The Best Organic Baby Foods of 2023
The Best Organic Baby Foods of 2023
- admin
- February 17, 2023
- 12:48 pm
It is advised by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to introduce solid foods around the age of six months.
Oatmeal or rice cereal, which is a relatively bland porridge, will be a baby’s first food. Then, gradually moving toward fruits and vegetables that have been pureed and mashed and have a taste and texture that are more complex.
Always check with your child’s pediatrician before implementing any of these general guidelines because they may not be appropriate for all newborns. A premature baby, for instance, might gain twice as much weight as at birth before the age of six months and might not even be interested in your food by then!
Oatmeal and rice cereals are reviewed in this article, followed by fruit and vegetable purees. Of course, you can supplement these prepared foods for babies with homemade alternatives by chopping up your preferred fruits and vegetables in a baby food maker.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
We tested 26 different brands in order to identify the year’s top rice and oat cereals. We looked for certifications from the Clean Label Project, Oregon Tilth, and USDA Organic.
We evaluated the cereal’s flavor, feeding convenience, and consistency. We experimented on the infants to see how acceptance affected their digestive systems, including reflux, spit-up, diarrhea, and constipation. Last but not least, we looked into reports of heavy metals in baby foods, such as the most recent report from Happy Babies Bright Futures (HBBF) and the follow-up report from the Congressional Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy.
Overall, we discovered some top-notch choices that are not only organically produced but also well-tolerated by babies’ guts and accepted by them!
The Best Baby Food: Cereals and Porridges
The Best Baby Food: Cereals and Porridges
1. Earth's Best Organic Baby Cereal - Oatmeal.
1. Earth's Best Organic Baby Cereal - Oatmeal.
Earth’s Best baby cereals are available in a number of flavors, including Whole Grain, Oatmeal, Brown Rice (also known as “whole grain rice”), and Oatmeal with Banana. While the Brown Rice variety is gluten-free, the Oatmeal variety warns that it may contain traces of wheat or gluten. The best thing about Earth’s Best is how much pride they genuinely have in their food.
They are a smaller business (owned by the Hain Celestial Group) that takes seriously the issue of genetically modified ingredients (see Earth’s Best for more information). The Earth’s Best selections were a little blander in flavor than other items on this list, with the exception of the oatmeal and banana variety. Perhaps because they have no sugar, but when combined with breastmilk, our test babies didn’t seem to mind at all!
The main component (whole grain oats or rice) and a number of vitamins and minerals, including iron, make up the Earth’s Best oatmeal’s very basic list of ingredients. Each serving of baby cereal contains 1 gram of fat and 5 mg of iron, like the majority of other cereals. Nice and easy, which is what we like. It was also well-liked and tolerated by our test-babies, who showed no signs of gastrointestinal distress. Interested?
The Earth’s Best Organic Baby Cereal is available here. The Earth’s Best *rice* cereal was found to contain extremely high levels of contaminants according to the Clean Label Project, so we do not advise eating it.
2. HappyBaby: The Best Organic Baby Cereal.
2. HappyBaby: The Best Organic Baby Cereal.
A thorough investigation was conducted by the Clean Label Project to determine the concentrations of environmental and industrial pollutants in baby cereals and purees. Out of the 30 different baby cereals tested, Happy Baby passed with flying colors, displaying some of the lowest levels of potentially harmful contaminants.
Happy Baby is a Certified B Corporation that balances purposes and profit, and its oatmeal and oats and quinoa cereals are USDA and CCOF certified. The ingredients in this oatmeal cereal are organic whole grain milled oats, 5 mg of vitamin C per serving, and 5 mg of iron per serving.
Protein (2g/serving), fiber (1g/serving), calcium (7mg/serving), and potassium (40mg/serving) are all added by the oats. Only 1g of sugar and no sodium or cholesterol are present in each serving.
In terms of nutritional composition, everything looks great; in case you were wondering, studies have shown that foods containing iron do not worsen or cause infant constipation. During our tests, the cereal blended with breastmilk or water very easily and developed a silky smooth consistency that is ideal for a first meal.
There were no problems with tolerance or acceptance, which was nice. Two of our test parents ultimately switched to Happy Baby. One of the most promising results of our tests is that one! This organic baby cereal is a great value at only about 50 cents per ounce, and we appreciate the BPA-free resealable pouch.
A plus is that the business collaborates with admirable groups like Feeding America, Autism Speaks, and the Allergy Kids Foundation. Anyone else a fan of Happy Baby cereal? It is rated as a top pick by our friends at Babylist and WhatToExpect. The bad news is that finding it is practically impossible! Interested? Here is a link to the Happy Baby Organic Baby Cereal.
3. Else Organic Baby Cereal - Almonds & Buckwheat.
3. Else Organic Baby Cereal - Almonds & Buckwheat.
There are a few ways in which this choice differs from the typical oatmeal baby cereal. First, it substitutes a mixture of gluten-free buckwheat flour, tapioca starch, and almond butter for oatmeal.
