As much as we love providing homemade, fresh, organic baby food to our kids every day, sometimes it’s unrealistic. Thankfully, there are plenty of wholesome baby food brands out there. Finding the best one does take some time to research the labels, but it’s easy to do if you know what you’re looking for.
Katie Sova, a clinical dietitian at Michigan Children’s Hospital, noted that food labels list ingredients in order of content. “When reading labels, the first three ingredients are crucial,” she says. “I recommend choosing brands that are pure and limiting or not adding ingredients such as fillers to ensure adequate nutrition. She also recommends avoiding added sugar and sodium, as well as artificial flavors.
It’s also important to make sure you feed your baby a variety of foods. Jennifer House, a nutritionist at First Step Nutrition and a mom of three, notes that many baby purees are just a mixture of fruits and vegetables. “Fruits and vegetables are great, but they don’t provide enough calories or iron as your baby’s only solid food source,” she says. “So if you can find whole grains, especially protein, in baby food, that’s great! Some baby purees have meat in them, which is the best source of iron for babies, so if you’re not a vegetarian family, look for those.”
House also recommends looking for pure vegetable purees, as most are mixed with fruit. “This way your baby will Xi the not-so-sweet taste of vegetables on his own, and will not expect apples to be sweet in every food!”
Ready to go shopping? Here are the 8 best baby food brands according to experts.
Beech-Nut
This widely used brand offers both organic and natural products, all of which are rigorously tested to ensure they are free of pesticides and heavy metals. From cereals and snacks to fruit purees, all beech nut products are free of artificial preservatives, colors, and flavors. They may be one of the oldest baby food brands (founded in 1891), but they’re also among the more progressive brands with an eye on sustainability. They were the first baby food production company in the world to achieve LEED certification, and their returnable glass jars stand out among the more popular bags on today’s shelves.
Cerebelly
You might be intrigued when you hear about a practicing neurosurgeon who developed this baby food brand, and for good reason. When Dr. Teresa Purzner gave birth to the first of three children, she was studying developmental neurobiology. After a year of reading literature on nutrition and children’s brain development, she knew exactly what she was looking for on the baby food shelves and pointed out 16 key nutrients to look for, but couldn’t find enough in a bag or jar. “I was confronted with hundreds of bags and turned them over, but only found two or three meaningful amounts of ingredients,” he said. She said.
Each batch of Cerebelly is a vegetable-based combination that undergoes rigorous heavy metal screening to provide specific nutrients for each stage of brain development. Just look at the nutrition label on the back of each bag to get proof.
Baby Gourmet
Canada’s top organic baby food brand, Baby Gourmet, is also a personal favorite of House. “It was founded by two sisters, both moms, who wanted to provide nutritious and delicious food for their children,” House said. Their purees come in unique flavor combinations, such as ripe mango and avocado with oats, vanilla banana berry risotto, and coconut, kiwi and mangosteen with quinoa. Baby Gourmet’s “Delicious Textured” range of pureed meats includes options such as sweet potatoes, apples, and chicken. They proudly use only non-GMO organic ingredients with no fillers, artificial sweeteners or salt, or artificial preservatives.
Earth’s Best Organic
Offering products for every stage of your baby’s solid food, Earth’s Best Organic focuses on all-natural organic foods that are free of potentially harmful chemicals, pesticides, genetically engineered ingredients, or mixtures of growth hormone found in animal-derived products. You’ll find canned and bagged purees, whole-grain cereals, a snack bar, and even a frozen entrees for toddlers. For kids with dietary restrictions, Earth’s Best also offers gluten-free and kosher products.
Sprout
Using ingredients such as chickpeas, zucchini, and quinoa, Sprout baby food offers a variety of textures and flavors that are suitable for taste development. All of their chef-inspired baby and toddler purees are made with minimally processed, natural foods from certified organic growers and are free of concentrates, preservatives, GMOs.
Little Spoon
If you want to stick to fresh food for your baby but don’t want to make it yourself, Little Spoon offers a fully customized baby food menu delivered to your doorstep every other week. All you need to do is take a little quiz about your baby, which will allow Little Spoon to create a personalized meal plan based on their nutritional needs. It is an allergenic company, which means that they do not produce any food products that contain the eight main allergens, including meat.
Happy Baby Food
The parent company adheres to the philosophy of “enlightened nutrition”. Their products are manufactured using methods that exceed USDA organic standards. Happy Baby Food Formula is specifically designed for different stages of the food with different types of food, including key nutrients such as iron, DHA, choline and prebiotic fiber. They focus on eco-friendly packaging and have pledged to make their packaging 2025% reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 100.
Gerber
As one of the most well-known and widely used baby food brands on the market, Crown has a reputation for high-quality, nutritious baby food. Available in glass jars, plastic containers and pouches, Gerber baby food aims to make all packaging recyclable and segmented according to different stages of development, from newborns and support nannies to toddlers and preschoolers. The flavors tend to be very simple and straightforward, with no artificial flavors or colors.