Feel guilty feeding my baby mainly food pouches

[user395837496932]

I have a 3 year old energetic toddler and a 6 month old. Trying to keep them both happy and entertained can feel hard work at times. Baby in particular will often scream if I put him down for too long. The house is constantly a mess. I often feel conflicted/guilty whether I'm doing housework/ playing with kids I always feel I should be doing the other.
Now baby has started weaning 80% of his food is ellas kitchen pouches and mum guilt has kicked in further . I don't get the mixed veg/fruit ones as I know they are so high in sugar with low veg content. I just feel I don't have the time. Yet I see other mums with two children similar to me who have perfect houses and well fed children doing all fun activities.
This post was meant to just be asking how often others feed their babies pouches? Should they just be occasional? Sorry I've rambled on. I am also trying blw but he doesn't eat any of it yet just throws it around.

Oh for gods sake, some people on this thread need to pee off.

OP, DS never had anything other than pouches and I hated baby led weaning for so many reasons. I couldn't simply 'give him some of what we were having' for multiple reasons.

He is the best eater out of all the babies I know and I'd do the same again.

You do you and be proud.

@GingerBeverage

I would feel guilty using plastic pouches (they aren't recyclable) so I tend to use a little steamer machine that purées as well, but I have zero guilt buying a load of Hipp glass jars for emergencies or being out the house. Yoi have two happy and cared for children so you're doing well.

Just as an aside - they are recyclable. Look at ellacycle.co.uk for where you can drop them off to be recycled (they’ll do any brand not just Ella’s)

Absolutely agree the social media mums are talking bollocks! i always specially tidy up if i want to take a photo for facebook, its definitely not real life. Pouches are fine and youre doing great! i always did a jar or pouch for lunch, i just didnt have the energy to decide on 3 meals a day, now my DS can eat pretty much anything it is a LOT easier, no faffing with mashing and pureeing.

DS1 never even tasted any kind of jar or pouch. DS2 still has jars several times a week and he's nearly two

Sometimes if I see someone I know in the supermarket I hide them because I don't want them to know but do you know what, it's just a short cut. He likes to feed himself and jar food tends to be gloopy enough to stick to the spoon, and it's ready in a few seconds if I've completely overshot dinner time and he's about to erupt in a hungry/tired mess. He will also 99% of the time eat it, which isn't true for every kind of food (and at his age, he really does need to eat something at some point!)

I think for a 6 month old I would just serve whatever the toddler is having and if he throws it around, so what? It's not like they need the food at this age. But also if the pouches work for you, just use them. People getting judgy about baby food really must not have very much going on in their lives. Most people wouldn't get worked up about it. Just don't let him suck directly from the pouch as a regular thing as that can cause tooth decay - I didn't know this when DS1 was little, and I'm not sure if they have the warnings on in the UK.

My baby had jars for lunch and dinner for a good few weeks. I'm pregnant and off pretty much all food and the thought of cooking a meal makes me feel sick so the jars are perfect (even if the smell of them makes me heave). She's good with finger food now so sometimes it's easier to just steam a few bits of broccoli for her and give her whatever meat we're having and some pieces of fruit. However I've never felt mum guilt for feeding her jars and she loves all food, literally will eat anything and everything.

I think for a 6 month old I would just serve whatever the toddler is having and if he throws it around, so what?

So what?..For me the food waste and additional mess was a BLW deal breaker. Tried it for three days, wasn’t worth the hassle. I had a friend who got on really well with it and loved it - but was also sending me pictures of her LO enthusiastically rubbing huge dollops of yoghurt into his hair. I was very happy that that was not part of our usual dinner regime. Each to their own though.

I wish people would stop saying “just do BLW!” It’s not for everyone. It’s messy, time consuming, wasteful and some babies just aren’t interested. My baby would happily scoff food from a spoon from 6mo but any finger foods got thrown to the floor. He didn’t get the hang of finger foods until he was 10 months old. It’s not the be all and end all.

The “just give baby what your having” mantra is what is feeding all this mum guilt - BLW simply doesn’t work for some babies. Frankly I’d rather my baby actually eat her food from a spoon than throw good food on the floor and eat none of it.

If someone saw me buying pouches or jars of baby food in the supermarket I would think absolutely nothing of it - anyone who would judge me for it I wouldn’t associate with anyway! Being a mum is hard enough, fed and happy is all that matters x

Oh I don't mean just let them throw it around, sorry, that came across badly. What I mean is so what to the idea that they don't eat anything. They aren't meant to be eating very much at first, that's all I meant, I feel like a lot of people get very anxious about this when it is really unnecessary. You don't have to let them throw food around to do BLW, just give them small amounts and take it away if they're not interested in tasting it. I also find presenting a small plate or bowl for rejections and directing them to it is effective from a surprisingly early age.

