Baby Food – Home Made or Ready Made?

When I had my first child I cooked every recipe in Annabel Karmel’s book. I mashed fruit, steamed vegetables, shopped organic and virtually watched everything that went into my daughter’s mouth. My second child was weaned on chocolate buttons (I kid you not) fed to him behind my back by my 3 year old sister. Being time starved I didn’t make many organic home cooked meals, or Annabel Karmel delights. Now at 2 years he will eat pretty much the same as his sister, which is everything but baked beans, green beans and brussel sprouts. What my very unscientific survey shows me, is that all my worrying over the quality of my first-born’s meals and all my guilt over my second’s pretty much did nothing but bring them to exactly the same place. So I find it sad to hear that a new survey released today reveals that a fifth of mums say feeding their child ready made baby food makes them feel like a bad mum. The research also shows that four out of ten mums (39%) feel they are being ‘judged’ by other parents for not making baby food from scratch and19% of mums feel that manufactured baby food is a necessity but wish they could do better for their child. The reality is while what you feed your baby is obviously important, ready made baby food is not the devils work. Believe me if you want to stress about food,  what you should worry about is what your kids eat when they’re older and you’re not around. Last Friday my five year old chose garlic bread and cake for her school dinner (money well spent!) and yesterday at a friend’s house she happily told me “I had Monster Munch and that juice you won’t give me” (a juice so artificially bright it hurts my eyes). My point being that even kids who have a great start with food will happily undo all your good work in no time. Meaning it’s a waste of time to feel like a bad mum just because you don’t have time to cook. But what do you think? Are ready-made kids meals bad? Are all your meals homemade? Let me know.