Applesauce vs Baby Apples...

As long as there isn't sugar added or artificial sweetners you are fine. I've been giving my son the regular adult no sugar added applesauce for quite a while. Look for words like splenda, sucralose, aspartame which would indicate artificial. You can also look up these words to see if there are any generic names they use too.

I always bought the little applesauce cups, as long as their ingredients were just applesauce and water, I didnt see a problem. My dd still loves them and she's 4.

Go for it! :-)

The baby food company has no monopoly on any special baby apples, they just want you to think that they do and that the apple sauce you buy in the next aisle over, or the apples you buy at the farmer's market are inferior to theirs...
You can easily even make your own applesauce, very quickly, and you control what kind of sweetener you put in, if any, you can vary the kinds of apples you use, you can puree it as much or as little as you'd like. SO much more variety than the baby food in jars that you purchase at a ridiculous price, and always tastes the exact same.... and then parents wonder why their kids turn out to be "picky eaters" - that's what they were raised to expect - that everything always tastes exactly the same, and only a very finite number of flavors exists!

Cook meals yourself, mash it or puree it to let your kid eat it, too, and you all can have wonderful family meals. (And sometimes it helps us adults to eat healthier because we know we have to make sure the baby is getting the variety and the vegetables...)

Enjoy sharing your food with your DD.

Neither 1 of my boys, I have 2 they are now ages 11 and my baby will be 9 on Feb 8 would eat baby food. Neither of them liked it. My oldest would eat veggies right out of the can, I would either put them on a plate or right on his high chair.(usually on his highchair cause he would just dumped the plate) But he would just eat them cold and he would cry for them! Now my youngest wouldn't eat veggies, he was my problem eater so I would have to try to trick him to eat them with a game. But with fruit I would make my own. I would even mix them up so they got a verity like apple and banana, banana and pineapple etc, I am sure you get the point and they loved it. Just make sure you chop it to her liking and of course make sure all seeds are out...Good Luck!

Tell your friend to go fly a kite!! lol

Seriously, people are so brainwashed, they don't use common sense! My DD preferred more chunky food, even from an early age, so I would mash fresh green beans, offer her frozen (cooked) peas WHOLE (gasp!), tiny cubes of sweet potatoes. At 13 months, she will eat anything, even though she doesn't have many teeth for her age.

PS-I always did the unsweetened applesause rather than babyfood. To not is a waste of money. GOOD LUCK!!!

My children both had big people food early on. I pureed apples so they could have "applesauce" and our 2nd child only wanted our food. I think this sounds better than the junk baby food that they offer. My 2nd child only ate baby food about 5x her whole life. They are both happy and healthy at 8 and 6!

wow! your friend's kids would have starved to death 100 years ago! ;)
nothing wrong with the applesauce. in fact, your baby can eat food that adults eat! (i wouldn't give her steak probably, but you know what i mean.)

Not bad for your baby at all. It would be the same as if you made apple sauce at home. So long as you're getting the stuff without all the added junk, which you are, then it's fine. I fed it to my kids all the time, still do. Jar baby food is not the only way to feed a younger child. They can eat just the same as you so long as it's healthy ingredients and is prepared in a way that is appropriate to their eating ability.

I agree with the others. Maybe just make sure that when it says "no sugar added" that they are not substituting real sugar with artificial sweeteners - as I cant imagine that would be healthy for baby. (I give my 8 month old natural applesauce in the cups too, I just add a little cinnamon).

I did the same thing for my kids, and they're all fine and healthy. As a side note, you'll find that there are moms who are terrified to step out of the "established" rules of "this is what you feed your baby, this is how you put your baby to sleep (and where), this is the expert/doctor approved method of fill-in-the-blank baby/child issues." While there's nothing wrong with playing it safe, (and seriously, let me give that extra emphasis: NOTHING wrong with that if that's how someone parents!) there are a lot of these moms who take a step further to freaking out and being judgmental when other moms don't play by the same "rules". I'm telling you this because you'll probably run into these types of things again, and it's no reflection on you or your parenting. Remember, like with the applesauce, you checked the labels, you compared the prices, you've watched your daughter to make sure she can handle it. You're on top of things, so don't feel like you need to second guess yourself when someone else thinks you're wrong.

R.,
Did you check the nutritional value as well? Personally, I don't see a problem with it, but then again, I rarely bought the baby foods for my kids. I did but the various cereals, but then moved them from that as soon as I could as well. I am not so much a health nut as I was "cheap" - I thought it was crazy to pay so much extra money for something that was labeled "baby". So, I gave my boys regular, unsweetened applesauce, I mashed up plain bananas - when they were first learning I pureed them with a touch of formula in the blender - but by 9 months I was just mashing them up....same with potatoes, sweet potatoes, cooked carrots, green peas, etc. Surely she is having cheerios by now...right?

I would say the only "baby" stuff I bought for a while longer was the meat sticks - they used to have chicken, beef and turkey - they look like the Vienna Sausages, but the nutritional values were much better on those. So I did get those because the texture was softer and easier for them to chew up. But probably by a year, I was just cutting up our own meat from the table into tiny little pieces. After all, isn't the goal to move the babies to table food?

The only rules I think I held "fast" on for all three of my boys were
a) no honey before 1
b) no regular milk before 1
c) no peanut butter or nuts before 1
d) minimized the sugary foods they received...note MINIMIZED not deprived:)

If you DD is doing well with the normal foods, not having allergic reactions, not having tummy issues, etc....then keep on doing what you are doing. You know your daughter's habits and how she handles the foods. Just double check the nutrition labels and make sure you aren't giving her hidden sugars and salts:)

Good Luck!

T.
Mom of 3 Boys

Oh and just in case you are wondering how my boys eat now after me breaking all the rules in food introduction...They eat VERY well...not picky eaters at all. In fact, many adults who see them eat for the first time...are amazed by the variety of foods that my boys like - even cauliflower, asparagus and spinach.

I don't know what she's talking about. I give my 11 month old grandson big people unsweetened applesauce all the time. WAY cheaper than baby food and he loves it. I also give him big people yogurt and he loves that too, although I would like one that has no fruit pieces in it. I give him bananas, cereals to snack on, and he has discovered puffy Cheetos but those are greatly limited. We do keep baby food in the house for times like tonight when I made Crockpot Cowboy Stew & there is no way I'd give him that.

You can also look at canned fruits, like pears, that are in water, just pears and water and those are good too. So continue on, you're doing great.

It is the same stuff just ground a little less fine. If she is eating it without issues there is no need to worry. I fed my babies Motts Health Harvest Applesauces which are all natural with no additives. Perfectly fine as long as you are also feeding her vegetables and meats as well.

I think as long as your giving her the unsweetened kind that its fine. Plus you save lots over the baby food jar kinds.

Hi R.,

I personally think the "baby food" market is a racket. With our first, I made it a rule to taste everything he ate before he did. If I didn't like it, I never gave it to him...sometimes, I couldn't even get past the smell of the jarred foods to take a bite. So I never purchased jarred food from that point on. I find them gross.

I have 4 children ranging in age from 1-11y/o and have never given them any baby food. They've always eaten the food we eat, even when they first started solids (I either pureed or mashed veggies, fruits and then gradually introduced diced foods as they were ready). I tend to stay away from packaged items and feed them whole foods. My kids are healthy and haven't suffered any because they didn't eat baby food. Your dd will be fine.

I gave my babies those unsweetened apple cups for breakfast all the time. We even found them in berry, strawberry/kiwi, peach, and some other flavours. They loved 'em! Plus, they're cheaper than 'babyfood'.