Ok since we are on food, lets talk about Baby Led Weaning - isnt it just ANOTHER set of rules for mums to fail at?

[Enid]

Because by NOT following baby led weaning I don't have any angst about what to give dd3 for breakfast. I give her porridge, I spoon it in, she eats it, end of. I mean, sorry, but porridge pancakes!? Why bother?

I liked the idea of it but there seem to be toooooooooooo many threads asking for advice and what to feed your baby etc - this suggests to me that it is just ANOTHER thing to angst over. I mean, if I am giving dd1 and 2 shepherds pie with peas, how am I supposed to feed it to dd3? so she gets the same thing mashed up and spooned in, hurrah.

Shame about this fear, dizzy....so why don't these mothers use jars until their kids leave home then?

And at nutritionally balanced - maltodextrin and starchy thickeners? Yum.

We are suckers for the marketing men, who actually want us to feel incapable and useless.

This article focusses on American branded baby foods, but the principle is just the same. Poor value for money at best, poor nutrition at worst.

Branded baby foods are fine as a handy back-up, but it's a shame if mothers think they have to use them or their baby will suffer

very interesting tik tok, quite a shocker.

Errm this is a tad off the topic but somebody at the beginning mentioned porridge pancakes and i'm wondering if I could get a recipe for them as they seem like a great idea.

here

it's the first link on the left hand side. not a very exact recipe, i'm afraid.

baby food in jars is bloody revolting, sorry. and that reconstituted dried stuff... god don't get me started.

harpsi, i picked up a free jar of organic rice pudding in ikea (if it's free i'm 'avin' it) and couldn't believe the sell-by date on it. it'll last over eighteen months, according to the side of the pack. how can that be?

it has probably been irradiated.
allegedly.
I wouldn't eat processed food from a jar, and I certainly wouldn't eat dried food you had to add hot water to (Smash, anyone?) unless I was in outer space or up a mountain.
also, I am WAAAAAAY too tight to buy them when dd2 seems perfectly happy with table scraps

yeah, i personally don't like those cooking sauces in a jar, they taste all claggy, vinegary and thickened (plus i don't get why you can't just chop up an onion and garlic and whack in a can of toms...)

I did a blind taste of ten baby jars at my baby shower (don't ask) and they all tasted (a) the same and (b) faintly of sick.
except for the chocolate pudding, which was yum and suitable from three months.

aitch, I think these long lasting foods have been 'ultra-heat treated' like UHT milk, which will mean that they will keep in the container (which has no air in it) without going off for just about ever.

I don't know about the effect on other nutrients of this process, but it is certainly the case that at least some vitamins are destroyed by heat, I can't imagine you are getting the same product as fresh. And it certainly won't taste the same.

Someone with a food science qual will come on and put us right.

aitch - I agree with you about sauces. Some of them are ok, but the nasty ones are absolutely vile. They are full of yukky starchy thickeners.

Haven't read all of thread but just looked at the excellent article Tiktok linked to and this caught my eye:

'The FDA .... should stop Gerber from printing ingredient lists on first- and second-stage foods in small black lettering on a dark blue background.'

did NOT see that...

Message withdrawn

Thanks aitch for the recipe will get some porridge oats next time I'm out.

I must admit that rookiebaby gets jars when we go out.

I started out with very high standards on the whole thing, but got disheartened when he rejected my homecooking, plus it is such a faff taking out homemade because you need to worry keeping it cold so it doesn't get bacteria ridden.

Oh and we use jar sauces ourselves sometimes and apart from the vile and disgusting chicken tonight ones I find them ok.

i've only tasted dolmio when it first came out about a hundred years ago, and yes, a vile and disgusting chicken tonight one. i like cooking so i would tend not to use them as it would actually be less stressful for me to make chicken with cream and lemon (for example) than to open a jar and not know what to do with it. my mum never used jars either... we mostly ate out of the garden or the allotment or from the local butcher. in my day, jars were very fancy indeed.
i so get what you mean about the jarred baby food as well, all the worry of keeping it cool and getting it reheated etc is another one of the reasons why dd gets some of what i'm having when we're out. mind you, if you were to see the state of my kitchen you'd think that DD must have built up quite a bit of immunity to bugs already.

that's the marvellous thing about BLW though (boring myself now) is that the baby can just eat what you're eating when you're out without any need for faffing around with jars. or you just take along something like a ripe pear or banana or nectarine, and a ham sandwich and hey presto, lunch

Aitch and Harpsi, please please write a book and include a chapter on "how to persuade sceptical/horrified mothers and MILs that you are not going to choke your baby". I have explained the theory as best I can but mine still believe my baby will be totally unable to cope with any food if it isn't completely pureed the first time he has it.

i do have a chapter on it on my blog that you could print out if you want...
be sure and print out the comments as well, that's generally where the interesting stuff is.

thanks Aitch!

Aitch, your blog is fab by the way!

dd2 will be 6 months old on 19 December so we're thinking that Christmas dinner might be a good moment to hand her some food....

We did pretty much BLW dd1 and were thought a bit odd - lovely to have the blog by way of company this time!

that would be hilarious, you should definitely do it. my dd loves brussels sprouts. (can't honestly say i do but the frozen ones are so handy when you aren't eating and the baby is. wouldn't dream of using them on christmas day of course.)
what's the betting that yours will eat the paper hat first and then give the carrot some consideration?

The paper hat is a certainty.

Sprouts could be a problem as dd1 loves them, therefore all sprouts in the entire world belong to her alone. She'll be most put out at the thought of sharing the planet's stock of sprouts with her sister.

welliemum thanks for your offer on NZ birth advice which I just saw on another thread - will email you if I run into any confusions - all seems to be going OK at the moment although feeling slightly friendless!

Can't read this thread as I know I failed at it miserably. Except anything that happens in this house tends to be baby-led, frankly

MrsJC, how about asking your local Plunket nurse about joining a PIN group (parents in neighbourhood) - I did, and met some really nice people. Of course it's no substitute for having your own friends nearby, but kiwis are a friendly bunch and that counts for a lot.

You're in chch I think? Or did I make that up? Some mnetters there, and I'll be visiting chch a lot next year, so maybe we should have a mn meetup too!