how long does a baby eat baby food?

[worm761]

DD will be five months on Friday. I keep stocking up on baby foods when I find them on sale. I am wondering how long she will actually be on the baby food. I don't want to stock up too much! If she won't be on it for very long then I will start stocking up on the finger foods.

 

[justcantwait]

My DD ate stage 1 baby food for a month or two at the most. She hated it! Luckily, she started getting teeth soon enough and went to finger foods, stage 2 foods and regular adult food cut small. I say hold off until she starts the baby food and you see how she likes it. There's always another sale coming along if you need more. HTH

Kathy

 

[KristyBDJ]

until they scream at you and throw it in your face J/K...well, sort of. a couple have my kids have done that to tell me they don't want it. Every baby is different although none of mine stayed on it long at all...a couple of months tops in stage 1. They seem to pick up on what your eating very quickly and refuse to eat anything other than "real" food. I wouldn't stock up on anything too much until you see how your baby does.

 

[jjjmranch]

When they start reaching for your food, it's time to start on the next stage. I never bought the stage 3 bottles, I just made our food w/o salt and gave it to them finely chopped. We seasoned our own. Much cheaper and healthier.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

mine didn't eat baby foods, and i didn't want them eating them, really. they did eat a bit of rice cereal.

 

[SnowWhite12]

My DS is 10 months old and still eats Stage 3 jars. I want him to eat as many fruits and veggies as possible for as long as possible (I don't cook, and this is the easiest way for him to eat healthy). My DD was on it for about a year.

 

[DisneyDorkORama]

I didnt wait for a certain age. I waited until my kids showed signs of not wanting it and wanting more finger foods.

With my daughter (she will be 2 in August)...We were at the table eating dinner and she kept trying to get my plate and take my fork away from me. So I got a baby spoon scooped up some mash potatoes handed it to her and she had a field day with it! After that she didnt want another jar of baby food.

 

[lathamary]

There's no need to buy baby food. Put whatever you're eating into a blender and feed her that, as long as it's not something she could be allergic to. Baby food is gross! Have you tasted that stuff? Ick!

 

[AJRitz]

If the baby is my DD, the answer is never!

She HATED baby food (we're pretty sure it was a texture thing), and moved pretty much directly from formula+cereal to regular food cut up into very small pieces.

 

[delmar411]

every baby is different but it's pretty safe to stock up heavily on the stage 3 fruits and veggies. Even toddlers can eat those happily. I know with YDS, I stocked up on baby food since there was a deal to make it free. I got about 300 jars of baby food in various stages and he went through them all and then some and that's with him going to table food at 9mths.

Just make sure to watch your expiration dates.

 

[IFlossU]

I wouldn't give baby food after age 1. My DD is 9 months today and we're almost done with baby food. She would much rather eat what we are eating, and hits the spoon away. My older DS ate baby food until he was 1, but he had ZERO interest in our food. Either way, I definitely think after age 1 it's unnecessary.

 

[GAGirlInVA]

My girls didn't last on baby food long at all. My oldest ate baby food for the shortest amount of time (she had teeth the earliest too.)

My youngest, is now almost 13 months old and refuses anything but baby food. He also doesn't like to "touch" his food... well except for his birthday cupcake. LOL

 

[Ctsplaysinrain]

Both of mine only lasted just long enough to figure out if there were allergies.. About a month . They wanted regular food ASAP and they were late teethers. Neither had any teeth before 13 months but they gummed things nicely. We started trying food around 8 months. I used a food chopper and made stuff like chicken and veggies in crockpot.

 

[Samar]

DD #2 is rebelling on the table foods. She'll take maybe 10 bites max and then start tossing it off the tray. I still feed her some Gerber food to fill in where the table food is lacking.

 

[bumbershoot]

Some babies eat no "baby food". Some babies eat the food served at their parents' house, simply mooshed up to make it easier for them to eat.

My baby was 11 months old, solely nursed, when he grabbed my organic apple, took a big bite, chewed and swallowed, and that was his first food.

You can give him manufactured baby food for as long as you'd like, but it's by no means a necessary part of babyhood, and you'd probably save money (and fights about food later on, when you ask baby to now get used to the food YOU make vs the processed stuff Gerber etc makes) if you limited the purchased babyfood you buy.

