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?

I say caution as in choose the ingredients wisely. There are many many that are totally fine

It's like going into the supermarkets to buy any food. You dont just choose to one thing or an unhealthy choice do U. You look at what you are buying and choose wisely to make sure it's healthy and balanced.

Yeah that “food is fun before one thing” is a total myth. I think people just remember it because it rhymes!

@Bluebellpainting never said they didn't need any solids.... I'm saying they get their min amount of vits and mins they need from the milk (if they get enough)

No they're not your friends are sucked in by a book by a man who tells women how to breastfeed and what to do with their milk. Bye Joe Wicks

@PrayingandHoping

But lots of store cupboard ingredients that we use to cook our meals are also tinned/pre packed (tinned tomatoes, tinned kidney beans, tinned sweetcorn, Passata, tomato purée, stock cubes etc etc etc)

I think people need to look at the whole picture. In the grand scheme of things, if u think they loose a little bit of nutrition because they've been put in a pouch does it matter? It's not harmful and plenty of ingredients people use and will be feeding their babies will also be that way.

It's like steaming veg compared to boiling. Everyone knows u keep more nutrition steaming yet plenty of people still boil. It's not going to harm anyone at the end of the day.

And remember. Babies get all the nutrition they actually need from their milk under 1

This is what I originally replied to- hence my original reply.

The jars and pouches are brilliant - a huge variety of different foods. When mine were babies and eating jars, they ate better than DH and I.

@Bluebellpainting and the context of that was a discussion and whether or not the processing process may potentially (as there is no scientific proof directly related to baby food) decrease the vit and min level in pouches

So my final sentence was even if that was the case, they get the vits and mins they need from their milk.

It doesn't say they only need milk!

OP, you just do you and what you feel is best for you as a parent.

I never did BLW, and out of 6 friends I was the only one who didn't, and guess who's child eats the most/no fuss/super easy with food? Mine. So don't worry that they're 'missing out' on anything.

You know your baby best and what works for you best.

@PrayingandHoping To me it didn’t read that way. And again not true for all babies. It doesn’t apply to breast fed babies. You didn’t say all babies either though.
I just wanted to highlight this as I have come across people who do not know the importance of needing solids for more energy, iron etc. and do say nutrients can get from milk alone so there are babies who are iron deficient due to this misinterpretation. Clearly following this exchange you don’t believe the only nutrition a baby needs is milk but taken in isolation the statement seemed to suggest that.

2155 have you only got one child? It’s easy to be smug about your parenting decisions when your sample size is 1 🤣. I can guarantee that using pouches or not is not what makes a child fussy (or not). Most children develop fussiness at one point or another, it’s a natural developmental phase. If your child doesn’t it’s pure luck. Mine isn’t fussy at all - eats absolutely everything including stuff a lot of adults don’t - but I’m not arrogant enough to assume that it’s down to me, and fully aware that next year he might refuse to eat everything but toast!

@HarrietM87

You've obviously taken my message the wrong way. It wasn't meant at smugness, purely to reassure the OP that BLW isn't the be all and end all.

But I do work with toddlers/children every day in my job, so I do have a rough idea of how they function.

I use the pouches for when we are on the go and I don't care what people think. There are days when I'm too exhausted to cook and order a takeaway for me and DH but don't want to feed DS with a takeaway, so I just give him a pouch. I was on holiday recently and DS got a upset tummy because of the food abroad, so the pouches I took with me saved us from having a hungry baby with a upset tummy.

My mum always has a go at me for using them but she doesn't understand that she was a typical domestic housewife whereas me, career focused, educated and had a baby when I turned 31. Our lifestyles are much different, we are much busier.

Do whatever suits you and your lifestyle. It's better than having a hungry baby.

I used jars about 75% of the time. Happy healthy DT’s. It’s similar to the arguments on formula v breast feeding. Everyone has an opinion but blw, jars, formula or breast all give babies an excellent start in life. It’s down to personal choice.

I give my 7 month old a jar once or twice a week. I buy him food from Bellota Baby, it’s all organic and a lovely range of foods which I wouldn’t have even thought of if cooking myself. X

Why are they in plastic pouches though? Why not in recyclable glass jars? This is what I truly don't understand.

It's not an argument about home made food v. processed food. It's not an argument about pureed food v. baby led weaning with finger foods. It's about the method of delivery of the food!

If anyone things it's better to give a child pureed food that they suck out of plastic pouch instead of being fed with pureed food from a spoon out of a bowl then can they please explain to me why.

I thought everyone a lot younger than me was more environmentally conscious than me. I need you parents who are 20 years younger than I am to explain why pouches are so essential.

Because I definitely tut and judge.

That’s something to take up with the manufacturers and supermarkets. When DT’s were little I bought or did whatever made life easiest.

@Chicchicchicchiclana the pouches are recyclable - once I've got a box full, I'll be dropping them off to a nearby primary school which is the local drop off point for Terracycle, a scheme that recycles all brands of baby food pouches.

Also I feed my baby from a spoon; I don't just give her the pouch to suck

I've got three children and used them with all of them (spoon feeding them). They're great eaters now and I liked the variety and convenience. My youngest started on "normal" food including food that he held earlier because he wanted to join in with his sisters and with all of them I gave normal food alongside then gradually increased the amount of that and reduced the pouches. I had similar negative comments about using them but my thinking was that by using them I could do more with the kids because I wasn't spending time cooking. Also there is only so much time in the day and even with using them I found my days pretty full! In general with comments from others about choices to do with the children I have cared less with each successive child!

@BabyLlamaZen

They are absolutely full of rubbish!

Please explain...

Late to the party OP but just wanted to add my two cents... DS is 13 months. I started weaning by making stuff myself but he wasn’t really interested in food much so a lot was getting wasted. From about 8 months through to 11 I heavily relied on those Ella’s kitchens pouches and has the same curiosity as you. The only thing I could find by way of nutritional warning was that, for example, a “chicken curry” would have the lowest amount of chicken legally possible. But feeding him these pouches gave him way more variety then I could ever have managed by cooking myself (made sure to pick lots of different ones of different flavours, didn’t rely on the carrot and tomato based sweet ones). Now that he is a bit older and more interested in food, I batch cook once a fortnight and freeze individual portions. Barely anything is wasted so I don’t mind doing it; it gives me control over size of lumps and making sure he has a balanced diet with key nutrients. I was miserable preparing food for him when he was 7 months, but it’s actually enjoyable now. We do a mix of BLW and spoon fed. Also, re choking on rice cake. They gag A LOT in the beginning. I did a first aid course and it gave me the confidence to identify gagging v choking and what to do if the latter does happen. I’d recommend one if they’re still running atm.

Anyway, didn’t answer your question particularly but wanted to share my experience to give you. Sounds like I was in a similar boat a few months back and I’d have loved the reassurance that other parents were doing similar.