Does anybody give their baby nutribullet smoothie?

[2015mom]

Hi my LO is 7 months and I was wondering whether I could give him a nutribullet smoothie of fruit and veg which is then sieved into a cup so there are no bits.

Also the books don't say can't give nuts and seeds to babies, they just say for nuts to blend them down and not to give them whole so I see why I can't put seeds and nuts into the nutribullet for LO.

Does anybody have more insight into the above?

Soup is different as it is a way of eating cooked veg (and meat, pasta etc) whilst being economical with the ingredients, unlike a stew say. And the sugar content of soup is an awful lot lower than a smoothie.

Soup also provides a good vehicle for hiding veg which would otherwise go uneaten. Most children are happy to eat at least certain fruits, although for those children who are fruit-refusers I could see there would be an argument of smoothies having a place.

unimagmative13 Thu 05-May-16 16:14:56

"You don't mix BLW and traditional weaning it's one or the other. Finger food for BLW and spoons and finger food for traditional. If you mix it's not 'baby led' "

What's this about? Why can't you have it baby led most of the time and give the occasional spoon feed? How is a situation where you let baby decide to pick up his own bits and do what he likes with them not baby led just because at some other time, you might do something else? Do they get corrupted by an occasional spoon? Are they rendered incapable of learning manipulation and other skills from handling their own food if they have once had that poisonous helping of mashed potato pass their lips?

If you have sinned, can you do confession and still be a BLW'er? Or is it the first spoonful that cuts you off from the BLW camp with your purity stained forever, like some fallen Victorian village maiden?

(ponders that one of the nicest things about having teens is that you get away from the labels)

My only concern with the OP's situation would be that if she makes a smoothie specifically for him it might end up filling him up, so taking space away from nutritionally mort important things (and possibly teach him to associate drinking with a sweet taste). The ideal solution would seem to be to share the smoothie between the two of them. That's how I did a lot of my weaning back in the time when: I ate things like boiled potatoes and carrots and bananas anyway, so dc could just have a bit of what was going anyway.

I think Cory it's just that BLW means no spoon feeding. Nobody does exclusively purees so traditional weaning always meant purees plus finger foods.

So it doesn't really make sense to say you're mixing BLW and traditional weaning. It would be like saying you're mixing exclusive breast feeding with mixed feeding.

Sorry should be clear that I don't really see that it's necessary to have a label for the process at all.

I would

I make my children a smoothie most mornings. They have a small glass alongside their breakfast. At 8am they wouldn't eat some eggs and toast, alongside a pile of veg but will drink

The more veg the less sugar in them obviously

Today they had : oats, cashew nuts, oat milk, vanilla and banana

Yesterday : spinach, mint, coconut milk, pineapple

That does sound nice Art, I would drink that!

I am a bit paranoid that if I give DS a sweet drink he'll refuse water - does that sound like a stupid concern though? I mean he loves berries and mango but still eats broccoli so perhaps I'm overthinking it. My niece will only drink squash never water so I didn't want to end up the same.

I get what you mean, splendide, and of course you are absolutely right; it just seems a silly way of using language, as if no other feeding that absolutely exclusive no-spoon feeding can possibly be "baby led". What if your baby howls to be fed (as some lazybones do)- would it not then be "baby led" to do so?

For what it's worth, I breastfed, but went through a time when I had to express and feed dd with a syringe as she was too weak to suckle. Would that really mean I can't count myself as an EBF'er?

All this labelling seems to be about is to decide who can be in the "gang". And I am curious as to how much you would need to lapse from grace to exclude yourself. Spoon-feeding once at Auntie Agatha's wedding because you are worried about baby throwing food over the wedding guests?

Mine only drink water or milk the rest of the day. But I like to think they start school now that age with something decent inside them to help with concentration and I hope the extra veg helps ward off catching school viruses. It might do nothing but makes me feel better!

Most days they have a poached egg, piece of toast and small smoothie. Often glass water alongside. They will also drink solely veggie juices. They aren't fussy at any other meals either so I don't think it changes taste buds particularly. They are 5 and 6. Probably gave similar since around a year old

You're quite right Cory, it is a silly policing of language really.

On a similar theme, I was obsessed with the idea of DS being EBF and fretted about his virgin gut and probably made my PND worse. I definitely felt kicked out the EBF club when I ended up giving him some formula a few times after he lost quite a lot of weight. In hindsight (and now breastfeeding a toddler!) who cares.

Thanks Art I might give it a go actually - he's 18 months.

splendide the point I was making that if you are happy to give your baby fruit (as well as vegetables), it doesn't matter if you give them whole or blended. The sugar content is the same.

Whole fruit vs. juice from that fruit - a different matter. But a smoothie is not inherently "full of sugar". It depends on what you put into it.

The sugar is more easily accessed in a smoothie though as you don't have to chew to release it like you would do if you just ate the fruit/veg whole. It is also easier to eat lots of fruit/veg in liquid form than if eaten whole so you would take in a larger amount hence higher sugar levels

the point I was making that if you are happy to give your baby fruit (as well as vegetables), it doesn't matter if you give them whole or blended. The sugar content is the same.

It isn't. A smoothie contains a lot of fruit so will have more sugar. It's why juice has more sugar too - a glass of apple juice might contain three apples but you'd never eat three apples in one sitting.

Plus the nutribullet is a nutrition extractor not a blender so it means it just means it has all nutrients in the drink so no goodness is lost

Nutribullet's marketing department certainly saw you coming OP!

Callalilli I addressed the juice issue in my post. But the OP is talking about a blended drink for her baby, these are only made drinkable by the addition of liquids like water etc. If you put 3 apples into a NB you couldn't drink the result. (You could if you strained it, but that isn't what the OP is suggesting.)
If you put one apple, some spinach and some water into it, you could drink what came out.

I see nothing wrong with giving the baby a small portion of smoothie as part of a balanced diet.
If you would be giving as a meal replacement then not a great idea. (Except maybe if they're feeling under the weather when they're much older if you're concerned about food/fluid intake)
As its home made, a way to explore a texture and flavour and counts towards fruit and veg intake I don't think it's a big deal really!

Surely the argument that you are likely to consume more of something liquid does not apply to a young baby unless BLW actually means "deciding on quantities purchased and helping yourself from the fridge"? The OP will be in control of the size of this smoothie.

All BLWers should come and collect their certificate from the front of the class.