WIC, jarred baby food and BLW

[Penny4Them]

Hi, Ds is 6 mos. Thankfully WIC food program has been helping my family and they are about to give me vouchers for jarred baby food inc'ing jars of meat baby food b/c I EBF. I had planned to give Ds the same food we eat to forgo spoon feeding. Since WIC is giving me jars, how would I let him experiment with the food? Does anyone know if I can ask for add'l food vouchers instead of jars? I was planning to make his food so I'm not quite sure how best to maximize WIC while giving him the most natural food. Any ideas ... I'd appreciate it!

[Mommy2Austin]

Originally Posted by Penny4Them

Hi, Ds is 6 mos. Thankfully WIC food program has been helping my family and they are about to give me vouchers for jarred baby food inc'ing jars of meat baby food b/c I EBF. I had planned to give Ds the same food we eat to forgo spoon feeding. Since WIC is giving me jars, how would I let him experiment with the food? Does anyone know if I can ask for add'l food vouchers instead of jars? I was planning to make his food so I'm not quite sure how best to maximize WIC while giving him the most natural food. Any ideas ... I'd appreciate it!

What you get on the checks is what you get...unless your son has sensitivities. Its a catch 22 for those of us more natural minded mommas who want to avoid the jar foods.

If you dont want to waste the jars/give them away, I would let him have a small non-glass dish and a spoon with a little food in it and let him dip and taste as he wants to.

[sapphire_chan]

Incorporate the jarred food into sauces and blended soups to free up your food budget for other foods for your family?

Do ask at WIC, but I'd explain that you want to make your own food (even though you won't) instead of that you aren't going to do purees. Since not doing purees could freak them out and have them denying your request for more food vouchers out of hand.

Can the jarred food vouchers be used for "stage 3" foods? Those are so small that I wouldn't feel safe giving them to a baby who was just learning about eating, but they'd be okay for you to have while your baby gets whole broccoli spears and carrots instead.

ETA: I think you should ask because you never know, not because WIC is likely to make that an option. However, do find out if you'll be able to do farmer's market vouchers when it gets warmer!

[Shanny2032]

I don't know anything about WIC or how it works so I can't help there but I would say iot can't hurt to ask if things can be done differently based on your plans. As far as BLW goes, I have done that with my 13 month old from day one and I really loved it. We started out slow and your baby will too so I wouldn't even worry about getting the jars for now and just feed him very small amounts from your plates. Let him take his time getting used to textures and tastes and he will probably only have a few bites of things for some time. I started dd around 7 months but she really didn't get into it until closer to 9 but by 10 she was eating everything including apples, meats, peanut butter etc. Initially I stuck to things like mashed avocado, very cooked carrots and sweet potatoes (mixed a little water in so they weren't too thick), applesauce, mushed banana. They wear a lot of it to begin with anyway . I would save the jars (buy stage 2) for when he is a little older and maybe you are out and about or in our case we needed some jars of prunes and oatmeal every couple of days. Hopefully they can help you in different ways so you don't have to waste the jars or feel like you have to give them to him. If you can't and feel you want to get the jars, just let him feed himself and combine it with table foods so her gets a full array of tastes and textures.

[Maine Mama Doula]

I use the baby food as sauce for pasta or I thicken it with the cereal that they also provide. Either way, your baby can still enjoy feeding him/herself and it only helps make things easier. Of course, for me, I won't object to help that I don't feel endangers my child in any way! HTH!

[lauren0289]

When I told wic I didnt need them, they were like huh? I had to explain BLW like 5 times, they had never heard of such a thing. I'm in texas so benefits are loaded on a card and they can't not put it on there. They told me to either not buy them, or to donate to a womens shelter. I do like the idea of using it in sauces and soups though. HTH!!

[curious&eager]

I'm in the same boat, going to get my vouchers on Monday. I figure I'll just get the healthiest jars I can find and on busy days or days I'm just too tired he can have the jarred food. I tried to offer them to a friend with a baby in exchange for some veggies, but she's making her own food too so that didn't work.

