Earth'sBest BabyFood: it is, but you have to find it first..
Written: Feb 08 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: It's actually food!
Cons: Can be hard to find, and it's more expensive.
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| ccarlson's Full Review: Earths Best First Baby Foods |
Having read an article written by the Center for Science in the Public Interest ( http://www.cspinet.org/ ) on baby food (http://www.cspinet.org/reports/cheat1.html ) entitled "Cheating Babies: Nutritional Quality and Cost of Commercial Baby Food," I would sooner have fed my baby dog food than Gerber or Heinz. In addition to which, I was morally opposed to giving any corporation money that would dare to lower quality on baby food, of all things. Soooo, that left Beech-Nut or Earth's Best, both radical innovators in that they actually put food in their line of baby foods (as opposed to water, starch, and/or salt).
It was a little difficult actually getting started, as Earth's Best is very unevenly distributed at grocery stores. The large local chain stores carried the jar foods, but no cereals at all; and they were often out of the favorites, like sweet potatoes. The health food chain store carried an extensive collection of jar foods and was *supposed* to carry the cereals, but they were always sold out; I talked to the manager about it and he said they couldn't get it in fast enough-- they would get in a couple cases and it would sell out in a day or two. The neighborhood food co-op carried everything and mostly had everything in stock... except, naturally, one of my baby's favorites, sweet potatoes with chicken, since it was a vegetarian organization and wouldn't stock meat items.
I actually tried to special order the Whole Brown Rice cereal, an entire case of it, since I was having so much trouble actually getting it-- and after months of trying to get it, the food co-op threw up their hands and gave me my money back. (Apparently it was on back-order and no one at all could get their hands on it.)
Due to these problems, I often end up supplementing the Earth's Best cereal with Beech-Nut, which is much easier to find (but still not ubiquitous, the way Gerber is).
However, after all that, I must say that Earth's Best is a marvelous product. It does cost a bit more-- and that adds up, especially when you have a determined eater like my son-- but it's worth it to me to know that every bite he's getting is all food, and completely free of chemicals (enough time for chemicals later, when he insists on eating at McDonald's, like every other toddler I know). He mows down everything we give him, with the exception of carrots (which is probably a genetic quirk, as my husband loathes them too), and he's a little more iffy on the whole grain cereal, he much prefers the rice or oatmeal. Something I have noticed, though, is that we can get him to eat the cereal much easier if it's made with breast milk than water, and easier still if it's made with some pureed fruit (like apples or pears) instead of breast milk.
To lower the cost, shop around-- I've seen the very same Earth's Best jars going from anywhere from $0.65 a jar up to $0.78 a jar. Also, go to the Earth's Best web site ( www.earthsbest.com ) and sign up, and they'll put you on their mailing list, which sends out coupons in their newsletter. They also occasionally put $1.00 off coupons on the backs of the cereal boxes.
Bon Appetit!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
ccarlson
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Member: Christina Carlson
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 4 members
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