Babies in the earliest months of eating solid foods are still getting their main calories and nutrition from breast milk or formula. The most important thing is for your baby to establish healthy eating habits, and positive food associations. Introduce your baby to a variety of ingredients and you will deliver a variety of nutrients the way nature intended! For more information, check out the Sprout Guide to Starting Solids. You should make all decisions about your child's diet under the guidance of your child's pediatrician or nutritionist.

Most babies before the age of 8 months have no additional dietary need for protein beyond what they are receiving from breast milk or formula. From about 8 months, meats and other sources of protein, such as vegetables, will be more important parts of your child's diet. You should make all decisions about your child's diet under the guidance of your child's pediatrician or nutritionist.

Babies need fat for growth, for brain development, and to help absorb fat-soluble vitamins, as well as other functions in the body. If you take all the water out of breast milk, half of what's left behind is fat.

Babies are growing at a rapid rate and fat provides the much-needed concentrated calories to support and fuel this growth. Fat contains more calories per gram than carbohydrates or protein, which is important for babies who have smaller digestive systems and need more calories in a smaller amount of food.

Fat is also an important part of brain and nervous system development, as about two-thirds of the brain is made up of fat. Fat is a vital part of cell membranes and also insulates the nerve fibers in the brain.

You should make all decisions about your child's diet under the guidance of your child's pediatrician or nutritionist.

As long as the calories you are providing are from primarily breast milk or formula and high quality calorie dense foods, and not from juice or sugary empty calories, your child will likely stop eating when full and regulate his or her own caloric intake.

If you have some concerns of either too many or too few calories, take an accurate account of your child's food intake, and bring this information with you to discuss with your doctor. The doctor will monitor your child's development and make recommendations based on individual growth and weight.

The FDA measures the value of protein from different sources based on the present amino acids and the digestibility of the protein. The FDA uses egg albumen (egg white protein) as the reference point, so different protein sources will have different daily values based on the amino acids and other factors as measured against this standard. For instance, some vegetable proteins lack certain amino acids and will receive a lower daily value than the protein contained in animal products, such as milk, meat, fish, and eggs, even though the quantity in grams may be the same.

The Nutrition Facts panel in labeling for children under age 2 is different than what you will see on adult food labels, because children's needs for certain nutrients are different than adults. For certain nutrients no "daily value" is listed for some items because daily values have not been established for children under 4 for nutrients such as fat, cholesterol, sodium, potassium, carbohydrate and fiber.

For nutrients that are listed under the daily values section of the panel, consider that these nutrients are supplemental to the breast milk and formula that your child receives daily. Some panels do not list all the nutrients that the food contains due to limited space on product packaging. You can see expanded nutrition facts panels on each of Sprout's product pages. Generally when looking at nutrition for your child, you should not look to restrict fat or calories for your infant unless you have been instructed to do so by your child's physician.

The FDA does not allow companies to claim that products for children under 2 are a "good source of" or "healthy" based on nutrient levels.

Tyler Florence is known for the easy, delicious, "ultimate" meals he has created for 14 years on the Food Network, but at home he's known as Dad, and often he's making what's for dinner. With some recent new additions to his family he understands the challenges faced by parents who don't always have time to prepare baby food at home. He and his friend Max had an experience visiting with a friend trying to feed her child, who obviously wasn't thrilled with the jarred stuff he was being offered. Tyler quickly headed to the kitchen, and an idea was born. He truly believes everyone should be able to eat delicious and healthy foods, especially from their first tastes. Quality ingredients and simple cooking methods are the mainstays of his recipes, and he brings his expertise as a chef and experience as a dad to every Sprout product.

Visit Tyler's Page

We are an independent company, privately owned. We have a Board of Directors and private investors. Our dedicated staff members work out of two main office locations, Boulder, Colorado and Atlanta, Georgia.

You can call toll free: 1-877-704-8777 (currently hours are 9am-6pm Eastern Standard Time)

Email us anytime at: info@sproutbabyfood.com

To send regular mail use: 2763 Meadow Church Road, Suite 110, Duluth, GA 30097

Our primary value is safe, healthy and delicious food products for children. If it isn't safe, healthy and delicious, we don't make it. Our ingredients and packaging are carefully chosen to make the best product possible.

Every choice we make has to fit within our environmental value system, and we are continually looking for ways to improve our existing products. All along our supply chain we are working with our partners to make smarter choices for the environment.

We have some great partners like Terracycle that help us reach our goals of sustainability and environmental contribution. We have also founded a charitable organization of our own called Shared Abundance in order to distribute food to disaster areas. See our Values pages for more information.

