Why Do So Few Jarred Baby Foods Contain Meat?

Factual Questions
1

I had to give my cat some pills and went with my old standby - grinding them up and mixing with meat babyfood. However, as I was standing in the aisle, contemplating whether they would prefer turkey or beef or chicken, I was struck by how there were 6 shelves of babyfood, but only 3 varieties made with meat. Also, you can get certain popular varieties in a larger container (bananas, sweet potatoes, green beans, applesauce) but meat comes only in the teensy 2.5 oz jar.

So what gives? Is too much protein bad for babies or something? Do babies hate meat? Is it a sign of the encroaching Vegetarian Agenda (j/k)?

2

Price?

3

It’s price definately. I remember how big the jars were and in 1986 was the first time I noticed they slashed the size, and they keep slashing the size. It’s so you will have to buy more and they can keep the price down

I noticed a similar thing elsewhere. I went to the store to Cheerios, it was on sale for $1.75, I thought WOW that’s cheap, then I noticed the servings were ony 7 per box. The box a few months ago at that sale price was 11 servings.

So companies are using that as a way to keep the price down.

I noticed on chips I’m seeing more and more air in the chip bag the same size.

4

No, I’m not buying it. Let me be clear

  1. There are two sizes for baby food jars. Meat only comes in the smaller of the two sizes, but in the smaller option the meat jars are the same size as the veggie jars.
  2. There are 20 varieties of vegetables at “Stage one,” but 3 varieties of meat. There are ZERO varieties of meat at “Stage two,” and at “Stage 3” there are again maybe three options that include meat vs. 30 options in vegetables.
  3. There is no notable price difference between meat and veggie options. Meat may be slightly more expensive, but it’s perhaps a 10 cent difference.
5

Babies don’t like meat much, as a general rule. At least, not the ones at the gooshy food stage, and *definitely *not the “meat” in babyfood jars. Have you *smelled *that stuff? Ghastly.

They need more in the way of carbs and fats than proteins - after all, milk is still a huge part of their diets until 2 years old or so. They’re no longer growing quite as fast as a newborn, and what’s growing isn’t muscle, it’s nervous tissue and brains, which are built from fat, not proteins. Nature/Evolution/The Universe/God has wired them with a taste for what they need. Disgustingly overcooked meat mush ain’t it.

By the time they really want meat - around 2 or 3, IME - they’re old enough to eat what the rest of the family is eaten, just cut a little smaller. Even people who buy babyfood are mostly done with it by that stage. So there’s just not much of a market for babyfood meat.

6

So many jars…so few babies to make the food out of…simple arithemetic

7

It’s been a long time since i’ve bought baby food, but as I remember it, the plain meat was only sold in th etiny jars. The larger jars had dinners which included meat- chicken and vegetables or macaroni and beef. I think the only reason they have it in the small jars is for the time period where a single ingredient is added to the diet at a time

8

Aha! So there is a stage in baby-raising when you introduce foods one ingredient at a time? And this is pretty much the only time most people serve meat baby food, because, in general, babies don’t like it much?

Ignorance fought! Thanks! BTW, my cats LOVE the stuff, I think it was on the Dope I first heard of mixing pills in with meat baby food, and it works a charm. :smiley:

9

Gerbers is made from BABIES!!! :cool:

10

The current advice is to introduce new foods one at a time, a few days apart, and note any adverse effects. If you introduce, say, “Turkey, noodle and pea casserole” and your baby gets a rash, it’s impossible to say whether it was the turkey, noodles or peas that might be the culprit.

Not everyone does this, mind you, but it’s what most doctors recommend these days. I find that most parents stop doing it when the kid starts grabbing the pizza off Mom’s plate at dinnertime.

Hakuna Matata, I don’t know if you remember this story or not, but my dad had me convinced that baby food was made of babies when I was a kid. His evidence? The jar of peas has a picture of peas on it. The jar of peppers has a picture of peppers. The jar of baby food…OMG! :eek:

11

FWIW, this might be a cultural/regional thing. We couldn’t find that many meat baby foods in Florida, but there is all different kinds here in Puerto Rico. In Venezuela the variety was insane (Lagarto con Vegetales is not what translation sites will tell you). The same brands (Gerber, Heinz) in all 3 places.

12

At our local store they have several varieties of meat in Gerber’s. There’s a big “2” on the label, I assume that means Stage Two. Today they had chicken, lamb, beef, and veal. Recently they’ve also carried turkey and ham.

13

VEAL!

