When I weaned my first daughter I gave her only fresh food which I had prepared myself, I never ever gave her a readymade jar, and I was quite proud of myself for achieving this! Then, daughter number two came along and I intended to go down the same weaning route as the first, preparing everything myself and hopefully providing her with a healthy balanced diet.

But unfortunately, she had other ideas, she was not so keen on my cooking (how dare she?!), and I found myself filling the freezer with things that she just didn't want to eat and felt like I was wasting my time and of course precious food. So I decided to stock up on a few different jars, and I was quite surprised at the range available. I tried Cow and Gate, Heinz, and finally Hipp Organic. I found the earlier two brands to be quite bland, and some of them (mainly the vegetable versions) smelt quite vile, like rotting cabbage, so my daughter was not keen. But once I started with Hipp Organic I knew I was onto a winner, they actually had a nice taste to them and baby was opening up for them before I'd even got any onto the spoon! It was amazing and I felt like I'd made a breakthrough at last.

I started off with the Stage 2 jars (lumpy) because she was about 7months at the time and they are usually between 60 and 70p each depending on where you buy them from, which I think it about the norm for baby jars. Cow and Gate is slightly cheaper and Heinz is slightly more expensive, so I was quite pleased that my daughter took a liking to these because they weren't the most expensive on the market, but clearly one of the best (in my daughter's opinion anyway).

The stage 2 jars contain 190g which is enough for 2 meals for my 8 month old, with no wastage. If I was to give her a full jar, she would not eat it all and some would go in the bin. I just spoon half into a dish, warm it up and she eats it all with no persuasion. The remainder of the jar is stored in the fridge ready for next time.

On looking at the ingredients on my jar of 'vegetables with noodles and chicken', everything is organic which must be good in this modern age of chemicals and 'fake' food. There are no unnecessary extras which you so often see in some foods, and they've still managed to produce great tasting baby food, which in my opinion is marvellous. Recently, after trying many different types of baby food, I have found so many to be bland and tasteless, but not with Hipp Organic, I could even be tempted to eat a jar myself!

I also buy their fruity deserts (called Purely Fruits) which are really handy for when you are out and about. I more often than not give her fresh fruit, (mashed banana or strawberries or pureed apples & pears) but if we are going out, I just shove one of those in my bag and know she will eat the lot and I can dispose of the packaging, rather than having to bring home a dirty dish. They don't need refrigerating either so being in your bag all day will not affect their freshness.

They do quite a good range of different fruit combinations and all of them go down well with my daughter. The two types I have in my cupboard at the moment are 'apple, strawberry and blueberry' and 'apple, peach and mango'. It's funny that although there are different fruits, they all end up the same colour...orangey brown. Anyway, the good thing about these is that they are purely fruit and count as 1 of your child's 5 a day.

These usually come in a pack of 4 and each pot is similar to a standard yoghurt pot size, so is a perfect pudding sized portion for your baby and my daughter will eat a full pot in one sitting.

So, the genuine reason I've ended up using Hipp Organic is because my daughter prefers it, but on looking into the benefits of using this brand, I am very pleased this is what she chose. The reason being that they only use organic food (no chemicals used in their production) which means that there are no nasties going into my child, maybe even less nasties than if I was to prepare my own food. I am not one to go around buying organic vegetables, for starters they are more expensive, and secondly they are a lot harder to come by, although I always buy organic carrots (recommendation from my Dad, long story).

So although I actually feel guilty for feeding my daughter readymade food, I'm actually starting to feel better about it knowing that Hipp Organic food is probably better for her than anything I could provide. Another great thing about readymade food for your baby(here I am convincing myself that it's a good thing that my daughter eats food from a jar) is that you can just take one or two with you if you are going out and know that your child will be fed. They can also be eaten cold or warmed up, my daughter doesn't mind hot or cold so that's even handier when out and about.

I don't actually feed my daughter readymade baby food at every meal, she also has finger foods and if we are having something that can be easily mashed, such as stew or similar, then she will have that. But these are a welcome addition to my food cupboard, and I can rest safe in the knowledge that these jars and fruit pots are providing her with a healthy & nutritious start to her weaning diet.

If you are struggling to wean your child on your home prepared food, don't worry about it, just throw that Annabel Karmel book in the bin, and give Hipp Organic a try. I'm so pleased I did because I was getting quite upset and disheartened thinking she would never eat anything. But the wide variety of different tastes that I can provide her with by using Hipp Organic will first of all ensure that she doesn't get stuck on one type of food, but it will also ensure that she likes 'tasty' food and not the bland rubbish that some baby companies churn out.

It also saves me time and energy wondering whether to cook that 'Courgette Gratin' or 'Baby Chicken Risotto'....when she probably wouldn't eat it anyway!

Jars are not such a bad thing after all.