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?

OP have a look at this resource - First Steps Nutrition are independent and unbiased (whereas much of the other stuff out there is produced by baby food companies):

static1.squarespace.com/static/59f75004f09ca48694070f3b/t/5efa3797c8ae1024ed8d6596/1593456555402/Eating_well_the_first_year_June_20_for_web.pdf

Re the pouches, there are a few (potential) issues:

• they are massively overpriced for what they are
• they are excessively reliant on cheap and sweet ingredients (usually apples and carrots) to pad out the recipes
• they exploit marketing rules so there’s often a disjunct between the name and actual contents
• it’s bad for oral development to suck directly from the pouches

Personally we used them occasionally for convenience and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with them as long as you’re aware of the points above.

They're fine, honestly. My daughter used to have pouches fairly regularly - Babease were my favourite, really good blends of herbs and spices. I miss how reliable and easy they were! I'm realising that it doesn't matter what you do when you're a mum to small children - feeding, sleeping, potty training, discipline - someone, somewhere, will be raising an eyebrow. Do what feels right for you and your baby.

It's the same as every thing, everythng in moderation. The one advantage with making your own purees is that you get used to slaving away for your DC to throw it on the floor at a much earlier age.

I weaned both my kids at four months. Now I have been judged to death for doing that. But they are both still alive and well to tell the tale now.

I didn’t use them for a number of reasons which I think need consideration;

Environmentally they aren’t good (not recyclable and/or adding to landfill)

Children learn that a carrot has one consistent taste & texture, whereas in reality and in order to be open to a variety of foods they need to learn that real food has inconsistencies (just like the kid who says they love Spaghetti Bolognese but then won’t eat it at a friend’s house-what they mean is they like a jar of dolmio over mince, as it tastes the same every time)

They are no more convenient than throwing an apple/banana in the bag, or sharing a piece of meat/cheese And chopped veg with your child

Just the same as with smoothies, a fruit purée dumps a heap of sugar into baby in a very short space of time, without the salivary glands being suitably alerted And worked by chewing to produce the correct enzymes, and the fibre in a form whereby it mitigates the dump of sugar. If a baby ate an apple they would get an amount that was right for them but eating a jar of applesauce they will have a larger amount of the flesh than if they ate the pure fruit.

They aren’t poison and are fine every now and again, but the same as I would argue for formula, if there is a less processed/more natural and ‘better option’ you are seeking then the least processing you can do to foods the better all round (from a health and future fussiness point of view)

The pouches were brilliant for me and my DTs! I started with the pouches when I first started weaning, then moved on to home made purée as we got the hang of it. It’s not made a difference to them really, one kid will eat anything and the other only beige food at the moment but I’m sure it’ll change.

If it’s a thing for you, but you like the convenience of the pouches you can buy the reusable pouches from amazon and fill them up with your own purées. You can also buy a spoon that fits on the top of the purée pouches (I didn’t see that until I’d finished weaning them using spoons!).

But, if you’re happy using pre-made pouches and your dc enjoys them, who cares?!

nope. my baby loves pouches! But we very rarely gave him a meal pouch only fruity ones. He just had what we were having chopped up, or something else suitable. He's 18months now and he still occasionally has baby ready meals.

I see it like a ready meal; I’d have one every so often like once a week but not every night

They're absolutely fine. They tend to be a bit fruit heavy despite claiming to be veggie pouches, but they're fine.

You have to remember this is all temporary. I have a 2.5 yr old. Nobody asks whether he was bottle or breast fed. Nobody cares if we did BLW or purées. No one wonders if he ate chocolate before his first birthday. These days I'm just pleased if a day goes by when he doesn't try and lick a parked car - not sure what food group that fits in to

If you have sniffy friends, you need to change your friends, not your method of baby feeding.

Absolutely fine. And a godsend when you need them. I used them with ds, a range of pouches and jars at the start of weaning and I would use them again with dc2. Who's got the time to slave away int he kitchen for your kid to just throw it on the floor?! Enjoy making your own decisions for your child and this is one of them!

When I had mine most people fed jars. I didn't so much but for financial reasons (I pureed whatever I was cooking by 7 months unless wildly unsuitable, I recommend a stick blender if you don't have one). Ignore the competitive parents, they'll be feeding sausages and beans in no time

No it’s fine though from personal experience I would say only use them as and when you really have too as babies can start refusing home made food which contains less sugar. Ds1 did this as did other babies of various friends. He is still is fussy as are a couple of other friends kids. DS2 snd Ds3 ate largely home made food and rarely eat sachets neither are fussy at all.

