Pureed pumpkin

[Friendlee]

I know a lot of you are waiting longer and starting when the baby is ready for finger foods, but we're on the pureed food wagon. I'd like to introduce pumpkin but I'm unsure about how I want to do it.

I have made all of her foods so far, no jars. I don't have anything against baking a pumpkin, scraping it out and pureeing it...but I can't find any pumpkins in the stores.

Has anyone just taken pumpkin straight from the can to feed the baby?
Am I overlooking any potential problems with doing that?

[jillmamma]

I would think that would be fine straight from the can, although I would check and make sure there are no added ingredients (salt, preservatives, etc.) I did not do much pureed stuff with my second because she would not let me (she wanted to feed herself!), but my first liked it and we are not there yet with my third. Good luck!

[akind1]

agree w/ PP - check for additives. shame there isn't frozen pumpkin. We don't really do purees but I do mash things and spoonfeed DS what he can't feed gnaw on himself. so we are kind of a mixed boat.

[Jayray]

I fed DS pureed pumpkin from a can and he LOVED it! It is a lot, though, so I froze some of it after opening the can.

[MaryMarg]

Agree with PP--fed both DS and DD pumpkin straight from the can (Libby's--ensure it's pumpkin, not pumpkin pie mix) and they both ate it! Often mixed it with baby cereal and also added spices such as cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, etc. to increase flavor acceptance. Freezes great! I also throw four or five cubes into spaghetti sauce when making it for the family and no one even notices!

[cheryllynn]

I found a can of organic pumpkin - nothing else in it. While I would want to stay away from cans in general, I would think an occasional can would be ok.

Cans can be lined with BPA. Here's an article I found doing a quick search:
http://www.edenfoods.com/articles/vi...rticles_id=178

[maddymama]

Oh.... you might want to wait on the cinnamon, depending upon the age of your LO. It's not easily tolerated in the tummies of LOs. It's actually on Dr. Sear's list of allergenic foods. http://www.askdrsears.com/html/4/t041800.asp#T041805.
We did just plain caned pumpkin, buy turned it into a finger food by serving it with cheerios. DD1 loved it, haven't started DD2 on it yet.
~maddymama