To think pouches are awful?

We both work full time and we use reusable nappies and I’ve never bought any prepared food. You can make choices that help the planet and your Wallet

I earn enough that buying pouches does not have a noticeable effect on my wallet. Making my life a little easier does have an effect on my mental health though.

They are a convenience food I suppose. Not everyone has time to purée stuff in advance or maybe they are caught short whilst out and it’s a quick fix. My children are teenagers now, but pouches were around when they were toddlers. I tried them but they didn’t like them and they were very expensive, but I can see why people do. I don’t really care how other people parent tbh.

OP, I think you are a real marvel. To raise your own family to perfectly and still find the time to judge other, less perfect mothers, must be exhausting. Well done you!

(For the record, I have never bought a pouch, but neither have I sneered at people who do).

We both work full time and we use reusable nappies and I’ve never bought any prepared food. You can make choices that help the planet and your Wallet

I agree, appalling waste of plastic. I’ve never used them - we just take proper food out in boxes.

And incomes were high enough to have one parent at home or working part time, and for many of those parents it wasn't their first choice to be home. Working hours were shorter, so were commutes. Ordinary families could live in the south east.

Pouches and other convenience mechanisms are a response to changing lifestyles and changing societal demands. We could argue all day long about whether those changes are good for women, children and society as a whole, but please don't pretend you did all that in the circumstances in which many families currently live.

No, I don’t think they are awful. Most parents I know have used them at some point, all the children have turned out well.

No matter what we do they’re still going to eat stuff they found on the floor. This is something that doesn’t warrant fuss tbh.

Basically, a mother's place is in the wrong. (Mother's - any dad who is out with his child will get a medal no matter what they do). I'm pretty sure we can find a way to mom-shame any choices anybody makes as a mother. Pureed own food - but what about salt? Pureed apples - but the sugars? Spending time on making homemade purees when you could be reading to your child, how neglectful. And purees are bad for them anyway, why aren't you doing baby led weaning? And so on and so on.

I see little ones eating a hell of a lot worse than that on my local high street. Can of coke in one hand, some bucket of sugar or salt for breakfast. A pouch would at least have some nutritional value.

Better than what was in my school lunchbox as a child: little pyramid shaped containers of sweet condensed milk. Sucking on them throughout the day would "give you energy", said my mother. (And lifelong dental problems). It was the total norm when I was a child!

Same here! My DS1 had reflux, was waking every 45 minutes at 7 months and waking 2-3 times a night from around when I returned to work at 11 months until he was three years old. I would have loved to have batch cooked and feed him home made purees, but I was too busy trying to survive the sleep deprivation induced psychosis. Thank goodness for Ella's kitchen.

And your precious non pouch eating smug superior children will one day be teen agers mainlining on maccies and greggs

Ironically, my preteen does not like junk food, prefers broccoli to chips and loves salad bars. Hm, must be because he was deprived of nutrients when he was a baby, so he's now compensating by eating all the greens?

Today we are in search of a jumbo sausage roll! Hurrah! (Are they open on a bank holiday?)

I was a cook from scratch and puree the baby's food mum, but when travelling premade was a godsend. It was vile and expensive and I only used it a couple of times. But I could have been one of those mum's you're disapproving of.

I think you're being a bit judgemental.

Sorry you’re ill. But I’m betting this isn’t your first time on Mumsnet

Secondly, you can mash a banana then not interact with your child all day. Mashing a banana isnt what makes a parent.

The OP said she despairs at the use of pouches and doesn't think someone who has a pouch will learn to eat properly. Seems goady to me 🤷‍♀️

You should hang your head in shame.

have you rectified this?

Oh come on it’s about bloody weaning pouches. How ‘goady’ can that be?

My thirteen year old admitted she had never tried a Gregg’s the other day. I was frankly horrified!

Good nutrition can be found in pouches and jars. It’s a part of being a parent to make many decisions as to what is best for your DC’s. Time was a priority in our house so we used jars and pouches.

Yup, very lazy unfortunately. There is always an excuse why you can't first grow your own bananas then mash them yourself. Presumably you don't buy your own food from the shop as that is the height of laziness. Definitely nothing to do with convenience.

Being a parent means providing for your child. If that means giving them a pouch on occasion then there is nothing lazy about it.

Judging someone else for a non-dangerous, non-neglectful parenting choice makes you a horrible person on the other hand. I know which one I'd rather be...

I just knew this would be about baby pouches.

just rein your bloody neck in. You have no idea what those children are eating the rest of the day

The cognitive dissonance of some posters is incredible. I never said it was junk food but anything in a packet is less healthy compared to cooking the same ingredients in a kitchen. It's hardly rocket science. Packets exist to make life more convenient and that's the added value which you pay for. That's perfectly fine and nobody is suggesting that all foods need to be prepared from scratch. However food companies know that "convenience" is a less effective marketing tactic compared to "health", especially with it comes to parents making the purchasing decisions for their children.

A veg pouch is obviously healthier than Mcdonalds but it's not a direct substitute for steamed, mashed peas at home. That's where the marketing deception comes in. Many companies aim to give the impression that their pouches are fine to be used every single day as a substitute for freshly cooked meals when that's simply not the case (as per the previous study on nutritional density). But if they get enough mothers buying their pouches for daily use, they make huge revenues.

At the end of the day companies want to make money. They don't genuinely care about the health of your children or your family. Whatever health benefits are inside a product (organic produce, no added sugar etc) are usually there because they are great for marketing, which in turn sells more products. They will try to keep their margins as low as possible, which results in things like adding more water to dilute the purees or using high-fructose fruits to make it taste sweeter but still claiming there is no added sugar.

It's not being a conspiracy theorist to take a lot of the advertising we are being bombarded with every day with a grain of skepticism.

I use them in addition to what my DS eats (sometimes not much). He regards them as a treat (don’t have them every day) & I get the prune ones or the pear ones to help keep him regular…