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!

Okay- I was in a really bad mood yesterday- apologies.

But I do think there is no place for shop bought baby food.
They can literally have what you have blended if you don't want to/can't BlW < also agree that yes it's just a title for something. We have done for centuries- but if we've done it for centuries does that not give you a clue it might be a very normal natural thing to do?
Not give in I big companies who- like op said- undermine our thoughts and abilities as parents and Brainwash us to think babies need their food.

When you're out and about take a pot of food with you from the freezer and ask for it heated- that's what people had to do before these companies invented jars and pouches

Op is right in that respect- we have become dependent on these huge companies and believe it's more convenient and helpful to us.
Surely it's better to know what you're feeding your baby!
Cool extra of what you're making and puree it and freeze if that's the route the you want to follow.
Forgot to take food out with you? Order a portion of veg and nmash I with your fork.

All babies whether TW or BLW need to have finger foods at some point so and some point they will gag and maybe be sick.
This is them learning to manipulate food and protecting them from choking.
Their gag reflex is much more sensitive than ours for this reason- their airway is protected when they learn to eat.
Blw actually reduces the risk of choking because they learn to chew and manipulate foods before they learn to swallow.
So when you give a TW baby something they just swallow without knowing to chew.

PP who said about having teeth and gagging on big chunks- offer smaller Bitesize pieces then? Great to help pincer grip and Hand eye coordination- another benefit of BLW.

So when you give a TW baby something they just swallow without knowing to chew

What a load of nonsense! All 3 of my babies were traditionally weaned and they have all learned to chew just fine.

There is no One True Way for every child when it comes to weaning. Every baby is different.

When you're out and about take a pot of food with you from the freezer and ask for it heated- that's what people had to do before these companies invented jars and pouches

Err, you reckon? Because pre-jars and pouches everybody had freezers and microwaves and there were lots of lovely baby friendly establishments prepared to heat up baby food for you? Riiiiiight. You just enjoy imagining that fantasy past.

Perhaps you might actually talk to a few pre jars and pouches mothers? The reality was that most mothers at the time would have had a lot less mobility and freedom because of lack of convenience on the move with babies.

Jars and little tins of pureed baby food definitely pre-date the domestic freezer. They were around when plenty of homes didn't have fridges. Other proprietary weaning foods are far older.

I have always wondered about having what you have blended; when do you do it? You've cooked dinner ready to serve, family is waiting, you are feeling hungry. But wait, first you must put a little bit in a blender to create some baby food. Do you then serve other family and self or feed baby while dinner goes cold?

Cecily, when I did that I had a hand blender. Just put a little in a bowl first, whizz it up, takes about 15 seconds. Then put in fridge to cool. Dish up everybody else's and it's all ready at the same time.

Incidentally my FIL was brought up by his Gran in rural Ireland. She was born in the late 19th century. She would mash things with forks or if not soft chew bits up and put them in his mouth pre-blenders. And tried to do same with some of DH's siblings when babies too! So I think BLW being the method of choice pre-blenders and packets is a bit of a myth too. We'll certainly not in the 'you must never give your baby mush' way BLW purists insist on.

So I think BLW being the method of choice pre-blenders and packets is a bit of a myth too. We'll certainly not in the 'you must never give your baby mush' way BLW purists insist on.

This ^^

When I weaned my DD it didn't cross my mind to wonder or judge what other people did/didn't do with their kids.

At the time I was working pt. my mum had DD 2 days a week. She was happy to help, but refused to cook for her, so 2 days a week she had jars/packets. The rest of the time it was a mixture of squished up food or things she could pick up and eat herself. Depending on what I was cooking at the time.

She was fed. That's the most important thing.

They weren't as popular or as available as they are now, years ago.
They seem very expensive to me, for very little content. They taste very artificial.
I like the idea of adding some Bacardi to the peach or strawberry ones into a Bellini!! Ha ha.

This has been an interesting read. This is genuinely not meant to sound pearl clutching or anything but I didn't realise that purees were still so popular (home made or bought). Everyone I know with one exception did BLW because it seemed easier. It does take time for them to eat any significant amount, which is tedious.

I bought a pouch of beef stew once when I went out without food for DD and it was pretty horrible so I didn't bother again, and I wasn't sure how to feed to to her anyway. I'm sure some must taste ok though as they would sell many would they.

I don't think you have to heat everything anyway. I would take pots of sweet potato I had already cooked out with me and dd would eat it at room temperature. Same with milk. Heating everything means more hassle and can lead to fussiness.

I never heat anything for DD, she's fine with it.

DD is almost 8 months and took to food like a duck to water, there was never a need for purees. I'll take her a sandwich and a banana or something if she needs feeding when out. If this were not the case and she'd needed to go through the puree stage first, I may well have bought the odd pouch for ease. I don't think it's a terrible thing. Surely the puree stage is a pretty tiny period of time in the grand scheme of things?

Actually I'd be interested to know how long purée stage does last? Because they look expensive but not for long I imagine?

I'm always a bit baffled by this 'baby just eats what we eat' thing. Do you eat really bland food? Babies aren't supposed to eat salt. When we're cooking the salt gets added during cooking, not after, because that's how to season food. So how do you get around that?

Also, afraid to say I sometimes eat processed food, or something and chips. So I'm not going to whiz up a bit of M&S chicken tikka masala for a baby.

Far too much judgment on this thread. As long as you're feeding your baby a balanced diet it doesn't matter at all how you do it.

Tallula When we started weaning DC1, if we were cooking food that would be given to him too, we would do stuff like use lower salt ingredients (e.g. baby stock cubes rather than standard ones, unsalted butter), and add salt at the table rather than during cooking. So what we ate did change a bit.

I don't add salt to my food, but I might use a jar of prepared sauce in the week, so I just take out the food for DD from the pan before I add the sauce, due to the salt content. It's never been difficult at all.

I stopped adding salt yes and we added it at the table instead. Chips I was ok with DS eating. The odd hot curry or whatever I'd make him an omelette or something.

I don't add salt to my food.

Ours very literally ate what we ate. Roast meals, chilli, seafood...the works. Yogurt added to anything that may have too much space. Reduced salt stock if I didn't have any home made etc. Never did purees or the like, it just worked better for us.

We eat very little salt as well and it's a good way to encourage us to avoid processed foods as it's too much hassle to cook different things! Or we just fed DS something earlier and then we'd have curry etc.

I did all my own purees for dc1 and she is a very fussy eater. I use pouches for Dc2 and she will eat everything.