to think advertising of baby pouches needs to be restricted?

[Pearl87]

Ella's Kitchen outright admit their product should only be used sparingly. A lot of parents use these pouches as the main source of their child's nutrition.

Nothing like panorama programme to get folk aerated
How would one enforce sparing use? Who’ll monitor consumption, and what’s sanction for over use?

I think it's more about not marketing something as good nutritional healthy food. Assuming if parents know this, they'll rely less heavily on them. And parents who don't care - well it'll just be one problem among many for that family.

I would have thought it was obvious that processed mush full of preservatives was a poor choice as the main source of nutrition for a baby.

Parents could have read the packets and seen how much sugar is in them. The information was ready available for anyone who wanted to look. Why do adults need someone to tell them how to feed their baby?

Pretty much all baby feeding advice I've seen recommends feeding baby what you're eating just cut up small or homemade purees from a blender. Our 10 month old has only ever eaten what we eat cut up small in line with baby led weaning.

DC never ate any jarred/‘baby’ food. Small bit of what we had and that was it.

Initially batch froze mash, carrots and veggie mix, then chopped up spaghetti etc. Don’t remember it being a big effort.

I would have thought it was obvious that processed mush full of preservatives was a poor choice as the main source of nutrition for a baby.

That is whole point, they are not marketed, telling people that. They include words such as wholesome, organic etc. There must be some things that they are not able to claim, if untrue, such as the use of organic veg, I would have thought. But they should not be used as a main source of nutrition. Some people have clearly not understood that, for whatever reason.

I'm in the US, so I'm not familiar with these pouches. Do they not have nutritional information on them? It's talking about being low in iron low and vitamin c, high in sugar. Here in the US all of that information would be on the nutrition label.

But it's common sense that anything processed, then put into a packet where it will remain for along time with a decent shelf life, will be full of preservatives regardless of how good the ingredients are. Preservatives are usually salt and sugar.

It doesn't matter how great the starting ingredients super organic veg or whatever, once you've turned into a paste that can last 3 months without going off, it's no longer going to be good for you. That's obvious!

Wasn't there also something about the suck type pouches slowing speech development?

It's all on the packet here for people to read too, they just haven't read it. The ingredients and sugar content were never secret.

Pouches are a triumph of marketing for the middle classes who would turn their noses up at jarred baby food.

Needless to say I never fed my babies any of this processes crap.

No they weren't secret. They were also WRONG. One brand tested had almost TWICE the sugar level advertised on the pouch. How can anyone make an informed choice if the packaging is lying to you?

We used the Ella’s Kitchen fruit pouches but the only ingredients listed were the fruit and a dash of lemon juice. Am I missing something?

I am not disagreeing with you, just thinking aloud about how language is being used on these pouches, to lead parents to believe that they are feeding their children decent food. It is all just clever marketing, and is obviously appealing because it takes away the need to actually cook. It is ultra convenient. Is it any wonder, that so many parents will be willing to buy them.

It's true they have no added sugar as such ..but if you go on the Ella's website and look at the ingredients on the savoury pouches nearly all of them have carrot/parsnip/sweet potato as the main ingredient. For example the cottage pie has more carrot than beef. That's how they manage to be incredibly sugary without having added sugar!

They aren’t full of preservatives. The ingredients of Ella’s kitchen type pouches are all basic ingredients. That’s why it is so confusing. I think nutritional content is low. Eg only 12% chicken in chicken type meals so the iron levels are not high enough for children who need iron.

but all the wholesome, organic etc labels are actually correct so it is very confusing

cook all my baby food from scratch and then freeze giant ice cubes
I Don’t use pouches

Weaning is not introducing food, weaning a range of food,range of texture encourages biting,chewing. weaning builds up jaw muscle, good for aligning teeth. Weaning Encourages eye to hand coordination as baby feed self.

Pouches undoubtedly are quick, but it’s all sook and swallow, it’s not the same effort

If it was all so obvious then we'd have absolutely no problem with children eating mostly ultra processed foods, or rising obesity rates etc.

There are whole billion dollar industries stuffed full of the cleverest scientists and psychologists and marketers dedicated to persuading us that these products are organic and healthy and a great choice.

Just saying 'oh it's so obvious, everyone is so stupid to fall for this' isn't helpful at all.

Pouches were a marketing dream.

I have nannied for a long time. Middle class parents had a very low opinion of jarred and powdered foods which were the only options previously. Annabel Karmel was their god.

When the Ella’s pouches and the Organix snacks came along they jumped on them.

In fairness, the pouches do smell and taste much more like ‘real food’ than the jars which always had a strange odour.

This is why we need more funding for sure start children’s centres. Sounds like the labelling is technically correct, but if parents don’t look at the RDA % and ingredients list, they may overlook it.

They don’t add salt or sugar. Indeed - that’s the problem with ‘just give them what you’re eating’ as who doesn’t cook with added salt etc?

The issue is likely that they’re boiling the veg and fruit to oblivion which is taking away the vitaminy goodness!

They do have the ingredients and nutritional information on them - the ingredients for something like a chicken casserole and just veg, rice and chicken.
The packets say things like organic, no added salt or sugar, high protein, 3 different veggies, all natural ingredients.
Honestly you need to be a very careful and skeptical consumer to note that it is mostly water and carrot with very little nutritional value.
It's only 'so obvious' if you have a really good grasp of what a baby's diet should consist of and are prepared to carefully read the nutritional information and work out percentages.

Yes there is full and comprehensive nutritional labeling plus all allergens clearly marked in bold. UK labeling is a much higher standard than the USA.

Also this is a non issue, kids that age should be getting the vast majority of their nutrition from milk anyway.

Yes but it’s still something that’s been preserved to last months in a squeeze pouch it’s not better than just mushing up your veg at home?

if I boil an organic carrot and mush it with brown rice. I’ve also made a whole food carrot and brown rice baby meal. Minus preservatives.

a pouch isn’t different from a jar.

Maybe the holier than thou, never fed their baby/toddler anything apart from lovingly pureed organic home cooked mush could spend a moment to get off their high horse. There are lots of parents who are trying their best, both working full time hours when mat leave ends and sometimes jars and pouches work. This is not about you being a better parent than others, it is about mis-advertising. Most people also feed their children 'a bit of what we have' when weaning, give them a bit of food from their plate when eating out but at times may also use jars and pouches. The sneering and 'we are better than that' just totally misses the point..