Feeling intense mum guilt due to baby/toddler pouches

And that’s a perfectly reasonable assumption. Parents of babies are sleep deprived and time poor - we can’t be expected to be nutritional experts and there’s a reasonable expectation that pre prepared baby food made or imported into the UK has adequate nutritional standards.

It’s poor regulation of the food industry that is to blame. Politicians say people don’t want a nanny state as an excuse to do all that the food manufacturing lobby ask - maximise profits at the expense of the nation’s health.

So definitely no need to feel guilty. 💐. I’m feeling angry at the food industry and successive governments though!

Most of the outrage I've seen over the pouches is the sugar content. Which is clearly written on the packet for all to see. A 10 second look at the nutritional value table on the packet told me I didn't want to feed it to my baby.

I don't see why the low iron is such a big issue, surely if the child is off formula or milk which has all of their nutrients in it anyway they are old enough to just eat real food. If people are feeding toddlers pouches as meal replacements instead of real food that really is poor parenting.

I just can't understand why people are outraged that the government aren't telling them what to do or feed their kids. Adults should be able to read some information and make an informed choice if they are responsible enough to be raising children.

Everyone went mad when the government wanted to ban cigarette sales because they should have free will to do unhealthy things if they want to and they are sick of the nanny state, but now people think they should be told what to feed and not feed their children?

I don’t feel guilty - they were very useful. DT’s were at full time nursery from six months. By the time we collected them after work, got home, had showers (we rarely did baths even when they were babies), made something for DH and I to eat - feeding DT’s had to be quick and easy otherwise we’d never have got them to bed.

I don't think guilt is a helpful emotion here, you did what you thought was best, because the marketing from the food manufacturers gave you that impression - and in turn boosted their own profits. The nutritionists in the programme have confirmed that pouches can have a place, but they shouldn't form the entirety of a child's diet - and in some cases they are. I think reframe your thoughts on the pouches, acknowledge that are a convenient snack but don't breathe a sigh of relief in thinking that your kid has consumed a vegetable and all the nutrients that come from that.

Yes I agree with this, boiling veg and pureeing it and then freezing it into little ice cubes ready to be used probably doesn't give kids the most nutritious meal either. I really wouldn't worry.

LOL how has it given me a sensitive image warning for that 🤣

Here's the text:
Organic Tomatoes 37%,
Organic Cooked Pasta 18% (Water, Organic Pasta (Organic Durum Wheat, Organic Dried Egg Whites)),
Organic Beef 11%, Organic Carrots 10%, Organic Vegetable Stock 7% (Water and Organic Vegetables: Onions, Carrots, Parships,
Leeks, Swedes),
Organic Broccoli 6%, Organic Onions 5%,
Organic Mushrooms 4%,
Organic Cheddar Cheese (Milk) 2%, Organic Mixed Herbs <1% (Thyme, Parsley, Sage, Oregano),
Organic Garlic < 1%,
Organic Black Pepper <1%, Other Stuff 0%

Here's an ingredients list for Ella's Kitchen spag bol, one of the pouches highlighted by the BBC.

What part of "taking responsibility" would you think involves looking at that label and realising that it has way less iron in it than a homemade version would?

Given that it required laboratory testing for the BBC to uncover this, I'm intrigued as to exactly what level of research you think we should all be doing.

Nope still not getting it. People have said they would change in future. Isn’t that what you want? But it’s also not good enough?

I want people to take responsibility for their actions and put some effort into researching choices so they know that what they're doing is best for their child.

I know it's a wild concept of personal responsibility and not trusting the little cartoon fruit packets that said they were healthy but fuck me it's not rocket science to look at a label and think no thanks!

OP.. please stop with the mum guilt.. I say this kindly! Those pouches are brilliant and yes they’re getting fruit and veg in them, so much better than getting none!
Just drives me mad that the genuinely shitty parents who neglect/treat bad etc don’t feel guilty yet so many mums who do things like this that are inconsequential yet judged by some, feel awful. It’s the same with formula feeding, c sections, ipads
Just do what works for you and your babies, there’s no need to make life harder

Thank you, that makes perfect sense.

There's always something mums are made to feel guilty about. Is your child thriving? Are they the right size/ weight? Are they happy? Are they developing well (barring any developmental delays)? Then they're doing fine. Just make whatever adjustments you think are necessary and crack on without giving it a second thought. Crikey, parents used to put their babies to sleep on their tummies thinking that was fine. A few pouches is neither here nor there in comparison. Show me a well fed, well cared for baby who has had pouches any day over a child who doesn't know where the next meal is coming from! We need to maintain some perspective here.

First the stupid debates about giving babies formula (yeah, yeah...breast is best..bla bla), then pouches are an issue...as long as the child is fed and gets a variety of foods, it's not really an issue.

