How much baby food to stockpile?

[GardenGnome]

Originally Posted by cpnsgirl03 Thank you so much for all your help, I'm sorry I couldn't post sooner, was not feeling well the past couple of day... Another question though :) How many 2nd stage jars should I stock up? I'm sorry for being so ignorant but I'm clueless as this will be my first one :) Does baby eat solid food 3 meals a day like an adult in addition to the milk? Thanks for any help :) sisca

Just passing through and saw this thread... I thought I would add that all babies are their own individuals and you might want to be limited in stocking up baby food. It's so hard to predict what your baby will want or do. The good news is there were always be more sales closer to the time your baby will be eating baby food! Some babies do not like the texture AT ALL and will refuse to eat baby food. Honestly, it's just for practice in the first year anyways. Breastmilk or formula provides all the nutrition that they have to have.

With my oldest I did everything on the recommended schedule with rice cereal at 6 months and then made my own baby food with some of the jarred stuff- following all the stages. With my youngest, who is a year old now, we didn't start solid foods until he was about 8 months old and he had a little bit of the jarred food but mostly went right to the table foods we eat. He is a little piggie now. It was soooo much easier and less hassle to let him feed himself!

Anyways, thought I would bring that up in case you haven't thought of making your own or the possibility that you may end up stocking up on something you are unable to use. I also totally agree on skipping 1st foods. However, 1st foods generally only have one ingredient like apples for example while 2nd foods combine and will have pears & apples in a jar. So if you're family has allergies 1st foods might be a benefit because you can start out with one food at a time and isolate any possible allergies. Other then that, 2nd foods all the way!

[kitikat]

I think it depends on how many they eat! and when is the expiration date!

[scissorbill]

You could end up like me...with a 6.5 month old and 50 jars of the stuff and he won't eat it. He just gags and shudders. He'll probably just start with table food in a few months and I'll donate the jars.

[TheWoman]

Originally Posted by scissorbill You could end up like me...with a 6.5 month old and 50 jars of the stuff and he won't eat it. He just gags and shudders. He'll probably just start with table food in a few months and I'll donate the jars.

Same here. My dd is 1 1/2 and still won't eat anything pureed. Most of the baby food I stockpiled ended up in muffins or pumpkin bread. Fortunately it was all free, so I didn't mind too much.

[tinabohio]

My 2 year old hated baby mush. She still barely tolerates regular old applesauce that the rest of us eat!
My neighbors baby on the other hand will not eat anything above a stage 2, she should be into something more according to her pedi and all (but pedi's have no education in infant nutrition, so I'm not believing him). Kid will not eat anything that isn't really mushy and ick.
Kids could go either way. Pesky little buggers, gotta love the individuality!

[mandybeyl]

Like previous posters, my DS2 never ate any jarred baby food. I tried for a couple of months but he refused so I finally just put him straight to table food and he did great and ate like a champ. Who could blame them? I wouldn't want to eat that stuff either! Like my pediatrician said " gerber's not the only ones that can feed a baby!"

[bonniebabies]

Introducing solids is recommended at 6 months but babies can be ready as early as 4 months and that is normal. My DD was a big baby (exclusively breastfed) and needed solids at 4 months. I think I bought about 50 jars of a mix of 1st and 2nd foods. My DD's pediatrician recommended making her food using whatever I normally cook starting at 6 months since homemade food tends to be heartier (more meat, etc). My supply of jarred food lasted because I only used it out of the house or when I didn't have something homemade on hand. HTH.