Suitable for baby -adult versions of the overpriced baby food/snacks

[Thandeka]

Right am getting a little fed up how if its labelled "Baby food" it attracts an extra premium on price. I appreciate the ingredients may be organic and they have been careful about salt etc. but I am not sure it warrants the extra cost. So I have decided to go on a supermarket mission to find supermarket stuff that is normal priced but also suitable for a baby (I mean obviously fruit and veg count anyway) but I mean snacky things like rice cakes- we are now giving my DD the giant grown up ones (at first she was so confused- I think she thinks she had shrunk) as sainsburys do a salt free one for about 90p.

Also sainsburys do a tube of mini breadsticks- 69p for loads instead of the baby version which is about £1.50 for not very many!

Also trying her on the fruit bars for school kids as she loves the baby fruit bars but they are much more expensive (but they are a bit tougher to gum on but she loves em.

Anyhow do you see where I am going with this thread?

Can anyone post their little gems of adult food that is suitable for baby? (I mean I know you could probably feed your baby anything adult from the supermarket but am thinking of healthyish non junky snacks that mumsnetters could help come up with a list)

and P.S don't even bother to buy Ella Organic baby rice and lentils- I don't know what possessed me to pay £2 or summat for 4 tiny boil in the bag packets of bloody rice and sodding lentils when I could have just got a flipping teaspoon out! Sigh.

LOL

I have nothing to add but I love this thread and hope you get loads of contributions, I'll be watching.

What age is your baby?

I never bought fruit bars (they contain so much sugar and seem very expensive) but mine had the odd rich tea finger.

I didn't tend to give mine much snacky stuff, they had toast fingers with cream cheese, or cream crackers with butter, they had raisins sometimes and fruit and veg - grapes, berries, banana, mango, pineapple, apple, pear etc. I tended to just chop up some chunks if we were going out somewhere and keep them in a tupperware pot.

DD is 7.5months.

Rich tea fingers would be an excellent alternative to those crap "heinz" biscotti. Just the sort of thing am looking for! Thanks.

I think am going to swap the baby heinz spaghetti shapes for normal kiddy heinz tins- but need to check salt content obv.

DS just tended to have whatever real food was going tbh, but my best tip is salt n shake crisps without the salt packet - not so much for babies though.

I did used to make a snack mix bag of shreddies/cheerios/mini shredded wheats/bits of breadstick/dried apricots/raisins/dried apple/dried mango/dates which would keep him occupied for ages finding his fave bits

Tesco malted milk biscuits - very low salt and 35p for 200gs (though 19.1g of sugar per 100g vs 20.6g for reduced sugar rusks)

Tesco nice biscuits - similar price (40p per 200g) and same kind of salt levels.

Cheddars (the kind in the biscuit packet not crisps bag) have a very low amount of salt per biscuit (~0.1g per biscuit). Not an all day every day thing but not bad as a treat.

Can't think of anything else at mo but I'll think on it.

How about normal yoghurt instead of petit filous? Also - they have 6.2g of sugar per tiny pot!! Any non low-fat yog will do, and if you get a plain flavoured one then it won't have added sugar.

Ready brek instead of baby porridge.

emmental has very little salt in it. i've no idea why. so don't go buying those little organic cheddar sticks, people.

This is a great thread - all my tips are here already, but there's loads I hadn't thought of.
Thanks!

Swiss yogurt in glass pots has very few ingredients (usu. yogurt and relevant fruit puree) and is cheaper than the baby yogurts... Also, one jar will do two meals and can then be used to store home-made baby food.

For when your baby is a little older, <a class="break-all" href="//www.cgi.ebay.co.uk/Munchkin-Snack-Catcher-No-Mess-Snacking-No-Spills-OB_W0QQitemZ300449507235QQihZ020QQcategoryZ20409QQcmdZViewItem" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">these are great for preventing them from getting all those bits all over the floor!

ok i found that we were not using a tub of cream cheese within the `use within 7 days' time frame - even DH wont eat it when its gone mouldy. Although a bit more expensive in the short term i've found the use by date is longer on cream cheese in triangle form and we throw less out

amistillsexy, your link isn't working.... or is it just me??

My polish neighbours bought for my dd1 a massive bag of what look like those organix carrot sticks, except they have no flavouring, just corn, taste a bit like pop corn. They are from the polish supermarket.

Dd also loves fig rolls, cheap supermarket ones are fine, but she is a toddler. Agree with mini breadsticks, add a dollop of soft cheese for a homemade dairylea dunker & chedders. Also have found a banana an essentially for carrying around, but have a banana guard to stop it getting squashed. Recommend getting a Snack Trap too for a little older ones (too lazy to link from iPhone but you can google).

