Important Information on Jarred Baby Foods

If you’re looking forward to providing jarred baby foods to your infant when he reaches the age to be fed solids, you may want to be sure that you are as educated as possible on what jarred foods are made of and how they are processed. Many of these foods have added salts and sugars that are not good for your toddler’s teeth or gums, and additional care will need to be taken to make sure that your toddler’s mouth is taken good care of between feedings. Some of these foods can also be difficult for your little one to digest, and you will want to take special care to give your little one foods that she can process easily.

Like all premade and processed foods, jarred baby foods have to go through a preservation process, and may contain additional ingredients to ensure that the foods keep their shelf life for the time they are expected to. You may not be interested in giving these added ingredients to your toddler to ingest, which is your right as a concerned parent to not want to give your little one unnecessary ingredients, so be sure to read the labels and check for added ingredients that you do not want as a part of your toddler’s diet.

Another issue with some jarred foods is the expiration date. It takes quite a while for baby food to expire, so be sure to check the dates on the jars to be sure that none were forgotten when the expired jars were tossed out. Pay close attention to the phases that you purchase for your little one, as the consistency may not be right for a toddler of a certain age. Stage one is usually for babies who are between 6 – 7 months old, whereas stage 4 is more in the 10 – 11 month range with teeth.

The best type of jarred baby foods that you could give your toddler are the foods that you make and can yourself. Making your baby food yourself will ensure that it does not have any added ingredients, that it was made fresh and will be disposed of in plenty of time before you need to give it to your baby, and you can avoid all of the other issues that come along with purchasing jarred foods from the store. You will also have a lot of fun making new foods for your baby to try and even create a list of favorites that you can always count on your toddler to enjoy.