Homemade Baby Food: Not Always Best for Babies?
The debate regarding baby food and which options are best has been an ongoing discussion for years. Parents who prepare their own homemade baby food for their baby’s find they save a ton of money. They are able to make things in bulk and freeze much of it to save for a later date. Some working parents often say they don’t have time to prepare homemade baby food specifically for their child, choosing instead to purchase baby food (prepackaged, jarred, etc.) from the grocery store. A new study might change the way parents view homemade baby food.
Homemade Baby Food vs Prepackaged
Researchers from Scotland have looked at and studied 278 baby and toddler foods found in retail stores and compared them to 408 homemade baby food recipes of comparable foods found in the stores. What they found was that homemade baby food delivers up to 77% more nutrients when compared to the prepackaged variety. While the store-bought baby food wasn’t bad, the researchers mentioned that meals prepared at home tend to have more calories and fat in them which could lead to overeating and put the child at risk of having weight and obesity issues as a kid.
When researchers took a deeper look at homemade baby food recipes, they found that around 50% of them exceeded what is calorically recommended for children to consume between the ages of 4 months and 4 years of age. On top of that staggering figure, they found that around 37% of homemade baby food also exceeded the amount of fat a child should consume daily. And these were following recipes used to prepare the meal. The researchers were concerned that parents might alter the recipe or not follow it to a “T” which could further cause the calories to skyrocket. On average, these meals also contained 2 vegetables where the prepackaged version generally had 3 vegetables per meal.
Click here to continue reading…
*Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links or ads, which means we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you if you make a purchase through these links. These commissions help support the operation and maintenance of our website, allowing us to continue producing free valuable content. Your support is genuinely appreciated, whether you choose to use our links or not. Thank you for being a part of our community and enjoying our content.
PLEASE CONSIDER SHARING THIS ON YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TO HELP OTHERS LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS TOPIC. SIMPLY CLICK BELOW!
