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!

The "feel sad about kids who are not fed" comments, whilst true, effectively dismiss any discussion about feeding as unimportant.

I feel sad for kids whose parents don't give them a wonderful range of home-cooked nutritious meals. It's a shame - they miss out. Why wouldn't you feel that they should have better?

There is a real contradiction between dislike for the nanny state and condemnation of "Judgy" people and the faux concern about kids who are quite clearly suffering from the health consequences of poor nutrition.

(Not saying use of pouches will lead to poor health but the "don't judge" comments seem to apply whatever a parent is feeding a child and stifle debate).

Hedda where did I criticise? Read my first post on this thread.
The sugar comment was made as a joke because I used to eat half the dessert jars I offered my Dd. You are the only one getting very agitated about that

But why do you think you should "debate" what other people feed their children? This is the point: we should be dismissing your discussion of other peoples kids diets as unimportant, because it IS unimportant.

How arrogant are you that you think we should debate our childrens diet with YOU, so you can tell us how sad it is that they dont' get the same range as your children? Who died and you made King of the Kids Food?

The sugar comment was made as a joke because I used to eat half the dessert jars I offered my Dd. You are the only one getting very agitated about that confused

I'm not agitated, you said there was sugar in a product with no sugar. When you were told that, you sneered about natural sugars being in fruit, which was both silly and irrelevant.

Of course there's fucking sugar in it! It's made out of fucking banana. FFS

I do think that the average baby would be better fed mainly on non-processed food e.g pouches. However, I am very at people who feel "sad" for babies who, for whatever reason, are totally fed on jars etc. What judgemental faux sympathetic bollocks. Do you really have such little going on in your life? I am sad for children who are going to bed hungry every night, not those who are fed.

I also have to smile at parents who "lovingly purée" as if the love is what makes it so much better.

I am a very overweight person having struggled with my weight my whole life. Processed "food" played a huge role in my upbringing and I do feel that even as a 40 yr old woman, I Iack cooking knowledge, skill and the routine of cooking from scratch. I think there is the place for a conversation about ready meals and how we've come to distance ourselves from real, whole, healthy, preservative free food. Our overall attitudes about convenience and what constitutes an actual food plays heavily into the current obesity crisis.

The relationship with food starts right from weaning - it's too bad to dismiss the topic immediately as judgemental. I purposefully batch cooked and froze food for my kids. truthfully it was the first time I had ever cooked most of the vegetables I served - how sad is that? statistically, I know I'm not alone.

It did make me think about the strangeness of pulling a pouch of banana out instead of just mashing a fresh one up with a fork...and how far we've moved away from the daily task and chore of even basic food preparation. How many of us struggle to pack a healthy lunch for ourselves?

The struggle to a) pull up my own behaviour with processed, convenient, packaged food, b) keep my kids from adopting our societal pull toward prepackaged, preservative, sugar addled foods (which I'm totally indoctrinated in), is a painful challenge.

I think there is a larger conversation to be had personally.

HeddaLettuce I don't think it should be debated with me - as you know.

Either we care about kids or we don't. If you don't then fine. If we do - as a society - then we do what we can to make their lives better. That means public health, education, opportunity.

The reason our kids have schools, access to health care, vaccinations etc is because we as a society want as many kids as possible to benefit regardless of the income level or level of privilege of their parents.

Otherwise let's go back to parents putting their kids in factories at 10, beating them when they are "bad" and effectively doing what the hell they like with them.

If we, as a society, think it is shameful that children have the most dreadful health problems, lose all their teeth, (pain!!), and will die early because some parents think they should be able to feed their kids "what they like" - then we will act.

I suspect that as pressure on the NHS increases this will become much higher profile.

So no, I am not King of Kids' Food. And you know what I meant. There was no personal offence meant - just that we all want absolutely the best for all children. Why wouldn't we?

Either we care about kids or we don't. If you don't then fine

Thats the kind of dickish comment that proves my point.

I care about kids, I just don't think its my business what their parents feed them. You clearly do. You seem to think that you know best, that everyone else is suspect and clearly not doing it as well as you.

