After babies get past their first four or so months, they start needing a little more oomph to their foods. Starting solids is a major milestone, and for many first-time parents, it comes fraught with uncertainty.

Nutritionally and environmentally speaking, making your own baby food is the best way to introduce solids into Junior’s diet. However, there are lots of reasons why parents opt not to go this route. Store-bought baby food is a reality for many out there, and unfortunately, there isn’t much education around how to find healthier baby foods. This lack of education is ironic, and a little worrisome, considering that millions of parents rely on these foods as the sole source of nutrition for their growing babies. What we feed young infants is incredibly important as it provides the raw materials for rapidly developing bodies and lays the foundation for food preferences.

Given these issues and GoodGuide user requests for a more in-depth look at baby food, we decided to build a special site using our science-based ratings that focused on the health of baby foods. Is there any difference between those jars of puree on supermarket shelves? Our ratings indicate yes.

Learn more at babyfoodratings.com.