[vulnerable]

Same here. In NJ we get a voucher for 8 dollars for produce for the mother. Not much, when you can only purchase the veggies at a grocery store.

I told them I was planning on making my own food and they stated they will not supply a voucher for the baby, only jars. So I will either save them for when we are out visiting or give them away.

[springbride]

Just an FYI, not sure if it's state to state, but in CA you Can buy the organic brands!

[GreenGranolaMama]

Originally Posted by springbride

Just an FYI, not sure if it's state to state, but in CA you Can buy the organic brands!

Very jealous over in Maine!

I've used the butternut squash and carrots in soup and feed the baby food meats we get to the dog (we are Veg and the dog LOVES them!)

[Blueone]

How do you cook with baby food or use it in soups?

[GreenGranolaMama]

Originally Posted by Blueone

How do you cook with baby food or use it in soups?

When I make butternut soup, sweet potato soup or carrot soup, I cook the squash, carrots, or sweet potatoes first and then I add the corresponding baby food into the blender and then add some spices. For spices I do curry, sea salt, pepper and sometimes I little cayenne. Sometimes I add an apple or 2 as well.

[tessie]

There was a thread a few weeks back with ideas for recipes using jarred babyfoods. If you can use them that way you'll have more to spend on foods for BLW. See here.

However as previous posters have said they can be useful to keep in the changing bag for an emergency.

[YayJennie]

Here you cannot get different checks for the baby food jars, so you have to take what is given to you. What I've done is just feed my son the jars of food that I would eat (the fruit is really good in my opinion, and I eat some of it, so I don't think it's bad for him). They are convinient when we're out and about, or when I don't have much food in the house. I also have used them in smoothies, sauces, and I've eaten them when we're on the run (those bananas are like dessert!) And the ones I don't use, I donated to a local Vera House

[jessielove]

Originally Posted by Penny4Them

Hi, Ds is 6 mos. Thankfully WIC food program has been helping my family and they are about to give me vouchers for jarred baby food inc'ing jars of meat baby food b/c I EBF. I had planned to give Ds the same food we eat to forgo spoon feeding. Since WIC is giving me jars, how would I let him experiment with the food? Does anyone know if I can ask for add'l food vouchers instead of jars? I was planning to make his food so I'm not quite sure how best to maximize WIC while giving him the most natural food. Any ideas ... I'd appreciate it!

Go ahead and feed him what you were planning to. Use the jarred foods to boost your cooking. Pureed veggies and meats blend well into stews, gravies, soups and sauces. Pureed fruits are great substitutes for eggs or oil in baked goods.

I've used jarred puree beef in stew, turkey in gravy, bananas instead of eggs in cookies, etc. They give a little more vitamin to what you're already making and usually don't change the flavor much, if any.

[Penny4Them]

Just had a great idea for all the fruit jars of baby food we getr: make fruit leather! Here's a recipe that looks good
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1819...244197,00.html

[MamieCole]

Lots of great ideas for ways to use the jarred food!

I just wanted to chime in that you don't have to do "all or nothing" when it comes to BLW. We took a BLW approach w/ DS1, but I occasionally gave him purees as well. (especially for things like apples and pears. I was not super comfy with feeding him the less-squishy foods in the BLW style at first.) It's sort of like my approach to cloth diapering. We use cloth during the day and sposies at night.

We are on WIC now as well, so I do plan on utilizing the organic jarred food in lots of ways mentioned above once we will start receiving them at 6 months.

[tzs]

you can make really wasy carrot cake/muffins with carrot baby food. just google it.
AND.....sliders (yum...) are made with meat baby food in with the ground beef.

[Norasmomma]

You simply could just not get the stuff

I don't get lots of the WIC stuff, juice or cereal for us it's just too darn much, and my 3y/o doesn't need any extra sugar so I just don't buy it.