Who knows how long your kid will want baby food. For us, #1 went more than 18 months IIRC, but #2 wanted "real" food before 15 month. And then there's a friend of #1's who at 4 still won't eat a banana unless it comes from a jar. Short answer, ask your kid's doc what he/she recommends, but remember that your actual mileage may vary.

As for homemade foods, the wife had grand plans for us to make our own healthier baby food for #1. We got a used food mill and single-serving containers from a friend recently out of the toddler business. We tried a couple things, but the kid wouldn't touch it. But, when offered jar food, she went nuts--with both fruits and vegetables. I was actually relieved. Making the stuff at home was quite a hassle.

My advice:
Jars are much simpler route, although they are the expensive one. Never buy jar food you can quickly mash up yourself with a fork, like banana or avocado. Never buy apple baby food in a jar; it's a lot less expensive to just buy a big jar of applesauce, and it comes unsweetened and blended with blueberries or strawberries.

With the exception of rice cereal (which I tried to make but it took forever to grind fine enough) we cooked all of Maddy's food. All we used was like a two cup proctor silex food processor and, where needed, a small strainer. Most of the time it was really relatively easy. She started gumming bananas and avocados pretty early on. We feel like cooking her food at home made the transition to solids easier because she was used to the flavors. As far as actually eating the same thing we eat, that was a slower process as our Dr. recommended taking it easy on salt, etc.

"We don't need a license for this or anything?"

Thanks for all the input. It helps to have a better grasp of the situation so I can do some pre-planning.

Rich C. : Novice baby wrangler and cat herder.
http://one-sahd-dude.blogspot.com/
http://good-eats-fan.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/onesahddude/

What worked great for my son:

Jars: Bought some of them (gave them a try), but I put the food in a baby plate when he was looking. Here comes the applesauce!!!

Food Processor: Once He was eating from his plate (baby food from jars), slowly switch to smashed table food in the same plate.

Finger Food: As soon as he was able to chew, gave him finger food like fruit, green beans, peas, and other soft food.

So I never use baby cereal or special-packed-baby food, just what I did cook. Nevertheless, my family does not use lots of salt, sugars, meats or sauces.

Finally, I cook and smashed a lot of veggies on the weekend and put them on the freezer, and use them as complement of our normal day food.

Hope something here would be of help.

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