You must be incredibly insecure to set yourself up as the crusading avenger of society, looking out for all children. Are you Jamie Oliver in disguise?

I feel sad for kids whose parents don't give them a wonderful range of home-cooked nutritious meals.

*Of course there's fucking sugar in it! It's made out of fucking banana. FFS
*

But there isn't any added fucking sugar in it, which was the point. OF course bananas have natural fucking sugar in, but they still do when you mashed the fucker yourself, which is the sodding point.

Actually I think it is very important and relevant to discuss what we feed our children. Especially in light of the obesity crisis. Nutrition and being able to cook food from fresh is important and if someone is feeding their child purely on hard then there is a likelihood that that's then going to move On To ready meals and convenience foods as the child grows. Good nutrition equals good health and in my opinion the best start in life is to get as much fresh unprocessed food as possible. I don't think any one denies that jars are useful and have a place but if people feel the need to wean their babies purely on jars then I think as a society we need to look at why and try and resolve this whether that is teaching cooking skills, making fruit cheaper etc

I spent 2 hours and a lot of faff making purées for DD when she was tiny, and she projectile vomited it, so I had to bin it. A combo of EK pouches and BLW with whole pieces of fruit/veg etc worked for us. Plus once I discovered DD didn't care if they were warmed or not, you can chuck the pouches in your bag, and just crack 'em open when you're out, no mess, no fuss.

I think this article speaks well to the pros and cons of pouches....

www.kidspot.com.au/what-your-early-childhood-nurse-wants-you-to-know-about-baby-food-in-pouches/

I don't know how to link it but it can be cut and paste in Google

But there isn't any added fucking sugar in it, which was the point. OF course bananas have natural fucking sugar in, but they still do when you mashed the fucker yourself, which is the sodding point.

But if someone says something is nice because of the sugar in it when it is nice because of the sugar in it then the point isn't that there is no sugar in it. The point is it's nice. The point is she liked it. If someone says 'This lovely pear is so sweet' it is not a reasonable response to say 'What do you fucking mean it's sweet? THERE IS NO FUCKING SUGAR IN IT!' as if fruit sugar tastes of the purest bitterness.

Ooh it linked itself!

Actually just looked at the Hipp Banana yoghurt jar (told you I was over invested) and it lists sugar in the ingredients. I'm really surprised because I thought you couldn't add sugar for food aimed at babies under 12 months, but maybe I'm thinking of sweeteners, or maybe it's changed since my day.

Hedda OK you want to misunderstand me -

I am not talking about you personally as I have said.
I was actually brought up on crap food as my mum believed it was wonderful - convenient, tasty..

I ate sugar, sugar and more sugar. Processed cereal, loads of white bread, tinned pies, packet soup, packet instant puddings, instant mash, cheap sausages, ribena, squash, biscuits...

I was fat, had a mouthful of fillings before I left secondary school, found it very hard to kick the sugar addiction, had mood swings and have poor bone density. My mother didn't know. (Oh and my parents smoked in the house and the car!)

FixItUpChappie is right. We do need to talk about it.

And yes I would like every child to have good food, a safe home, access to green space and sport, access to medical care - and good food is part of that. Vital for life and a pleasure. Again - why wouldn't you want that for your own kids and all kids?
I am not criticizing anyone personally here. Apologies if it sounded that way

I don't think it's unlikely - i work with parents and a large number do only feed pouches and jars. An even higher number overuse. Several posters on this thread have stated plainly they only used pouches and jars. I think it speaks to our larger complex relationship with convince foods.

The first spoonful of solids to pass my (then) 5 months old lips was a Boots own cauliflower cheese dinner.

She had a jar of something or other 3 times a week roughly, see the thing is she was too tiny for our spicy green curry and I cba to puree one carrot and a sweet potato when I could have been dozing on the sofa watching Home and Away.

I have no issue with baby food,she even had rusks (hangs head in shame).

EK is hugely expensive though.

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

Not a fucking pouch of puréed carrots.

What's wrong with caring about what children eat?

FixitUp I completely agree with you. The relationship with processed food and good eating habits starts from the beginning. I don't understand parents jumping up and down about breastfeeding and then going on to feed their baby exclusively from packets and jars