When you begin, you are introducing your baby to the idea of eating something other than breast milk or formula, more than supplementing your baby's diet. For that reason, it is not necessary at first for your baby to eat a certain amount. Your child should show readiness signs that they are ready to begin solids (discuss these with your pediatrician), and one of those signs is the ability to turn their head. This ability enables your child to signal you by turning away from the spoon.

Babies differ so much in their preferences and their readiness for solids that it's difficult to make hard and fast rules about the consistency, amount, and type of solid foods to offer. You and your pediatrician should discuss your individual child's needs as they grow and develop.

The age recommendations for when you start each stage are general guidelines. Some babies are ready for '2' foods before they are 7-8 months, while others might not be ready for them until they are 9-10 months old. Instead of starting each stage of baby food at these ages, it is usually more important that each baby advances through the different stages in their own good time.

Starter - 1st stage
Single Ingredients
It is recommended that parents try new foods one at a time for 3 to 5 days to test for allergies to any food ingredient while the baby is still primarily breast or formula feeding. Some parents like to add baby's usual breast milk or formula to a 1st stage food to ease the transition and add a bit of familiarity to a new experience.

Intermediate - 2nd stage
Simple Combinations:
These recipes are combinations of two or more ingredients. Nutritionally, these foods are designed to complement continued breast or formula feeding as your baby is exploring even more foods and flavors.

Advanced - 3rd stage
Meals with Texture
These recipes are designed for children comfortable with more texture in their foods. These recipes also provide more balanced nutrition including more protein and calories for babies eating more food and less breast milk or formula.

Allergies to spices are uncommon, and the quantity used in Sprout Baby Food per serving is very small. Different cultures incorporate spices into their babies' diets earlier than others. A child's familiarity with spices will vary depending on things like how "spicy" and varied the diet of a breastfeeding mother was, or if the child was primarily formula-fed.

If there is any history of allergies to a particular ingredient in your family, you may want to exercise caution and do a 3-5 day allergy trial, as you would with any other food. For example, you could add a sprinkle of cinnamon to any one of the Sprout Baby Food Starter recipes your baby already enjoys, before trying it in a combination.

If your child generally finishes an entire package of baby food and you do not plan to store any remaining food in the pouch, then there isn't any concern about serving directly from the pouch. It is not recommended that food be stored that has come in contact with a spoon that has been in your child's mouth, due to enzymes and bacteria that can be introduced into the food. It is for this reason that generally the recommendation is for all baby foods (homemade and store bought) to be served from a bowl, but most parents like the convenience of serving directly from the package.

If you decide to feed from the Sprout pouch, use your spoon to push the gusset at the bottom of the pouch all the way down creating a bowl-shape rather than multiple creases. The bottom gets folded up in shipping, but the pouch is very sturdy and can be pushed against with no concern of tearing it. Longer handled baby spoons work best with our pouches.

Unopened pouches should be kept at room temperature, like in your cupboard or pantry. We don't recommend exposure to freezing or excess heat. Freezing is unnecessary and is not recommended because it can cause changes in texture, or separation. Refrigeration is not necessary unless the pouch has been opened and then the pouch must be refrigerated and then discarded after 2-3 days. See the above question about serving from the pouch and storage.

Babies actually have better tasting ability than adults! They have about 7-10 thousand little buds all over their mouth, not just on the tongue. As we age we gradually lose these other taste buds. Introducing your child to real food flavors early will help make them more accepting of a varied healthy diet as they grow.

Sprout uses unique cooking methods and combinations developed with our co-founder and chef Tyler Florence. We bake and roast our fruits and vegetables for better flavor and texture than you will get from steaming or boiling. When you steam or boil foods, a lot of the flavor and nutrients are extracted into the water, which is mostly discarded. What is left behind and absorbed into the food just makes it "watery".

At Sprout Baby Foods, we believe it is important to feed babies fruit flavors as well as vegetable flavors, something some other brands do not offer.

All of our Sprout Starter foods are appropriate to try as baby's first solid food. One of the most popular vegetables is the Roasted Butternut Squash, and one of the most popular fruits is the Roasted Pears. You could choose whatever food you like best and see if it becomes your baby's favorite too!

After you have tried all of Sprout's Starter foods, choose some of Sprout's Intermediate flavors, some of which contain small quantities of flavorful and mild herbs and spices, like cinnamon and mint. Popular Sprout Intermediate flavors are Sweet Baby Carrots, Apples & Mango, and Baked Sweet Potatoes & White Beans.

