To think pouches are awful?

[AIBUnamechanger9]

I have two DCs and have never fed them from pouches. I see babies and toddlers sucking on them everywhere and it seems horrible for their teeth? Also for having a routine of eating at mealtimes or teaching them to eat properly. I recently spoke with a friend (who I am quite close with and believe she’s a wonderful mum) and she told me her 8 and 10 yo children still eat from pouches, especially if they’re on a day out, etc.

AIBU to despair at the prevalence of pouch feeding?

Baby can and should have what you’re having.

It reminds me of a friend’s baby-weaning class. They were told to ‘just mush up a bit of what you are are having’. One of the mums asked, seriously, if they should take the pickles out of the Big Mac first?

DC1 refused to eat what we were having. (no additional needs) In fact, he refused anything with lumps in it til he was more than a year old. He was also a bottle refuser. I wonder what a perfect mother should have done in those circumstances - let him starve? Because of what he 'should' do and 'should' be eating?

I can confirm that despite having purees, he did somehow learn to eat after all.

I wonder what a perfect mother should have done in those circumstances

Try chicken nuggets instead of a Big Mac?

I always left them on and left the chilli on their kebabs. I never gave them pouches though, I'm not a monster.

You could apply that logic to all threads.

Well yeah, 95% of mumsnet is just nonsense.

You laugh, but my 5th certainly stuffed in a Mac Donald’s as soon as she coordinated her fist to her mouth.
(maybe I was being judged by a pouch wielding mother and didn’t notice)

OP not been back, probably too busy batch cooking organic delights!

Did you get medals awarded as well?

Many of them yes.

However ones like this where the OP isn't asking for advice about if they should feed their kids pouches but have simply started a thread to say, "they despair" at people who do. That is just silly, just don't feed your kids them and leave everybody else to it.

I fucking hope you didn't use an electric washing machine, after all you could wash by hand!

It's a stupid argument anyway. Should I send back my washing machine because people used to wash by hand or sweep up instead of using a hoover.

Times change.

OP Here, I didn’t mean that pouches shouldn’t be used at all. I completely see their utility for travel etc. But they do strike me as a bit of an unfortunate accommodation to the current world, everyone’s got to be going somewhere and doing something constantly. No time to sit for a meal (or even heat a jar of baby food), just suck a pouch down whilst you’re on the go. The same is true for adults I suppose, so many drinkable meals and pouches?

Apologies if my original question wasn’t entirely clear. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to use them from time to time but I do despair at how prevalent they’ve become.

Also my own kids aren’t fed organic home cooked foods, they’ve had meals from pots when we’ve been home late or a handful of chips when we’re out. It’s again more about the prevalence and yes, what does it do to teeth? Sucking in all of that liquified sugar can’t be good for teeth, can it?

But how do you know how prevalent they are? Do you see people use them out so you assume they use them at home too? How do you know what people do at home?

Also not all are liquefied sugar? Just avoid the fruity ones and check the sugar content on back. I always get less than 5g/100ml sugar.

I've mainly done baby led weaning but use pouches when out

Try chicken nuggets instead of a Big Mac?

I honestly would have cried happy tears if DC1 had agreed to eat chicken nuggets. Still remember when he was about 1, we were travelling and desperately looking for 4-6 month purees in a foreign country, as DC1 screamed at 'just smash a banana with fork, how hard is that really'.

I can't stand judgemental threads like this. Weaning is one of the most exhausting things ever. You're usually still up through the night, feeding your baby milk through the day and top of it you have the pressure to home cook something 3 times a day for your baby.

I used pouches, sometimes twice a day if I was exhausted. My son is 2 and a good eater, eats a wide range of food and no issues with teeth. The worst thing about using pouches is the smug, judgmental mums who think they are better than everyone else because they never use them!

Oh thank you so much for coming back and sanctioning when it's ok to use them. But who made you the police of use of pouches? MYOB!

Good to see you're being judged on this, by the "what did you do before these awful things were invented"'you deserve it!

MYOB!

We used them in moderation - when the kids were babies they were great for days out or when we were away from home etc

If you never give you baby/ toddler any home cooked food then that’s a bit of a shame, I agree.

My two did continue to quite like the plain fruit purée ones as they got older tbh - but they saw them more as a kind of smoothie I think! Or like Americans eat “apple sauce”.

Gosh, debater of the year has arrived

Well, that's definitely not you

And in comes the 'i didn't understand the post but I'll pile in, because although other posters who have said what vestibule has said, a couple of us are just going to hone in on one person because it makes us feel better about ourselves, althoouugh we aren't as witty as we thought we were' person of the year.

But really @VestibuleVirgin what did you hope to achieve when you made your original statement?