Ella pouches and Hipp baby food

[nandossa]

I use these sometimes for my baby.

I feel there is a lot of judgement around this. Is it really so terrible to use these sometimes ?

They are very expensive for very cheap ingredients. It's basically tinned food quality. The Ella's ones are sneaky because they are all sweet... even the veg ones contain fruit. Highly processed fruit so no better than adding spoonfuls of white sugar to your baby's food. Not all brands do that. Sainsbury's seem to be among the better ones.

They are not healthy or good value but they are convenient and at least don't contain lots of salt.

I used a lot of them probably up to a fifth of the total diet for my second child, for 3 months or so. Being busy and disorganised and having a very awkward baby meant they were often a way to stop the screaming 😱 You can use something while still being aware it's not ideal!

Ella fruit pouches don't contain added sugar, none of Ella's stuff does. So it's not the same as just adding sugar. You're right that they add fruit to some of their none fruit pouches, do contain fruit to sweeten it.

I looked into it and I speak for the fruit pouches here, giving your child the whole fruit is always better. In my opinion the Ella fruit pouches are no worse than blending your own fruit purées at home. The issue is, as soon as something is blended, whether by us or by Ella, it's not as good for the body- adult or otherwise.

Juicing is even worse in terms of how your body deals with it.. anyway.

I don't remember ever judging another mum, apart from when I saw a child get hit in public.

My toddler has some sort of packaged meal probably once or twice a week. The rest of the time he eats the same meal as I do. They’re convenient for times we’re out or when my husband and I are having a takeaway. I’ve never felt judged, nor judged anyone that used them more.

The one thing I do, is look at the ingredients though. Lots of them are passed off as meals when they’re actually probably more akin to a dessert. The ingredients aren’t listed in order on the product name which is deceptive in my opinion.

One example is the sweet potato, pumpkin and apple Ella’s pouch. It’s 50% apple purée! The name of it suggests you could give it as a meal but after looking at the ingredients I wouldn’t.

DS had pouches or solid BLW food. I'm not faffing about making purees, I'll mash a banana with a fork and that's it. The purees really aren't any more processed than home made. It's veg, mashed. They come in various textures. DS is 18 months and eats well, he still loves spaghetti bolognese pouches so if he sees them when I'm getting nappies he has one but eats solid food normally.

I don't see the problem at all, someone people just feel superior for making it more difficult for themselves.

I realised very quickly that my style of parenting is "whatever's easiest"!

Look, here is the link to the Main meals that Ella’s do for 7 months plus. I am not seeing any which are padded out with fruit purée. The chicken katsu curry has less than 1% raisins, but the bolognese has no fruit, the chicken and sweet corn no fruit, the bean casserole no fruit- this reflects what I remember from when I was using them. The ones which are sold as simple veg purées often have fruit purée in them too, but those are easy to avoid by just reading the packet.

Why are people claiming that ALL the Ella’s pouches have fruit in them?

I think people are confusing it. There are some really random pouches Ella does, where at first you might think it's a savoury one, but actually if has apple in it and it's surprising because it's like broccoli, parsnip and apple or whatever

I couldn’t give a shiny shite what anybody might think about me feeding my baby a pouch of Ella’s or Hipp puréed, organic fruit/veg/meat/rice. It’s not a blended cheeseburger ffs. Talk about first world problems. Honestly anyone who even has the headspace to formulate a thought on something so run-of-the-mill (and so none-of-their-business!) is not someone whose friendship or opinion I care for.

I’d rather feed my kids fresh, homemade food for every meal and I pretty much did for DC1 because circumstances allowed. But with each subsequent child I’ve become more time-poor and also realised that perfection is not required. My kids are happy, healthy and loved which is enough.

I thought the issue with the pouches was more the way they’re eaten rather than the contents - sucking from the pouch isn’t good for teeth with the fruit pouches as there’s prolonged contact with the teeth.

There’s no other ingredients other than what you’d add at home if you puréed a meal! A lot of hoohaa about nothing imo x

I remember my daughter turning up her nose at prepared jars at about 8 months old, she only wanted real food. 23 now and still a foodie!!!

I used jars and pounches along with homemade food, they are convenient.

Mine never sucked from the pouches, I always squeezed them onto a spoon if I was feeding them myself or into a bowl if they were going to be flinging it around the room and rubbing it in their hair feeding themselves.

How can you know they do?

I always squeezed into a bowl to eat, my DS was also learning how to use a spoon. Sucking from the pouch is pretty grim, I’m sure most don’t do that except for the smoothie dessert type ones as an occasional treat.

What alway used to get me was people saying “they are full of salt and sugar.”

Those people had clearly never tried one themselves! (Or read a label).

People literally think it's like giving your kid a tesco ready meal. It's insane.

Exactly. Lazy, gratuitously judgmental thinking.

If everyone you know does 100% homemade then you everyone you know if much more committed and has much more time on their hands than everyone I know!

I think most people would agree that homemade is better in most circumstances but I know zero parents who don’t use any convenience foods for their babies and toddlers. As you say, blending and preserving food means it loses some of its benefits but you’re hardly feeding them McDonald’s, crisps and chocolates.

Personally, I did baby led weaning at first so pretty much everything was homemade but after a few months I started giving DD some preprepared stuff. Now she’s 2 and I take the view that she should have weetabix, porridge, toast or yoghurt for breakfast, a minimum of one proper home cooked meal for either lunch or dinner and then maybe a ready meal for the other meal if I’m feeling lazy. Snacks wise I try to limit it to one processed snack per day (usually an oat bar, veggie stix or similar). If she’s having a ready meal or processed snack I do look at the ingredients to make sure there’s nothing in there I wouldn’t put in food I was cooking (I like the little dish ready meals if I’m using them).

I do think that trying to be “perfect” with food is the same as trying to be perfect in most other things - too much pressure for me and too boring for DD. So long as her diet is healthy overall and we aren’t overdoing any one thing I’m happy.