Vegetable/Fruit Puree: Homemade or Commercial

[Sylvieng]

Yeah, strange that your pead would recommend commercial ones. Sure he/she doesn't have any shares ?

Homemade are definitly better. I can tell you for sure fo havng tried one, the taste is not even the same. So even if you are confident about what they ar putting inside, if you want your baby to know and learn to like real veggie, I'll tell you to stick to homemade.

The only time I have commercial one was when I went travelling.

[crystal]

Homemade is the best for the babies.

[loupou]

It depends on the commercial stuff. Some jars contain nothing but the stuff itself (e.g. pureed carrots).

Other reasons why the paed. might have suggested to use them.
A) Mama is less emotionally invested - so if baby spits it out or turns up her nose, mama doesn't feel so rejected.

B) Some mamas (not here of course) may not keep kitchen and utensils as hygienic as possible. If the paed was older, could be he is remembering a time when refrigeration was less common and canned pureed foods might be cleaner and safe for a young baby than "carrot pulled from family soup pot and mushed up with a spoon".

My kids mostly ate congee and mushed up food that we cooked for them, but we also bought jarred stuff too sometimes. It was good to have it in the cabinet or fridge if we had a hungry BB and "Oh no, we didn't get around to making any congee!".

Commercial jars of baby food are not poison and if you look at the list of ingredients, you basically know what they're getting. Avoid stuff w/ added salt and sugar if that's your worry.

[pannekee]

I guess my pd suggested trying the commercial ones first cos my pd mention something about baby's first food shouldn't involve cooking !!!! That's why I got all confused.....

......and paranoid

And last night when I asked my helper to steam the carrots, I kept checking to make sure the carrots are COOKED !!!!!

And I was considering to re-do everything myself just to make sure the carrots are properly steamed !!!!!!!

GOSH !!!!!

[joannek]

no cook for puree:
banana, avocado - highly nutritious.
grated apples, green pears - babies loves them.
mix them up & you've got some winner combo.

frozen purree : carrots, pumpkin, sweet potato. put them in ice cube tray, transfer to ziplocs when frozen, only need 1 min to heat up in a microwave (but stir to ensure not to hot for baby.)

if you combine these, it will last you at least a month.

but pls remember when u first introduce solid, should let baby try for at least 3 days in a row to make sure no allergic reaction.

[joannek]

steaming carrots, pumpkin & sweet potato (for baby caroit size or 2 inch cubes) 20 mins is enough. you don't want to over cook them. as long as they're soft & can be mashed w/ a fork, they're fine.

then there's the sanitizing issue. wash everything in hot soapy water. rinse well. if u're afraid of detergent residual, try natural dish detergent- dishmate, available at citysuper or Nature Clean available @ 2/F Prosperous COmm Centre, Jardine's Bazaar CWB or B/F queen's theatre (i forgot the name of the shop)

happy cooking!

[pannekee]

steaming carrots, pumpkin & sweet potato (for baby caroit size or 2 inch cubes) 20 mins is enough. you don't want to over cook them. as long as they're soft & can be mashed w/ a fork, they're fine.

then there's the sanitizing issue. wash everything in hot soapy water. rinse well. if u're afraid of detergent residual, try natural dish detergent- dishmate, available at citysuper or Nature Clean available @ 2/F Prosperous COmm Centre, Jardine's Bazaar CWB or B/F queen's theatre (i forgot the name of the shop)

happy cooking!

Thanks..I am currently using Pigeon brand detergent for washing baby's utensils and equipment.

[joannek]

i've never tried pigeon. but i've noticed that some "baby friendly" bottle cleanser or detergents are very strong. so i changed to natural cleansers.