Allergies to spices are uncommon, and the quantity used in Sprout Baby Food per serving is very small. A child's acceptance of spices will vary depending on things like foods consumed by the mother in the womb, how "spicy" and varied the diet of a breastfeeding mother was, or if the child was primarily formula-fed.

If there is any history of allergies to a particular ingredient in your family, you may want to exercise caution and do a 3-5 day allergy trial, as you would with any other food. For example, you could add a sprinkle of cinnamon to any one of the Sprout Baby Food Starter recipes your baby already enjoys, before trying it in a combination.

Tyler Florence is known for the easy delicious "ultimate" meals he has created for 14 years on the Food Network, but at home he's known as Dad, and often he's making what's for dinner. With some recent new additions to his family he understands the challenges faced by parents who don't always have time to prepare baby food at home. He and his friend Max had an experience visiting with a friend trying to feed her child, who obviously wasn't thrilled with the jarred stuff he was being offered. Tyler quickly headed to the kitchen, and an idea was born. He truly believes everyone should be able to eat delicious and healthy foods, especially from their first tastes. Quality ingredients and simple cooking methods are the mainstays of his recipes, and he brings his expertise as a chef and experience as a dad to every Sprout product.

Visit Tyler's Page

This is a very common question and is both simple and difficult to answer. The simple answer is to look at whether the product manufacturer has taken into consideration a lot of different factors and has met environmental goals. There are a lot of issues facing the environment, like de-forestation, pollution, waste, water use, energy use, wildlife habitat loss, greenhouse gasses, pesticide and fertilizer run-off and more. Most products making eco-friendly claims try to address one or more of these concerns, for instance, claiming less waste with less packaging, or recyclability. Mostly the goal is to have a lesser impact on the environment one way or another.
,br The more difficult answer has to do with the practice of many companies to advertise one attribute, but hide another, or igreen-washingi. Let's take for example, cleaning products. Chemical based cleaners are popular because of the increased expectation for igrease-cuttingi or other perceived effectiveness claims. Unfortunately, these cleaners do not biodegrade and get washed down the drain and into waterways, harming animal and plant life that depends on clean water to live. No amount of package reduction or energy savings in manufacturing claims can offset the environmental damage that these chemicals can do to the environment. So, in this case the answer is not so clear. Companies can make claims to manufacture using green energy, but then use that energy to make an environmentally toxic product.

Companies try to balance the expectations of customers with environmental decisions, but people have become accustomed to a certain level of convenience, whether that means single-servings, one-time-use, disposability, effectiveness, portability or out-of-season availability. A lot of these expectations place the environmental burden on a product. Environmental technology has not yet caught up with the demand for ways to provide the convenience features with all of the environmental considerations.

The term organic when applied to food is very specific. It means that certain rules set by the USDA must be followed. This means certain conventional fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides are not allowed or are restricted from being used on crops, and the land must have been free of these substances for three years. Genetically modified crops are not allowed. In the case of animals, it means that they are fed an organic diet and are also not routinely given antibiotics or growth hormones. The USDA has established the guidelines for growing and handling organic foods through the National Organic Program, made into law in 2002. It covers in detail all aspects of food production, processing, delivery and retail sale. Use of the USDA Organic seal requires at least 95% of the ingredients be organic. Third party certifiers must be authorized by the United States Department of Agriculture to certify products under the National Organic Program standards. Sprout Organic Baby Foods are certified organic by independent certifier, Quality Assurance International. Sprout Baby Foods are 100% organic, not 95%.

Buying organic does not guarantee that the food is entirely free of pesticides, but it does lessen exposure because of the strict guidelines that must be followed prohibiting the use of pesticides. In the case of children this is important, as children consume more calories (especially fruit) per unit of body weight than adults. Safe levels for children have not even been established for most pesticides, and new pesticides are developed regularly. Research has not yet shown adverse affects of eating low levels of pesticides, often found on conventional foods, but studies have shown as much as 6 times the levels of pesticides in the urine of children fed conventional diets versus children fed organic diets, and in a report by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention the pesticide levels in children were twice that in adults eating a similar diet. It is not easy to know exactly what a child's exposure is from diet, which makes it difficult to gauge whether a child is within safe limits. Babies and children are still developing internal organs, and the brain develops until the age of 12. They also may not be able to rid the body of contaminants as effectively with an immature liver and immune system. Expecting mothers may also want to eat organic as some pesticides have been shown to cross the placenta barrier.

Prevent Water Contamination:
Conventional agricultural methods can cause water contamination. The organic farmer's elimination of polluting chemicals and nitrogen leaching, in combination with soil building, works to prevent contamination, and protects and conserves water resources.

