weaning n ellas kitchen

[lillylop]

My 8 month olds diet consists totally of ellas kitchen. As its 100% organic and tastes fab I can't see the problem other than expense but it would cost me a fortune in time and money to give her Moroccan chicken for lunch and lamb dinner for tea - can it be so bad?

I think it's not chunky enough. Both mine went through a phase of liking Ella's (use a couple a week) then as home cooking got less bland they switched to refusing them.

This come up not infrequently on here. Prepare thy self!

The EK pouches can be quite sugary, even the savoury ones (they put fruit in some of them to make them taste nicer). For that reason alone I'd be a bit wary of giving them for nearly every meal.

Could you not portion off some of the meals youeat before adding salt? Way cheaper and my DS seems to prefer eating the same as us to pouches.

Mine adored Ellas,and actually some for the time/volume required to make equivalent purees in organic fruit and veg purees I don't think they're too bad.

I do agree that they are lacking in texture though, and assuming your LO's development is otherwise on track I'd certainly be supplementing them with some other textures, finger food etc, and meat espicially.

They're good but it's worth remembering that they're preserved so will lack some of the nutrients that fresh food has. It's similar to eating solely tinned food, just in nicer packaging.
They're good for now and then but I wouldn't do it every day

The sweet ones taste ok. The savoury ones are revolting and bear no resemblance to the label. Go on. Spoil your DD with some normal food .

i found some 'little dish' meals in the chiller at asda. they do keep in the fridge for a while. they taste delicious. ive even had one before now when i was in a rush. i do tend to just give our dd some of what we are having but if we are having a takeaway treat when she has gone to bed i have one of these in the fridge to give her. she loves the fish pie and cottage pie. she refused an ellas kitchen pouch totally when i tried her with one and i must admit, i wouldnt have eaten one. the little dish meals taste like proper food the fish pie may even be on a par with my own .

she also loves asda fresh tortellini which only takes minutes to cook (check the salt content though because some are quite high). i dont even always have to do a sauce with it, she just picks it up and eats it .

I'm impressed that she'll eat the savoury ones - my daughter pretty much ate a homemade chicken casserole and fruit purees at that age. I'd have loved some easily portable dinners in a pouch to take out sometimes. I agree with the poster who said that tastes change so quickly. Just introduce more finger foods and maybe gradually mix homemade with the pouch. I used to thicken them up with puréed sweet potato and parsnip. I do think the savoury ones are mainly stock with a couple of added ingredients. £1.20 for that does seem pretty steep.

I think that using 100% of the same type of food is possibly going to cause issues the longer you leave introducing typical family food.

Ella's kitchen (and similar products) are fine for now and then. But if you look at the ingredients eg the "bangers and mash" pouch, only 10% of it is pork. The rest is vegetables. So you're really not getting much for your money - it would be much cheaper and more nutritious to cook some similar things to the pouches and freeze in portions. They would be tastier and have more protein/fats in than the pouches.

Is there a reason why you haven't introduced finger foods?

I really wouldn't fret about it. If she is happy with the pouches and you are happy with the cost then it really shouldn't do any long term damage. I was earth mother with my PFB and personally steamed, roasted, mashed, crushed and puréed everything that entered her mouth, she is now a massively picky eater who would happily survive on chocolate, whereas with my second I suffered bad PND and had no inclination to do anything so he survived on Ella and Hipp, and years down the line he now adores his fruit and can't get enough veg, and isn't that keen on chocolate.

If your child is happy and thriving then just relax and enjoy all the other aspects of motherhood, I suspect she will naturally start to venture into other food over time anyway as she see's what you eat.