I was not yet a vegetarian when my children were babies. Like most American kids of the time, my children ate baby foods from the two Big Baby Food Companies, although I did switch them over to cut up whole foods as soon as possible. At the time, organic foods were not well-publicized and commercial foods didn’t seem very suspect to me, so I don’t know what was available then.
Now, though, we know so much more about the importance of organically-grown foods and there are several baby food companies producing a variety of foods for babies. Of course, making your own baby food is probably the best idea, but many moms lack the time to do this. So, I wanted to give you a rundown on some of the organic baby food brands and their vegetarian offerings.
Earth’s Best
Earth’s Best is probably one of the best known and most widely available organic baby foods. I know they stock it at my grocery store and I have a couple of friends who feed it to their babies. They make everything from infant formula to teething biscuits and snacks as well as the jarred baby foods. They’re not a vegetarian company; their second-stage dinners feature meats. However, they have a decent variety of fruits and vegetables. They also offer veggies that are combined with brown rice.
Plum Organics
Plum Organics offers foods in BPA-free pouches and never contain high-fructose corn syrup, trans-fats or artificial ingredients. I like that many of their fruits and vegetables are combined with quinoa, which is a great source of vegetarian protein. Their second-stage foods do include meat, but there’s plenty to choose from in the fruits and veggies and when combined with quinoa and other grains, they make a hearty meal for vegetarian babies.
Yummy Spoonfuls
Like the other two companies, Yummy Spoonfuls produces only certified-organic foods. They also promise that all of their foods are dairy and gluten-free and that the foods are not heat-processed. They claim that even many organic baby foods are, although I couldn’t find any information on cold vs. heat processing from the other two companies. Yummy Spoonfuls is also strictly vegetarian; they don’t offer meat products.
If I had babies at this stage of my life, I would probably be trying to make all of my baby foods from organic fruits and veggies, lentils and grains. But if I wasn’t able to, I’d be awfully grateful to have some organic choices like these.
I’d love to hear how you feed your vegetarian babies and which brands of foods seem to work best for you. If you make some or all of your baby’s food, I’d love it if you’d share how you manage it!
Again, I’d love to hear how you feed your vegetarian babies and which brands of foods seem to work best for you. Please leave your comments below.
- Jenny Sangler
My first son I made almost all his food. It was easy to puree a bunch of veggies- freeze in ice cube trays and defrost for meals. He at everything too. When I fed him jars it was Earth’s Best. I was not a vegetarian at the time but I was concerned with sugar and questionable ingredients. Little did I know the formula was so bad. My second son I did more jars but I still made a lot of his food. I used Earth’s Best again. He was not a fan of jarred food at all so I started him on table food earlier. If only I had known what I know now they would have healthier habits for sure and they would be vegetarian.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
I just purchased a Blendtec, and although pricey it really would save on homemade organic baby food. So far we have had organic strawberry icecream, Organic Tomato Bisque soup, Organic Pineapple-avocado-spinach smoothies, whole organic carrot juice,
whole blueberry, grape, cherry juice/organic. And this is day two.
It is an amazing product, allowing me to get rid of my Champion juicer, blender, coffee grinder and microfood processor.
And all of those were not capable of creatng the wonders of food the Blendtec does.
It’s good to hear that Blendtec is working for you. I’ll check it out as well.