I knew it!

I told everyone they were feeding babies to babies…but no, on one believed me!

Its soylent orange I tells ya!

14

It’s a byproduct of making baby oil.
[Wednesday]Are your cookies made with real girl scouts?[/Wednesday]

15

Just to be clear - when you say meat babyfood, are you meaning a whole jar filled with just chicken, or just beef? Or ‘pureed somethingorother involving meat’? Because the situation round here is radically different from what you’re describing. In my local supermarket there’s:

Stage 1 (4-6 months) - generally apple,pear,banana,root veggies, that sort of thing. I don’t think any of them involve meat. One ingredient per jar, small size.

Stage 2 (7-9 months) - combo foods. Banana and pear, beef and potatoes, that sort of thing. Fruits generally marked as “dessert”, of the rest probably about half contain meat of some sort.

Stage 3 (10-15 months) - foods pretending to be “real meals”. Have names like “Chicken Chasseur” and “Pasta and Tuna Mornay” - of course they’re all food-processed to an indistinguishable blob, so the “real meal” nature is primarily a parental feelgood factor. About 3/4 contain meat, I’d say.

Maybe Australian babies are all just meataholics :wink: Mine certainly are - there’s nothing the Small Boy likes better than scarfing down a peeled saussage. Never tried them on just plain meat-in-a-jar though (if it’s anything like the tinned meatballs I used to eat when I was feeling poor, it may well be vile!)

16

I lived on it once…for six weeks. That was the most traumatic part of gastric by-pass surgery: broccoli and beef baby food. I dare you to taste it.

Just please don’t give it to your sweet babies. It might give them some sort of stress disorder in later life.

Now the bananas are fantastic! And the oatmeal is better than grownup oatmeal too. I wonder if I combined the two, threw in a little bacon and some cream…

17

I’m from Melbourne, like Aspidistra. My 15-month old had lamb rogan josh for dinner. Smelled great. The same Heinz range has chicken chasseur, chicken paella, sweet and sour pork etc. Most of them I’ve tasted and they’re vegie-heavy and a little bland, but fine.

18

If it’s that old, why did Jo freak out on Supernanny about the 2.5 year olds twins not having “long ago” given up baby food for the same meal as everyone else?

19

I’m sorry, I not sure I’m understanding the question, so if my answer is bizarre, it’s probably because I misunderstood you, and I apologize. I’m also only an occasional watcher of the show; while I quite like it and generally agree with Jo, I can’t begin to answer *for *her. But for my part, I’d be quite shocked and disapproving if a normal healthy 2.5 year old was still exclusively eating baby food. An old favorite or two (hey, the Pear/Applesauce seriously does rock!), I wouldn’t fret, but it sounds more like it was their whole diet. I don’t think that’s good for a couple of reasons: one, they just need more texture than that to develop good oral musculature. They need to chew and swallow in order to develop muscles needed for talking well. Too much pureed food for too long doesn’t give them opportunities for that.

Secondly, because by 2.5, you’ve missed literally thousands of easy opportunities to widen a child’s palate by exposing them to different tastes, textures and temperatures. While there are more varieties of jarred food available than there used to be, the very nature of the canning process ensures overcooked mushy food.

Thirdly, I feel that kids need to learn early on how to work as a family unit at mealtimes, eat what’s provided with a minimum of fuss and really be a part of the group. Special meals inherintly make them “other” and should, IMHO, be minimized as much as possible. My own daughter’s gluten intolerant, and while she can’t eat everything we do, I try my best to make gluten free approximations of what we’re having, instead of entirely different meals just for her. Sure, if we have barbeque, she can’t have a kaiser roll, but she can have pulled pork on millet bread or a potato roll instead. I consider it sort of akin to the “least restrictive environment” goal of integrative education - the smaller and more subtle the adaptations, the more inclusive the experience. Sure, you might hate Mom’s Tuna Surprise, but we’re all going to hate it as a family, darn it! :wink:

Fourthly, it’s just so darn expensive! If the kid is 2.5, she’s probably eating two or three of those little jars for one meal, and that’s just…crazy talk! Why not just make it at home? (Of course, I kind of feel that way about baby food in general, but I can see how some people find the jars convenient for wee ones.) Since their diets don’t have to be restricted any longer, why do it?

Finally - and this is just me being a lazy, lazy mom - I am not a short order cook. I don’t want to be preparing two entirely separate meals every night, even if one of them comes out of a jar.

20

They tried horse for a while, but it didn’t sell well.