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 wonder if it's also partly to do with the 'look', with the jars you can see the slimey stuff food, with the pouches all you see if pictures of actual food.

it is wierd yes and it is marketing, even heinz who when i had ds1 seemed SHITE, now have an organic range and a special homecooked, inspired my mums range etc and some of them smell/taste ok!

i still felt that pouches were better tho, or if not pouches i bought the organix range of jars, they were easy for when out or on holiday, far too expensive to use everyday imo. and i would only get the fruit/veg ones as the meat ones just 'seemed' icky, but i dont know why!

re the nitrogen i dont think they do have nitrogen ie salad bags are all 'puffed' up like filled with air, the pouches do just seem to ahve the food in and no air, they have a special coating on the indside of the pouches and are essentially the same as the jars i think. lots of fruit/veg ones seem to have lemon juice in whchi i guess it to prevent discolouration?

when i had ds1 the jars def had lots of added filler type stuff and salt and sugar, yet now i have gone and had a google the jars nowadays do not seem so bad, there are still some that dont seem great but most of them seem ok and there is such a massive range of choice nad marketing has def made some of them seem ok and acceptable to more 'middle class' mums iykwim? ie the ellas pouches and the organix ones, whereas i think heinz and other makes have struggled with the image of being a bit crap? but their marketing has changed to reflect what people want.

re ages i am 33, my eldest is 13yrs old, youngest is 23mths (3 inbetween)

some of the pouches has a see through bit actually chipping i just found an ellas kitchen one in the back of the cupboard, it does say on it for whoever asked that once opened you can keep it for 24hrs providing you refrigerate it :)

ellas pouches also advertise ON mnet! i dont think heinz do? maybe they advertise on other forums?

Chipping that is weird! I am lucky in that my toddler loves homemade food. Eating out is different. In the UK she'll always eat the chips. When on holiday, it's more of a struggle and I've found she'll only eat fried rice, fried noodles, risotto and deep fried chicken. I've never given her pouch or jar, so I'm not sure if there really is a difference in taste. But I get your thing about the marketing. I seem to gravitate towards organix goodies range. There's probably no difference in their mini chedder vs an adult cracker, for example. Or that I should just buy an adult cereal bar instead of their overpriced oaty bars. (I've tasted the organix goodies snack and they do taste good).

Well put, Chipping! There definitely seems to be a background sense of jars = mum who doesn't give a shit, v pouches = mum who has been a bit busy and had to grab something on the go. Which is crap, obviously.

I can't even stand half the jars of sweet food, let alone savoury, but DD wolfs them down like there is no tomorrow (and after yesterday's failed experiment with feeding her some of our food, the mince from enchilladas, I don't this she is going to eat any of my food for a while ).

The formula comparison is a good one. Most mums I know gave their baby Aptamil. We, being tight sods, went for Cow & Gate as it is the cheapest. We're the only ones of C&G. But I think I read somewhere that it is actually the same formula as Aptamil?

Oh and yes the heinz biscotti just give me that 'must be crap' feeling *5madthings'. I haven't even looked if they are worse. It's really all in my head I think!

Is it possibly because of the soup-in-a-pouch movement? We all think bought soup in a tin is a bit crap...but in a plastic bottle or bag it somehow looks homemade?

NellyBluth I gave cow & gate when DD went to nursery and the ingredient list looks almost identical. And they are by the same company. I think it's like Lexus and Toyota.

Blimey, DD could live on Heinz Biscotti and so could I to be honest that makes us look healthy, doesn't it?!

But about the chocolate flavoured ones, though, when they are for such a young age. I'm sure you can all tell I'm no food nazi but chocolate for a 6 month old seems a little eary...

its the power of advertising isnt it?! quite scary really ,but loook at the ellas adverts on mnet all fields and organic goodness and no added stuff etc.

re formula i bfed my first three but with no 4 and no 5 i put them onto formula after a few months and i bought/buy hipp because its organic it just 'seems' better but they are all essentially the same, some are even made by the same companies!

