Do jars seem 'bad'? If so, why?

[NellyBluth]

I had this conversation with other mums and thought it was fascinating how we all felt that there was something 'bad', or 'guilty', about feeding 8/9mo's jars - but not pouches.

We heavily weaned DD with jars because neither she nor us were too keen on BLW, but she took such little food that spending ages cooking her purees etc until she wanted lots of food seemed a waste or time and effort. I bought jars because they were cheaper than pouches, and we still use them sometimes when we are in a mad rush. Recently she has had that dreaded tummy bug that has done the rounds and the only solid food she is really interested in is jars again, which led to this conversation because I fed her a jar while we were out.

Now personally I don't mind too much - it's not exactly a Happy Meal for a 9mo, after all - but I do agree that there is something about the pouches that make them seem 'better' or 'healthier' and for some reason I felt I had to explain about the jars. The other mum who uses jars also felt the same, though neither of us could really explain it and new it was quite silly to feel a bit defensive about using them. Does anyone else feel like this? Is it the branding of pouches, maybe? Or the fact that they seem like something our parents generation might have weaned on?

I live in France where by far the norm is to buy jars. No guilt whatsoever.

Where does the guilt come from in the UK? They are labeled as 'convenience' food - so in our mind perhaps we associate them with take-aways/frozen crap food? However, baby food is subject to so many tight regulations that they are probably really healthy - lots of variety of ingredients, zero salt etc.

The other thing that occurred to me is the homemade aspect. If you really care about LO you would devotedly slave over a stove making lovely, healthy, nutritious stuff. Mums that buy jars 'care less' - at least, the idea is an association.

With regards to pouches vs jars, clearly the stuff in both is the same! Here, I hazard a guess that pouches enable the baby to serve themselves more and fits in with the BLW idea, which will please some people no end.

I buy the organic jars and pouches sometimes and I don't see any difference between them.

This may just be my memory but I can only think of Ella's and Plum pouches which I think are both organic, whereas not all the jars are? Maybe that's why they seem healthier?

I don't know where the guilt comes from, but it seems I'm not alone among my friend of feeling mildly guilty! The ones I buy all say organic, no salt etc on the front so I doubt there is anything in them that isn't in the pouches.

I agree about the "care less" impression, though of course it is not true. The idea that you should spend hours making fantastic meals and purees for your DC, when reality is that sometimes your baby ends up with convenience food just as you sometimes do - only baby 'convenience' food is a great deal healthier than adult convenience food! And I know what I often make DD stretches to a pureed veg and cream cheese with pasta, as opposed to organic chickpea lasagne (today's lunch) so its probably nicer than what I make anyway...

I think you're right, but it's silly as pouch food is exactly the same but in a pouch not a jar. It's clever marketing. I try not to give either, not for health reasons but any pouch or jar (other than 100% fruit) tastes awful in my opinion - I had to 'pimp up' (sorry awful term) an Ella's beef casserole the other day with some mashed carrot and parsnip to make it edible!

I give my baby Hipp organic jar food, whereas most of the other mums in my NCT group use pouches - talking about it with my husband, we concluded it was all down to marketing, too - the pouch gives the impression that the food is 'fresher'.

They also look kind of hip (at least the Ella's do) so I think it pleases the yummier mummies amongst us.

However, they are easier to travel around with for sure as they are much lighter than jars!

Yes, I prefer less waste. I figure it's better to have plastic pouches than glass jars to recycle.....but when I think about it now, I actually have no idea which is environmentally more friendly. Anyone else know?

Jars vs pouches = a triumph of marketing

Pacific, it really is, isn't it? And one that has worked!

LeBFG - are the pouches really recyclable? I feel safer with glass myself on that front....

meh it depends on the jars, i used some, there was an apple and blueberry one my boys loved and also a prune one that was great if they were constipated.

some of the jars do have sugars and fillers, normally the cheaper heinz ones? but you just read the ingredients, a lot of them now are jsut fruit/veg etc.

the pouches are great for out and about, esp as you can squeeze a bit out and then seal it up again, we used them a lot last year when on holiday for dd and she is 23mths (today!) and i still buy the fruit ones for her occasionally as a treat with lunch.

re little portions i just made purees and froze them in a flexible ice cube tray and then decanted them into freezer bags and then i could get out one or two or more ice cubes and zap them in the microwave when needed, purely as its cheaper than useing jars/pouches all the time and also as if i made a casserole etc i could mash/blend any leftovers and then freeze this way and it was a few meals for the child being weaned without much effort from me :)

I thought jars were less nutritious because they are heated to high temperatures, which gives a long shelf life but also destroys many of the nutrients. I don't expect pouches are much better though, as they must also be pasteurised somehow.

I have never understood how a chicken casserole / beef hot pot etc can sit on a shelf and have such a long shelf life and it be nutritious?

No fridge?

I used some pouches when on hols but couldn't serve anything that had meat in it

I think historically jars have had sugar and salt etc, but I think you'd struggle to find any with sugar added now. Because the pouches all have very clear labelling on the ingredients about only containing fruit and veg they seem better. I used pouches they are easier. The fruit ones are rest for older tots to just suck straight for the sachet.

I always felt pouches were better some how even though I knew I was a victim of the clever marketing people!

