Jarred Baby Food question

[amandaleigh37]

My son is 6 mos. and we are planning on doing BLW, but we are now getting an insane amount of jarred baby food from WIC. I do plan to use it in cooking, sauces, mixing in yogurt, etc...

My question is: It appears I can choose either Gerber, BeechNut, or Nature's Goodness brands. I never bought jarred food for my older son, so this is new to me. Are all 3 brands the same? Gerber is a Nestle brand, correct? So I don't want to buy that. As for the other 2 - is one better than the other (either in contents, or company values?).

Thanks!

[boobs4milk]

hmmm...i'll be watching this because we'll be getting the foods, too. i asked the wic people if we could just 'skip' them and start her on the wic when she's 1 + and they said if i didn't need wic, maybe i shouldn't get it? i try not to take help, but we do have 7 kids and dh only makes ~40K/yr. so the wic is much appreciated.

[texmati]

My baby is not on solids yet, but I remember baby bargins recommended beachnut for better taste/ingredients. I don't remember Nature's goodness being reviewed.

I'm jealous of you-- I am looking everywhere for baby food jars to store breast milk in!

[melon]

Originally Posted by texmati

My baby is not on solids yet, but I remember baby bargins recommended beachnut for better taste/ingredients. I don't remember Nature's goodness being reviewed.

I'm jelouse of you-- I am looking everywhere for baby food jars to store breast milk in!

try freecycle for the jars.....

i also freecycle the babyfood meats, and i found someone who works with families in need, and she takes the wic food i don't need and gives it to families who do need it.

[Miasmamma]

I could opt out of getting the baby food. Since DD2 is EBF and I don't feed it, we don't have to get the coupons, so she won't be getting anything till she's a year. It was kinda nice. I was just going to feed it to my dogs honestly. But DD2 has tried some leftover from when her cousin was in from out of state and she seems to like the Beechnut Cinnamon Pears. But she doesn't like them enough for me to buy them. Right now we are at the "if I can't hold it I don't want it" stage.

[Erinz]

I would freecycle it. I remember my mom telling me that when she was a single mother with a little baby and was basically going hungry so her first child could eat she used to hope there was a bite of baby food left but there rarely was. I always get that picture in my head when I think of how many people there are out there with no or low food to eat.

My older son LOVES baby food ---- I avoid that aisle in the market because if he sees it he begs for blueberries!

[Polliwog]

I think it's against the rules to Freecycle WIC foods. At least, that's what I remember. You don't have to take them, though. You could just get the other items that are on the vouchers.

[dislocator3972]

Originally Posted by Polliwog

I think it's against the rules to Freecycle WIC foods. At least, that's what I remember. You don't have to take them, though. You could just get the other items that are on the vouchers.

You're right. No one other than the recipients reported to WIC are supposed to get the food. I'm planning to buy a few jars of the palatable foods and keep the jars, but not get any of the rest. And maybe I'll get some meats or some things that are harder (or less convenient) to make at home and take in the diaper bag.

A friend of mine said that her first check that had baby food on it had 91 jars! It's been months and she still hasn't gone through it all!

[koalove]

here in california we can get any brand~ even the organics! i just got some the other day...32 jars a month. sheesh.

[Penny4Them]

I posted about this a couple weeks ago ... here is the link for some more ideas. Including cooking with them.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...678&highlight=

DS tried the meat jars (after I made hubby try them) and he seemed to like them. I just can't stand the smell and don't think I can continue to give him the jarred meat. I don't think I'll be using my vouchers for meat anymore, but plan to keep getting the fruits and veggies and offering them to him with spoon.

[cdmommie]

Yup we get 96 jars on WIC. Insane. I just try to use them. I would prefer not to do jars, but you use what you get when you can't afford to buy food I guess. I get LOTS of Apple sauce and use that for cooking and for my 2 year old... I even eat it on occasion, lol. And the brands aren't much different. Also there may be things you can find in one brand but not the other. Because there are some things that Gerber puts in plastic and so you have to get the beachnut brand.

[thatgirliknew]

Originally Posted by koalove

here in california we can get any brand~ even the organics! i just got some the other day...32 jars a month. sheesh.

My daughter isn't old enough for baby food yet, but I looked at the WIC list and we aren't allowed to get organic in Kentucky or any combination foods. I was originally going to get baby food on WIC instead of making my own. Now I've decided to make my own for that reason and a few others...

