6 month old weaning - Are pouches and jars of baby food really that bad?

[merrynelly]

I have just started weaning my six month old. I'm finding it quite time consuming steaming, blending and the washing up etc for what is essentially a couple of licks of a spoon. And I'm currently only doing this once a day. Family members keep raving about how they used Ella's kitchen and Hipp Organic etc, but Joe Wicks stated that pouches are often very high in sugar etc. I'm not the most health conscious but need a balance between giving my baby healthy food but also not spending vast amounts of time in the kitchen. I just wondered what the general consensus is on pouches, jars, baby porridge etc?

I would freeze what’s not used and reuse another day. So you start building a stash so it’s less effort.

You could introduce some softer finger foods as well, something like toast requires no effort at all!

I used ellas pouches when out and about.

I gave mine pouches and jars alongside blw and whatever we were having. I didn't have time for all that making purees but then i had twins. They're absolutely fine and healthy. Do what works for you.

We used lots of jars/pouches OP, baby loved them, she's 4 now and perfectly healthy and a really good eater.
Alongside the pouches etc we gave broccoli/carrot sticks that were really soft, banana slices, hard boiled egg etc. Soft things so she could get used to textures too.

The pouches and jars are fine. Some don’t taste great and neither of mine would eat single veg purées whether I made them or bought them!
I use some cow and gate and Ellas by more hipp organic and for Aisha. The for Aisha are really tasty.
I do quite a bit of baby led weaning as well. Toast, cooked carrot, her favourite is potato waffle. Do not give raw apple babies have choked on that
My brother was the faddiest baby and child and now eats absolutely everything as an adult is a great cook, my DP was the same and now eats and cooks anything.

Avocado and sweet potato were not the offerings in my house because nobody else wanted them and they were hassle to prepare.

Avocado is hardly a hassle to prepare. You remove the skin and the stone, mash it up and spoon it onto some toast - takes about 20 seconds!

It's fine as long as it's not all they are eating.

I did a mixture. I did BLW with DS1 but with DS2 he preferred to be spoon fed and I did loads more jars. I quite enjoyed it TBH!

So I did things like mushed up weetabix, baby porridge (unsweetened) but I also made him some purees of my own - whatever we were eating I'd hold a little bit back (from the night before) or whatever fruit I'd got that week, I'd stick in a little bowl, perhaps with some formula milk, cow's milk or water to loosen it, and mash it up with a fork. You can use a smoothie maker or blender to make it smoother if you want to but I found this texture was fine. I also did some standalone ones like carrots/peas/potato. Normally when I made something like this it would be enough for several meals so I got some little plastic pots to freeze them in like my own "jars". Sometimes I'd add a bit of extra potato or the porridge flakes just to smooth it out a bit and add some starch.

Microwave scrambled eggs are also easy and quick although probably he was a little bit older for that texture.

If you look at the ingredients you will find most fruit pouches or jars are 90% apple or pear and most of the savoury ones are 90% carrot or rice. So you are paying a lot for these fairly bland ingredients. They are good for convenience but it's also not a huge amount of effort to make a small amount that will do for 5-6 mealtimes when you're first starting out. I didn't bother with complicated Annabel Karmel recipes etc. I just used easy foods that we were already eating, supplemented with frozen/tinned/leftover veg, microwaved a potato to "bake" it then scraped out the inside to add, etc. Shredded cooked chicken, any mince dish in the slow cooker (makes it really soft) or flaked fish are also soft enough for a little baby to cope with in a puree/mash. And small amounts of things like tinned spaghetti or baked beans are fine when combined with other ingredients like potato so that the salt is "diluted" a bit. I made vegetable soups (for me) and took DS2's portion out before adding extra water so his was thicker. Then added salt/pepper to season mine a bit more.

The Ella's Kitchen are the worst for the "vegetable" ones which are 90% apple sauce I also tended to avoid anything sweetened with juice because I wouldn't give him juice to drink at that age.

Lastly a pouch squeezed onto a spoon and fed bit by bit is OK - don't let your baby suck straight from the pouch as this is terrible for their teeth as well as being a bit more removed from the whole tasting/exploring experience. People often do it because the baby will suck more food down quickly or to make less mess, but it's not a good idea. The bonus of this is you can also close the pouch and save the rest of it for later.

This set was also great:

www.amazon.co.uk/Annabel-NUK-Weaning-Starter-Storage/dp/B077L2VMBD/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&rdc=1&keywords=weaning+set&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1619936906&sr=8-7

I used the masher loads to mash a small quantity of food, and still use it occasionally now he is 2 to make a toddler-sized portion of mashed potato or mash a single banana (which you can also do with a fork). The ice lollies were great for summer/teething (with water/expressed milk/fruit) and the pots are a great size for storing food in. I'd actually get the extra set of 6 more as the size is so convenient if you're used to jars and they stack.

Oh and if you go into the section with tinned/preserved fruit - you can buy whole jars of apple puree, and several other fruits as well, much cheaper than they are in the baby section. Just check for the ones which are actually puree and don't have added sugar. You can then spoon a small amount into another bowl and save the rest in the fridge.

I did a mixture too. A normal day tended to be porridge for breakfast, finger foods for lunch then a mashed up version of what we were having, or if not suitable a jar/pouch. Also really convenient for heading out and childcare.

If you want to do puree's then just make a batch and freeze them. Then you can defrost a small amount each day, one session of cooking should last weeks.

