Did Your Child Eat Store-bought Baby Food or Homemade Puree and Are They Picky?

My older son is 13 and was fed store bought food for both baby and toddler meals. He was a very picky eater until about a year or so ago. (Although he has always liked his vegetables.) We still have a bit of a hard time getting him to try new foods. My younger son is 9 and was fed mostly homemade baby food. He has always been a good eater and not very picky at all. I think it makes a difference.

We started off with homemade baby food, but when we had to travel to Dubai to visit my in-laws when my son was 13 months old, we started using store-bought. (My son's teeth were late to come in and he is allergic to a TON of food, so he transitioned a little later than most kids into "real" food.)

Now, at 2 years old, he eats pretty much anything we give him, although at times he'll ask for something specific. Since he's allergic to most things other kids can eat, his diet consists of rice, most meats (not beef), veggies and most fruits.

My eldest had everything home made with the occasional bought fruit jar if we were out and he is a picky eater. My second child had mainly store bought until around 7 months when I switched to home made when she could have more of a selection , she is also a picky eater. My 3rd had all home made and is a very good eater.

Store bought baby food. I tried to make my own baby food, spent a whole day in the kitchen with 10lbs. apples, sweet potates, and pears. After everything was peeled, boiled, diced, and pureed I was shocked at little I ended up with (this was when my twins were around 6 months it's not much for two). We went back to store bought food. My boys are healthy, happy and not too picky (shockingly they will take ice cream over cake any day...they just aren't into cake).

HOWEVER, I attribute their lack of pickiness to shopping with them. When they were toddlers I would take them shopping and we'd pick out different fruits and veggies (I even discovered some that I like). They enjoyed shopping and experimenting.

Our kids have eaten jar food and they're not picky at all. My 3 year old son's favorite meal is salmon and asparagus (what?!?). We went with the premise that "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit" and "if you're hungry, you'll eat what's in front of you". We've rarely had food struggles with our kids. I think it also helps that I often involve my older son in the preparation of meals. When kids have a hand in making the food I think they're more likely to be open-minded to tasting their own creations.

I don't think it is a difference between the two; I think it is the way a parent approaches eating, nutrition, and food choices, and how they model good eating habits.

Store bought organic and not the least bit picky here.

My daughter was fed store bought baby foods. She is 9 now, but has always been the same... She will eat just about anything bu doesn't like most fruit and won't eat much candy.

My son was fed mosly homemade baby food. He ate anything but peas as a baby, started refusing to eat meat after his first birthday. He now still won't eat much meat, doesn't like veggies but will eat them, and he loves fruit and candy more than life itself. He too will try anything though.

I think the biggest reason that my kids aren't too picky though has nothing to do with what they were fed as babies, and more to do with our food rules. We have always had a one bite rule in our house. They must eat one bite of everything and then it is up to them how much more they do or do not eat. I never make a separate meal for a child that doesn't like what I serve, and I do not allow negative comments about food someone prepared. "I don't want anymore", or "I'm done" is fine, but not "I don't like this" or "this is gross". I also find ways to slip in comments like "did you know carrots keep your eyes healthy?" What gets my son to eat well is reminding him that healthy foods make his soldiers (body's defenses) strong, and that junk makes them weak. We also have a one junk a day rule. Because of these rules, I have been able to take my kids to dinner at anyone's house and never worry about them being rude.

They ate store bought. But if they were young now I would make them their food in one of those cool new baby food makers!

i have a human garbage disposal with no "off" switch. lol. he is 4 now. he ate store bought food. mostly he will eat ANYthing. although now he is getting a little pickier about spicy foods. but i don't consider that picky, he doesn't like spicy things. i am not big on them either. he also doesn't like the usual, onions, peppers, mushrooms...normal kid stuff. no biggie!

We did pureed table foods (no special baby recipes, just whatever we had) mostly, but hey, I also always had a supply of jars for one-the run and in-a-pinch.
My three year old now will eat anything. There are some things that she does not like, but she will give everything at least a try.

