Making Your Own Baby Food, Part 1: The Truth About Commercial Brand Baby Foods

As I've mentioned before, since my first child, I've learned better, more affordable ways to raise my kids.  Another major way we are saving money the second time around is by making our own baby food.  Now, don't cringe.  I'm going to illustrate how this is easy, healthier for baby and kinder to your wallet.

First, I want to put some perspective on store bought baby food.   Even at the best price (occasionally grocery stores will sell the packs 10 for $10), they cost about 20 cents an ounce.  For instance, each two-pack of Gerber, on sale 10 for $10, are 5 oz each.  So, that's 5 ounces of food for a dollar, or 20 cents an ounce.  Okay, if you multiply that by one gallon, you discover that baby food costs at minimum $25.60 a gallon!!!

(And if you consider how much you buy in a year, on average if you use two to four of these little baby food containers a day, then that's at best $1-2 a day, or $365-$730 a year just on baby food containers, but probably more because as baby grows, they eat more and the containers cost more and we're not always lucky enough to get them on sale.)

Now, how many of you tend to "thicken your baby food" with rice cereal or oatmeal?  Well, when you do that, you are increasing the cost of your baby's meal even more.  So, why do we even have to do that?  Well, because baby food companies actually water down the food.  This makes them less nutritious and it also means that a decent portion of that $25.60 per gallon you are paying is actually going toward water.

Dr. Daryth Stallone and Dr. Michael Jacobson state in research findings on this topic that, 

"Gerber and Heinz add substantial amounts of water and thickening agents (flours and chemically modified starches) to more than half of their twenty-five most popular fruits, mixed and creamed vegetables, desserts, and dinners for babies over six months (second- and third-stage foods). Not only are those products a monetary rip-off, they are also nutritionally inferior to similar products made without fillers. Gerber and Heinz' bananas with tapioca, for example, contain less than half of the levels of nutrients found in their plain first-stage bananas. Gerber and Heinz' regular dinners, which contain at least two types of refined flour as thickeners, provide less than 50% of the nutrient levels found in comparable dinners."

Beech Nut, Growing Healthy and Earth's Best do a better job at this, but making your own is still the best way and I'll explain how and why in Part 2 of this post.  
Commercial baby food brands market their products to mom's by making claims that they are specially formulated to give your baby the best nutrition and this just simply is not the case.  Real, whole food is the only thing "specially formulated" for our kids.  In order to give your baby the nutrition he or she truly needs from commercial baby food, you would have to feed them at least twice as much.

So let's look at real, whole food and compare quality, quantity and cost.  Let's take and 8 oz sweet potato or yam.  Sweet potatoes and yams are super foods.  They are rich in nutrients and great for baby.  They're also one of baby's first foods, so a good place to start.  Ok, let's boil that sweet potato.  Now it has perhaps doubled or maybe even tripled in volume, creating well over a pound of food.  On average, sweet potatoes cost about $1.00 per pound at the grocery store, or about $1.50 per pound for organic.  So, you just produced 16-24 ounces of cooked, nutritious food for about 50 to 75 cents.  16-24 ounces of Gerber Sweet Potatoes would cost you about $3.00 to $5.00.

And, a 2 ounce serving of cooked sweet potatoes contains almost 200% of our daily allowance of Vitamin A, 16% of our daily allowance of Vitamin C, 2% of Calcium and Iron, 6.5% of our daily dietary fiber, 2% of our protein, 7% of our potassium, and 30 mg of Omega 6 fatty acids.

A 2 ounce serving of Gerber Sweet Potatoes has about the same in Vitamin A, which tells you they may be pumping it back in, 0% of our Vitamin C, 0% of Calcium, 0% of Iron, 2% of protein (again, putting it back in?), about 6% of our potassium, and they say nothing about Omega 6 fatty acids.

In my next post, I'm going to talk about making your own baby food at home.  Max is about 5 months old now and I've already saved so much money and I know that what I'm giving him is truly nutritious and it hasn't really cost me that much extra time at all.  And that's important, because extra time is worth more than money to a busy mom.

Some of My Favorite All Natural Products for Babies and Kids

Since I made the commitment to all natural living, I have found some truly awesome products that are safe for my kids.  The following are a few that I cannot live without, and I thought I would share them with you.  If you're interested in the JR Watkins products, go to www.jrwatkins.com and use my Consultant ID#395712 when placing an order.  Thanks!

JR Watkins All Natural Baby Wash---  Made with Rice Flower and Shea, this extremely gentle baby wash smells sooo good and light!  It leaves my kids' skin feeling so soft and because it's so pure, I don't have to worry about any harmful chemicals being absorbed into their tender skin.  Even though it is "baby" wash, I still use it on Mariella!

Zarbee's Naturals Cough Syrup---  Love this product.  I use the regular and the nighttime version.  Mariella is rarely sick, but when she is, I use this product in combination with the JR Watkins Menthol Camphor Ointment and it usually does the trick on her symptoms.  It contains honey, zinc, and Vitamin C and the nighttime contains melatonin.

JR Watkins Menthol Camphor Ointment--- This product has been around for over 100 years and it is tried and true.  My great grandmother used it, my grandmother used it and my mother used it.  It is similar to Vick's Vapo Rub but sooo much better and it's all natural.  Plus it comes in a 4oz tin that lasts forever....a great value for $9.99.  I also like that it can be used for other issues like arthritic pain, backaches, bruises, sprains and strains, so basically everybody in the house uses it.

JR Watkins Petro Carbo Salve---  So, if you're going to buy a tin of Menthol Camphor Ointment, you may as well get the Petro Carbo Salve while you're at it.  These are two items I ALWAYS have in my medicine cabinet.  I love Petro Carbo because it takes over where the Menthol Camphor Ointment leaves off and cures pretty much everything else.  It's a first aid salve that heals cuts, burns, scrapes, insect bites, skin irritations, splinters.... you name it.  If you have kids, you must have this in your cabinet.

Little Tummy's Gripe Water--- When Max was first born and for the first two months, he had terrible colic.  He would scream for hours every night and nothing we did helped him.  Then we discovered Gripe Water.  It really made a difference.  And it also helps really well with hiccups and teething.  It's made with all natural ginger and fennel.

JR Watkins All Natural 30 SPF Sunscreen---  Second to sun exposure, chemical laden sunscreen scares me to death when it comes to my kids' skin.  That's why I love this product.  It's PABA-free and uses all natural titanium dioxide, shea butter and aloe.

Fletcher's All Natural Laxative for Kids---  This rootbeer flavored laxative is a great and gentle way to cure occasional constipation in kids.  It's made with senna so you do want to follow the dosage instructions carefully, but I love it way better than pediatric suppositories.  It's for children age two and over, though so don't use on babies.

Tom's of Maine Children's Toothpaste--- Mariella loves the Silly Strawberry but the one thing I will say is, if your kids are used to overly-flavored toothpastes, this is going to be an adjustment.  The flavor is light and the paste is a little bitter.  But, it is all natural and that's important when it comes to something that could potentially be swallowed a little bit.  There is no fluoride in Tom's for kids.