but 98% of the time, my kids ate the homemade stuff.

Also, I did usually buy a container or two of the veggies the first time I introduced them to my kids. I didn't want to waste time and energy on making up some peas if all of a sudden they were allergic to them! It's pretty rare that your child will have a reaction to the basic veggies and fruit, but it's possible, so I usually did it that way, but after that I made in big batches and froze them.

I used ice cube trays and then moved them to freezer bags. I made big enough batches to last for at least a month or two. Even if I was traveling around town I put them in a bowl with a lid (the Gerber baby bowls are super awesome!!!) and let them thaw on their own until I needed them. Otherwise nuke them for like 10 seconds and the meal is ready!

Fruit is a lot waterier so just be wise to that. I often mixed fruits so that I could make a thicker batch. Also store bought apple sauce with no sugar added is super cheap and very healthy as is canned pumpkin.

The kind you buy, does not have to list some ingredients. The are thickeners, the food is incredibly watered down, chemicals, etc. It's ALWAYS better to make your own food vs. purchasing processed food. For every age. Also, it's much cheaper.

Making your own is better. Same as cooking from scratch using fresh (and ideally local) fruit, veggies and proteins is vastly better than buying prepackaged over processed foods.

Plus making your own bf is incredibly easy and way cheaper. Also more ecological. We have always fed DS what we were eating. When he was 5-6 months - that meant we would use the individual ingredients, once he had some experience with that we would puree the full dish. So he might have mashed bananas, scrambled egg and avocado for breakfast. If we had grilled chicken breasts and peas for dinner, strawberries for dessert - he would have pureed chicken breast, steamed and pureed peas and mashed strawberries right along with us. I always made extra to freeze in ice cube trays. Made lunches and daycare a breeze.

Depends on your needs.

I never bought babyfood, and I also never 'made' babyfood in the new sense. My son ate what I ate. Super easy. Babies just need it softer and wetter, and older infants just need it smaller.

We DID 'travel the world' on our played that year (you want to introduce as many flavors/chemical signatures as possible before age 2... But cilantro is cilantro whether it's in Vietnamese or Mexican. A lot of people forget that if they don't introduce herbs and spices early, then they'll be stuck with bland for years because the brain rejects them as poisonous. That wears off at about age 5... But that 3 very boring/frustrating years if picky eating

Not using it at all. Why do it to begin with?

Baby's need their nutrition from the breastmilk or formula first then add the food to teach the child to chew then swallow. Nothing about baby food is about feeding the child, or at least it should not be.

I always find it sad when parents talk about moms feeding their babies baby food then they don't take their bottles anymore. How sad for these children. Formula is perfectly balanced and provides vitamins and other specific nutrients not found in baby food at all. It is added to the formula.