It isn't just "fairly simple" to make your own baby food, it's very, very easy. Cook the vegetables, puree, and freeze the excess in an ice cube tray. Thaw a couple of cubes and voila! Not to mention mashing a banana, or using regular canned veggies, no salt, no sugar if you don't have fresh ones or don't have time to cook.

As for the definitive research on organic...that will be a long time coming, I suspect--but if, as a parent, you have a suspicion that maybe toxic chemicals aren't really good for you, that's probably all you need to know.

I think it is a little crazy to say no definitive research--umm..do you want your baby to consume pesticides or not?

Babies' developing nervous systems are more sensitive to pesticides than adults', so eliminating pesticide residue seems like a sufficient extra health boost.

I'm always puzzled by people who think organic produce should have to be proven to be healthier than conventionally farmed produce beyond lacking exposure to certain chemicals. Even growing up in the land of Big Agribiz (and attending UC Davis), I don't recall hearing claims that using non-organic-qualified fertilizers and pesticides added any nutrient value to food. Conventional farming potentially makes produce easier to harvest, store, and ship, as well as more cheaply available -- but that just makes the nutrient benefits more widely available, rather than making them larger in themselves.

Organic food may not have more nutrients that we commonly measure (i.e. vitamin C or protein), but it has been found to have more cancer fighting antioxidants and quite possibly other nutrients that generally are not measured by the USDA. Likewise, free range (not grain fed) beef and eggs have higher omega-3 than their grain fed counterparts. Plus, it all tastes better!

Organic food may not be any healthier...but it's certainly apt to be less toxic! I made the babyfood for my children. I loved it because 1) I knew exactly what was going into their little tummies - no pesticides, no preservatives, no sugar or artificial coloring; and 2) It meant nothing to throw out or recycle.

As somebody above said, making baby food is SO SO easy. Cook fruit/vegetable until soft, toss in blender, toss in icecube trays to freeze, store in ziplock bag until use. You can also control the "chunkiness" better, so that you can change the texture of the food as your child gets older, instead of dropping mad cash on the special "toddler foods" in grocery stores. Seemed too much like shopping for pets, for me. ;)

If you can breastfeed (and I totally understand that there are legitimate reasons why some can't, adoption being the most obvious but certainly not the only reason... but it's also a fact that many more mothers could do so with sufficient education and support) than you don't need babyfood. Ever, at all.

I'm hoping to make my own babyfood, just so there is less packaging involved in transporting the food (moving around 1 sweet potato requires less packaging then moving around 5 small glass jars of sweet potato baby food). Recycling the jars is great, but I'd just prefer not to have them to start with.

Home made baby food isn't necessarily organic--or pesticide free or anything else. Unless you know exactly where and how those sweet potatoes and peas were grown, there isn't any advantage to making your own vs. purchasing it, as far as "organic" is concerned.

Now, if you want to talk about salt content--well that's definitely easier to control from home-made baby food.

I must take issue with this statement though: "It definitely is nice to know organic food is free of pesticides, but there has been no definitive research to show it's healthier."

What would "definitive research" require? I'm not sure mothers would allow their babies to be test subjects, even if it were legal. (Actually, I take that back. I'm sure there are some mothers who would be grateful for "free food" for their babies; unfortunately there are a lot of poor struggling families out there.)

Wende--the reason you didn't hear any claims that "claims that using non-organic-qualified fertilizers and pesticides added any nutrient value to food" is because such fertilizers and pesticides have actually reduced the nutrients available in certain foods. Did you know that the potato in Canada actually lost 100% of it's Vitamin C in the last 30 years or so? 100%! Vitamin A content is also down. The kids ask me why they should eat potatoes...my mother used to tell me it was because "it has Vitamin C." Well, I can't say that to my kids anymore.

Agri-business is truly horrifying. If, and only if you have a strong stomach, I recommend reading "The End of Food" by Thomas Pawlick.

It nearly put me off eating entirely.

Oh and we didn't go the baby food route at all. I was fortunate to be able to breastfeed and eventually the kids just ate whatever we did, more finely cut and a wee bit mashed, of course.