I agree totally with B.P. I think it is genetic for a lot of children and it's very hard on mothers especially when other parents criticize or assume it is something you did wrong to encourage your picky eating child to be this way!

I made all homemade baby food for our son. We fed him all kinds of different foods. Then suddenly at age 2 he really started becoming picky. We just offer food each night and encourage him to eat it. He also has sensory issues.

Our daughter on the other hand is not picky at all. She got some homemade and some jarred baby food. From a very early age she just wanted to feed herself and pick up her own food so we didn't even do pureed food very long. She eats anything.

Exclusively home made (pureed everything we ate). Now at age 5 is not picky but does (like most adults) have preferences - loves all fruits except mangos (never liked them, even as an infant), likes most vegetables (but not beets, onions by themselves or mushrooms which he loved as a toddler), likes beef, pork, turkey but doesn't love chicken, loves all cheese (blue included), olives and capers. I think parental expectations are a huge factor in what kids will eat. I love to try new foods and always expected my son would too.

My first son ate jarred food, though we tried to give him homemade stuff. He is incredibly picky at almost four years old, and won't eat anything but cereal for most meals. With my twin boys, we were travelling through Mexico for a couple of months when they began eating solids so they ate jarred foods, too. When we got home I tried making purees, but they didn't want anything to do with them. They are not picky eaters at all, though. They will eat most things and try most things. They are 16 months now and have eaten dozens more things than my older son ever did at their age.

They now have "Organics" brand baby food in jars. Its all natural and healthy.

Mine was fed the processed baby food (didnt know the difference then). He prefered the veggies as to fruits and refused the meats. He is 8 now and still doesnt like much meat, will eat raw or cooked veggies but LOVES fruit now. He also loves spicy/hot things too..so as long as I give him hot sauce he is usually good at trying things (haha).
After the puree processed baby food, I did the older kids baby food which he ate all of those but now wont eat anything with red sauce...most pizzas and pastas.

We bought food from the store and my kids ate it.

My son, thanks to my mom, ate nearly all pureed food. He is now three and yes, he is picky, meaning he hates the usual toddler foods: hamburger, bot dog, fries, etc. I blame myself and my mom -- becuase we both were very particular about what to give him. We were both organic food lovers...and now, he hates junk food! You would think that is a good thing -- and it is, definitely, but each time there is a function at his day care, or school lunch, he does not eat.

To me, it may sound strange, but I would rather have a picky eater who does not eat junk than have a non-discriminate eater who craves non-healthy foods. He is getting better and better, albeit it's been a headache, I hope I will have taught him something about eating healthy and well.

DD => breastfed, switched to formula at 8 mos, homemade foods/purees => not picky at all.

DS=> breastfed, switched to formula at 5 mos, homemade foods, no purees of any kind or cereal of any kind was super picky about texture => not at all picky taste wise/texture wise anymore.

I made all of my daughter's food. I pureed veggies, fruit and meat. Yes, beef stew (carrots and potatoes) and chicken with apples and sweet potatoes...pureed. She is now 4 and eats well. Her favorite meal is grilled salmon and broccoli. I was, and am, a working mom and made food on Sunday nights!

Either way isn't nutritionally equal and I would dispute that that are not both healthy given some of what is added to some jarred foods.

Obviously, my kids have eatten foods that we've made for them. Whole foods, no junk added and neither kid is picky. They'll eat whatever we ask them to eat and will request broccoli, and spinach more often than they request pizza.

Homemade while at home, but we bought Earth's Best for traveling if we knew all we would be able to eat was fast food. My kids eat everything, nary a picky one in the bunch.

I made my own baby food, only sometimes did they eat baby jar food.
And no, I don't have picky eaters at all. They will taste anything and eat most of it.

Mostly home-made/pureed, and is very picky now at age 3.5, and won't touch any green vegetables. He ate broccoli, peas, etc as a baby, but now won't touch them. I wonder if pickiness (especially with vegetables) may actually be more related to whether they ate fruits or vegetables first, rather than if the food was homemade or store-bought.