NellyBluth I'm sure it's no different from the organix goodies no-junk gingerbread men or alphabets. It just somehow seems healthier to me. It's illogical.

yes Nelly i agree with you re the chocololate flavoured ones, they seem crap for babies but the chocolate custard for example by heinz is just milk, custard powder and chocolate flavouring ie cocoa powder, so not essentially bad.

i buy mine the organix snacks and rice cakes i wouldnt even look at the heinz/cow and gate equivalent, which is actually probably just snobbishness ? they just seem better.

I believe the main issue with processed baby food is that they cook them at very high temperatures - this is how they have such long shelf lives. This high temp kills some of the vitamins and a lot of the flavour - I think they is why a lot of children won't have fresh food if they are used to the jars - fresh tastes too strong to them.

I used a mix with my ds tbh - jars for when out & about, frozen when rushed at home, and fresh when i had time. Worked well for us, at least.

I don't see pouches as being 'better' or 'healthier' than jars. Pretty much the same if you ask me.

When we were on puree, we used pouches instead of jars because DS was a spoon refuser, but would suck the puree out of the pouches. And I always felt a bit bad about that, because I worried it was worse than giving him puree on a spoon. And the pouches seemed safer to carry around when out, because if I break a pouch, I won't end up with broken glass all over my changing bag.

Environmentally though, I assumed that the glass jars were better, because you can recycle glass. I didn't know that the pouches were recyclable at all - I always just threw them in the bin.

I always found them ellas kitchen things well expensive! I did use them as my little one loved the butternut squash ones but a lot of the time I just cooked soft dinners like lots of mash potato, cottage pies and purred them up really well. The pouches and jars really were if i was in a canne be fussed mood but I do find them pouches really dear! I think the pretty packaging helps. Bit like those yummy mummy bags!

You can't compare them with Yummy Mummy bags! (I have one ). Bags are like clothes, they have to look right. It's less illogical to think jars are worse than pouches as they could be the same stuff. Or in maybe case rejecting the idea of looking at Heinz toddler snacks because it doesn't say organic and clever marketing like Organix and Ella's Kitchen.

I've tried cooking for my DD but I've found it a massive faff, mostly because she's not a massive eater so we ended up with masses of the same food for days and days and days! With jars you have an easy variety of tastes and textures.

I know the ideal is to just mash/puree stuff from your own meal and we've done that here and there but it's still the same problem... Tbh I've still not managed to get properly organised about our own dinners (plan the whole week then do the shop etc) so what chance does our poor DD have??

Don't be sad - she won't implode because you give her a jar! You say you're not organised yet - it might be easier if you were, but the world hasn't ended yet has it?! Give yourself a break!

How old is your dd? I use my freezer loads, when i cook something for us i put a portion for him in a ramekin and cling film & freeze it, so i have a little stash of 'ready meals' for him. Might that work?

Glow, you sound exactly the same as me. When I do cook something it means she ends up eating the same thing day in, day out. And we just don't have meals that are easily adapted for her, especially as she's not yet a fan of BLW-style eating. DP works shifts, half the time we both end up eating our main meal at work so we're not actually cooking at home.

The one thing that is working for us is pureeing and freezing ice cubes of veg like butternut squash and cauliflower, and then I mix it with cream cheese and add pasta. That's relatively easy and quick.

But you're not the only one who isn't organised. We're a disaster zone for food really. I honestly can't wait until DD is ready to eat food the CM cooks and we no longer have to send her with her own food...

I was going to suggest freezing your meal that's pureed into little ice cubes. I found the silicon muffin trays really helpful for this. They are smaller sized than the jars to start with too!

I'm always intrigued what meals people eat at home that are puree-able. Maybe DP and I eat weirdly?! We don't have bolognese, chilli, cottage pie, casseroles etc. The only meals of ours that suit a baby are a roast, which luckily she adores.

I don't know about purreeing - ds was quite good with blw, so i did that when he ate our food, combined with jars if that makes sense?!

What type of meals do you normally have?

Nelly if I remember from Annabel Karmel's book, she purees anything under the sun. I sort of remember things like sweet and sour chicken, lemon fish and chicken tagine. I mean if you think about it logically, a blitzed piece of meat is just mince isn't it?