Can I ask about brands please?

[CluelessMama]

DS is almost 24 weeks old and I'm thinking through what new foods to buy for him to try when we start solids. I'm on board with the 'baby eats what the family eats' approach but know there'll need to be a few exceptions which is where I'm after some MN wisdom please.
Yoghurt - usually buy low-fat, what brands are good full-fat options for babies?
Rice cakes - found supermarket own brand bread sticks that were low salt but all the rice cakes seemed to be salted...do I have to buy a baby brand or do you know any salt free options?
Custards - Ambrosia ready made pots ok or is there something unsuitable about them that I haven't thought of?
Porridge - baby brand? Own brand oats? See lot of people recommend Redy Brek, is that because they do smooth porridge or is there something else that makes it good?
I don't want to buy more expensive baby specific brands just for the sake of it, but is there any food that the baby brands do better than anyone else that's worth looking out for?
Last question - if we want to start now instead of waiting another fortnight, could we go for finger foods/mashed fruit+veg or is it puree/baby rice until 26 weeks?

[BettyStogs]

We get Plum yogurts and fromage frais, they don't have as much sugar in as some of the others. Can't get them everywhere but our local sainsbury and Asda do them.

I'm fairly sure I got low salt ricecakes from co-op, but its been a while since we've got any.

Porridge - we use own brand oats, DS has always been happy with this. I don't think you'd need to worry about it not being smooth for blw as your DS will get used to all sorts of textures anyway.

We've bought very little baby speci

[BettyStogs]

Sorry posted too soon!

We bought very little baby specific food in the first few months of weaning, like you, didn't see the point of spending extra, but now often get some of the organix snacks as they're handy for taking out and about.

In terms of starting earlier than 26 weeks, I thinly that as long as baby is showing the signs of readiness you can go straight to finger food, although best to stick to fruit and veg before 6mo, then you can introduce meat, fish, wheat etc. Although it is a very messy process, so why not waif s couple more weeks and save yourself the clearing up!

[BettyStogs]

Thinly = think
Waif s = wait a
Stupid phone!

[zoobaby]

No expert as DS only had his first taste of solids this week. I bought baby porridge as I hate the stuff and there's no way I want to slave over a saucepan to produce 2 spoons worth. The baby porridge has been VERY easy to prepare, pretty much instant. I even like the taste and texture myself... hmmm, not sure that was supposed to happen.

[ceeveebee]

Rachel's first taste yoghurts are nice, I eat them myself as well!

Kallo do unnsalted thin rice cakes, or you can buy baby specific but they are much more expensive. Kallo also do low salt stock cubes which I now use for cooking all in all our food

Custard - sorry, don't know

Porridge - I think you have to avoid gluten until 6 months so as long as you wait until after then you can use any brand I think. We use readybrek just because it is so convenient as its more or less instant. We also use wheatabix although I did buy the baby weetabix until 12 months as I was worried about added salt

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

We did ready brek because its cheaper than baby cereal and neither DH or I eat porridge. We tried both DC with organix rice cakes, again we don't eat them and it turns out the DC didnt either. Think we found some mini bread sticks in Sainsburys but can't quite remember. Can remember making cheese straws myself though. Yogurt was just natural yogurt,

[FredFredGeorge]

Any full fat natural yoghurt - big pots, never used rice cakes, adult diet food does not make good baby. Porridge, just porridge oats, no need for ready brek unless you want to save a few minutes cooking it.

[BikeRunSki]

Ready brek - cheap, smooth, no salt. Supermarket own brand versions the same but cheaper.

Yoghurts - I mostly use Langley Farm, but they are local and in every shop.

Rice cakes - Kallo do low salt ones. They may be considered "diet food" , but they are soft for babies to eat, and not very "diet" once covered in Philly or peanut butter.

[Lexiesgirl]

We used a lot of own brand/saver stuff - fromage frais, cream cheese, pesto etc - because they seemed to work out less salt than some of the bigger name brands. Weetabix and Shreddies for breakfast.

I have bought a lot of baby brands like Ella and Organix for the crisps, biscuits, rice cakes and the like, but haven't actually used them much. I think people feel a bit of an obligation to use them because they are so ubiquitous, but your baby can snack just as well on fruit and raisins and that.

