I’ve talked a lot about making your own baby food in the last few weeks. So much that you may be surprised that my pantry is currently loaded with store bought jars and pouches of baby food. Hold the phone…whaaaaaat?! I swore I wouldn’t do it but I fed my son out of a jar tonight and I don’t feel the least bit guilty.
![]()
Ok…I feel a little guilty. But I have found that the more advanced he becomes in his eating, the harder and more time consuming it is to make fun combinations for him. Doing the basic purees is a piece of cake but how can I duplicate Gerber’s delicious jar of Hawaiian Delight at home? Weirdo alert- I sneak bites of it in between spoonfuls to my son…it is so freaking good.
I want my son to get used to eating different textures and tastes. The easiest way for me to do that is do the homemade stuff for the basics and buy the rest. I’m so cheap about it (especially now that I know I can make my own) so I actually do a lot of mixing in the homemade with the store bought stuff. I try to buy store bought things that I wouldn’t otherwise make…ingredients like pumpkin, grapes, meat (I can NOT puree meat. I just threw up in my mouth thinking about it), prunes, cherries…etc.
My big guy is 9 months old and starting to get really good at feeding himself. I no longer need to make huge batches of baby food to store because he’s doing well with feeding himself and eating portions of my food. I will probably continue to buy some of the store bought stuff just to have on hand (those pouches with the attachable spoon are kind of amazing…I’m not going to lie).
So was my baby food making adventure a success? I’d say yes! I’m happy with what I’ve done so far to feed my baby and he seems to be happy as well. Although I didn’t expect to buy ANY of the store bought stuff, I’m happy to offer him different flavors without spending 10 hours in the kitchen peeling the skin off grapes or figuring out how to cook a pumpkin.