I agree some babies don't like BLW, though. DS2 didn't. I was a bit stubborn in my theory and kept him on finger foods until I felt he was eating enough to be allowed a spoon, but then he just insisted on puree/mashed food until he was over a year old and could use a fork. He would give you this hard stare as if to say "What do you expect me to do with that? I'm a baby, babies are spoon fed you lazy woman". To be fair, he is like that about almost everything, very particular in the way he feels it must be done :)

I did BLW but mine went through a weird stage where she wanted only smooth things at about 10 months, so we used a lot of pouches. She now eats raw spinach by the handful and I'm always having to pick her off my pea shoots.

Don't guilt yourself too much but offer a range of finger foods and mashed up stuff. In my experience they don't eat a proper three meals a day before age 1 anyway

Oh love. Social media is full of lying arseholes who curate content to make themselves look good. Ignore it!
You’re not feeding your kids blended up mars bar! If babe likes a pouch and it’s fits round your life then feed that pouch! It’s not like they’ll be 21 and still having a pouch of chicken dinner.
Stop being horrible to yourself, you’re worth kindness x

You're doing great OP, as you've acknowledged in your OP, the lower sugar pouches are actually really good. When you're ready you could introduce what the toddler is having, but as you know the cleaning etc takes a lot more time. Everything is upside down at the moment, don't be too hard on yourself.

If you want to go down the blended route, do a batch of food and blend that and it,s already made. Blend what 3 year old has. The odd pouch won,t harm and if this is what you need to do at this moment fine,

This is why I chose blw with my 6 mo as it’s one less thing to think about. He has the same food as the rest of us only we take his out before adding seasoning. He eats in his nappy on the kitchen tile so DH can take him straight into the bath.

The odd pouch won,t harm and if this is what you need to do at this moment fine,

A pouch everyday won’t harm either and it’s perfectly fine if this is what you simply want to do.

We did BLW so baby just had same as us. You are making life harder than it needs to be!
But there’s nothing wrong with a pouch.

Why not give baby and toddler the same though?! I don’t understand that.

DS didn't take to BLW until about 9 months (when he switched from only wanting to be spoon fed to only wanting finger food pretty much overnight). Until then, pouches did us fine. I think it's a bit like buying ready chopped veg - it's more expensive but it's more convenient. It's all the same thing, you're just paying for someone else to cook and blend it. In time, you can just feed baby and toddler the same thing but crack on with whatever makes your life easier.

I puréed up all sorts, avocado, sweet potato, every vegetable under the sun. And guess what, they bloody hate vegetables now! Happy you and happy baby is the very best diet, and you know the Ella pouches are absolutely fine so don't worry about it at all! It will only be a little while before you're onto finger food anyway and it's much easier when you can just give them pieces of what you're having - broccoli, hummus, pita bread etc.

I feel exactly the same way. I have a 7 month old and have been feeling guily about the ellas pouches particularly as my LO seems to prefer them to my cooking. I try to do a bit of a mix and like you try to avoid the ones which have a lot of fruit.

I really don't have the time to batch cook and puree at the moment but let my LO eat some of my food, curry, spag bol, hummus etc. My LO probably gets through 1 pouch every 1 to 2 days.

I weaned my first baby purely on pouches and jars.

I do not have the patience to cook a load of stuff and mash it up or purée it.

Aww it's so hard to not compare with people who look like they are doing things perfectly- it usually paralyzes me. Sounds like you are doing a fantastic job in a difficult time. I found weaning very stressful mainly because I got bogged down in comparisons and advice- go with what is best with you and if that's pouches at the moment and for the foreseeable that's fine. What about a cereal? I find them really quick and easy- oatibix or weetabix or something? Like a pp poster said it's not like you are feeding them a blended mars bar!

@Megan2018

For so many reasons.
People, like myself, are not always confident or comfortable with BLW and there is absolutely no hard evidence to suggest it is better in any way than purée. If OP wants to purée, let her buy the pre made pouches

@2007Millie
Did I say it was better?! It’s definitely easier.
Not buying anything different or prepping more than 1 meal for everyone is easier.
The OP has the problem with pouches, not me. You are projecting your issues!

I cooked beautiful meals for my baby that were hand mashed and delicious. He refused them all (the dog loved them) and would only eat pouches 🤷‍♀️

Why not give baby and toddler the same though?! I don’t understand that.

Because not everyone wants to do BLW? And that’s fine. Because not everyone wants to buy/ faff around with a hand blender? And that’s fine.
In the words of my wise DM ‘you don’t need to understand everything.’ Try not to break your head too much over this complicated and alien concept of not feeding your six month old the same as your toddler...