Homemade or commercial baby food

Homemade or commercial baby food: what are the options?

Parents usually land on one of these 3 approaches.

1. 1. All homemade

   You make all of the baby's food yourselves.

2. 2. Mix

   You use some homemade and some bought food.

3. 3. Mostly pouches and jars

   You rely mainly on bought pouches and jars.

Homemade or commercial baby food: what does the evidence say?

Your call. No outcome evidence picks a winner. Preference, culture, money and logistics decide.

Heavy metals were detectable in 94% of both store-bought and homemade samples; the food type matters, not who made it

Sources

• Healthy Babies Bright Futures

What else is worth knowing?

Homemade food gives you control and costs less, and it takes time. Bought food is convenient and consistent. Either can provide what a baby needs, so this mostly comes down to time and preference.

Questions to ask each other

• How much time and energy do we realistically want to put into baby food?
• Are there any worries about commercial food that matter to us?
• What would a good compromise be?

More in Feeding the baby

• Milk source
• The non-nursing parent's role
• Feeding on demand or on a schedule
• Pumping, bottles and donor milk
• Breastfeeding duration and night weaning
• Pacifier
• When to start solids
• How to start solids
• Allergen introduction
• First foods
• Sugar and juice before age 2