P.s my younger 2 kids had just had puréed versions of what we had. I didn’t add salt until there portions were out.

It’s junk food. So it’s fine every now and then

I didn't buy them as I didn't bother pureeing anything, too much faff to me! And I was wary as I assumed they would be pretty sugary. My mum bought me a couple of the savoury ones and I used them up as a pasta sauce. They do work out pricey though but they would be handy for out and about/need something quick and easy.

Woah! That's a lot of replies, wasn't expecting that!

A couple of points -

I give them from a spoon, and let DD "help" guide it to her mouth, so she's not just sucking from pouches

The ingredients really are just veg - photos of backs of pouches below - albeit mostly the sweeter ones

The caps can go into normal recycling and there's a company you can post the pouches to who will recycle these (I'm collecting the empties to do just this).

Some PP keep saying they're terrible and junk food but not explaining what they mean. I'm fairly indifferent to them but if you're saying its junk food what does that mean @soph88888? They're full if E numbers and corn syrup? Because that's what I would associated junk food with. If you're saying they're not a nutritionally dense as home made food, that's a very different thing.

Yeah, I definitely don't think they're junk food. I'm wondering if the pasteurisation process removes some of the vitamin content, though?

Which actually probably doesn't matter too much anyway, as most of their nutrition still comes from their milk at this stage.

I give finger foods after the pouches so she's learning about different textures as well. Oh and I've bulked up some of the purées with baby rice to get her used to thicker textures.

@Anotherscentedcandle I mean they are in the same leagues as anything thats sold in a packet that you didnt make at home. Some of them arent as bad as others I know, in terms of the ingredients, but if you didnt make it at home yourself then you do not know what is in it or what conditions it was made in. This doesnt bother a lot of people, me included but just every now and then. I'd see them as a treat, like a takeaway, ready meal, meal out in a restaraunt...

They are not full of preservatives and junk as often gets said. They are ultra heat treated which is how they last so long, so the difference is more like drinking UHT milk compared with fresh milk than it is eating fast food or any of the other analogies you hear.
I do think therr are disadvantages though. Expense is an obvious one. Then there is the fact that they are so very smooth - I don't think home made pureed or mashed food ever gets to that texture. Even when I blend soup it has more texture than a baby food pouch. So basically its like a thick, often sugary, drink rather than food and doesn't progress the baby's eating and may risk their teeth.
The heat treating process does affect flavour too. UHT milk doesn't really taste the same as fresh milk does it, and I think the same applies to baby food - it all tastes pretty similar to me. Part of that may well be the fact that most are heavy on apple or carrot or both, but I think the fact that they are UHT must be a factor.
I don't know a lot about it, but surely the nutritional content must be affected to some degree by the processesing. After all, we are told that overcooking vegetables reduces their nutritional value, so I imagine that ultra heat treating food then pulverising it into a thick liquid must destroy some nutrients. Admittedly vitamins etc are often added back in, but personally I would rather have food in a more natural state.
So they wouldn't be my first choice, but I don't think they are toxic, like some people suggest they are. There are better things to feed a baby, but definitely worse things too.

Also no judgement! It is possible to make healthy choices with the pouches and I reckon theres a lot of people who do feed their kids real junk, McDonalds etc. Sounds like you are offering a healthy balanced diet and as you say the pouches wont be for long

Oh and my sister insisted on giving her baby veggies and healthy food with only occasional treats. Now he's a demon for sweets and biscuits; so, I wonder if they'll turn out how they turn out no matter what we do

Honestly OP they are fine! I think a lot of people on here have never looked that the back of the packets

This is a new one my baby just had! She loved it!!

Come on people.... that's not junk food!! That's a normal lasagne recipe 🙄🙄

@MrsAvocet only the 6month + ones are smooth. The 7+ ones are called textured but are actually quite lumpy.

@Soph88889 but you know exactly what's in them, the ingredients are detailed on the back with % next them. They may not be as good as home made food but I think to compare it to a ready meal that has added salt, added sugar, trans fats, e numbers, corn syrup etc. is a bit of a knee jerk reaction to something 'in a packet', without applying a lot of thought

My dd has dreadful reflux and couldn't manage the texture of home blended food without projectile vomiting it back up, which really defeats the object of a home made meal 🤷🏼‍♀️
She had jars a lot and is now a healthy and happy 5 year old, plus it saved me loads of time and stress when I went back to work and got home late!