[curious&eager]

I'm on WIC too and I get 91 jars a month, no organics or combs. I don't understand why people choose not to have the vouchers printed or don't pick up the food even when they are not going to use the jars because there are so many people that are struggling that could really use the help. You can give them to churches or to food pantries if you do not know someone personally that is having a hard time making ends meet.

I wanted to make my own food, but we are low income and I'm a tired new mommy. I want organic food but it is a long drive to someplace that sells organics in my budget. So we do end up using the jars. But, 91 a month, wow. We've been doing this for 1.5 months now and I've probably used 10 jars. He eats half a jar in the morning when I'm motivated to give him solid food. It's easier to breastfeed, so I'm not trying real hard to push solids. In the evening he'll eat the cereal from WIC.

As for brands, I saw a site that compared Gerber to Beech Nut and BN came out on top on more flavors. Gerber is too commercial for me. I then used that website's tip of comparing the calorie count and ingredients and I compared BN to Nature's Goodness and BN came out on top on everything. Basically the two ingredients in all the baby food is the single food and water, so the more calories that jar has the more food that's in the jar.

My DS enjoys all the veggies and fruits he's had so far. Now the meat, he basically vomits out. It's so gross for him and it smells so bad. I'm afraid to try it myself although I do eat all the fruit and veggie leftovers because I figure it's extra health stuff for me. I mix it into plain yogurt. I'm thinking about trying the gerber or nature's goodness meat because it has gravy instead of broth and it's a stage 2 meat instead of a stage 1 and maybe it'll taste a little better. If not, I'll be giving away all the meats because I can't see cooking with them like I can the fruits and veggies.

It is fun to take the whole packages including the cardboard boxes off the shelf and check out with a massive ton of food. You have to get creative in how to store it all at home though.

[tzs]

we can only get gerber in our state which sucks big time since we keep kosher and gerber is not.
so....i'm not sure if donating is technically against the rules but i'm doing it. hey, if they can't give me a kosher option like beech nut then what else can i do? i really don't like to see good food go to waste.
so handy that there is usually a food pantry bin right on your way out of the grocery store!

[MangoMommy]

I know our WIC encourages coupon use with the checks, to save them money. The less you spend, the more they have to spend on others is what I was told from my WIC office. So if you don't want the jarred foods, don't get them could be an option. Don't feel forced, KWIM? I do tend to use the checks and I donate what I don't use.

I do wish they gave us the option of increasing our fruit/veggie check (which I LOVE) instead of all those jars, it's such a huge amount. Nearly 100 jars a month!

[thatgirliknew]

Originally Posted by curious&eager

My DS enjoys all the veggies and fruits he's had so far. Now the meat, he basically vomits out. It's so gross for him and it smells so bad. I'm afraid to try it myself although I do eat all the fruit and veggie leftovers because I figure it's extra health stuff for me.

I can't say I blame your son for vomiting them out. When I was in youth group at church they had a baby-food eating contest and I was one of the "lucky" participants. I could stomach the fruits and vegetables but the meat was awful.

[thatgirliknew]

Originally Posted by tzs

we can only get gerber in our state which sucks big time since we keep kosher and gerber is not.
so....i'm not sure if donating is technically against the rules but i'm doing it. hey, if they can't give me a kosher option like beech nut then what else can i do? i really don't like to see good food go to waste.
so handy that there is usually a food pantry bin right on your way out of the grocery store!

Have you asked them yet if they make exceptions? I told them we didn't eat meat and we got tofu instead of salmon/tuna. But they didn't say it was an option until I asked for an alternative...

[tzs]

Originally Posted by thatgirliknew

Have you asked them yet if they make exceptions? I told them we didn't eat meat and we got tofu instead of salmon/tuna. But they didn't say it was an option until I asked for an alternative...

thanks...we get special milk and cheese (which does cost like 3x as much so it's nice) but they won't make an exception for the jars. must have to do with some deal with gerber.
we've called in to complain for sure. people should be able to get organics as well, IMO

[Penny4Them]

Originally Posted by tzs

thanks...we get special milk and cheese

What kind do you get? Soy or something? and how did you qualify?

[tzs]

no, just kosher. "cholov yisroel" kosher....i like to call it "super kosher" to make the explanation more simple. but really, an 8oz cheese would normally cost me $6.50. it makes the trips to the WIC office worth it.

that's why it seems so weird that we can't substitute beech nut or earth's best for the gerber, since they do a good job of accomodating the other kosher stuff. it's so obviously some kind of deal the state made with gerber.

i think you can get soy if you have a medical reason, no? i would hope so.