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Original poster

Baby Food in Spain

16 replies

Alderney · 20/03/2005 18:44

We, (Myself, Mr Alderney and Pufflet) are off to Barcelona for a city break at the end of April.

I have always home cooked all of Pufflet's food. Even when we have been on holiday before we have gone self catering and I have made all of Pufflet's food. She has never had anything with added salt or added sugar. I'm not strictly organic but she has very healthy balanced homemade unprocessed food. (Oh, she is 14 months old if that makes any difference)

However, I'm not going to be able to make things in a hotel in Barcelona.

I know that for a weekend she will be fine eating bought food.

However, rather than taking a bag over on the plane from here, it seems a lot more sensible to buy food for her over in Spain.

Can anyone tell me the best brands of pre-prepared baby food that I can buy in Spain....can I buy the brands I can buy over here (like Hipp) or is there a Spanish equivilent....

Thanks loads

OP posts:
anchovies · 20/03/2005 18:47

You can buy Hipp but that's the only brand I knew and it was much more expensive (about £1.50 a jar) We scrimped and bought another brand but it was very scary, didn't give it to him in the end.

Tommy · 20/03/2005 19:03

There was a thread on this a while ago - baby food in Spain. I seem to remember people saying that there was a lot of fish baby food - not v common here! You could try a search if nothing else comes up!

SenoraPostrophe · 20/03/2005 19:43

You can buy Hipp...but it has salt added for some reason (the Spanish are obsessed with giving their babes enough salt).

You can also buy Nestle or Hero - neither of which are as nice looking (or smelling) as the UK brands - the recipes are very different. I'd be inclined to buy in the UK, check she likes them and then bring some over.

chicca · 20/03/2005 20:06

I have only found Hipp in some Hipercor (the supermarket part of El Corte Ingles - the John Lewis equivalent here in Spain). I think Nutriben is supposed to be ok too. Other than that, as SenoraPostrophe says they are packed with sugar and salt. Hero looks especially dodgy although it is the most widespread brand I have seen.
I too would recommend bringing a stash.
SenoraP- why the salt issue?

chipmonkey · 20/03/2005 20:07

I would agree with SenoraPostrophe, never had any joy with bought babyfood in Spain, ended up giving ds1 mashed potato and veg in hotel restaurant!

SenoraPostrophe · 20/03/2005 20:18

chicca - I just find it weird - UK baby food has no salt at all, but ALL Spanish brands have it, including Nutriben.

Hipp is the best one for not haveing all manner of rubbish - and round here you can get it in any big supermarket.

chicca · 20/03/2005 20:34

Sorry SenoraP I actually meant "why do the Spanish have an issue with adding salt" - not you!!
Obviously haven't been looking at the Hipp labels properly. i think they are centrally made/distributed from Germany as I recall.That is, for the rest of Europe ecxluding the UK.
We are quite close to Gibraltar so I might get some Hipp UK there.
Sometimes I am quite surprised by this "child-friendly" Spain I live in. Not what it seems a lot of the time.
Wonder how Posh is coping?!

SenoraPostrophe · 20/03/2005 20:37

well, it certainly ain't pushchair friendly!

I do love being able to take dd and ds into any restaurant or bar without anyone batting an eyelid though.

chicca · 20/03/2005 20:43

True, although when DS let off a big screech at a Venta recently a few heads did turn. Still the lorry drivers probably aren't used to that sort of thing.
Did you BF in public?
Did you give birth in hospital?

SenoraPostrophe · 20/03/2005 20:49

Yes, and yes.

Nobody has ever said anything about my BFing (well, DH did when dd was little, but no-one else). Hospitals - let's just say if i ever have another baby I'm going home. Ditto if dd ever needs to stay in hospital again (not that they're bad/dirty or anything, just that there are so many things they don't do. Like gas and air. Or having nurses that will watch your 2 year old who is on an unneccessary drip while you give birth...)

where are you?

chicca · 20/03/2005 21:01

In Arcos de la Frontera, near Jerez in Andalucia. Are you somewhere near Granada?

I had DS at home but ended up in hospital with a retained placenta. Home was fab, hospital shit and it made me glad I had chosen home for the birth.

Why was 2 yr old on drip for god's sake?

I have heard so many bad stories about maternity wards here. I think by and large the medical system is OK but there is a real problem with this.

SenoraPostrophe · 20/03/2005 21:09

My friend is a midwife - she's been training them (got into trouble for refusing to break a woman's waters because she thought it unneccessary - she asked why she should have done it and they said "because that's what we do".

here is the full sorry saga of dd's hospital stay - it's a long thread so to summarise: bad infection, emergency op, gastroenteritis. They give all people in hosptial a drip for no reason here: I thought at the time it was antibiotics, but that was only an hour a day. Particular nightmare as she sucks her thumb a lot and they put a splint thing in her arm to keep it straight. She had massive callouses on her wrists from sucking her thumb anyway.

Did you have a private home birth then? I looked into that but DH didn't want to pay. My ante-natal class were absolutely aghast that i would even think of such a thing.

chicca · 20/03/2005 21:18

Yes, it was private.
Amazingly found a private midwife in our town (she's German but speaks all necessary languages!) I really thank god for her as she was brilliant and so good afterwards too.
The whole thing was 1,300 Euros. I hear it is 4-5,000 in UK now.
Her generally attitude towards things is definitely what some might call hippy but we prefer that to the total control thing.
I was quite pissed off that the ambulance guys started laying into her on the way to the hosiptal. I know the placenta thing is dangerous but what they did to me in the hospital died out in the UK in the 60s! (They basically pummelled my stomach)

chicca · 20/03/2005 21:27

Just read the saga-sounds terrible. I think I would have moved back to the UK immediately! But things are preety bad there too.

SenoraPostrophe · 21/03/2005 15:56

Hi again chicca

thinking about it, it was the stomach pummeling thread thing that got my friend into trouble, not breaking waters (they do still do it in the UK, but only very occasionally). Can't remember what it's called.

throughout the hospital saga I was talking to my sister, who is training to be children's nurse in sheffield. it sounds great: if we do move back we're going there!

(sorry for thread hijack btw, Alderney. hope you have a good time in barcelona!)

chicca · 21/03/2005 21:20

Yes, I was thinking that too - sorry Alderney. Hope you have a good time in Barcelona.

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