To ask what is so wrong with pouches

[HenryIsHungry]

baby food pouches, I mean. Genuine question, not trying to cause a bunfight. I've just tried one of the Ella's Kitchen ones and it was delicious. Ingredients lists just organic fruit and a dash of lemon.

I've spend hours pureeing (combining purees with BLW at the moment and happy with that decision before we ignite that debate!), freezing, then defrosting, warming, washing up blah blah blah, and now wondering why I can't just give him pouches 50 per cent of the time. Surely these foods have the same goodness as my home-cooked creations (and it's not like the food I prepare is fresh, seeing as I freeze it)

I know there's the cost issue, but I'm self-employed, so time spent NOT preparing food, is time spent earning moment or just enjoying some time with DS, so it all balances out I reckon.

Is it because DS would get used to them, so wouldn't make the transition to eating home-cooked food with the family as easily? If so, I'm not sure I buy it. As a family we combine fresh food with convenience food all the time (eg I might make shepherds pie with ready-made mash, pasta with Lloyd Grossman sauce). That's life.

Please someone tell me if I'm missing the point about why they're so bad? Is there something they don't tell you on the packet??

I'm happy to be corrected.

at slaving away making purees.

1. stick veg in steamer and set timer
2. remove when buzzer goes
3. hand to baby when cool/stick in fridge for later/use potato masher

Nothing wrong with pouches, I just find them too pricey and too standardised to use regularly - they will always taste exactly the same compared to shoving a mix of what's in the fridge in where it will taste different every time.

Ssssssh henry, it's OK. M&S mash in a shepherd's pie is not only fine, it's naice....

Yes, do that Anonymumous. That's baby led weaning, more or less.

All I know about M&S ready mash is that it makes my son throw up every time he has it. We think it's too rich for him or something.

henryishungry nothing wrong with using M&S mash. I love their food and as I work there I get 20% off. Think they are going to have to wrestle my card off me when I leave!!

Also nothing wrong with pouches i also thought why is there a thread about kangaroos

Everything in moderation is my motto, my kids love fruit, but also love chocolate and crisps etc. I think they have a healthy balance, they seem to get enough energy from what they eat!

Naked, not so

1. buy veg/fruit, in correct quantities. Wait for it to ripen (why are my Ocado bananas always green?)
2. wash veg
3. chop veg
4. steam veg
5. mash/puree veg
6. wash up steamer, cutlery etc *) If using frozen, defrost, reheat, allow to cool... and clean up all that stuff as well

They are so expensive though! I felt ripped off every time I bought one. And the savoury ones are pretty yuck.

Don't get the 'it's not BLW if you use any purees' thing either. What if the baby is clearly indicating that they want the spoon of food in their mouth - surely you are letting the baby lead you then? And as for the argument that food processors are a recent invention, well yes, they are, but forks aren't, and in lots of cultures mothers pre-chew food. Yum.

Sorry for changing subject slightly op! Of course there is nothing wrong with pouches. Although I would be interested to know how many vitamins etc survive the preserving process.

Phewee...still MC! (breathes sigh of relief)

Weeeelllll it's definitely a step up from Smash, Henry, but I'm not sure.. but then I'm very fussy over my mash. Mostly I make mash with more than one root vegetable anyway - usually sweetpotato, potato and swede, or sometimes even butternut squash (which isn't a root veg, I know). DS is completely used to bright orangey-yellow mash now.

I'm not sure how the pouches are heat-treated but not all nutrients are destroyed by UHT treatment in zero-oxygen situations; the pouches are likely to be triple laminate of foil and plastic to prevent any oxygen getting to them before the lid is removed and they'd be filled under sterile conditions. Many canned products are heated to 121 deg C for a certain time (and this probably covers jarred products too although the glass may affect how the time/temp is achieved) to ensure that any spores from Clostridium botulinum are destroyed (botulism bacterium).
Primary losses would be in enzymic activity of foods, most of which is lost in normal cooking anyway; Vits B1 and C, also diminished in normal cooking, especially in water; and nutrients such as anthocyanins.
Every effort is made to retain as much nutrition as possible while still achieving appropriate sterility - a lot of research goes into this, amazingly!

