Jars of baby food - which ones to use??

Delilah

I have a four month old baby i am starting to wean and although i will be using my own food to begin with i am at work full time and accept the fact that i may have to use jars occasionally - and was wondering if anybody can recommend any. Hipp Organic, Heinz, Cow and Gate etc...
All views or experiences welcome.

alwaysonthego_2

If I use them dd likes the heinz mums range but it does wloork out more expensive, dd2 goes to nursery part time and I food process her vegetables and pasta etc and put them in a tupperware tub, sometimes I make a joblot and freeze them, which saves lots of time.

claireandella

My dd likes Hipp and, although I try to prepare fresh organic food for her, it is handy to be able to give her a jar occasionally (particularly if running late for nursery or if homecooked hasn't turned out right lol). I find that it is quite often on offer (Waitrose regular offer is fab- buy 4 jars and save £1, this works out at 26p per jar). Otherwise Poundland have Cow and Gate ordinary and organic on offer at 4, 3 or 2 jars for £1 depending on size. These are fine but I prefer Hipp. The other advantage of jars is that they offer a taste of food which we don't often have at home or a chance to try organic foods which are really expensive if we buy the raw ingredients. Dd has had hake and tagliatelle in creamy sauce which I wouldn't normally make and she loves various berry puddings (blueberries are about £4 for a small box here so I don't buy them much).
I do think home made is better and, when your baby is a bit bigger she'll probably just have a bit of whatever you're having. It's amazing how healthy family meals become with organic food, lots of fruit and veg and no salt or sugar!

misspenny

i prepare fresh in bulk or a lot of the time wizz up what we have mainly because it works out cheaper than jars have used hipp with ds when been busy or want to try him on something new and dont want to buy a lot of that raw ingredient if he not going to like it

moozikgal

i would avoid the hienz tins, they tend to be very jelly like and solid when they are opened. My little one liked the hipp organic ones to start off with and has moved onto the cow and gate stage 2 jars now. i worked it out by trial and error really, your own instinct will choose whats best for you!

Kit_Kat_Kate

If you join the Hipp baby club you get free samples, money off vouchers and weaning spoons for free. http://www.hipp.co.uk/
I have been making my own food up but I have used these jars a few times.

evilwitch

I use whatever is on special offer. I choose what sounds nice and make note of if it goes down well with the boss, if so then it gets bought again, if not then left for a while then re-tried.

Melissa likes the Heinz cans especially the spaghetti hoops and sausages one and loved the 4month banana delight. We also used the dried cereals. Found it worked well to put just boiled water in a steralised bottle and put it in one of the insulated carriers to keep it warm, then when we were out I took the lid off the bowl in which I had already ut the dried food and just added the still warm water. Meant she had sunrise banana for lunch a few times but babies don't care if 'breakfast' foods are lunch!

Mostly she has what we had now, but at the start of weaning I spent a day or so cooking up different veggies and fruit and freezing them then there was always stuff to hand but that gets difficult out and about especially if you have a baby that doesn't like food cold and you can't find anywhere that will heat homemade food as many wont.

Counting_Pennies_2

I used to use the ones I think made by Heinz in the plastic tubs, they looked much more natural and tasted much more like the real thing.

I also had a golden rule for myself never to feed my son meat from a jar, just didn't trust it would be of good enough quality.

Also think about bulk cooking and store it in used sterilised jars in your freezer, they are really handy for taking to the childminders or wherever your little one goes.

mishmash

Hi
I worked full time from my litttle ones being 3 months old, I did occassionally use jars ( normally Hipp organic).

I used to do most cooking in bulk, a good trick is to do a number of different veg and put them in ice cube trays in the freezer. It's really easy then, just to pop a few different frozen veg cubes in a tub. That way the meal is different each time, my youngest loved sweet potatoe and butternut squash, I would then add peas or broccoli.

now they are all older I still do a similar thing, I now make a huge pan of veg ( normally carrots, caugettes, aubergine, peppers, mushrooms) with onions garlic and lots of tomatoe. I then have a healthy sauce for pasta, chicken or whatever.

Mish

charchar_3

I used to use jars for my little one when we were off out anywhere, and his fav was the heinz canned range. Cheesy parsnips were his fav!!!! Yuk!

inkie

Don't you think that all of these jars taste the same though - regardsless of whatever the label says it is!?