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?

Since it is the convince seems to be the biggest attraction why can’t you buy frozen baby food similar to home made?

If it is frozen in chunks (like frozen mash is) you could mix and match to make the right combination for your child. Without all the hidden sugars that the pouches often have to make them palatable.

Thought this was going to be a s&b thread about bum bags/fanny packs or whatever awful name those quite useful little belt bags get.

I will never, ever, understand why some people care so much about what others feed their children.

BF v FF - purées v BLW - pouches v homemade

Who cares?

Yogurts, and fruit all in pouches and actually really handy when out and about. No different from drinking from a large straw

Yeah because all babies are exactly the same 🙄

We put the food from the pouch into a bowl and he was feeding himself with a spoon in no time at all. Along with bits of what we were having/finger food etc.

I absolutely love this place. A mum has genuinely posted on here once having screamed in her kids face and pinned her down to roughly brush her hair and got literally pages of "oh love, parenting is soooo hard, have a hug and forget it". But feed your child a perfectly safe food option and you're a lazy slob of a parent apparently. Does my head in.

Ignore!!
You are doing the best thing for your baby!
I also had an excruciatingly fussy first baby - would eat barely enough to survive. I was constantly worried. Pouches definitely featured! He is 9 now and is still impossible with a lot of foods - mainly anything healthy! We still battle on! (He's in the A teams for all school sports though, so it clearly hasn't had much negative impact!)
DS2 however has been a textbook dream since Day 1 and eats the flippin rainbow! People can judge you to their heart's content, but can only ever do so from their own frame of reference.

Again, I’m sure this makes you feel really superior and special, but it’s not true. So you are just posting random made up crap on the internet to make yourself feel better.

All the Ellas 6 month+ baby pouches are 100% organic fruit and/or veg, no additives. The supermarket versions of the pouches are the same. Just google “Ella pouch the green one” or the sainsburys equivalent - organic simply peas (100%), organic sweet potato (100%), or sweet potato carrot and swede - Sweet Potato (48%), Carrot (24%), Water*, Swede (8%). I never even came
across baby pouches that were “apple sauce” and “additives” in the UK. You’d have to search pretty hard to find that kind of food these days.

As an aside, it’s really fascinating to me the kind of person who gets their kicks from deriding and judging other mums on the internet. Get some self-esteem, get a hobby, anything. You’ll feel better for it.

When I was a child 40 years ago, my mum used a sort of instant porridge mix called Milupa to feed my baby sisters. I used to love the stuff and pinch spoonfuls of it when I could.

convenience baby food isn't a new thing, pouches are just the modern version. I used pouches, mashed up our own food, gave fingers bits - whatever suited at the time we were eating.

Judging other people is a far bigger moral failing in my opinion

Amazing then that DT’s who were weaned on jars and pouches have grown up eating properly and have no food fads.

My youngest is 16 now, so I have no idea about the current world of babies, but I am surprised that purees are still such a big thing. When the recommended weaning age changed to 6 months, that meant that purees were no longer necessary. I don't think my youngest 2 children had any. I assumed that purees had gone by the wayside for most people.

The main reasons there are some many health problems these days including SEN problems that research has proved is the result of poor processed food being consumed the last few generations.

Do you have a link to that research? Id love to read it.

I only ask because I would have thought my dc's SEN was due to a genetic neurological difference in their brain development (I've got it, one of my parents has it, one of their parents had it - that's 4 generations - how far back does this research go?) but if this research proves it was caused by Ella's Kitchen then maybe I can launch a lawsuit or something.

I don't think I've ever even noticed what someone else is feeding their baby or toddler.

Can you link me to that research please? I'd be interested to read it.

Thanks.

I - as an adult - occasionally have some.

I keep them in my "snack stash" at work. Perfect when I don´t have time for a lunch break or need to work late.

I have an exotic pet that as part of her diet has fresh fruit. It’s well known in the exotics community that these pets don't thrive on pouches. Makes me wonder about the nutritional content.

Xpost!

I'm wondering too because my child with autism had jars now and again and I reckon I could get a big payment. And for myself because I had baby rice and rusks.

Yes which is basically what I wrote. Pouches are 80% watered-down apple sauce. The pureeing and pasteurisation process destroys virtually any nutritional benefit of the fruit what went into the pouch.

They also only show you the relative percentage of each fruit. The absolute content is miniscule. With the water content taken out, there is usually the equivalent of 1/4 of an apple and a single strawberry in each pouch. Even if eaten as whole, fresh fruit, that's hardly going to provide any nutritional benefit.

That's another marketing scam of pouches. They're portioned to look like a serving of fruit but they don't contain nearly as much. If kids eat a single banana or a single apple, then they're getting far more vitamins and fibre than a pouch.

On the edge of my seat to hear how 100% pureed organic peas in a pouch is processed foods which gives children SEN, but pureed peas in your kitchen by you and your saintly ability to be “bothered” is not.

Also intrigued to know what is the enormous difference environmentally between vegetables pureed into aluminium pouches, and peas, carrots, etc wrapped in plastic for supermarkets.

I can't see how that confers any extra advantage over a pouch. It would be just as inconvenient as home made to take to the park or softplay. People have posted the nutritional info for some pouch brands - no hidden ingredients.

Plus, you still didn't make it yourself so you're still going to get judged by the perfect parent brigade.

I squeeze the fruit ones into my yogurts 😄 they're lovely

I used them. A fairly short space of time

Just when out and about during the weaning phase.

Ooh i used to eat farleys rusks occasionally up till i was about 10 if i had a tooth out.

Can i sue them for causing my ND conditions?

I try not to eat or drink anything I can't see. There was a case when DD was small, a decade or so ago, when loads of pouches had been recalled as the sterilisation hadn't worked properly and the food had gone mouldy within the pouch. Parents were unwittingly feeding their children until one mum wondered what all the fuss was and cut the pouch open.

Personally I found having a banana on me just as convenient.

Yes AIBU.

there is no prevalence of pouch feeding, its just purees for early stage in convenient form (instead of glass jars). Your friend is a massive outlier

This is genuinely hilarious. So because lizards dont like it, it's bad for children?