Oh joy! Oh rapture! [Runs off to find out all about baby-led weaning!]

Whaaaaaaat is all of this stuff. No wonder new parents feel like their heads are going to explode!

I think pouches, whether on a kangaroo or full of puréed veg are fine. I'm not criticising the more traditional jarred baby foods but having pretty much tasted them all I think the Ella's kitchen stuff whilst pricey definitely tastes better. I also think that if you are using purées (and you bloody well should if you want to) it's very hard to get them as smooth as the pouches and for a nervy first time parent with a PFB, you can do without wondering whether a big lump of carrot has managed to get through your sieve! I honestly think a little bit of everything works well. Fresh food with the occasional bit of convenience food is how most of us live like you say. YANBU and sound very balanced to me!

Weaning is weaning. It's getting babies slowly off milk and onto food whichever way you do it. (probs would leave the McDonalds until their at least 1 though

The thing is even if you don't want to purée at home they only have really really smooth food for a short time. Once they are eating lumpy food don't you just take a portion of whatever you are eating and mash it with a fork? I also freeze little tubs of leftovers if for some reason he can't have what we are having. If you use pouches/jars a lot at what point do they start eating what you have?

Wise words Stinax

Anonymumous I'm probably wrong, but you sound awfully like a stealthy, evangelical BLW-er in disguise. I like that we are apparently witnessing your conversion, here, at first hand!

I jest of course, it just made me laugh to imagine you sitting at home knitting baby slings out of yoghurt and coming up with more ingenious ways to add sheep to your flock. I know this isn't the case!

Some of the jars have lumps in too; when i used them, I used the lumpy ones. I only used the pouches for out-and-about, really; and I had a glass grater for pureeing raw apples, bananas and carrots at home.

I had the joy of feeding small ones and my acquired big ones. As I was cooking anyway, the small ones just got veg that I was already chopping for dinner - an extra carrot, a few bits of broccoli etc. And where possible I cheated and fed it to all of them eg mixed root veg mash tops a cottage pie and goes all over the floor into a plastic bowl with a little cheese mixed in. I never fully pureed. And fruit in this house rarely gets a chance to get ripe if it's bought unripe. I have to hide the ripen at home nectarines for a few days as I'm worried I'll find a dislodged tooth in them otherwise.

Used in moderation, I don't have a problem with them.
I have had to deal with several very fussy babies who wouldn't eat anything else and I've had to actually wean them off the pouches, aged 14/15 months.
IMO, that's not so good.

ooh Narked not Naked

Pouches are very convenient, but I wouldn't want to use them 50% of the time. I agree that they lack variety, they're also pretty sweet. If you look at the veg ones, they all seem to have apples or some other fruit in too, and that fruit is the first ingredient on the list (i.e.the main ingredient). They basically use fruit instead of sugar to sweeten. Seems like paying lip service to healthy eating ideas. So I tried to limit them (but they are very convenient...). I don't see how they are different from jars of baby food (barring the need to use a spoon which is probably a good thing to do with a baby in terms of developing motor skills, but it's not like you have to let your kids suck on them).

Thumb is a glass grater a grater made of glass?

There's nothing wrong with them feeding straight from the pouch, I was actually advised to give fruit pouch like that to one of mine as it strengthens the mouth muscles and is beneficial for them!

When we were weaning my son eventually he refused to eat any purée I made but would happily eat Ella's Kitchen pouches so I admit I gave up making my own I figured it was better he ate something than nothing. I would get him to use a spoon though.

Is 'blw' bacon, lettuce and watercress? Please tell those of us who don't know the abbreviation what it is.

Raspberry 6mo. The only stuff he can't have is honey (12 months), whole nuts and whole grapes (these are due to the choking risk)

Other than that, anything really - including cheese - is a goer!

Nowt wrong with pouches. DS2 had them the whole time. We were both working FT and so no time to puree stuff.