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!

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. you say you are sad twice in your op.

You are massively extrapolating, seeing someone using a pouch is not an indication that they never cook for their children or won't ever cook for their children.

Stop judging other parents, they are not you and you are not them and you have no idea.

I very rarely used the pouches as I was very lucky that my little girl would eat pretty much anything. However, I imagine for parents with a fussy eater then you just give them whatever they will eat- if pouches was all they would eat then that's what I would give tbh. I don't find it particularly "sad" it's just a way of feeding a baby and is only a short period in their life where they will be eating these types of food.

Such a 'shame' that the poor little kiddies are getting fed.

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 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!

But why doesn't your sadness lie with parents who don't use the whole mine of information available at their fingertips, or from HVs etc?

You can't blame Annabel Karmel for that.

My DD point blank refused homemade food for the first year of her eating. Those pouches and jars were the only thing she'd eat. I tried everything - making it smooth, making it lumpy, mixing homemade with shop bought pouches... I don't know how she knew but she did. She wouldn't do BLW either. At all. She's still got food issues at 2 but is better than she was.

So I'm very pro-pouches and jars. They saved my sanity.

Everybody else can waste their money however they so choose.
Makes no difference to my life.

It is strange though - choose between a strawberry pouch costing £1.19 containing one strawberry with the goodness squashed out, or just give your dc an actually strawberry for 10p.

How do you know that people who use pouches never cook for their children? Bit of a leap isn't it?

Stop worrying about other parents and be thankful their child has something to eat when lots don't.

Apologies if I sounded very judgemental in my op. That wasn't my intention. But I'm not talking about people using a bit of pouches and a bit of home cooking etc. I was interested in what people thought about the baby food companies (and EK in particular as it's so popular) and the idea that it's somehow better and maybe safer to give pouches, rather than something you've made. I find it annoying and patronising and I wondered what others thought.

FWIW, I used a mixture of pouches and home cooking for DC1, although not much success with pouches, and I did BLW with dc2, which was great and a lot easier. So I'm definitely not trying to say that I haven't used these products. But I do find the one ingredient purées a bit baffling, apart from the Bellini idea, which is genius!

These things have their place, if you are out and about they are convenient. To use them all the time is laziness. If you taste them, you will find they don't really taste that nice, my DCs both refused jars and pouches as they were used to the taste of food made at home, likewise I think if they had been weaned on jars and pouches they might have been more likely to refuse homemade food when the time came.

Iv use them when we were out and about but too expensive as a daily food

I agree with you OP in that there is a certain aspect to the marketing of baby foods to make parents think they are a necessary part of weaning a child. I never bought baby food thingies myself because a) I'm a bit crunchy in some respects and b) I didn't have money for them when I had babies. I worked part time in a supermarket and once had a discussion with an Indian mother about what baby foods to buy - was it this jar or this jar, and it became quite clear that the impression she had gotten from Swedish society was that if she didn't wean her child according to the almighty Order of the Packaged Jars she was somehow mildly neglectful. She had an older child that had been born in India so I asked her how she'd managed there and she said "well I just gave her food..." So I said you CAN do that here you know, you don't have to use jars. Then people can do whatever is convenient for them.

That said, if you want to be able to use jars (or pouches you say? Some new-fangled thing that, never seen it bar for fruit smooshes?) I'd recommend introducing them early and regularly because when I bought one the one time the child wouldn't touch the mush, it was so watery and disgusting. ;)

The baby food industry is geared towards convenience and also the idea that babies need separate food to the rest of us.

I buy some fruit pouches (EK, Aldi, whatever's on offer) to add to DS1's porridge because homemade mashed fruit is the spawn of the devil according to his 2.11 yo brain.

I don't read the blurb on the side.

Just gave to say I love Ella's kitchen their customer service is great and their food isn't bad.

But it isabsolutlh each to their own

OP is getting a hard time here. She has a point.

PPs so keen to criticize her for "judging" - as if we all don't judge and indeed should judge- that they are missing the point.

The "parentood industry" is pernicious. It makes you feel as if you must have a nursery, use certain paint, use "safer" laundry detergent, feed pre-prepared food so that you can be sure that it is "best for your baby". It undermines mothers. Formula was relentlessly marketed to new mothers as being "best for baby" because then we could be "sure" that baby was getting enough/ the right vitamins whereas we couldn't be sure when breast feeding. The Company took the uncertainty away.

It is the same with pouches, (and mini (calcium enriched) yoghurts and added-vitamin drinks and all sorts of packaged junk that guarantees the full RDA of something or other). We are sold the smiling mother who does not spend time cooking but puts a meal on the table straight from the freezer, saving valuable time and money WHILST doing the "best for her family"

So whilst of course it is not a bad thing to use pouches and jars per se, the OP has a point worth discussing. - YANBU

arethereany - how do you 'squash the goodness' out of a strawberry?

I have never come across the opinion from anyone that pouches are better or safer. Baby food companies make a product, no one is forced to buy them or not. Pouches have a use, pouches are safe, pouches are helpful for those low in confidence in cooking. I think you are looking for something that doesn't exist, or not widely held anyway. If people prefer to use them, let them. It is not for you to judge.

If I couldlike chikaras post I would.

Everyone seems to be spectacularly missing the point o the OP's post.

DC1 organic purée made by me with love. He didn't eat anything . At all in fact he only started eating real food at about 7 .... Years not months.

DC2 had reflux and puked everything up .... Funnily enough EK didn't reflux... Stupidly expensive kid.

DC3 had dairy intolerance .... At 5 months she grabbed a pizza crust of dads plate and started eating it... BLW.

3 kids and different methods because not all children are the same!!!!

I bought them for convenience not because the marketing of the products undermined my cooking confidence. DS enjoyed them and seems to have come through the experience unscathed.

I did however often feel a need to justify my using them to other judgemental parents - such as the OP - who couldn't understand why I wouldn't just knock up batches of morrocan chicken, lamb roasts and cheese pie myself.

I love pouches, they are so convenient and DS likes them all, I thought they were all natural ingredients too. Aldi ones are great and a decent price. I think anything that makes the exhausting job of parenthood easier is a good thing! I don't know anyone who never cooks for their child...

the one thing I would say about the pouches is have you ever look at the use by date on them? they have a VERY long shelf life....

So do tins of chick peas.

I weaned dd using punches because I was fucking exhausted and the idea of chopping and boiling, cooling and purée-ing carrots time-consuming and unnecessary when you have a baby that needs attention so I'll pay for that privilege thank you very much.

Judgemental [cow].

Whilst I agree that the marketing of baby foods is not without its faults and that a lot of the products on those shelves are unnecessary, if the OP came to my house and felt "a little bit sad" that I was squirting an EK pouch into my DS1's porridge I'd be pretty pissed off about it.

Some of the OP's points are relevant and interesting; some are just judgy.

I haven't missed the point the of the OP's post.

She appears to be sad that some parents believe pouched food etc, is somehow 'better/safer' than preparing their own.

She appears to be blaming the food industry for this, rather than being sad that some parents don't bother doing a tiny bit of research/HVs aren't making it clear that it's not the case.

The food industry seems to get blamed for everything these days while personal responsibility, appears to be becoming a thing of the past.