Something that I have been wondering about... I have seen a few instances on different questions where mothers will advise against using Gerber brand baby foods... I was just wondering WHY? What is wrong with Gerber? The ingredients are the same as other brands, just the fruit/veggie and water, so what is the difference? Is it something the company does that isn't liked or what? Just curious. :)
Add~ I do make most of my own baby food... but for things like prunes and peas, I buy premade... (prunes are a pain to make, and I don't have a strainer so peas and green beans wind up with skins that gag her...)
I believe it's because Gerber is now owned by Nestlé and Nestle is a formula maker.
This has been going on for a loooooong time.
Here's a synopsis of the boycott issue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott
As Denise said below, it's probably because they're owned by Nestle, and Nestle unethically promotes their infant formula as better than breastmilk in many poor countries, leading to thousands of infant deaths. Even in America, studies have shown that 900 babies die every year -- in America! with all our clean water and excellent health care! -- due to being fed formula instead of being breastfed. In poor countries, where formula is **expensive** (like half their monthly wage, perhaps more), many mothers add too much water to the formula to make it stretch, leading to infant malnutrition; the water used to reconstitute formula may be dirty and filled with germs, so babies are getting sick directly from that; babies fed formula (even in "healthy" and rich countries like America, and exponentially more in poor countries) are much more likely to get sick, have bowel problems, get constipated and/or have diarrhea -- and when they have diarrhea, they get really weak, and can even die. There are just so many ways formula kills babies, it's sad.
And while formula can be a life-saver if a baby cannot get breastmilk, formula is being marketed in many of these countries as better than breastmilk, so babies who *could* be breastfed are still being fed garbage formula, with their parents thinking that it's better and healthier for them than breastmilk! And Nestle is one of the worst offenders.
I haven't seen those comments on here, but I have usually made my own, or used Earth's Best because it is organic.
Hmm, I'm curious as well. I do know they got "busted" for having added sugar in their food but that was years and years ago. I fed mine Gerber!
I never knew people had issues with it. We were using it with our grandson, still keep emergency stashes, but we've been making our own. It is SO easy to do and I know for sure what is going in the food. So far we've done squash, sweet potatoes and green beans. Google making baby food and you'll be amazed how easy it is, I know I was (even after having 5 of my own).
I also made my own baby food. When they had a few teeth and were chewing I would just cook the peas until soft and they could pick them up and eat them one by one. As they got older they like to eat frozen peas right from the freezer. Not sure about the Gerber thing since my kids are all young adults now.
Updated
I also made my own baby food. When they had a few teeth and were chewing I would just cook the peas until soft and they could pick them up and eat them one by one. As they got older they like to eat frozen peas right from the freezer. Not sure about the Gerber thing since my kids are all young adults now.
My sister wouldnt use it either. She said they added things to their food that was un-necessary. They must have changed that though, because their labels show the same as beechnut. We used them both and had no problems.
If I remember right from my first, Gerber had more sodium than some of the other brands and that's why i didn't use it with my first and used commercial baby food very sparingly with my second. When I did use commercial baby food for #2 it was Earth's Best. I made almost all of her food though.
I have seen those comments and never knew why. I used Gerber and Beechnut.
I have heard it is because of the high salt content but I never checked it out for myself. I generally made my own baby food when it was convenient and fed my kids gerber, beechnut, earth's best (although my daughter hated earth's best!!) when I didn't have time to make it ... I don't have a problem with any of them. It's baby food and they don't eat it for very long before going on to table foods!
As Denise and Kathy both pointed out, it may be related to the Nestle boycott. This is a great site for anyone interested in getting involved or just learning more: http://www.babymilkaction.org/pages/boycott.html
