After I wrote the above, I started thinking, what should they be offering in the store? I really don't have a good answer. After all, this is canned food. The things that taste good from a can are the very things they're selling. So maybe I shouldn't be so hard on Gerber and Beech-Nut.

I pretty much made my own also. Cooked and pureed fruits and veggies and froze them in ice cube trays. I also had a little hand-held food mill which worked nicely.

Well, I don't think jarred broccoli or brussels sprouts would be big sellers. I think they sell carrots in a jar, but they are so easy to cook up and mash anyway. I've seen squash. Oh well, I don't have to worry about that anymore. Did you try the meat on kitty?

I gave my daughter breast milk only until she was 8 mo. old.
I was told that part of the reason children develope food allergies is because they are given food too early and their bodies can't handle it. Then I tried to give her a little baby food, and no way would she eat it. I tasted it, and I didn't blame her, so I just gave her what ever I was eating...minced up very, very fine. I never gave her anything with sugar or preservatives or dyes in it. I was 34 when she was born, and I had seen some very hyper children, belonging to my friends. I didn't want to deal with something like that, if I could prevent it.

My daughter was never a picky eater, and I think that is because she learned to eat real foods from the get go. She
loved vegetables and meat. I would scrape apples for her,
mash bananas and mince beef and chicken until it was very, very fine. To this day, she is not particularly fond of sweets and eats very little of them, and she is almost 30
years old.

My kids didn't get much baby food either. I didn't like the taste of it so I usually just fed my kids mashed up table food.

I found that there really wasn't a big window for baby food with either of my boys. It was convenient and I never had a problem finding 100% fruits or veggies (and organic was easily found with my second) but they both got teeth pretty early and moved on to table foods before you knew it. Very few babies like the meats which is why you probably didn't see much of it on the shelf. I could never even get my sick cats to eat the meats.

I don't think it's any sort of conspiracy. Breast milk is sweet. Does it predispose babies to liking sweets more than formula?

I sent my DDIL a Braun immersible blender when Jake was tiny.
She breast feed him exclusively until he was 7-8 months old and then used the blender to make his food. He is now almost 3 1/2.
He is not a picky eater, either.

Formula is sweet, too, as the manufacturers have made every effort to get it as close to breast milk as possible. Of course, it's not sweetened in the same way. :-)

I don't think it's a conspiracy either, Paula. As I said in my second post, I realize we're talking about canned food, and that in itself limits the selection.

In some cases the baby food on the shelf is a reflection of the store manager. What's on the shelf is what he/she ordered. If it was not ordered, it won't be on the shelf. At times, the mix may be from pressure from the baby food company. One way to pressure the store is to offer "packages" of a recommended mix. Another way is to tell the store manager, "Soon, we will not be supplying that particular food. It is loosing popularity."

There has been sad cases of malnutrition in 3rd world countries partly from lack of communications and at other times when a mother strapped for money may water down the product to stetch the supply. Malnutrition is reduced in locations where mothers are informed about what constitutes good nutrition and the need for a balanced diet. In most cases, they find they can make their own "baby food" and it can be well balanced in fats, protein, starch, and carbohydrates. A vitamin supplement finishes the mix. Also, when you make your own from scratch, it is easier to control the salt content.

My pediatrician (twenty-some years ago) told me to stay away from jarred baby food, they are all augmented with either sugar or salt. In this country with so much obesity and high blood pressure, we don't need to make our children sugar and salt addicts!