Are baby food pouches and purées really that bad?

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I have a seven month old and have done a fair bit of steaming and puréeing veg, but as we've been out a bit more now that restrictions have eased, I've been using ready-made pouches a lot more. They've been great - I've got the veg-only ones so they must be reasonably healthy, the baby happily wolfs them down, and I get to save some time. In recent days, I've mostly relied on them rather than cooking for DD.

HOWEVER.

Some mum-friends I have are a bit sniffy about them. They seem to spend a lot of time and effort making recipes from Annabel Karmel and Joe Wicks books, which makes me feel terribly guilty as, once we've been through all the allergens etc., I plan to give DD a version of whatever we have to eat. So basically I see the pouches as a bridge to this.

Am I being a terrible mum for using pouches instead of lovingly crafting special meals for DD? Are pouches really that bad?

No, of course not. Just feed your baby how you want. Not feeding your baby would be seen as negligent

Just ignore the competitive parenting and do what is right for your baby. I personally think a mixture of everything is good for all.

No you're not. Those mums are being snobbish. I home made for DS but loved the pouches for being out and about. They also provided great variation for me and my lack of imagination!

No. They really aren’t

Just like there are debates between breast and bottle, there are songs between home cooked and pouch food

Both of my kids had a mix of baby led weaning and Ella’s Kitchen pouches.

They are easy, convenient and from the way my kids scoffed them, tasty.

Both kids are long outgrown them (5 and 7) but I would use them again happily

Mine's been getting pouches, jars, and whatever we're having from the start and it doesn't seem to be doing him any harm.

His clothes though, god, do they have to put tomato and carrot in everything

I was the one in our antenatal group to turn up to our post 6 month meet ups with a jar of bought food for DD.

I liked the convenience of just chucking the jar and a spoon in my bag and not having to worry about keeping it cool and then about heating it up! I just fed DD room-temperature jar food.

This was only ever out an about though. At home everything is cooked from scratch as I have multiple allergies so I was confident that DD was getting good variety and different flavours.

Trouble with the jar foods/pouches is that they're generally quite sweet so you need to counteract that with plenty of bitter flavours at home.

I didn't really give a toss what my friends thought luckily. DD is a very enthusiastic eater now (she's 3) and there's nothing she doesn't like so I don't think I ruined her

I've done a mix, I have some Ellas kitchen pouches in just in case and she has 1-2 per week. They have a list of all the ingredients in and percentages of each ingredient.
I also have purées fruit in to mix with Greek yoghurt. I also purée my own fruit to mix with yoghurt or chop up pieces of fruit for her to eat!
Some people baby led wean. Again I done a mix of puree and finger foods. My little one eats what we eat.
Everything in moderation. Baby's plates don't have to look like the Instagram pages I've saw 🙄 it sounds like that's what your friends are doing!
You've got this mama x

My only cavil would be to decant and spoonfeed rather than suck straight from the pouch. But not sure why, something teeth-y related maybe?

They are absolutely full of rubbish! If you need them in an emergency then fine, but they're not the best health wise. I have a nutritionist friend and she hates Ella's Kitchen with a passion.

It's not real food which isnt great for kid's eating habits long term.

@BabyLlamaZen

What does she hate about Ella's Kitchen?

They are absolutely full of rubbish!

I want to understand this. When I look at the ingredients, I see a list of vegetables and the only issue I have with them is that they use a lot of carrots/tomatoes to make them taste on the sweet side.

@BabyLlamaZen Wow, well that’s a strong response. Are you okay?!

If you look on the back of the Ella's Kitchen pouches it's literally pureed fruit. How is that not real food?

Ditto I would like to understand "they are absolutely full of rubbish" @BabyLlamaZen . If you read the ingredients they seem fine. Is there something hidden to be wary of? Or as PP said that they have a more limited array of ingredients?

Is it food? Yes
Does it supply a range of tastes? Yes
Will it fill up a little tummy? Yes
Is it easy? Yes

So use them, guilt free!

I used them to supplement predominantly ginger food/ what we were eating but occasionally I’d give a pouch to my children and let them suck it

Finger not ginger!

I never get this... It has the ingredients on the back and it's just veg... How can it be full.of rubbish?

I think they are fine!

I do a mix of if she can eat what we are eating she eats that, otherwise she gets a pouch

No idea why anyone would say they are full of rubbish. The list of ingredients is all healthy normal food, no additives, no nasties.

Yes they’re fine. Ignore the snobby mums that only feed their kids Kale and knit their own yoghurt, their kids will grow up eating McDonald’s and stealing all the party rings at birthday parties anyway.

They're fine. They are expensive , but as pps have said , they're an excellent way of trying lots of different and new flavours without having to make them up yourself. I used them with all 3 of mine when weaning.

They are vacuum packed which is how they last no?

They're actually not full of rubbish at all, but some of them aren't very nutritious, for example a spaghetti bol can consist if 50% tomato and lots of tiny 1-2% of everything else.

Also, they're consistency doesn't do much for progressing to normal food. Primarily they need to learn to chew even without teeth - and they need lots of different flavours and textures. The pouches often taste a bit same and some of them taste awful!

So for me it's not about them being good or bad, it's just about how you are weaning your baby. Using pouches occasionally in my view is fine, especially to try out new flavours before you get your cook on. Mine refused them at around 9 months as she was used to eating 'normal food' chopped up by then. My friend used just pouches as she doesn't really cook and at 13 months baby is still not taking food and has 5 bottles a day. I don't think it's directly related but it could have contributed to a delay. She'll get there eventually.

Any baby recipe book is handy for exploring different foods in a safe way.

@doadeer no they're not vacuum packed, it's how they are processed that makes them last.

There's a new brand coming out soon I can't remember the name, which will be fridge based and processed differently.

But a large benefit of the pouches is having them when your in a hurry and grabbing one from the cupboard.

Some of them are a bit meh.... but actually I think quite a few taste ok

I'm not really worried about the nutritious content (if it contains a lot of tomatoes etc) as they only need their milk for nutrition anyway until they are 1. And they have to contain a lot of liquid ingredients as the main ingredients to make it the right consistency. When I give her our food I give her extra amounts of liquidy food (like tomatoes) or otherwise I'm adding water.

They move u through the purées/thick/ textured stage and onwards.

It's not the same as blw for sure but blw is not suitable for all children, was told my baby had to be weaned to purée. She is 8.5 months and I'm just starting to add off bits of finger food alongside as the ellas kitchen plan recommends and she's chewing etc all just fine