My oldest ate both. some things I had time to prep (veggies, some meats, fruit) but some meats and veggies I didn't make enough of or often enough to puree them, so he had those (beech nut) from the store.
He liked them both and never had any issues. As a 7 year old, he is a little picky but no more than any kid. We have the "no thank you bite" rule. You have to take at least one bite before you can say "no thank you" and not eat something on your plate.
funny thing, the only item he hates are mashed potatos and chicken breasts that are unbreaded.

Neither. I just fed him some of whatever I was eating. And nope... not picky at all. BUT I made sure to introduce as many chemical signatures as possible before age 2, including stuff from all 91 jars in my spice and herb cabinet. The only ethnicity I missed in our "travel the globe via food" was Japanese. I don't even know how that happened. So kiddo hated Japanese food until he was a little over 5. When I realized my blunder, however, I made sure not to give him any more until he was 5ish. It was a long 3 years waiting for his brain to not tag new flavors with a "yuck, gag, spit it out" response. But fortunately, there weren't many flavors we had missed. He would happily eat American/ European/ Mediterranean/ MiddleEastern/ Indian/ Russian/ Chinese (Cantonese & Mandarin)/ Thai/ Vietnamese/ Latin American/ Caribbean/ W African/ etc. I was just too broke for sushi/sashimi.

My kids eat homemade purees and both (so far!) are not picky eaters. One is 4.5 yo, the other is 6mo and just started on solids about 4 wks ago.

As I think back, the only thing my 4.5 yo has ever been picky about was jar baby food! We'd use it once in a great while when travelling long distances and he didn't like it at all!

My son (now 5 years) ate whatever we put before him and he just plain loves food... any kind. He is not picky at all. He ate both store bought purees and table food from a young age. My daughter (almost 9 months) does not care for store bought baby food so we have stopped buying it and just feed her from the table. She loves what we are eating. If it's not something I can mash with a fork or I worry she might struggle to "chew" it, I just grind it up in the food chopped as we get ready to sit down to eat together. The more flavorful, the more she likes it. She loves chili. :P

I did only homemade foods and my DD, at almost 3, will eat almost anything. The only thing she tells me that she doesn't like are jalepenos. She told me one day that she didn't like onions..I said, "that's right, you don't like yucky onions, but we only buy good ones, and you do like them" and she has eaten them without fuss since. She loves veggies and fruits, shrimp, beef, pork, chicken, fish, and beans. One of her favorite foods is mushrooms!

Great question! I have often wondered if there is a link between type of baby food and pickiness. Or if it has more to do with the approach to food. In our house, there has never been an option to have mom make something else. DD eats the same as I do, which is pretty healthy...no processed foods, packaged deli-type meats, fried foods, pop, or sugary drinks. Only whole grains, and a big emphasis on veggies & fruits of all kinds. We do both have a sweet tooth, but we don't have sweets every day..more for special occasions. We grocery shop together and talk about foods that make/keep us healthy.

My kids both ate store bought babyfood. Only one of them didn't like one flavor, squash. My oldest always threw-up squash.
I always made sure to get the most variety I could in food. They never got their favorite over and over. When I bought food I bought all the flavors and they just had to work their way through it all.
Then, when they started solids, they ate what we ate. They still will eat just about anything (teenagers now). Except the younger one does not enjoy curry.

I made baby food for both my kids when they were babies (6yrs & 18 mos) and they are not picky eaters. However, like another poster, they both don't like potatoes (baked/mashed/au gratin).

Like the same poster, we also have a "no thank you bite" rule at our house. You need to take a bite, chew and swallow it before saying no thank you, I don't like it. You don't know that you don't like it until you try it.

Mine ate both but mostly homemade food. She's 2 and I wouldn't call her a picky eater I would call her selective. She'll eat chili all day, I know crazy, but won't touch baked chicken. But she's 2, some days are a hit and some days are not. It will be interesting to see how she is when she's older.