Oh my god, I have never seen a banana guard before, just googled it and... doesn't it remind you of something else?? Don't you get strange looks when it's sticking out of your handbag?

Also the FAQ on the website.... "is there a battery attachment"!!! Disappointingly there isn't.

LOL

I can promise you they are far too big for any other use but I promise you, they look like one of those WTF purchases but are fab if you have a LO who likes bananas.

another vote for fig rolls here, DS thinks they're chocolate

What about different kinds of crisps (like apple, parsnip, sweet potato)? I think supermarkets sell them?

Dried banana chips are good too.

cheese straws (make your own, less salt)

snack trap type thing

i'm sure I've seen these in Sainsbury's too. Good for chopped up fruit.

Fusilli pasta (the spiral one) is good for babies as it's easy for them to grip. I made my own tomato sauce with tinned tomatoes.

We buy massive packets of raisins rather than the little boxes / packets as it works out cheaper. We put them on cereal or in a little tupperware tub for DD.

Weetabix / porridge oats for breastfast.

Agree with normal full fat yoghurt - we get the Yeo Valley one in a large pot as it's cheaper and less packaging, it has some sugar but only the same amounts as many baby yoghurts.

Bananas are the best snack (natures mars bar!). Or cut up grapes / apple / satuma.

Don't bother with all that Organix stuff have you ever tried it - it's vile.

We've never bought baby / toddler food really. DD has always just has what we're having - we don't add salt to our cooking anyway.

Pitta bread pizza is fine hot or cold

I'm glad I'm not the only one who refuses to fork out for overpriced rubbish.

Kallo thin ricecakes are good for putting toppings on - you can buy them from Holland & Barrett.

I make my own savoury cheese straws / cheesy biscuits. A quick method is to grate some cheese over puff pastry, slice & cook.

And I agree, banana guards are really good if you eat a lot of nanas out & about.

DD2 is almost 6 months & adores 'mini' pasta with home-made tomato or cheese sauce. By mini pasta, I mean the tiny shards of spaghetini or small shells that they sell to put in soup. My sister lived in Italy for a year & told me this was a usual weaning product over there. Over cook by about a minute for those with no teeth.

Egg & soldiers very popular. Bananas.

Roast chicken with all the trimmings, no salt added to the veg and extra gravy - made with meat juices, corn flour & boiling water (so no salt in that either) - all liquidised. Freeze the extra in normal ice cube trays and defrost as required.

yes, we use italian soup pasta - can't remember the brand but blue and yellow packet, they do tiny spheres but best are small stars or shells. cook v quickly and much cheaper!

malted milk/digestive or rich tea so much better and cheaper than rusks.

waitrose sell packs of mini gnocchi in 3 colours which very easy for dd 2.5 and ds 1 to eat; a godsend - I keep them in the freezer and they cook in seconds from frozen in a small pan of boiling water. put them on to boil whilst get dd's out of the car, and my the time they're in and shoes/coats off, ready to mix with butter and parmesan, pesto and cream cheese or ice cubes of bolognese sauce from freezer. Instant lunch. Dd thinks they are "baby footballs " so will eat them with anything on. A packet lasts for at least 6 meals for both of them.

great thread!

although not strictly adult stuff, we like the Sainsbury's kids range of foods - they're very low salt, affordable, and DS likes them. The formage frais is particularly good - small pots, no added sugar, just fromage frais with fruit puree - really excellent weaning product! the kids range chicken nugget things are good for freezer standbys too :)

nairns oat cakes are good for an alternative to rice cakes.

in defence of the organix rice cakes, the apple ones are very tasty, and we always finish the packet of them - the same cannot be said of the kallo ones.

hi,

I use ready brek instead of baby porridge has no salt at all and oatibix has very small amount compared with weetabix, we use normal fromage frais/greek yoghurt which has no sugar and mix with a bit of fruit puree if going out put it in mini tub, for a treat I make fairy cakes etc in "petit four" cases just a child portion,

now DD is 10 months the only baby food i buy is formula milk and i keep about 3 jars of baby food for if OH takes her out as he forgets to check freezer,

I noticed loads of baby food is sugar rich especially farleys rusks etc
thanks for the soup pasta idea

I've just nicked lots of ideas from this thread as I was incensed at the idea of paying £8 a kilo for baby pasta. Lots of good alternatives and information. I didn't realise petit filous were that sugary.

Does anyone know which shops sell soup pasta? I couldn't find it in Sainsburys or Waitrose.

I hav just ordered the 3 pack of mini houmous pots, which are a good size for DS to have with mini breadsticks.