Babyfood...The Good, The Bad, The Evil

That feeling of panic when your Pediatrician announces you can start giving your baby some babyfood...WHAT?! I don't even know where to begin..what about that rice stuff, or the oatmeal stuff, or the..the...OK CALM DOWN! I'll do a quick run-down for ya, and the best part is EVERY baby is different...so even if I say this shizzle worked for me, odds are you will have to do some modifying of your own..GRRReat. I know that is your life now, roll with the punches!

My doc suggested at 4 mo to start giving my little man some oatmeal/rice 2x's a day to get him used to taking and swallowing food. WELL...sounds easy right? Haha, you so funny! So he basically gagged every time I tried to give him the oatmeal...I stopped giving him rice in his bedtime bottle because my Aunt sent me an article about arsenic being a natural occurrence in rice. I tried, and tried and tried. Finally I said Eff this and gave him some straight up fruit puree. O he gobbled that shit down! So first thing that didn't go according to plan: Eating Oatmeal plain.

So then everyday we would sit down for 2 "meals" to see what he liked/didn't like and to watch out for allergies...Lawdy help me! For some odd reason he never wanted to eat bananas...and it took me AWHILE to figure out they give him diarrhea...his poop is forever changing after starting ANY kind of solid foods so that's my excuse. So no bananas...no oatmeal..check and check!

So I got some Gerber, Ellas, Happy Baby, Earthsbest, and Sprout...Here's the rundown.

1st Place goes to Ella's. Not only are the ingredients all things you can say outloud without have a doctorate in nutrition(is that possible?) but the consistency is perfect for "spooning" ha pun! I also enjoy the flavor combinations- not everything has fricken bananas in it- and packaging is Uber cute. However this is the most expensive so go figure.

2nd Place goes to Sprout and this is due solely to the availability in your area, it's hard to find this shit by me, I have to order it online which sucks, because who can predict how much babyfood they will need, or if your little one will enjoy the flavor combos. But I ordered some off Zulily and was pleasantly suprised...flavor combo's are great, packaging is simple but yet enticing and cost is up there with Ella's. This is also Tyler Florence's babyfood of choice. You be the judge

3rd Place is Happy Baby, or Happy Tot...I am loving the flavor combos, very spoon-able and price is a little lower than Ella's but higher than Gerber. Kind of hard to find also :(

Mentionables-Gerber...hate it, hate it, hate it. Sooo watery, ingredients are all scientific names, no exciting flavor combos. Seems like this company has been the same company they were 20 years ago. Earthbest-OK, has a new "world" line that offers interesting flavor combos..Ratatouille anyone? Price point is good...Kind of hard to find or instock at least...and I HATE going to Babies R Us for food but they usually have a  ton of it.

Now I can finally add in some oatmeal into one of the fruit/veggie purees and he will eat it..took some work tho I'm not gonna lie. The good news is...especially if you are breastfeeding...once they start eating solids they get solid poop! Go Figure! Now pooping will consist of much louder grunts and maybe even a few red faces. Let me know which food your baby likes!

~Candace