Hellobee Boards

Following! We're also just starting BLW and it's not quite as low maintenance as I had hoped. Also wondering when folks started things like puffs and pouches? LO is just 6 mo and has tried sweet potato and banana (and by tried I mean stuck it in her mouth, was horrified, fed it to the dogs, and then smeared the rest around on her tray...).

I don't think they add sugar to baby food? We used Gerber and the ingredients were always just whatever fruit/veggie it was and water.

@babybean404: what about freezing the leftovers? Use a ice cube tray which makes each cube roughly an ounce.
With dd 1 I was working full time and made her purees on the weekends and just froze in ice cube trays. We only did purees for about a month and half so it wasn't too much work.

With DD2 now I'm not making extra to freeze since im home. But if there happens to be extra I freeze it. Usually I would just take whatever were eating and just cook it a bit more. Ie yesterday I made noodle soup for dd1 and there was broccoli in there. After I pulled out dd1's food I just boiled some broccoli a bit longer and mashed it up for the baby. I was using homemade stock that has no salt or anything added. Bananas, avocados, etc are relatively easy to kash yourself. Baby also really likes frozen fruit in her mesh teether. I've done blueberries, bananas, and grapes in there so far.

Good luck!

I bought Earth's Best brand and Gerber for jarred/boxed veggies for daycare.

@babybean404: I used all of them at one time or another--LO had favorites of all the brands--we use gerber organics, the beechnut brand, Ella's kitchen, Plum Organics, Happy baby, Sprout, etc.

As far as puffs go...we didn't use those much until she was older. There's always good old regular Cheerios. I do think all the puffs I've seen do not have "added sugar", but have sugar on the label because they use fruit juice or fruit in the puffs. We used the happy Family puffs, and the have just 1 g of sugar per serving, which I feel is fine.

We were going to make all of our food too (LOLOLOL) -- Did not happen!!

We did BLW, and started the pouches from time to time after she had a handle on solids (probably around 11 months).

You can freeze what's leftover, and just put it into a smoothie for later on. That's what I did, and it was great.

@blackbird: will you share your banana-oat "cookie" recipe? I think DS would love something like that.

I try to buy pouches and purees when they are on sale. BRU has their own brand of organics that are often like 50 cents for jars or a dollar for pouches. Check out grocery stores for their own brand too.

I though Ellas kitchen had toddler bars without added sugar. I've gotten those before and both my kids love them. I think they have grains and fruit only but maybe Im not remembering correctly.

@lawbee11: Some Stage 3 baby food has apple juice concentrate, raisin puree, etc. which to me is very similar to adding sugar. They are unnecessarily sweetening. I have found this in both organic and non-organic lines but Gerber is the worst, from my grocery store label reading!

We used mostly Earth's Best when we didn't make our own. They have a variety of jars and their pouches are a little cheaper than Ella's Kitchen or Plum.

Same as @blackbird. I look more at ingredients than organic. Beechnut has a lot of great blends that are really simple. I also like Earth's Best, but not because its organic - also because the ingredients are simple and there is a very wide variety of it at my grocery store.
At my grocery store it seems like all the pouches are organic, so that is what I end up with. We get a lot of Plum Organics, Earth's Best, and Sprout.
Agree with @Mrs.Someone that you don't have to follow the 24 hour rule so stringently. One thing I do though is open the pouch or jar and if I know he won't eat all of it, I transfer some to a separate small bowl. That way I'm not dipping his spoon into the whole thing that I know he won't finish. I just seal off the portion we didn't use in the original container and use it within 2 days or so.

And another here who was going to make my own food. Then up until recently I was completely overwhelmed with motherhood and started to doubt it. Then, unprompted, my pediatrician told me "don't bother to make your own food unless you really really want to because you'll enjoy it. Jars and pouches are perfectly fine, there's little to no difference anymore." I haven't done anything besides mash bananas and avocados. Everything else has come from a jar and I feel no remorse!

I buy a blend of pouches that are just veggies. It's hard to find one not sweetened with pear or some other fruit, but each brand has at least one or two with just veggies.

A big hit for my LO was banana "pancakes." It is simply 1 banana mashed with 1/2 cup of Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Oat Flour, and then cooked like a pancake in a pan with your choice of butter or coconut oil. They traveled well too.

DS eats all brands but mostly Plum and Happy Family pouches because I couponed for them when I was pregnant. However I don't like how they all have fruit in them - I want him to eat just veggies. So we supplement with BeechNut "just" blends which include things like asparagus, peas, and green beans. I like the Plum World flavors. DS gobbles up the coconut pumpkin rice one. We do plum organic puffs and melts but he only gets a few at every meal so I don't sweat it. I also give him Baby Mum Mums. We do Earth's Best meals for the meat entrees - he likes the Turkey Sweet Potato and Chicken Veggie dinner. I try to use all baby food within two days of opening and squirt them into a small tea cup to keep germs out.

Another bee steered me towards Beechnut, and my LO loved them. Also a fan of Ella's and Plum Organic.