Here are 5 good reasons to start preparing your own baby food, as opposed to buying it in the store.

It’s Healthier and More Nutritious
Commercial baby foods contain additional fat, salt, sugar, fillers or other ingredients that are completely unnecessary (and often inappropriate) to your baby’s diet. These additives are an attempt to add flavor, texture and bulk to poor-quality products. They contribute nothing at all to your baby’s health or well-being. By preparing the food yourself, you can be sure that your baby is getting exactly what his/her little body needs – and nothing that it doesn’t.

You’re in Control
By preparing your baby’s food yourself, you know exactly what your baby is eating. When you prepare an apple sauce, you know he/she is getting fresh, pure apple and all the goodness it contains. However, when you buy apple-sauce at the store, you’d almost need a degree in nutrition just to decipher the list of ingredients.

It’s Easy
Once you get started cooking for your baby, you’ll quickly realize just how easy it is. All you need is a food blender and some fresh ingredients to quickly prepare healthy, tasty, home-made meals for your little one. Furthermore, by making large amounts of his/her favorite meals in advance, and then freezing them for later, you’ll be able to serve up delicious, healthy meals in minutes — every day of the week.

It’s Much Cheaper
The prices that baby food manufacturers charge for their products is nothing short of scandalous and are in no way justifiable. The reason they can charge so much is because they’ve conditioned most parents to believe that they have no choice but to buy from them. By preparing your baby’s food yourself, you can avoid being a victim of this daylight robbery, and find yourself with extra cash to spend on all those other things that a growing baby needs.

It’s Very Gratifying
Watching your baby enjoy the meal you’ve just prepared for him/her is already a very gratifying experience. On top of that, however, you have the satisfaction and pride of knowing that you’re giving your child the gift of a healthy and nutritious diet – and saving yourself money as well. And finally…

If all that weren’t enough, here’s another great reason to do it yourself: home-made baby food is much tastier than any commercial product. Delicious food is one of life’s great pleasures and your baby deserves to enjoy the rich flavor and texture of real home cooking just as much as you or I. After all, none of us would enjoy eating ‘TV Dinners’ morning, noon and night – and that goes for your baby too!

So, don’t put it off. Get started today. Your baby will thank you for it in more ways than one.

Nancy.

About the Author:
Nancy Miller is author of ‘How to Make Your Own Healthy Baby Food’ and a full-time working mom. Visit Nancy’s website at www.healthy-baby-food.com or email her at nancy@healthy-baby-food.com.

The quality of a baby bedding collection is determined by the fabrics used in making the quilts or comforters, crib bumpers, dust ruffles, and other items that comprise the baby bedding set. Little information is available to consumers to help them access the quality of fabrics used in the hundreds of crib bedding collections that are sold by dozens of manufacturers. Here are a few characteristics that a consumer should consider when comparing crib bedding collections from competing brands.

Printed Fabric Patterns versus Woven Fabric Patterns
Many simple fabric patterns – such as stripes, plaids, and ginghams – can be printed or woven. While not readily apparent to the uninformed consumer, the differences between these two fabric manufacturing methods are significant and important for the appearance and durability of the crib bedding.

Woven fabrics start with differently colored threads or yarns. These threads or yarns are woven together in such a manner as to create the desired pattern – generally ginghams (small checked patterns), plaids, and stripes. The colors and pattern become an integral part of the fabric itself. Look for a fabric where the pattern appears on both sides of the fabric- this is a sure sign that it is woven. Or simply examine the fabric up close and note the colors of the individual threads that make up the fabric.

Printed fabrics are made with a solid colored material. The desired pattern is imprinted onto the surface of the solid material using a variety of inks and printing techniques. Look for a fabric where the pattern appears only on one side – this is a sure sign that it is printed, not woven.

Woven fabrics are almost universally superior to printed fabrics. They are more color-fast and resist fading more effectively than printed fabrics. The pattern, being an integral part of the fabric itself, will not wear off as compared to a superficial pattern that is printed on the surface of the fabric. The durability of a printed pattern is very much dependent on the amount of ink and precise technique used to imprint the pattern. Unfortunately, this is almost impossible to determine based simply on examining the fabric.

Complex, nonlinear patterns cannot generally be woven. But a manufacturer who chooses to use printed fabrics for simple gingham, plaid, and striped patterns is sacrificing quality in favor of cost. Not to say that a printed pattern should be avoided at all costs; but the higher price of a baby bedding set made with a woven gingham or striped fabric is usually more than justified by the higher quality.

Printed Designs versus Embroidered Designs on Fabrics
Manufacturers are increasingly creative in using complex designs in their baby nursery bedding to communicate a desired theme. These designs can be either embroidered or printed.

Embroidered designs use separate threads to sew the design into the fabric, often in combination with other textured fabrics. While embroidery techniques and technology has improved over the years to make them more cost-effective, it is still more costly to embroider a design than it is to simply print it on the surface of the fabric. Embroidered designs are generally more detailed, and almost universally more durable than imprinted designs.

Again, not that printed designs need be avoided at all costs. But the consumer should be aware of the quality differences before choosing a baby nursery bedding set with printed designs over a more costly crib set with embroidered designs.

Real or Printed Patchwork
In an effort to reduce cost, some “patchwork” bedding is really one piece of fabric with a “patchwork” design printed on it – the fabric shell of the item is then “stuffed” and sewn over at the borders of the different patterns to create a patchwork appearance. It is generally easy to see this shortcut with a simple up-close examination of the fabric – the stitching rarely lines up consistently with the printed pattern. True patchwork is far superior to printed patchwork designs and is always more expensive. True patchwork shows different textures as well as different colors and patterns.

Price versus Value
Unfortunately, some crib bedding manufacturers are choosing to use lower quality fabrics to decrease their costs without passing all of these savings on to the consumer. You should be very alert to discover these differences. It can mean the difference between a crib bedding collection that will last for a single child, or one that will last for generations.

About the Author:
Robert Meier, is President of Baby Supermall, an internet retailer of Crib Bedding, Baby Bedding Sets and Baby Nursery Decor.