Oh and the organix toddler meals are dreadful. Bought the falafel one once as a quick meal for DS - no flavour whatsoever. Needless to say DS refused to eat it.

pancake i only ever bought the fruit/veg ones as i didnt like the idea of the meat ones either!

The stuff inside is the same no? It wouldn't have occured to me to recycle pouches (my DCs are older now but I chuck the cats' pouches in the bin ) whereas I'd automatically recycle the glass jars.

What comes out of the pouches just looks more like the pureed food that I prepared at home. I found with jars, if I only used half then the rest would separate out into water and lumps, I couldn't face feeding them to the DCs after I'd seen it in that state! Whereas a half used pouch that was put in the fridge still looked the same 24 hours later.
The final nail in the coffin of jars for us was having to taste some going through customs, bleugh. Whereas the pouches aren't so bad IMO.

i just googled and the ingredients done seem as bad as they did when i had ds1 (13) the veg and chicken risotto still had conrflour and added starches tho. (this is heinz veg and chicken risotto btw) all the ingredients etc are all listed on their website and they say they dont add egg to to most things now because of allergies and they have their mums own recipies.

it is 54% veg and 8% chicken, plus 16% rice, no added salt and sugar, so seems ok, i guess it is the heat treatment that makes it not so good, what do they do to the pouches? must be similar.

i remember some of them sounding foul and some horrible chocolate custard type things, lots of them had baby rice in them as well, dont know if they still do.

i tended to buy the organix jars or the ellas pouches, the plain fruit ones and some veg ones.

Same thought pancakeflipper. Surely it can't be just as good as real food if it can sit at room temperature on a shelf for such a long time?

and i agree with cappuccino the pouches just seem nicer and some of the fruit ones are quite nice actually

oh also with the pouches if you dont have a tub to squeeze it into its fine to just squeeze a bit onto the spoon for each mouthful, whereas with a jar you would be putting the spoon INTO the jar with saliva etc on, so cant save any leftovers for later, you dont have that problem with the pouches as you can squeeze it out onto the spoon.

but i dont actually think they are any healthier really?

I didn't quite mean for this to turn in to a discussion about the nutrition merits of jars and pouches v homemade food, which is obviously better. But sometimes you end up having to give 'convenience' food and I'm intrigued by the different views of pouches and jars.

The shelf life is a great point. But I think that is where clever marketing is working again - jars and pouches have probably been treated in exactly the same way to give them a similar shelf life, but pouches are seen as healthier and perhaps less 'treated'. Also, I wonder if their higher cost makes them seem better? At the moment, in my supermarket jars work out at half the price of pouches for Stage 2 meals, which tbh was why we got a few jars in when we started weaning months ago, rather than pouches.

Glowfrog - where I live, we don't even have plastic recycling so jars are better in that respect!

5madthings is it really safe to have an opened pouch for more than 2 hours? I assume the pouch is packed with nitrogen. (Like salad bags, the nitrogen keeps the leaves fresher for longer). Once opened wouldn't they be under the same rule where you shouldn't leave food outside of fridge for over 2 hours?

Oh I'm not anti jar or pouches! We all eat ready meals at times. And when on holiday, my toddler eats mainly organix raisins, mini chedder and oaty bars. She doesn't like pouches or jars. It's probably worse for her tbh!

its fine as long as you put it in a fridge or a cool bag :) then use within 24hrs, obviously you only want it in a cool bag type thing until you can get it to a fridge :)

nelly its def marketing, they are seen as healthier, the advertising by ellas kitchen etc is very middle class in its appeal, i think heinz had the market for jars but they just dont 'seem' as nice as the pouches but heinz has revamped and brought out organic and 'inspired by mums' recipes etc.

essentially they are pretty much the same, its all down to marketing!

and yes cost of course play a part, the same way that aptimil is seen as better when essentially all formulas are roughly the same.

OK - just thinking outloud & feel free to skip the entire self indulgent post

I feel the same and I'm not too sure why exactly either?!

(I'm in my 40's - I think it would be interesting to know the approx ages of people posting.)

Pouches/modern plastic organic tubs/pots - OK occasionally or even every night when they are refusing any food, even that prepared by the loving food fairies. It is just less stressful if it's not something you have spent ages making. Fact.

Jars - savory - work of the devil, sweet marginally OK at a push.

I think Jars = 'the work of the devil' is partly because they do smell digusting & taste even worse, I wouldn't want to eat it, so feel terrible giving it to a baby to eat, but even that is ridiculous because formula is vile as well and I don't feel the same about that & secondly because there is that thing that if you feed your baby jars - you just don't love them enough. Fuck only knows where that comes from, but it feels fairly ingrained, even though I don't actually agree with it

However, if you feed them organic, 'healthy' pouches or tubs which have 'all the goodness & flavour' sealed in, then you are really giving them the best thing possible - better even than homemade, which wasn't sealed in a field somewhere before the veg was an hour old. They do smell nicer and some are even vaguely edible.

I think there is something in the pouches/tubs are safer, glass is not. They 'seem' more environmentally friendly (even though they are probably not or are at best probably the same).

I wouldn't even register someone doing it out, but would probably be a bit at a jar at home but not so much a pouch/tub.

I think a lot of it harks back to 'food is love' :( Love is missing if you give your baby food out of jars. It's acceptable if they aren't going to bloody eat it anyway though. It's total shit, but clearly ingrained somewhere along the line.

It is weird.