Baby food and juices

There are several brands of baby food, including supermarket own-label brands. You can also buy commercial organic foods - these use top quality, pure ingredients which can make them more costly.

If you’re going to use commercial baby food, you need to read the labels. Food manufacturers are required to list all the ingredients in descending order by in-going weight; in other words, what’s at the top of the list is the single largest ingredient in the product. In some cases the first ingredient might be water; this is often necessary for the manufacturing process, but may mean the baby food is cheaper to make.

One leading organic company puts a percentage by each of the ingredients listed, so that consumers know exactly how much of each ingredient has gone into it.

Commercial baby food doesn’t contain artificial colours or flavours, or added preservatives. What it does often include is extra vitamins and minerals, and many manufacturers list how much of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of vitamins and minerals that particular food supplies.

As food allergy is a genuine concern for many new parents, babyfood labels regularly give helpful information about their products being milk, gluten, egg, soya or peanut free, for example.

Baby food is sold according to age suitability - the first sizes will be small jars of 100g to 150g, tins or packets, using simple limited ingredients, for babies from four months. The next stage, in larger jars of lumpier food, is suitable from seven months.

• Dried packet food
• Jars Rusks
• Baby juices

Dried packet food

• Baby rice is often the very first food chosen for weaning; the main brands are quite pure, containing rice flakes or rice flour which you mix with breast or formula milk. It’s also useful later on, for adding to pureed fresh fruit or vegetables, making more of a meal
  
  
• Packets of baby breakfast cereal are useful, right up until your baby can eat the family’s food. There are lots of cereal and porridge varieties, some with added fruit; also some that contain added sugars
  
  
• Both savoury and sweet meals are available in packet form in many different flavours, they are mixed with water or baby’s milk depending on the make. Packet food usually works out cheaper than jars because you make up what suits you, altering the consistency to your baby’s preference. Most should be used up within four weeks of opening

Jars

• Jars usually come with tamper-proof seals and have a long shelf life before opening, but once opened should kept in the fridge and consumed within 48 hours
  
  
• You can also buy babyfood in small quantity tins although the choice of flavours isn't as varied.

Rusks

You can buy sweet biscuit rusks or a sugar and salt free variety.

• Sweet rusks can be mixed with milk or boiled water to make a cereal, or used as a biscuit for an occasional treat. They should not be used as a regular 'finger food' as even the low sugar varieties may encourage decay in developing teeth
  
  
• Hard, completely sugar and salt free rusks may given to a teething baby to relieve irritating gums. You can also buy baby rice cakes which are made from organic rice and are sugar and salt free, and useful as a finger food

Baby juices

Baby fruit juices are suitable from four months. They may not contain 'added sugar', but because they are made from fruit they will already have a high natural sugar content and need to be used with care*.

• Most manufacturers give the natural sugar level in grams per millilitre serving so you can compare labels and go for a low one
  
  
• Unless they have already been diluted, add water* to fruit juices before giving them to your baby
  
  
• In their favour, baby fruit juices are naturally high in vitamin C and manufacturers usually add extra. Many of the recommended single servings (about 125ml) provide at least 100 per cent of a baby’s recommended daily vitamin C intake

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