If you want to add anything extra you could do mashed banana, avocado, baked sweet potato (in microwave for 7 minutes) or yoghurt.

I only used jars when I was out or knackered. I used to cook freezer batches of purée and stir a bit of protein in, or mush up fruit, and that worked well. Bottle warmers that cam also defrost and heat up baby food are brilliant for this kind of thing.

The other thing that works well is to cook extra veg or protein when the family is having some, leaving out the salt etc, and then purée a whole load to freeze in ice cube trays for later use.

I used jars or pouches for variety.. So for instance I would not buy cottage pie or spag bol but would buy spinach bake, unusual out of season fruits, some fish options.. Anything different that I wouldn't make at home.
Didn't worry about teeth as only had 2.

I tried everything I gave them.... Not sure why you wouldn't check it wasn't off etc.

Both my DSs were weaned on Hipp organic jars.. God the orange and purple stains! Anyway they are strapping 6 foot plus now 20 years later!

Joe Wickes worked with a woman called
Charlotte Stirling Reed on his wean in 15 books, she’s a baby and child nutritionist and is a weaning expert and is on Instagram as SR Nutrition - also has a blog of the same name. I’ve found her stuff so so helpful. I’ve heard her say the pouches etc are fine just stresses that it’s all about balance.

She’s pretty neutral on BLW vs traditional weaning too. I did it her way which was a few purées at the beginning alongside very soft finger foods for ‘first tastes’ but we moved on from that really quickly - just mashed stuff with the back of a fork and now baby has pretty much whatever we eat I just make sure it’s cooked and cut in a way she can deal with. I had some pouches on hand but just the purée ones and didn’t end up using them before we’d moved on to other things so I used them up by adding to other dishes. There’s nothing terrible in them.

I get the choking fear but babies are just as likely to choke on purée (and it’s harder to shift if they do) so still important to get really clear on difference between gagging and choking and do an online first aid course or similar so you’d know what to do (there’s a really helpful q&a with a first aid specialist that also includes demonstrations on the sr nutrition Instagram - I promise I don’t work for her I just found it really helpful!)

What I do is make batches of food, and decant into little pots for the freezer. So at the start I had pots of every veg purée.

Now I don't purée the veg, so instead have pots of broccoli florets, peas, carrot sticks, parsnip, etc. I roast batches of chicken breasts/ salmon fillets etc. Then every morning I take out of the freezer whatever they're having for lunch, and just need to heat it up at lunchtime.

We used fruit pouches most days when out and about and also did very simple mashed vegetable at home. My baby was enjoying fruit pouches, but wouldn’t eat any of the savory ones.
If you did 100% pouches then probably not ideal, but with a mixture of homemade food I think it’s a good balance for parent’s convenience.

I've got three children, did blw with two of them but the other one was quite close in age to his brother and I was very stressed out so did a lot of jars and purées.

He's the best eater out of all of them, he'll try anything and loves different flavours and textures. He's only 4 but has always been a good eater. The other two are terrible eaters.

So yeah, I don't personally think jars and pouches are all that bad! Most people I know did a compromise between pouches and finger food. My youngest basically just got what we were eating but she barely eats anything at all, so that didn't really have the desired outcome!

Ready made baby food is absolutely fine.
I did a mix of all things. Some pouches, some homemade, some purée some ‘real’ food. My 2 are healthy 8 and 10 year olds and very good eaters.
Try to relax about it all.
I’m not entirely sure what qualifies Joe Wicks to give baby nutrition advice?
I’m also fairly sure it’s illegal in this country to put false nutrition claims on baby food packets so I would be pretty confident that they contain what it’s says.

I spent ages cooking, mashing and blending. My baby wouldn’t touch it. He happily ate pouches though, so that’s what he got. It was literally only for a few months until he was able to eat chopped bits of normal food.

Oh and Joe Wicks is a fucking nobend and barely qualified to speak on children's nutrition. I wouldn't pay attention to anything he says. His first baby was born around the same time as DS2 and the amount of utter shite that was paraded around my antenatal group due to the gospel of Joe Wicks :o :o I mean really. He's an instagram celebrity.

A Beaba that does all the steaming and purees made my life easier. Then I froze the excess in mini pots and thawed as needed.
Once puree stage was over it was still handy for steaming.

@NDSandG

The health visitor made us taste one of the jars. That was enough. If you wouldn’t eat it, why would you make your child?

Did you take a swig of formula as well to taste? That stuff rank and people feed it to their kids. We will never find baby food palatable unless they're sweet because we're used to strong tastes.

Baby food is ok for babies just like formula is. It's regulated pretty much the same and it's fine to use.

I did use glass jars when travelling though, not pouches as they are hard to recycle (require special facilities).

We puréed a bit of whatever we were having. Didn't cook anything in a special way, or cook anything specific for DCs.
Buying sachets, pots etc is expensive.

Your can use whatever you like. I tend to bug the purée single fruits of things we don’t have as often at home or a faff like mango purée. Then I can add to Greek yogurt or regular porridge easily.

But otherwise some foods easy to mash without prep like banana/ avocado.

I tended to do a mixture of finger and spoon fed. But if I made one thing like a veggie and lentil purée, I made enough to freeze several portions so it’s not prep every day.
I still do this now he’s 1. He eats most foods the same as us, but if dh and I have something he doesn’t eat much of or too salty, then I can just get a batch made Bolognese or casserole out the freezer for him that’s frozen in individual baby size portions