Why I Love It: The Baby Food That Made Our First Foods Journey Easier

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Why did she get it?

Introducing your baby to solids is an exciting milestone, but it can also feel overwhelming. You want to get it right—choosing the right foods at the right time and encouraging healthy habits without adding pressure.

For Mariyah Gerber, that meant approaching this phase with intention, hoping to give her baby Liam a great start, while learning from her experience with her first son, Aiden. After realizing that leading with fruit purees gave her oldest a preference for sweeter foods (one that has lasted into toddlerhood), she decided on a “no fruits” approach with Liam.

“I think we'll probably try to stick to green vegetables and anything that's more on the bitter side and then later on add in sweeter foods like sweet potato and fruit,” she explained.  Her goal of starting with vegetables and grains—oatmeal, cereal, carrots, peas—led her to Gerber 1st Foods and Single Grain Cereal to make the mealtime transition a little easier (and nope, they’re not related!). 

Why does she love it?

Finding meals that Liam would enjoy that also fit into the rhythm of family life was high on Gerber’s must-list. She wasn’t sure how he’d take to solids, but says he’d always been a good eater, so she expected it wouldn’t be too difficult. What she didn’t expect was how fast he’d become a fan.

“It’s very messy, but he loves it—he literally smacks his lips,” she laughed. “From day one to day two, he went from being like, ‘oh what is this,’ to reaching for the spoon and trying to hold it himself.”

Here’s what else she loves about using Gerber baby food during this new feeding chapter:

• Easy-to-customize meals: To ease babies into solids, it’s recommended to mix in some formula or breastmilk, and Gerber found that was easy to do with the Gerber brand’s food lineup. “To start, I mixed some of his formula milk with the oatmeal, and he liked it,” she says. “He also liked when I mixed the formula, the oatmeal and then a little bit of the butternut squash altogether.”

• Quick and low-stress: As a mom of a baby and an opinionated toddler, Gerber’s schedule is hectic. “Dinner time is always chaotic—we’re trying to get dinner for ourselves, for Aiden, who sometimes wants something totally different,” she admits. “To have to make a third separate thing would just take us out. It’s nice to grab something quick and ready; we know he likes it and we know he’ll eat it.”

• Certified clean ingredients: Gerber food has the most Clean Label Project Certifications of any baby food brand, which helped her feel more comfortable giving it to Liam. “It’s nice to know there are still options that are quick and easy that are the purest form of the ingredient without having to feel any mom guilt about it,” Gerber says. “It’s basically as if I made it myself.”

Single Grain Starter

$2.99

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Gerber Butternut Squash

$1.49

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Gerber Green Bean

$1.49

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Gerber Baby Food Puree My 1st Fruits Starter Kit

$4.59

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Who would she recommend it to?

Gerber recommends 1st Foods and Single Grain Cereal to families wondering how best to introduce foods to their little one—especially parents who are already balancing a lot of responsibilities, like multiple kids.

“I feel like as a mom you're always trying to do what you think is best for your kids,” Gerber said. “You have this struggle internally of like, ‘OK, well, if I don't have time to boil the peas and mash them up and blend them,’ then what?”

Her advice? Be kind to yourself. 

“You always want to give yourself grace,” she suggests. “If you hit a point where you're like, ‘I cannot do this,’ or ‘I don't have the time’ or ‘I don't have the mental capacity to handle this at this time,’ that is OK. As long as baby is fed and you are happy with the products that you found, then that is the best-case scenario.”

Because, as she puts it: “They're not gonna look back and be like, ‘oh, my mom didn't mash the peas herself.’ Even though we’re so hard on ourselves and think that’s what’s going to happen—that’s not going to happen.”

Want to know more about the Gerber’s first foods? Take a look at Mirayah Gerber’s review here. 

This article is sponsored by Gerber. Babylist’s free site, apps and emails are made possible by our sponsors. We limit our sponsored content to relevant partners that offer products and services we believe in and use ourselves.