To occasionally give my baby packet food?

[Doesitgetbetter]

Is packaged baby food as bad as all that?

I am struggling to find the time in the day as a single mum to a 10 month old to make 3 meals. She still BF (a lot)! And I try to give her as much home made goodness as possible - we have not ventured into pre made food yet. But I'm struggling to fit it all in to the day - the cooking, the blending, planning all the meals. I'm exhausted. So I thought I could give my LO organic packet food once in a while.

I have tried to search for the best brands but can't really find a lot of info. So let's say, Peter Rabbit organics and Plum Organics as 2 brands I could try? Are they OK or should I not even go there?

I'm so clueless.

My ten month old eats what I eat too... Just means I have to eat more healthily. Baby food isn't necessary.

My advice is, as it normally is to stressed out mums on here, give yourself a break! You are doing great. Go out and buy a bunch of Ella/plum/whatever pouches and stick them in the cupboard for when you need them.

I'm sure you do, but batch cook and freeze as much as you can and also there are some easy ways to cook quick nutritious meals. My DS eats a lot of fish - it's so quick and easy. I even do the salmon in the microwave if I'm in a rush. Cover with milk, full power for three minutes. I have blocks of mash that I've frozen and sweet potato mash is quicker than ordinary mash - Every second counts!

But most importantly, stop beating yourself up and congratulate yourself instead on doing such a marvellous job.

TheTravellingLemon - posts like yours are why I need a 'Like' button on here!

Thank you SDTG, that's very kind. for you too

I am totally, 100% all for pouches, especially when you're out and about. But your life will get easier if you start to introduce some 'normal' foods round about now. A bit of toast with some humous or cream cheese or even just butter - that's breakfast sorted (and potentially lunch too!). Ditto a pack of breadsticks, which are great for out and about-ness. She'll just mush them up, it will be absolutely fine, and suddenly you'll find there's a whole range of food which is easy to make/find for her.

But honestly, don't sweat it. BLW wasn't invented when DS was born, we used a lot of pouches

Social Serrvices helicopter approaching

I would not hesitate in giving pouches. With DD I had all the time in the world so made home made food but when DS came along he was fed mainly on jars.

We did BLW so DS had everything fresh, now though I need the occasional cheat and he does have the odd M&S kiddies meal when pushed for time. Maybe once a week?

I don't beat myself up over it, sometimes you just don't have the time to prepare something from scratch.

That said I do try to go for things like scrambled eggs on toast before digging a ready meal out.

When you're not eating something that's suitable to share, yourself, jars (or pouches, if you can afford them - my kids pre-dated pouches) would save more time than packets and the good ones are a whole lot nicer.

Ooh, I was really excited to hear that crumpets are healthy, but I looked them up and one Warbutons crumpet has 0.8g of salt in it, which is a bit too much

Please don't worry about choking, OP, it rarely happens. If the baby is making an alarming noise, that's just gagging, not choking. Babies have a very effective gag reflex to protect them. Just let her get on with it and try not to look alarmed, or you will scare her. Avoid whole grapes, cherry tomatoes and things of similar size and shape, which are a choking hazard.

Hopefully the SS helicopter won't be diverted in my direction, but fish fingers are actually quite a good idea. They're soft, so not much risk of choking, don't have too much salt or junk in, and are a good source of omega 3.

Oops! wrong window!

I remember a holiday, when ds3 was around about the same age as the OP's child. He was eating fairly normal food, but blitzed up into lumpy mush - but obviously we couldn't take a blender into cafes all the time, and didn't want to use jars all the time - so dh's answer, at every meal, was to order a baked potato, with baked beans and cheese, and to mash some up and feed ds3 from his plate.

By the end of the fortnight, poor ds3 could barely look a baked potato or a baked bean in the face!

Yes, yes and yes again. I was out most days for lunch and could not be bothered dragging hm food about so used packets. Also used slummy mummy approach of chucking chunks of food down like cheese, chicken ect and letting lo munch - think it's posh name is baby led weaning lol

SDTG - just made me laugh out loud - poor ds3

We used packets for picnics and out and about, far easier and you don't need to worry about heating thoroughly as they're sterile. I try not to use them at home but will always have one in the cupboard for an emergency friday night when the cupboards are bare (we shop saturday morning).

My ds like ella's kitchen.

I would have lost my mind without packets and jars. Like a previous poster I had 2 DCs in 13 months and was trying to wean DS when I had morning sickness so it was all I could do to run into the kitchen, grab a jar and spoon and run out!

Actually, I usually had to have a bucket next to me when I fed him, poor poor DS. Luckily he has no memory of this as surely being fed from a jar while your mummy throws up into a bucket at the same time doesn't promote good habits.

I have no idea why I'm sharing that!

My 10 month old has quite a bit of jars and pouches, tbh. We're not well off, I'm struggling a bit mental health-wise, and the teensy little icebox section of our teensy little fridge doesn't lend itself to batch cooking. He seems pretty good to me, and he loves his fruit and sandwiches.

This is amazing, thanks everyone!

I went shopping today and bought a few different pouches - I'm looking forward to giving them ago and just knowing they are in the cupboard has taken so much pressure off me already.

My sister always told me before I had my LO, whatever you do as a mother you never feel like it's enough! I think we must be our own worst critic hey.

I really feel so encouraged now and I am going to try to relax a bit in other areas also.

Thanks :-)

DD (7 months) has a delicate digestive system. New foods make her fussy and mildly sick every time, it has to be done slowly. So we use Gerber jars which are overly processed but gentle on her stomach so she still gets pureed foods and used to eating from a spoon. She got really sick last time we fed her fresh foods, so we started over again. We've so far managed real bananas, which took almost a week for her to adjust to. Now she loves them. Next we'll be trying a new food until she's used to that.

The point is, do what works best for you and your child. I don't think DD is going to be any worse off having jars and slowly introduced to fresh table foods.

I echo what several posters have already said about baby led weaning. Put food on table and baby in front and what them make a huge mess have a great time.

A dog is handy if you do blw

Otherwise if you must puree then batch cook and freeze to make it easier