Store bought and both my children are a bit picky.

Store-bought baby food, but only for a very short while, then on to real table foods. Both of my children were eating whatever my husband and I had for dinner by 9 months. (Oh, and neither had teeth by 9 months ... many people mistakenly believe kids need teeth to chew ... not so! gums work just fine.) I know there are some kids who can't handle table foods that young, but I think many would be fine. My oldest (now 3.5) wasn't picky at all as a baby or toddler. He has his favorite and less-favorite foods, but he always needs to eat most of what he was given in order to get dessert (usually fruit, though lately I'm letting him eat sugary desserts in moderation) ... and that's enough to motivate him through his less-favorite foods. Recently, he's starting to fight eating beef (but not other meats), but I think that may have to do with me being a vegetarian. My younger son (now 1.5) eats very well but only likes a handful of vegetables and its sometimes a struggle to get him to eat a wider variety of those. While I would agree with some comments that genetics play a large role in pickiness, I do think that the more you agonize over how much / what your child eats, the more likely your child is to have eating issues. If my kids don't want to eat what they are offered (and I do take their tastes into account, a little, when meal planning) then they don't eat. And you know what? That's fine. Each of my children have occasionally skipped meals and nothing bad has happened ... they haven't even been more grumpy than usual. They just ate more at the next opportunity. I think backing off / not creating a power struggle helps encourage good eating habits.

My son only ate homemade food. At 18 months, he'll eat whatever I put in front of him! He's had some interesting food :)

i did homemade from the minute he went to solids. he is now 2 1/2 and is a great eater. huge variety of foods ...not eating peas though he used to eat them pureed. i just mse me feel better knowing it was healthy and al natural, and. it hasnt slowed him down at all!

I made homemade baby food with the blender.

For a long time, our little guy was pretty good about trying stuff, but right now, for the past month or so, he's gotten a lot pickier for some reason (at the moment I'm blaming on the cold he's had for the last week, LOL).

He's less into trying stuff at the moment, and even stuff he used to like he's steering away from. But I figure it will even out sooner or later. Right now I'm getting some extra nutrition in him by mixing him up a yogurt parfait (he calls it icecream--1/4 cup vanilla yogurt, 1 or 2 tsp cream, 1/4 cup flavored no-sugar-added applesauce, 1 to 2 T wheat germ, sometimes a bit of granola on top or a little vanilla protein powder or whey powder mixed in). This is his snack before bedtime.

We still try to continue to put good foods in front of him-fruits, veggies, whole grain bread/pasta, cheese, chicken or beef (last night we had Quorn, a fungi-based protein source)... But sometimes it seems like he doesn't want to eat, or only wants to eat cereal/bread, or bananas (which have to be limited bec. they tend to constipate him).

My daughter ate pureed and is super picky. She practically eats the same thing every day - chicken/pork, applesauce and either broccoli or stringbeans. Whatever works!

my daughter ate gerber baby food, and she'll sneer at new foods, but I make her try them and she usually eats what's put in front of her. I dont think she's any more picky than the average 3-4 year old.

We never did pureed food at all. At 6 months we introduced finger foods- starting with very steamed veggies and moving through different foods. My toddler likes a wide variety of foods, but is not fond of very salty foods. But then packaged sandwich meat and cherios are some of the junkiest food in our house. Mostly because pre-packaged food is so much more expensive, we do most of our own cooking. I am not an organic, or extreme health nut type, but I do try to veggie load and stick with less refined stuff and more whole foods.

My oldest ate store bought (I was ignorant to the idea of making my own) and he is a great eater even eats stuff I don't love. My youngest ate homemade and eats just a well as my oldest. I think what a child eats really depends on the parents and what they "expose" them too.

After they could handle a little consistency, I ran whatever we were eating through a mini food processor. They aren't picky now as toddlers/preschoolers. I did end up with more store bought food for the third to eat when we were out and about, but really I was jut too cheap to buy the jarred food all the time.

