Not keen on mums home cooking

[emz1907]

Ive spent hours and hours making all sorts of lovely home made grub for my son, but he isnt keen on a lot of it. He has jars every now and again if we're out all day or on the road. He clearly much prefers these and visibly enjoys his food, he is never like this with home cooking He never eats the same quantity either as he would from a jar, I won't feed him jars all the time as I want him to have proper healthy foods. Ive tried chicken casseroles, tuna fishcakes, cod and cheddar pie, spag bol as well as the usual veg purees. He loves his afters like fruit and yoghurt, Ive just no idea how to get him to enjoy his food a bit more.

[woopster]

I would imagine homemade food has a completely different taste and texture. Jarred is much more smooth and bland. With homemade there are always bits in it - or is that just mine! 

Have you tried mixing a spoonful of HM stuff into the jarred and then upping it til he is eating just HM?

How old is he?

[emz1907]

He'll be 9 months on saturday. I haven't tried mixing it no, he will eat the homemade but no where near as much as a jar and clearly doesnt enjoy it as much. His jars are lumpy too though with pasta and veg in them.

[hemz80]

We had a similar thing too, someone suggested i started by making dishes similar to the jar and mixing them.  You can freeze the meals in cubes.  TBH i couldn't be bothered faffing around with all that and just kept perservering with the home cooked stuff but making sure they were tasting things that i would eat myself.  Ds quickly became accustomed to it although like everyone he has his likes and dislikes.

[hemz80]

The jar stuff also often doesn't have the same protein/veg ratio has home cooked foods.... so maybe he eats less but he's just as full??  You could also offer a pudding - goes down well in our house, a yogurt or some fruit etc.

[emz1907]

He does have pudding too, maybe I worrying about nothing (or miffed he doesnt seem keen on my cooking!)

[hemz80]

He does have pudding too, maybe I worrying about nothing (or miffed he doesnt seem keen on my cooking!)

When ds doesn't like something he'll eat a couple of spoons at best and then start turning his head (or nowadays just saying "NO"!!).. if he takes it but it's not as much i wouldn't sweat too much.  Homecooked food is far more nutritous that anything out of a jar and so even if he eats a bit less he's probably getting more goodness out of it iykwim!  I's suggest you perservere, and experiment with flavours and textures.  We used to use HIPP organic jars and the lumps are super-soft, a much different texture to "real food"...  It might take some time but just be consistant, and use the odd jar when you need to.  To begin with you may want to say okay for lunch everyday we'll have a homecooked meal but dinner we'll have a jar... and work from that.

Good luck!

P.s your little Callum is super-cute.. what a gorgeous smile!

[Caroline-Charlies Mummy]

Homecooked food is far more nutritous that anything out of a jar and so even if he eats a bit less he's probably getting more goodness out of it iykwim! 

That's exactly what I was going to say - if he didn't like it, he wouldn't eat any of it, so don't compare the volumes of the two. Perhaps he just needs to eat more of the jarred stuff to feel as full, b/c it's more processed?

[emz1907]

Thanks I feel a bit better about it now.