Prevent Top-Soil Erosion and Promote Healthy Soil:
Soil is the foundation of the food chain in organic farming, but in conventional farming, the soil is used more as a medium for holding plants in a vertical position, so they can be chemically fertilized. As a result, farms are suffering from soil erosion.

Conserve Energy:
Organic farming is mainly based on labor-intensive practices such as weeding by hand and using green manures and crop covers rather than synthetic fertilizers (primarily made from petroleum products) to build up soil.

Protect Those Who Work the Land:
A National Cancer Institute study found that farmers exposed to herbicides had a 6 times greater risk than non-farmers of contracting cancer. Field workers suffer the highest rates of occupational illness in California, and their children suffer from contamination as well.

Support Family Farms and Lessen Government Spending on Subsidies and Damage Control:
Your organic purchases lessen the hidden costs in pesticide regulation and testing, hazardous waste disposal and clean-up, and, not to mention, severe damages to our environment. In the long term, purchasing organic foods saves everyone money.

Organic food costs more because it actually costs more to produce. Careful management requires more labor, and crops grown without artificial production-boosting chemicals can have less yields than conventionally grown crops. Some organic farmers choose to devote a portion of their farmland to non-food producing plants that provide habitat for bugs and wildlife that prey on pests, to naturally control them. Organic farmers spend a lot of time promoting the health of their soil, because healthy fertile soil will grow stronger plants naturally more resistant to disease and pests too.

Glass is heavy. In fact, in the case of baby food the glass can weigh almost as much as the food it contains. This weight over the lifespan of the product uses a tremendous amount of energy. Reducing packaging weight is one of the best ways to reduce a product's footprint. Recycling is important, and glass is recyclable (using energy), but not everyone has recycling facilities available or chooses to recycle, and glass puts a tremendous burden on landfills.

Sprout has come up with a program through Terracycle to enable the return of pouches to be upcycled into new products. See our upcycling page for more information.

Sprout's BPA-free pouch better protects flavor and nutrients, and requires lower shorter heat times.

The Sprout pouch is made of FDA approved layers, and each layer serves an important purpose. The innermost layer, or the layer in contact with the food is called polypropylene. The next layer is foil, and this layer does not come in contact with the food, but offers protection from light and oxygen. The outside layers help the pouch tear straight and are where the package text and imagery is printed. The printing is done on the inside of the outer layer.

Glass is heavy. In fact, glass can weigh almost as much as the food it contains. This weight over the lifespan of the product uses a tremendous amount of energy. Reducing packaging weight is one of the best ways to reduce a product footprint. Recycling is important, and glass is recyclable, but not everyone has recycling facilities available or chooses to recycle, and glass puts a tremendous burden on landfills.

Sprout has a program through Terracycle (terracycle.net) to enable the return of pouches to be upcycled into new products. See our upcycling page for more information.

Sprout's BPA-free pouch better protects flavor and nutrients, and requires lower, shorter heat times.

The pouch is easy to use and take with you. First, if you'd like to stir the food, one way to do this is, before opening; gently use your fingers to move the food around in the pouch from the outside with light squeezes. Next tear the pouch open at the notch across the top. The pouch features a re-sealable zipper. Open the zipper and use your spoon to push the inside bottom of the pouch down to form a bowl shape. This will make it easy to get all of the food out, whether you spoon the food into a bowl or feed directly from the pouch. If you decide to feed from the pouch, you should not save and store any uneaten food due to the enzymes in your baby's mouth.

You should never heat the pouch in the Microwave, as there is a layer of foil in between other layers. The foil does not come in contact with the food, but offers protection from light and oxygen.

Unopened pouches should be kept at room temperature, like in your cupboard or pantry. We don't recommend exposure to freezing or excess heat. Freezing is unnecessary and is not recommended because it can cause changes in texture, or separation. Refrigeration is not necessary unless the pouch has been opened and then the pouch must be refrigerated and then discarded after 2-3 days.

If your child generally finishes an entire package of baby food and you do not plan to store any remaining food in the pouch, then there isn't any concern about serving directly from the pouch. It is not recommended that food be stored that has come in contact with a spoon that has been in your child's mouth, due to enzymes and bacteria that can be introduced into the food. It is for this reason that generally the recommendation is to serve all baby food from a bowl, but most parents like the convenience of serving directly from the package.

If you decide to feed from the Sprout pouch, use your spoon to push the gusset at the bottom of the pouch all the way down creating a bowl-shape rather than multiple creases. The bottom gets folded up in shipping, but the pouch is very sturdy and can be pushed against with no concern of tearing it. Longer handled baby spoons work best with our pouches.