Both my kids at store bought baby food and aren't picky eaters and never have been.

S.

My son was a little picky as a baby when it came to store bought baby food. He has food allergies. So I made his baby food- pureed chicken and rice, beef and rice, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, etc. He ate them right up as a baby.
However, when he turned about 1 year old (and when I stopped pureeing), he would not even touch chicken or beef, and forget vegetables! He did like jarred fruit, and loves all fruit to this day (he is now 4). I have always wondered if it was a texture thing with the meat- he has a tendency to not like things that are chewy. I guess it's not a horrible thing that he doesn't eat meat, but I worry about the vegetables. Anyway, I hope he outgrows it one day!

My oldest ate both until he hit about 18 months, and then he started refusing the home-made stuff. Not sure why - maybe it's thicker?

I pureed most of the food my daughter ate, as she got a little older she had some store bought jared food. She is almost two now and honestly the strangest eater I have ever seen! I joke all the time that she is my husband in looks, personality, and taste buds! She loves onions, mushrooms, pickles, all meat (but chicken least of all), fish, shrimp, tomatoes, some fruit, all veggies, she loves cheese, guacamole, beans, beans, and any kind of bean she can get her hands on. I think because she ate pureed food she was just exposed earlier to different things and that is why she will now eat a lot of foods that other kids her age won't eat. She also loves spicy foods, we don't give her much because I don't want it to upset her stomach, but she likes things much spicer than I do! We make homemade salsa and she will eat it by the handful if we let her.

Homemade only, and neither is picky. They went through stages where they didn't like this or didn't like that, but overall they eat just about anything I toss in front of them.

Both of my children ate store-bought baby food. I tried to puree some stuff, but mainly found out I didn't have the time to do it as often as I needed to. If I had an overabundance of veggies or fruits from a garden or apple-picking, I would make puree then, but 98% of their food was from the store.

My first wasn't and hasn't been terribly picky. He's always been a good eater and liked things that are interesting for kids -broccoli, carrots, olives (especially almond-stuffed olives), dill pickles, spinach and any green like turnip, collards, etc. His brother was fed the same way and is EXTREMELY picky. We are just now coming out of a year where he honestly lived on yogurt, peanut butter, crackers, dry cereal, oatmeal and apple sauce. He's still very picky, but he has started trying and eating more foods. He now loves pork loin and sauerkraut that I do in the crockpot, but he will not even try most fruits. We've gotten him to eat a banana twice and slices of a tangerine a few times. He will eat dried fruit though. Interestingly enough -both of them LOVE what their dad orders at a nearby pasta place -noodles with spicy lamb sauce! Ground lamb, red sauce that's pretty spicey and chopped peppers, onion and olives. I think they could both eat it all day long! They also both love miso soup and beg to go to sushi restaurants for it.

Both my kids ate homemade puree and are not picky eaters. 5 years old and 3 years old. The 3 year old refuses to eat sometimes--she is three, after all--but I wouldn't qualify that as picky, just natural human toddler behavior. The 5 year old eats all that is presented to him and we always feed them whatever we are eating.

You know, honestly, I think "pickiness" is in large part genetic. As moms, we can encourage or discourage this trait but when I read about all these moms patting themselves on the back for something they did which they believe created their open/nonpicky eater, I think its ridiculous. My son ate everything I gave him in terms of babyfood. I usually made it for him but sometimes I bought storebought. He has some sensory issues and his father was and still has a restrictive diet. I just think the best we can do is keep offering healthy food in a nonjudgemental way and continue to model healthy eating habits.

my son (24 months) ate homemade purees and now likes things really bland. No condiments / spices on anything. He's learned to enjoy the taste of veggis as they are naturally and on his first birthday, refused to even eat cake and wanted a carrot instead! To this day, he doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, no idea if it is a result of the homemade baby food thought.

His cousin (18 months) who we are fostering ate the store brand and is INCREDIBLY picky and refuses to eat veggis at all. I think this was probably just more about his up-bringing than the baby food though.