To say 'Fuck you, Ella's Kitchen, I'll boil my own carrots!'

[missmillimentscardigan]

Obviously I get that those pouches can be convenient; I just don't understand the blind adherence to the Ella's Kitchen 'feeding a baby everything from a pouch' idea. Why would you pay probably ten times the cost of a carrot to buy a pouch of pureed carrot? I hate the twee packaging and the stupid baby talk on the packets and cynical marketing guff.

I think parents are led to believe that they couldn't possibly prepare something for their baby to eat themselves, and that it's better and somehow safer, to buy them a pouch of fruit or veg and feed them that instead. So many of my friends, when starting off on weaning their babies, have just bought a load of EK pouches and given them that, and only that. And I find that a bit sad, that parents think that they couldn't /shouldn't cook a parsnip / bit of broccoli for their child, and that the first flavours their baby tries are from a weird vacuum pouch that doesn't even need refrigerating.

I'm no Annabel Karmel, and my children certainly don't eat lovingly prepared homecooked food all the time (hello, beans on toast). But I do enjoy cooking for them and my DH, and so does he. Those pouches have a place, but not at the exclusion of everything else. It's satisfying to see your child eating something you made and that you know is nutritious.

I'm not criticising mothers and fathers for using them; I just feel a bit sad that we are losing and abandoning simple skills, like very basic and inexpensive cooking for children, because baby food companies want us to think that they know better than we do. And they don't!

What was the Hungry caterpillar BLW thread?

Moo it wasn't just gagging, as I said in my pp's, he was vomiting as a result of the gagging every meal time. He's 10mo now and much much better. He attempts any texture, eats any flavour and can spoon feed himself. It's not a 'struggle' and never has been. It's following ds's lead rather than reading a book to decide what is best for him.

orangebird69 why on earth would you post a picture of a that poor child to point-score?

People get sad and express concern over many things - by your logic they shouldn't do so while there is something more important to care about.

That picture is in the news today and I think everyone has seen it. It hasn't stopped any of us from discussing a range of trivial and less trivial issues. ( Have you posted it on Style and Beauty, Telly and any other unworthy board?)

The OP started a good thread - it has travelled a bit but been useful and interesting.

Chikara, I've already explained why I posted that picture. Rtft. Thanks.

Glad he's better orange, can he eat normal dinners with you now?

Does anyone know if all ready meal baby food has the same process of preparation? I heard that it had to be heated to really high temperatures to kill any bacteria before being bottled, but that also kills the nutritional value. I haven't looked into it as I didn't need to, but I would be interested to know.

I'm glad I BLW'd both of mine, because I hate faff and expense. I found weaning a real joy, just picking a couple of bits off my plate and putting it in front of them.

I don't really mind how anyone else does it, except that baby rice at 4 months makes me cross, and putting it in a bottle to 'get them to sleep' makes me gag at the thought.

Moopointscowopinion, not a lot actually. Surviving on cup a soups, instant cappuccinos and the odd dinner I can get from parents or friends. Not the best food to share with your baby! Not long now though and I can be a 'proper' mum, put my pinny on, cook homemade organic fair trade ethically produced food

My PFB dd had pouches/jars with as much Blw as I could. I had the fabulous intention of batch cooking puree's, I bought all the kit, spent time loving doing it all for her to reject every bloomin one! Crack open a jar or pouch, one happy fed child. So I could either get myself and her all stressed every meal time, or I could make meals fun and pleasurable for us both, and be able to slowly introduce her to mashed up meals. She's now 4 and has a good healthy appetite. Genuinely, no one knows what's happening in someone else's house, if pouches mean your child is fed and healthy then that's great. Sometimes it's not as straight forward as well just make purree's instead of choosing convenience.

He'll eat anything I put in front of him Moo, always has done. If what I'm having for dinner is suitable for him he'll have that. I still blitz his dinners though. The texture is being upped slowly. I'm also not a subscriber to 'food before one is just for fun'. I like to know exactly what and how much he's eaten. I still bf too, at least 4 times a day and if/when he needs it during the night (we cosleep).

Thanks chikara
I agree mrsde - the 'shit in a jar'
comments are mean and antagonistic.
Am still interested in this topic though. Nosy and greedy!

*You know what makes me sad? Kids being bombed in Syria.

Not a fucking pouch of puréed carrots.*

Amen to that, some people here have no perspective. It's fine to be concerned about children's diet and improving it but piss off with the preachy crap about why you don't love your children enough/are too lazy/can't be bothered if you use pouches and jars of fruit and veg.

I batch cook all sorts of homemade food and put it in the freezer. I also love EK and hate people turning their noses up at it. I don't think it's safer or better and I've never met anyone else who thinks that.

Yesterday DS had a Thai noodle EK pouch. If you think I'm going to knock up a Thai meal from scratch, including buying all the ingredients, in order to find out if he likes Thai noodles, then I'm sorry to disappoint.