We aren't in the UK. It's entirely normal here to wean using jars. I'm considered to be bit odd using blw but I'm adding in jars and pouches every so often. Saves me having to puree stuff. DD also only eats a quarter of a jar in one go. I'm not going off pureeing tiny amounts of food. Life's too short.
It means she gets a range of foods I sometimes wouldn't bother mixing. Yesterday, she had a pouch with sweet potato and cherries...the other day apples, pears, cucumber and spinach. Yeah, off you go, girl.
Her favourite food is meatballs...and cardboard.

Please don’t feel guilty. As another poster pointed out, they are in this stage for such a short time anyway.

If you are posting because you want to make changes, then making your own purées isn’t a huge effort - get a stick blender and blend some of the food you eat with a bit of milk. Dishes like cottage pie, fish pie, even lasagne, will work, and freeze portions to use on another day. So you don’t have to do this more than a few times a week when the adults are eating something suitable to blend. Just watch the salt and sugar content is low. Ready meal versions of these dishes are probably too salty. I would make our food without salt and then the adults would sprinkle salt on theirs at the table.

It doesn't change the actual sugar content - there is still the same amount of sugar in it, no matter whether you eat it whole, mash, blend or juice.

It only changes the speed at which your body breaks it down and it gets into your blood stream.

If you blend it til it's a liquid then it's going to be like coca cola, and it's going to be sucked right up into your blood stream and shock your system.

A solid - your body is going to have to chip away at that slowly and break it down.

So an in between/ mashing it up would be somewhere in between the two - slightly slower than a juice/ smoothie, but quicker than a solid.

The quicker the sugar gets into your child's blood stream, the more stress it causes the system and the higher the spike they will need to deal with - so ideally, the slower the better :)

(Disclaimer - this doesn't mean you should only give a baby solids, as they often can't cope with this unless they are soft! - A certain amount of mashing is needed for babies - just limit the amount of sugar you give in the first place).

Domt worry about it. My DD2 would only eat jarred food until she was well over one. Blending my own food in to it never worked either.
She's 16 now and although is still a bit fussy doesn't seem to have affected her too much. That's the thing you have to remember they won't stay on pouches forever.
And your child is being fed which is the most important thing.

I wouldn't worry, mine are all young adults now. I breast fed them all, I cooked the finest recipes out of that Annabelle woman's baby cook book. I spent the whole of their childhood putting nutritionally balanced meals on the table, that they mostly didn't eat.
I've ended up with one who takes one look a his Dad's homemade pizza says no thanks and helps himself to a bowl of shreddies and sultanas for dinner. One who lives off red box cheesy pasta and cheap ham, and the other who is allergic to all those heathy fruits and vegetables I so loving shoved down her throat at every opportunity.

This is a really helpful explanation, thank you.

You may not know this, but you seem to be very informed, so can I ask what the impact on the sugar content is of mashing up fruit with a fork? My instinct is that it's somewhere between blending and leaving fruit whole.

The pouches are different per age group so moving from puree to meals with more lumpy. DT’s worked their way through the ranges and developed a liking for all foods. Never had any fussy eaters.

I also think that these pouches are not an issue if used in addition to other foods. But there was a nutritionist on TV yesterday saying she has worked with families where the child was eating nothing but pouches and never having homemade anything, either because the parents lacked confidence in cooking, or because they had fallen for the marketing. Must be costing them a fortune too.

There are a couple of other issues with these pouches (and before that baby food in jars). First that they are labelled for 4 months plus rather than 6 months plus, for no reason other that the companies want to sell more product rather than any nutritional reason.

Also the manufacturing process makes them completely smooth and this doesn't teach a baby to deal with lumps in their food which is a natural developmental stage, learning to move food about in your mouth and mash it with your teeth, or gums if you haven't got teeth. If you're cooking a carrot and mashing it at home this is what your baby is learning. If they are having a carrot smoothie, they aren't.

Also you don't HAVE to do puree food. I did with my first but when my second came along I just didn't have time so she had whatever I'd made for the first, mashed up a bit.

I have an 18 month old toddler who point blank refuses most vegetables and fruit I give her other than sweet potato , bananas and raisins.

Sometimes the only way we can get veg into her is by giving her these pouches. I know they're not ideal but had no idea the processing of the food leads to nutrient loss. I already worry about what food she's eating enough as it is.

Pouches came in just as I had my third. They were marvellous; said child happily ate one as a snack for years.

No guilt here. My kids were hard work and I am not perfect.

I did baby led weaning with my twins and one of them still ended up extremely fussy about food. I wish now I'd introduced a few of those pouches into the mix as my son still won't eat mushy food like mashed potato or soup and he's 15!