Baby Food: Homemade or From a Jar?

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Dr. Alan Greene

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Whether parents choose to make or buy baby's first foods, I assure parents that most babies will eat a healthy diet with their first foods.

Making home-made baby food, though, has the advantage of providing nutritionally rich foods with fresh taste, smell and color. This can be tough for busy parents, though, as the process can take time - or set aside about half an hour to make and freeze food for the week. Better yet, I'm a fan of using a simple baby food mill to take whatever you are eating as a family (with a few exceptions), grind it, and share the same meal together. The goals of baby food are to provide healthy nutrition now and to help lead the baby toward enjoying the family food culture.

Some jarred baby foods could be more likely to lead children toward years of kids meals. If you go with prepared baby foods, choose those with a vibrant, fresh taste - preferably organic. There are a number of innovative fresh and frozen baby foods today that I love.

I do cook for my kids, but my favorite is when we cook together as a family - especially if it is made from food we grow together. We have a small backyard garden. Over the course of the year we grow potatoes, carrots, squash, corn, tomatoes, peppers, beans, mint, basil, blackberries, apples, oranges, nectarines, plums, apricots, lemons, limes, and kumquats. A favorite harvest treat for the kids is a healthy, homemade veggie pizza, with pizza sauce made from just-picked tomatoes, and roasted garden vegetables on top.

Alan Greene, MD, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine, Attending Pediatrician at Packard Children's Hospital, and Senior Fellow at the University California San Francisco Center for the Health Professions. He is also founder of DrGreene.com, and author of Raising Baby Green and Feeding Baby Green.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and not necessarily those of Healthy Child Healthy World.

Image Courtesy of Biotron / CC BY-SA 2.0