[notcitrus]

Greek yogurt is high in fat with no sugar. I generally found supermarket own brands lowest in.salt/sugar, eg Sainsburys Ready Oats none, basics weetabix least, basics fromage frais. Ordinary pasta. Lots of carrot sticks. A pint of whole milk a week.

The baby aisle has some useful convenience products but you don't need any of it. Baby no.2 is getting a lot more of them than no.1 did!

[Lexiesgirl]

Basics products are amazing. I still can't work out why some of the other mums I know are paying for Petit Filous etc when Sainsbury's Basics fromage frais are 46p for 6!

[nextphase]

big pot of full fat greek yoghurt - add homemade fruit puree to ring the changes.

We went straight onto porridge oats (make it in the microwave), but lots of people seem to use readybreak as a smoother alternative. I'd stay off the wetabix for a month or 2 - although low in salt and sugar for a cereal, its not free!

If the next meal wasn't going to be baby friendly, |I kept back some of the previous days meal, and boiled some veg.

Never really ventured into the baby food isle. Gobsmacked by how expensive some of it is.

[5madthings]

I just used regular porridge most of the time.

Natural yog, ie greek yog etc but as it comes in big pots i used to freeze it in an ice cube tray then tip the frozen cubes into a freezer bag and i could just get afew ice cubes of yog out at a time. Saved having a big pot go off if we didnt use it all.

Rice cakes, kallo are good. I do buy the organix ones sometimes when in town with dd to keep her in the pushchair.

Custard is fine.


No need for purees. Finger food and mashed bits are fine as long as they ate sitting up etc.

[CluelessMama]

Thanks for all your replies, suggestions and advice!
I'm sure it will all become second nature once we get started, but it's fab hearing what others buy. Thinking about food for DS is making me realise how set in my ways I am about the foods I buy and eat, there's so much else out there and while it would be great for him to eat the same food we do, I also don't want to limit him to 'only' the food I'm in the hbit of buying IYSWIM.
Interesting how many of you have found supermarket own brand options to be healthier for salt and sugar than some more expensive options.
zoobaby + ceeveebee - I'm kind of hoping that, like you, I'll find some of the things I buy for DS tasty so I'll discover new foods for me and maybe eat a bit healthier as I think about what to give him.
FredFredGeorge - you make a good point about rice cakes, hadn't thought of them as a diet food. Will probably try DS with them at some point, but can I be nosy and ask what you would suggest as good snack foods? OH eats A LOT of crisps so I'm aware I'll need to steer DS away from that habit!
BikeRunSki - thanks for mentioning Philly and peanut butter, just the kind of things I don't usually buy that could be good to try DS with, I remember HV saying peanut butter was a good option.
5madthings - would not have occurred to me to freeze yoghurt but that sounds brilliant, thanks for the tip!
Betty - good point about delaying the mess another couple of weeks! DS has been seeming hungrier over the past four days or so which got me thinking, but having waited this far we can maybe hold off a bit longer. He could definitely get food accurately to his mouth (first solids would have been a chunk of an envelope if I hadn't scraped it off the roof of his mouth last week!), and he is sitting up but will be more secure in this if we wait as he's still getting stronger. And of course, as well as avoiding the mess a little longer it would mean we could ignore the 'before 6 months food to avoid' list if we can hold out another fortnight. I'm half excited to get started and half dreading the faff!

[flipflopper]

custard is really easy to make! I made it this week for the first time for dd, the cstard you buy has loads of colouring and sugar in.

1/2 pt full milk
1tsp cornflour
1 egg yolk
1tsp sugar
few drops vanilla essence

blend cornflour with small amt of the milk until smooth
add rest of the milk and the sugar and heat for a few mins until it thickens
leave to cool slightly
whisk in egg yolk and vanilla

you can keep in the fridge for 2 days. doesn't freeze well. you could also make with breastmilk.

[KatAndKit]

yoghurts - I tend to buy petits filous but if you are keen to avoid the added stuff, just buy full fat yoghurt and add your own fruit.

custard - I'd avoid this as part of a regular diet due to it not being especially healthy. For the odd treat, there are teeny jars of banana/chocolate/custard pudding available in the baby food section.

rice cakes - go to the baby aisle as you need the salt free ones. i go for the organix brand for a nice range of baby finger snacks but the asda little angels ones are fine.