Anonymous wrote:Most is not safe. The heavy metals are concentrated in root vegetables and rice which are common fillers/thickeners in most commercial baby food. Even things like fruit but mostly in the combos. If the only ingredient is apples in applesauce, for example, you’re okay.

I still don’t trust baby food manufacturers even though this makes sense. What if they use the same equipment to process applesauce as they do carrots?

OP, can you just mash whatever your older kids are eating?

Most is not safe. The heavy metals are concentrated in root vegetables and rice which are common fillers/thickeners in most commercial baby food. Even things like fruit but mostly in the combos. If the only ingredient is apples in applesauce, for example, you’re okay.

^ you *shouldn't* be feeding your kid nothing but store-bought sweet potato puree

I really think the key is variety. We fed our kid some store bought baby food, but it was alongside lots of home cooked vegetables, tons of fruit, both store-bought and homemade breads and crackers, lean proteins, nuts and nut butters, etc. When the reports came out about heavy metals in baby foods, I felt panicky because like most people, we certainly used them. But the more I learned, the more I felt it was overblown. Should they do something about it? Yes. But unless you are feeding your kid nothing but store-bought sweet potato puree, there isn't much danger. And you should be doing that anyway!

For us, a typical day of food for our baby was maybe one or a half container of store-bought puree, then a couple servings of homemade veggies (say, corn and green beans), an egg, some nut butter or jam on a slice of homemade bread, and maybe yogurt with fruit. If that's how you're using these purees, I can't imagine your kid could ever consume enough of those heavy metals for it to matter. If I were in the baby phase still, I would seek out the store bought items with the lowest reported levels of heavy metals, and probably stay away from ingredients most likely to contain them (sweet potatoes and carrots, which are actually incredibly easy to prepare at home anyway). And then just use judiciously.

Now my kid is 3 and we still use those puree packets occasionally for on-the-go, but usually just the unsweetened apple and pear ones. I'm not stressed. We're all consuming chemicals and heavy metals in our food, lamentably. But it's not the terrible urgent problem people make it out to be.

Nothing has changed so no, it isn’t safe.

We avoid rice and limit root vegetables, but we make our own because I don’t trust the baby food companies to be transparent— about this or anything else safety related.

Growing your own isn't going to help unless you get your soil analyzed first.

Root vegetables and rice are known to have high amounts of heavy metals/arsenic. We switched from rice cereal to oatmeal when that report came out and made sure she wasn't getting a bunch of root vegetables every day. But I always made my own pouches - making your own doesn't mean that it's lower in heavy metals. Growing your own doesn't either, unless you've had your soil tested. It's just the nature of the beast: root vegetables suck up heavy metals, and soil has heavy metals in it.

It's easy to grow your own sweet potatoes. I threw a rotten sweet potato in the compost pile and the next summer had a dozen potatoes grow there without even trying!

Anonymous wrote:As long as you don't overdo certain foods (which you shouldn't overdo anyway, it's fine. We don't know sweet potatoes or carrots you buy whole at the store won't have the same issues as those used to make baby food.

This article explains it very well. https://kidseatincolor.com/toxic-baby-food/

This. My understanding is it is the root vegetables that are the most relevant for these issues. And you aren’t completely avoiding the problem by making your own.

As long as you don't overdo certain foods (which you shouldn't overdo anyway, it's fine. We don't know sweet potatoes or carrots you buy whole at the store won't have the same issues as those used to make baby food.

This article explains it very well. https://kidseatincolor.com/toxic-baby-food/

I just stay away from Beach Nut and the ones that are known to have metal.

I batch cook using pot in pot in my Instapot.

The issue is with the fact that the soil where the food is grown has these heavy metals. You can make your own, but unless you know the soil and test your produce, you may run into the same issues.

I know that article came out about huge heavy metals and such in baby food -even and especially the big companies. I have been making my own but with three kids and life it is hard to find time to make the batches of introduction foods. Once she is eating most things I think it will get easier but I would.love to be able to grab a jar of spinach, blueberry, pear and call it a day.

Any information on when it will be safe to use jarred food again?