The small jars offered by the food industry, in addition to making life easier for parents in many situations, are safe products from a health point of view and specially designed to carry out the food diversification of the child. . And if you have time, here are the tips for making your own little pots.

From 6 months, breast or infant milk consumed exclusively is no longer sufficient to cover the nutritional needs of the baby. It is therefore important to diversify the child’s diet.

Diversification, which corresponds to the gradual transition from a diet consisting exclusively of milk to a varied diet must therefore begin at the age of 6 months but must never take place before the child’s 4 months, because of the risks of allergies. For children predisposed to food allergy – father, mother, brother or allergic sister – it is recommended not to start diversification until after 6 months.

Note: information on the ages of children is always given in completed months. Thus, dietary diversification should never be carried out before the start of the child’s fifth month and should ideally begin at the beginning of the seventh month, especially for children at risk of allergy.

To awaken the child to new flavors, to introduce him to new textures and new colors, the baby food jars available on the market are specifically designed to accompany the child from the start of dietary diversification.

An undeniable saving of time

Time spent preparing meals is reduced to zero – a precious privilege when parents’ pace is frantic between hours spent at work and those they would like to devote to their children and their own leisure time.

Irrefutable practicality

The ease of transporting baby food is a great advantage, especially if you are going on vacation and need to feed your baby outside, take a train, plane or have to stop at an area. highway. There is no risk of spilling baby food in the luggage and no risk of being bothered to reheat your child’s potty. The absence of dishes is also a plus in these situations.

A rigorous requirement

Infant foods are subject to very strict regulations and offer optimal health security. For a small pot to be admitted to the market, the choice of raw materials from which it is made is necessarily very careful: producers of fruit and vegetables and breeders of meat, chickens and fish are rigorously selected and must comply with notebooks. draconian charges.

In addition, offering baby food to your child also means ensuring that their nutritional needs are met: salt, proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, vitamins, everything is measured to the nearest gram.

Small jars: all placed under close surveillance

Baby food jars are subject to rigorous and draconian French and European regulations. They offer total bacteriological safety: a small jar undergoes around 165 quality checks between the raw materials used and the finished product.

• Nitrates: the authorized limit is 10 times stricter than in common foods.
• Pesticides: the limits are up to 500 times stricter than for conventional foods.
• Additives: only 53 additives are authorized in infant foods – against 400 for conventional foods, to respect the digestive fragility of toddlers.

Choosing the best jars for your baby

Some brands choose exceptional nutritional quality by choosing to make 100% fruit compote, while other brands will add texture agents (starch for example). For purees, some are composed of a very large majority of vegetables and depending on the recipes, starches, meat or fish, while for other references there will be a multitude of colorings, thickeners and additives. . Many contain a large amount of starches for a small amount of vegetables when the ratio should be 50/50.

You got it: while all baby jars are safe from a point of view of pesticides, additives and hygiene, not all brands are created equal. So get into the habit of always reading the list of ingredients that is always on the packaging and showing the highest standards to give your child the best. If too many ingredients seem unclear, switch to another reference, or even to another brand.

To ensure the quality of the little jars you choose, you can taste them with a teaspoon. Taste education starts early, so be sure to choose satisfying meals.

And the small organic jars?

Small organic jars are obviously subject to the same quality controls as conventional products. But the strong point of the small organic pot is that the ingredients that compose it must meet a certain number of obligations, such as the use of natural fertilizers, respect for the cycle of the seasons, crop rotation or harvest. at maturity. Fruits and vegetables are therefore of better nutritional quality and necessarily richer in vitamin C, iron and antioxidants.

As for animal proteins (meat, fish, eggs), animals raised in organic farming are fed with organic fodder, are raised in the open air and cared for with natural products. Here again we gain in quality with meats, fish, eggs and dairy products richer in Omega-3.

In addition, organic brands are often attentive to the origin of products: some brands also display the origin of each fruit and vegetable. What to be even more reassured.

The small organic jars also offer a wider range of products with original recipes to help children discover a multitude of flavors: sweet potato, watercress, parsnip, artichoke, butternut, etc.

Make way for the organization

While baby food has a number of advantages, in the eyes of your child (and yours!), Nothing will be worth the good meals of his parents. Especially since, contrary to what one might think, with a good organization, it is possible to greatly reduce the preparation time.

To do this, prepare large quantities, which you will immediately freeze the cooled preparation. You can then store the purees and compotes in different containers, depending on your child’s progress in food diversification:

• At first, freeze your preparations in ice cube trays. You will thus have small portions, prepared in advance and you will defrost the number of cubes in an increasing and progressive way, according to the evolution of your child’s appetite.
• Afterwards, when your baby begins to eat larger amounts of purees and compotes, freeze your preparations in muffin cups. This is the intermediate quantity.
• When your baby has a perfectly diversified diet, freeze your purees and compotes in individual jars that you can easily find in supermarkets or in childcare stores.

Tips for preparing the best small pots

Fruits and vegetables

Choose seasonal vegetables and fruits as much as possible, to provide your baby with their vitamins, minerals, fiber and anti-oxidants, while avoiding preservatives and GMOs.

For vegetables, choose tender vegetables that will be well tolerated by your baby’s stomach: green beans, spinach, seedless and skinless zucchini, white leeks, carrots, eggplants, pumpkin, etc. However, avoid vegetables rich in fiber, such as the green part of leeks, artichoke hearts and salsify for example, which are difficult to digest.

For the fruits, choose very ripe fruits that you will mix. Subsequently, you can quickly offer very ripe raw fruits, simply mashed into a purée: pear, strawberries, bananas, peaches, cherries, apricots etc.

Whatever vegetables and fruits you choose, do not add salt or sugar and give free rein to your desires and your creativity by not forgetting to introduce your child to forgotten fruits and vegetables: Jerusalem artichoke, patisson, swede, parsnip, watercress, artichoke, butternut, quince, etc.

Proteins: meat, fish and eggs

Be careful to adapt the protein doses according to the age of your finally, so as not to overload his kidneys. To do this, serve him a portion of meat, fish or egg per day, at noon or in the evening and count:

• From 6 to 8 months: 10 g in total per day, equivalent to 2 teaspoons of meat or fish or 1/4 of a hard-boiled egg.
• From 8 to 9 months: 15 to 20 g in total per day, or the equivalent of 2,5 to 3 teaspoons of meat or fish, or a little more than 1/4 of a hard-boiled egg.
• From 10 to 12 months: 20-25 g in total per day, equivalent to 4 teaspoons of meat or fish, or a little less than 1/2 hard-boiled egg.
• From 12 months: 25 to 30 g in total of meat or fish per day or 1/2 hard-boiled egg

Remember to vary the sources of protein (meat, fish, eggs) and to offer fish twice a week, including once a week oily fish: salmon, trout, sardines, mackerel, etc.

Cereals and starches

Potato, semolina, rice, bulgur, pasta, etc. : you can mix the starches at the same time as the vegetables to make a thicker and smoother puree. In this case, count 50% starches and 50% vegetables. Then, when your child has mastered smooth purees, you can mix the starchy foods with the vegetables, without mixing them. If you are serving potatoes, mash them more or less finely depending on your baby’s preferences.

Fat

We don’t always think about it, but it is essential to add fat to baby’s homemade jars. Choose a good quality oil and add a teaspoon of it to every mash or solid meal your child has. Ideally, choose the ready mix of 4 oils (Sunflower, Rapeseed, Oléisol, Grape seeds), available in supermarkets. Otherwise, vary the following oils: rapeseed, sunflower, olive.