 

[worm761]

You would think with all my questions that I am a first time mom. DS will be 14 on Mother's Day. He was different though as he has Autism and he is the only other child I have. DD, being neurotypical, is totally new for me.
She is starting to teeth now. I thought it was too soon to teeth but Dr assures me that she is and it isn't too early. She loves her morning cereal and I make that kind of thickish. She loved the sweet potatoes and hated the peas. When you try to give her peas, she clamps her mouth shut and won't open it until you move the spoon away from her. She is grabbing at the spoon and trying to put it in her mouth. We have her sit with us at dinner time though I try to feed her just before so that I can eat a hot meal. But if you eat in front of her, she watches your hand go from your plate to your mouth. I make almost everything we eat from scratch and use very little (read almost no) salt when I am cooking. Is it too early to try to give her some food? I honestly cannot remember with my son, nieces or nephews. She fusses at some of the foods but I am pretty sure it is because of the texture because she will eat them. Any suggestions?

 

[Minniemouse07]

Both of my kids only lasted a couple of months or so on baby food and even less time on that god awful cereal (have you tried it...tastes like sand!).

They were okay with most of the Stage 1 and Stage 2 jars but neither tolerated the Stage 3 foods which are smooth w/ some lumps in them.

They also hated those toddler "graduate" meals...those smelled vile!

Finger foods were key in our house. Both kids loved peas, cheerios, tiny bits of carrot, etc. I stocked up on frozen veggies and they went to town.

Both of my kids are older now (9yo and 4.5yo) and prefer veggies over hot dogs or hamburgers (but not french fries or pizza!)!!

 

[monkeybug]

You would think with all my questions that I am a first time mom. DS will be 14 on Mother's Day. He was different though as he has Autism and he is the only other child I have. DD, being neurotypical, is totally new for me.
She is starting to teeth now. I thought it was too soon to teeth but Dr assures me that she is and it isn't too early. She loves her morning cereal and I make that kind of thickish. She loved the sweet potatoes and hated the peas. When you try to give her peas, she clamps her mouth shut and won't open it until you move the spoon away from her. She is grabbing at the spoon and trying to put it in her mouth. We have her sit with us at dinner time though I try to feed her just before so that I can eat a hot meal. But if you eat in front of her, she watches your hand go from your plate to your mouth. I make almost everything we eat from scratch and use very little (read almost no) salt when I am cooking. Is it too early to try to give her some food? I honestly cannot remember with my son, nieces or nephews. She fusses at some of the foods but I am pretty sure it is because of the texture because she will eat them. Any suggestions?

Well I have two kids and now that I think of it, I can't remember when you can start giving them the food you eat either. (I'm assuming you plan on putting it through the food processor or food mill? Because I'm pretty sure 5 months is still a bit early for chunks) I want to say it is after you have fed them the single ingredient foods and they haven't had any issues, then you can start giving them mixed up foods.
When my kids were little I would just buy fruits and veggies, cook them, and put them in the food processor. I would strain it when they were really little through a wire mesh strainer. Than I would spoon it into ice cube trays, freeze them, and when frozen put them in ziplocs. At feeding time pop a few into a bowl to warm up (and mix some flavors maybe). That way I wasn't buying food I didn't need, and I didn't have to worry about throwing away open containers of baby food.
Once the ped. gave the go ahead I would just put whatever we were eating in the food processor (and I use salt and spices) and give them that. I just don't remember what age that was.
It worked great for us.

 

[djp0630]

It totally depends on the kid. DD4 ate it for awhile. I remember even feeding her the oatmeal breakfast meals after 1, but the other stuff, I'd say 10 months old. DS stopped baby food much earlier, once he had table food, there was no baby food, he'd spit it out.

They go through a lot of baby food. DS would eat 2 Stage 2 at each meal for awhile. I wouldn't buy a lot of Stage 3 or Stage 1. Both of my kids didn't really eat Stage 3, and at Stage 1 they go through pretty quickly, since Stage 2 is just a little bigger, but pretty much the same texture.

 

[Colinsmom]

My twin girls have eaten maybe 12-15 jars of baby food, and they are 9 months old. They quickly moved to table foods, and now much prefer finger foods on their tray over spoon-fed mush.