Second, Else offers this baby cereal in delicious natural flavors like vanilla, banana, or mango in addition to the bland “original” flavor. Third, over 400 different impurities, including chemicals, toxins, and industrial contaminants, have been tested for and eliminated from the Else baby cereals, earning them the coveted Clean Label Project Purity Award (like heavy metals, BPA, pesticides).
You can learn more about the Clean Label Purity Award here. Suffice it to say that it’s a big deal, especially in light of recent studies that revealed a variety of nasty contaminants in baby food (especially rice cereals).
How, however, did our test-babies react to it? In our testing, we sampled the vanilla, banana, and original flavors. All three are free of dairy, soy, gluten, and corn syrup and are non-GMO, USDA organic, and certified plant-based. Although the texture was a little different from the usual oatmeal baby cereal, we felt it was still sufficiently creamy and smooth for a first meal.
The original, as you might expect, was rather bland until we combined it with breast milk, which our test babies loved! We tested the flavored versions on the older babies, one who was 8 months old and one who was 10 months old, and of course we also tasted them. Both were excellent; the flavor was mild and not overpowering, and both babies happily ate them.
Overall, we believe that the Else baby cereal mixes easily, has a great texture for a first meal, comes in a variety of delicious flavors, and is well-liked and tolerated. What else could we possibly want? One minor change we would like to see made is to get rid of the tapioca maltodextrin, a food starch that is organic and approved by the FDA as safe for consumption but also serves as a filler and thickener.
With the exception of that minor complaint, we believe this is the ideal first meal! Interested? Here is a link to the Else Organic Baby Cereal.
4. Gerber Organic Baby Cereal - Oatmeal.
4. Gerber Organic Baby Cereal - Oatmeal.
The organic baby cereals from Gerber are available in three flavors: oatmeal, brown rice, and oatmeal with peach and apple. The oatmeal should be consumed first, followed by the oatmeal with peach and apple flavor.
We discovered that the oatmeal had the ideal consistency for a first meal. The oatmeal with peach and apple was the sweetest-tasting of the three, and it wasn’t quite as sweet-tasting as the brown rice. The babies seemed to enjoy it quite a bit when we combined it with breast milk! Each variety has roughly the same nutritional profile, with a serving containing 5 mg of iron, 2 grams of sugar, and less than 1 gram of fat.
Be aware that the brown rice version is gluten-free while the oats version is not. The ingredients in Gerber oatmeals are fairly straightforward: oatmeal, soy lecithin and choline bitartrate, two organic sources of choline to support brain and eye development, and vitamins and minerals. Personally, we don’t like the soy lecithin addition.
Additionally, we want to make clear that while we endorse Gerber’s organic oatmeal, we do not endorse their rice cereal in light of the findings of the Clean Label Project. Overall, we think this is a great first oatmeal that babies tolerate very well and that is well-accepted when combined with breastmilk or formula. Interested? Here is a link to the Gerber Organic Baby Cereal.
5. Holle Organic Baby Cereal: Safe European Baby Food.
5. Holle Organic Baby Cereal: Safe European Baby Food.
If you are unfamiliar with Holle, you are missing out! The highly regarded Swiss company Holle produces some of the best organic baby formula and foods available on the European market and complies with the region’s relatively stringent organic and Demeter farming regulations.
Parents adore their products, and for good reason: they are strict with the ingredients they use and the quality of their products. This porridge can be delivered to your door within a few days thanks to businesses like Formuland that bring European baby formula and foods to the USA.
Only two ingredients make up the Holle oatmeal cereal: organic whole grain oats, and vitamin B1 (thiamine). This is the most basic oatmeal cereal you will find (unless you grind it yourself! ), which is ideal for parents who are confident their child is getting enough iron from other sources. From about 5 months on, we started giving our kids Holle oatmeal cereal.
They all readily accepted it (when combined with breastmilk) and displayed a very high level of tolerance.
This is not surprising because it is as straightforward as it can be. It lacks flavor and is bland. Yes! When combined with breastmilk or their preferred formula, will your baby adore it? The chances are on your side! Expensive? Yes, the price of this baby cereal is about $1.50 per ounce, but if parents are looking for a great option, we strongly suggest it. Interested? Here is a link to the Happy Baby Organic Baby Cereal.
You’ll be prepared to introduce some baby food purees once you graduate from breastfeeding or infant formulas and master infant cereal eating!
We bought 14 different brands of fruit and vegetable purees, with at least 3 varieties per brand, and put them to the test in order to determine the best baby foods of the year.
We examined the labels, verified the organic certifications, read the HBBF and congressional reports, and looked for any test results on the Clean Label Project. We fed them to three babies ranging in age from 6 to 10 months after tasting them ourselves (don’t judge us!).
We whittled it down to just a small handful of varieties that we thought tasted the best and were most accepted and tolerated based on their facial expressions, fits of rage, requests for more, and gastrointestinal reactions.
The Best Baby Food: Purees and Blends
1. Once Upon a Farm Baby Foods: Safe and Delicious.
1. Once Upon a Farm Baby Foods: Safe and Delicious.
This is a brand-new addition for this year, and we had the good fortune to try a number of different flavors and textures. I
