Ooo! I did something good!

Homemade Baby Food May Help Baby Eat Healthier Later On - from "TheBump.com"

It can be tough to squeeze in extra time to make your own baby food, but a recent UK study suggests it will pay off in the long run. The study, conducted by Bristol University and psychology expert Helen Coulthard from Leicester’s De Montfort University, studied data on about 7,500 different moms, which included whether they made their own baby foods for their kids and how many fruits and vegetables those kids ate as they got older. Babies who were served homemade baby food at six months were more likely to be fruit and veggie eaters at seven years old than those who ate packaged foods. But the study’s findings aren’t 100 percent conclusive -- it's not clear whether the babies who liked fruits and veggies were influenced just by the baby foods or by their families’ meal habits in general (Note from Erin: Either way - I'm showing Dean how good "real" food is!). The researchers admit that fact, but also stress the importance of starting healthy eating habits early on. Coulthard says that relying too much on packaged food can lead to a pattern of using ready-made foods on a daily basis, which usually aren’t as healthy as the fresh stuff. She also advises that parents give baby “foods that vary in taste and texture, and ultimately represent the foods that the family eats” from the time the child start to eat solids, since babies tend to be more open-minded about trying new things before their first birthday than they are later in childhood.

Dean eats everything I give him - most recently, turnip greens and bits of turnips! He prefers the turnips. But mix this in some baby bulleted carrots - yum!