Baby Food - Gerber vs Beechnut vs Other?

[anothershopper2]

Hi HCW Mommies out there -

We are getting close to solids (FTM here) and we are also finally moving so I can start to stock up a little bit after the move. Anyhow - I was curious what is the difference (if any) between the 2 major brands - Gerber & Beechnut and all the other brands - organics, store brands, Earth's Best etc?

How did you decide which ones to feed your LOs? Is it like formula - where you stick to one brand? Or you just see what your LO ends up liking?

Any thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks! I read the pricing thread - which was helpful. I hope I can do about $0.15 - $0.25 a jar. I will probably do some homemade but since I work FT, I will probably do some store-bought as well.

[taylorcpa]

I got deals mostly on Gerber baby food so that is what DS had mostly. The few times I bought Beechnut, he definitely preferred Gerber over it. I am not sure what the differences are though.

[dliver316]

I was like you...totally confused on what food was best. Here is a website that will kind of break it down for you www.wholesomebabyfood.com . It is mainly a website advocating making your own food, but you can get some info on there about comparing costs of all the baby foods out there and compare the ingredients and differences between the different types also.
I started out making most of my sons food. But I found it difficult to do all the time....I dont like cooking anyway. I started introducing just organic...and between Gerber and Beechnut, Gerber is the only one with organic. However, the selection is horrible. I liked the fact that beechnut only uses glass jars.
So eventually I just used a little bit of everything and whatever was on sale or I had a coupon for. I def dont think you have to stick to one brand like with formula. My son didnt seem to know the difference between the brands. I guess every baby is different.
Good luck on starting a new stage with your baby!

[tmsmalley]

I didn't find any difference between baby food brands, whatever is available. You don't have to stick to one brand like with formula either. You can do bananas from Gerber and peas from Beachnut if you want. Or bananas one day from Beachnut and the next day bananas from Gerber. Doesn't matter.

Tess

[mama2two]

I just avoided gerber cereals b/c they contain soy lecithin (sp??) and that constipated both my babies. Switch cereals and they were fine. So I used earth's best or beechnut cereals, then tried to do organic when I bought, although the 1st got mainly homemade and the 2nd had more jarred. My Stores here have a store brand organic with good selection, sometimes they use to have really good sales on it.

[mnnice]

DS1 hated all pureed food. The little amount I stockpiled most of it went to the food pantry.

DS2 I feed mostly organic jarred food for few reasons
1. He did eat/enjoy it (especially the earth's best pears).
2. It was handy to bring to daycare on the days I WOTH.
3. I kept getting cats for Gerber organics when I bought Earth's Best and Gerber when I bought Earth's Best.
4. We eat lots of organics in general and I think it's especially important to children under 2 since their little nervous systems are still developing. Also they eat lots of apples and pears that are high pesticide foods.

[sevan76]

I'm a big fan of Earth's Best and Beech-Nut. Both eem to have better flavors and a wider variety than Gerber. While I do buy some Gerber, I really check the label because some of it has added sugar and salt, which the other brands don't have. I also try to do as much organic as I can, particularly when it comes to any baby food that has meat in it.

[loladooder99]

I think its crazy that people say their babies like one brand over the other when really its all about the same thing till you get to the chunky 3rd foods. My son liked the gerber 3rd foods because beechnut tends to put way bigger chunks. I on the other hand like the variety that beechnut offers and here in NM i tend to get way better deals on Beechnut then I do gerber considering that i don't seem to find many gerber coupons. Purely price wise I choose beechnut. I recently got my 11 month old Beechnut mini meals for .06 cents with a 1.00 off let's grow product coupon from beechnut.

[Alexdur85]

I read the ingredients on the back of both and I think if I remember correctly beechnut had one extra ingredient which was to preserve it.

[hillaryef]

I have to say that I liked beechnut b/c it was glass jars. It was also a better deal $$. But to be honest, both of my ds ate both. My boys never ate cereal on its own. So we always mixed cereal with their food. So with gerber, there were stage 2 foods that had complex grains and such added to the food. I liked those. I also only used meat food that was organic. But other than that, I usually used beechnut.

Honestly though, I don't think you can go wrong. Gerber and Beechnut have been around forever...so they both must be doing something right. And I'm with pp, you don't have to stay loyal to a brand like you might with formula.