To give a pouch of baby food

Hey, my little boy is 18 months now and I had to reply as used to beat myself up so much about this! Looking back I wish I had taken the pressure off - as long as you are exposing your baby to a wide variety of fresh food it will be fine. I try and apply a 80:20 approach to feeding now - 80% of the time is healthy, home cooked food and then 20% is convenience. I think around 9 months I was finding prepping food three times a day to have most of it refused or thrown on the floor quite soul destroying so I started giving a pouch once or twice a week!

There’s lots on the market so just chose one with healthy ingredients. Don’t be hard on yourself - it’s not as though you’re giving your baby McDonalds!

I'm like you OP and give DD 9mo everything fresh and mostly homemade. I batch cook and have a freezer stash for when I feel like this. Or she gets toast (which she loves) with peanut butter, cream cheese or whatever we have in. Or leftover porridge that she didn't touch from breakfast. Almost anything really, babies aren't bothered and probably won't eat half of it! But if you want to buy a pouch, just do it, no one's going to care. They're extremely popular after all.

…or she can just give the baby a pouch tonight

@Mummytotheboy

Think of it as her takeaway night. Not great daily but ok every now and then.

Don’t beat yourself up. Velcro baby in this heat must be crazy hard!

My first did BLW and I had a checklist and tried to give her a huge (and expensive!) range of plants each week. 🙈

She’s still as fussy as all her toddler friends and now says “Yuck” about foods she absolutely loved. You’d never tell the difference!

I won’t be beating myself up about it all with my second…

“realise this is probably silly and that I’ll look back and think how PFB of me”

got it one! Signed a mum of two who drove herself mad with the first baby and whose second baby has the occasional ready meal/pouch and yes… - chips/noodles off my takeaway plate 🤣

also fyi if you don’t want to give a pouch Annabel Karmel and Mumsnet/iceland make baby ready meals that are not too processed/full of junk. Things like pasta/curry. They’re quite handy to keep in the freezer if you’re having a takeaway

How dare you suggest a quick and simple alternative to a baby pouch!?

(Joking, in case anyone takes offence. DD had pouches, home cooked meals from scratch and things like beans!)

Loads of the pouches don’t have any UPF anyway! There were only some with them so just avoid them and crack on.
Download the yuka app (free) and scan them in. It will tell you if there are any UPF ad what the risk is of those particular ones- backed by actual science not just anti mum fear mongering (which seems to be the trend currently)! Then you can decide @weaningtime which ones to use. The Ella’s kitchen ones are generally UPF free and organic, but even the basic pouches for young ages were ok from memory.

It really won’t do any harm OP, even if you gave one a bit more regularly than this one off occasion.

Also, if there’s anyone in your life (including on social media) making you feel like a bad mother for doing this, my unsolicited advice is to see and/or listen to them far less. I no longer see a pretty judgemental no bottles/formula/dummy/sugar/UPF/screens/birthday cake/Easter egg mum acquaintance (can’t really call them a friend) and my life is much happier and calmer for it.

Surely you can throw something together, some fingers of toast with a nut butter, cucumber sticks, bit of fruit, yogurt, crackers and cheese or even just another breakfast?

My comment wasn't really about if it was better or worse it was actually just about what OP might already have in her cupboards instead of going out to buy a pouch.

All this. Don't waste any time worrying about stuff like this..

Oh OP, I think it's really important to give yourself a break sometimes. Sometimes you need a takeaway and that's ok! Sometimes you need a break from cooking, and that's ok too. Give her the pouch! Health doesn't just come in the form of what food you eat, it's a balance between both physical and mental health, and you also have to keep your sanity and you also need to recognise that sometimes you have to prioritise yourself too. Nobody is a good mum when they are burnt out and exhausted. All these home made, home cooked things are great. But you're trying to do it all, you'll get exhausted.
As long as she eats healthily 80% of the time, you've nothing to worry about with her having the occasional UPF. A bit of ice cream now and again.

Convenience can also be healthy for your mental health, and life only gets busier - especially if you plan to have any more children. Give some convenience food and don't beat yourself up one bit!

Still don't see that it's better or worse. Having something that isn't chewable for one meal isn't a big deal.

I do hope so.

Goid advice 👍 Scrambled eggs was my go-to baby food when out and about. It's also the first meal I taught the boys to cook for themselves.

If it was busy day, or hot and baby not wanting to eat much. Id either do pouch or breakfast for tea (they loved weetabix for tea)
P.s your doing great :)

It won’t do her any harm at all. But if it’s really going to worry you, just give her scrambled egg, maybe with bread and butter fingers, followed by banana!

I made all 3 of my babies food, some I stored in batches in frozen in ice cube trays, so there was always something ready to give them if what the rest of us were eating wasn't suitable. No need for emergency pouches.

I have changed the nappies of babies who were regularly given processed food. It's not pleasant. Once in a while isn't going to make a difference though.

If you really don't want to ever give her processed food, then just make your own convenience baby food and put it in the freezer.

OP a pouch every now and then should be fine. Find a good brand.

And don't mind the people in this thread who can't handle a new mum asking a basic question. They're the ones who are being ridiculous here.

Of course as PPs say it's fine to give her a pouch if you want to (though I'd probably just give her peanut butter on toast if it was me as that's even easier) but just wanted to add that when DS1 was about the same age we went on a trip to France, weren't bothering to cook properly every night, but didn't want to give him the delicious readymade deli food we were having because it was way too salty. So we bought readymade baby food. BUT because we were baby-led weaning at home, there was no need to stick to the smooth purees/pouches - he wasn't getting puree normally, and was used to eating food of all textures. No need to limit yourself to blended stuff if you're going to buy baby ready meals, you get get the ones that say they're for older babies too and they'll be a bit more like actual food.

How do YOU cope day-to-day if you are having an episode over a basic first-time-mum concern? People ask questions about things they are new to and have had conflicting information on all the time.

I buy them when they're on offer cos they usually have a couple of months date on them. Sometimes she doesn't want breakfast and they put something in her before nursery. If I made smoothies a) she wouldn't drink them cos she'd be able to see what the "juice" looks like and b) they wouldn't last as long.

They're a justifiable expense here.

@IpsyUpsyDaisyDoos

they are a treat, they’re really expensive