Baby food rant....

After a lot of trial and error in the solid food department, Kate's now up to three meals a day and is learning all about the world of finger foods. As she still only has one tooth that's only halfway up, she's getting quite good at mashing with her gums! Her food repertoire is increasing and, as it does, I'm finding myself more and more annoyed by commercial baby foods. I've been making most of her foods, which I've found is not all the hard, plus I like knowing exactly what's in her food. I do buy some jars, though, of foods/combinations that don't freeze well or just don't make much economical sense to make (prunes, for instance). I like the Earth's Best Organic brand, since it doesn't have additives. I read the labels carefully, and I'm shocked about how many additives are in baby food, even well-known name brands and organics. 'Yo Baby' yogurt, for instance, has sugar and coloring. What baby cares about the color of their yogurt?? Not Kate, I know. She happily eats plain, whole milk yogurt, with or without a fruit or veggie mixed in, which shows me she definitely does not need added sugar. Now that Kate's on to finger foods, it's even more shocking. I've given her things like bananas and cheese, but it's still hard for her to pick those up, so something crunchy, yet easily dissolved would be nice. The options are the store seems to be Gerber "Puffs" and "Crunchies," which have a long list of ingredients including sugar and salt. "Puffs" also have wheat, which we're avoiding for the first year, since it's allergenic and Kate has severe eczema. I'm not trying to be a food Nazi, and I'm not saying I won't let her have these things, I just think it's so unnecessary to add so much to baby food. I'm trying new ideas each day, but I'd welcome any suggestions! Sorry for the rant...it's just annoying me to no end!