Tomorrow I'd like to give him some banana mixed with yoghurt. But the bananas I've got from the greengrocer aren't very ripe, so I'll give him some puréed banana from a pouch instead.

And if you've got a clingy baby who cries the second you put them down (I haven't this time, but had with DD) then the 15 minutes it takes to peel, chop, boil, purée and cool down a carrot feels like a lifetime. Why do that when you could give them a perfectly nutritious ready-made one?

Mine ate what she was given..
OK no salt or whatever, just mushed up dinner I was having.
It's a massive industry this baby/children's food malarkey. Plays on guilt; I didn't buy into it.
Mine eats just about everything bar mushrooms.

I haven't RTFT, but I think you are just narked you didn't think of the idea first!

Good luck. Enjoy the fussy eating stage.

It's a massive industry this baby/children's food malarkey.
This. I worry about this. I don't want any corporate fuck-head profiting from making parents feel unsure about the best way to be looking after their children. Formula companies are the worst for it in 3rd world countries, but even little promises like 'you can be sure your child is getting the best'; yeah as long as you only buy our product and don't trust yourself to do it your own way because that won't make us any money.

I often used pouches when out and about but I tasted most of the 'meal' ones I gave to my sons at one point or another and, with the exception of the spag bol one, they tasted nothing like the description on the packet. I thought most of them were pretty disgusting. Possibly just me (and the boys ate most of them, to be fair) but it made me less keen on giving them on a regular basis.

welsh- probably because a large part of the 'meal' is water (highest ingredient in the Ella's meals is always stock- stock being 95+% water)

Yes, and I imagine the ultra high heating process doesn't help much either.

I'm about to start the weaning stage with my first and I'm actually quite excited to get pureeing for her. Pouches will have a time and a place for us. For example when we're out and it's not feasible to take fresh with us. However, I certainly wouldn't look down my nose at someone who used/uses pouches or jars all the time. As long as a baby is fed, that's all that matters to me.

What annoys me is the marketing aimed at first time parents making them believe that certain brands are superior. I've just recently bought some spoons and bowls from a well known high street store and in my order was a sample pouch of the Ella's Kitchen carrot puree and a voucher for another of their first tastes purees, just because I'd purchased these weaning items. Companies shouldn't be allowed to do things like that

Three things are certain in this world.. Death, taxes, and women judging each others parenting choices. Just sod the sod off! My favourite pouch that I pilfer from DS is banana and apple, mmmhmm.

Have you checked that your friends actually have any cooking skills at all before judging them for not cooking for their babies? My brother had a friend who genuinely didn't know that you had to put water in with pasta to cook it and basic stuff like that, and I have friends who frankly are not safe cooking for adults let alone kids. We should have more classes for people to learn how to cook in this country - our lessons in school were pretty dire when I was younger so any kids with parents who didn't teach them basically had no hope. I had to teach my ex how to peel onions and use a chopping knife safely because he'd been brought up on canned soup and ready meals as his parents were working long days all through his childhood and the entire family was out of the house for every meal. Maybe if you gently introduced the conversation you could perhaps offer to teach your friends some basic cooking skills if they don't have any and would appreciate the help.

I don't like feeding my baby ready made foods often, but mostly because I don't like ready meals and canned food myself so feel it's unfair to inflict it on him! We batch cook stews and soups and freeze them down in his baby bowls. :) I worry about long life foods being nutritionally inferior, but I'm sure they can't be too bad or there'd have been a lot of ill kids and health warnings by now!

I think there is a valid discussion to be had around supporting parents who only give food pouches and jars. Of course some parents will do it out of laziness but some will be time poor, some will be nervous parents, some will be mental and or/physical ill and some lack the access to information on nutrition. A lot of people in this thread don't seem to really want a discussion on this. They just want to a reason to look down on other parents with pretend "sadness".

My kids never had jars and pouches. Because when I was weaning dc1, I was pregnant with dc2 and I couldn't deal with food smells at all. The one jar i tried made me puke at the smell and I could never look at them ever again. So poor dc1 got toast, and veg sticks and anything else I could lob at her from the other end of the room. Seemed to work so I stuck with it for the other 2

Admittedly I haven't RTFT as it's late and I'm tired but I'm with the OP. I think pouches have now become the new "jars". As you say just boil up a bit of sweet potato/carrot/broccoli etc mash and freeze in ice cube trays. Simple. I think we used a few pouches for days out or I did scrambled egg and put it into a sealed tub and wrapped some toast in foil.
I don't understand people buying lots of jars for EVERY meal.
Back in the 70 s when I was a baby my mum just blitzed whatever they were eating for me (too much salt by today's standards no doubt!)
I do think some parents don't feel confident enough to cook for their babies and honestly think jars/pouches are far superior than anything they could possibly create and I think the advertisers play on this which is unfair to vulnerable parents.

Ahhhhh!! The blw Hungary caterpillar floor Buffett!!! That is one of my favourite threads of all time!!