Wow… you don’t often read an article which questions the assumption that homemade baby food is healthier than commercial one.
The article is analyzing this issue by taking a different approach than usual. Instead of looking at the ingredients of the baby food, it analyzes the risk of pesticide residues.
Regular raw food might have different levels of residues, where ready-made food is heated and treated to make sure those level are minimal. On the other hand, those treatments usually eliminate most of the vitamins originally in that food.
I agree this is an important issue (for everyone and for babies too), but I think it deserves a finer approach than simply “throw the blender away”:
- Choose produce with little risk of pesticide residues like squash, broccoli and courgettes
- But organic
- Supplement ready-made food with fresh fruits and vegetables
But I think the most important sentence in the article is:
The idea of weaning a baby is to introduce family food that you can all eat together, not to have each person consuming their own ready meal.
I totally agree with Anna Shepard, who wrote this article. I would still prefer having homemade cooked food be the main food experience of my baby and family.