Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

Original poster

help: healthy, ready-made early-weaning food advice!

29 replies

LadyClaret · 16/05/2007 23:53

My friend has been advised on medical gounds to only buy ready-made baby food for dd. She has spent a long time looking at the products on offer but is concerned at the ammount of added sugar they contain. Can anyone suggest a company which makes healthy early-weaning food (without much added sugar or many preservatives).

Many thanks!

OP posts:
moondog · 16/05/2007 23:54

by whom exactly and why?????

SofiaAmes · 17/05/2007 05:44

Never heard anything so ridiculous. Homemade baby food is soooo much better. It tastes way better and it means you can totally control what goes in the food. I made all my kids' baby food. I don't think either ever had a single container of ready-made food. And I certainly never addeed sugar (!!!) to their baby food.

earlgrey · 17/05/2007 06:17

What medical grounds LC? Sounds stark raving to me .....

If the baby's intolerant to anything couldn't she, ermm, leave it out of whatever she makes?

chocolatte · 17/05/2007 09:49

This does sound a bit craaaazy! Even if the ready made stuff doesnt contain sugar it doesnt have many nutrients either because of the long shelf life.

I do use hipp/plum baby when travelling and keep some in the car for emergencies but there's no way I would give it every day.

sideways · 17/05/2007 09:55

Early-weaning ready-made food????

Bloody nonsense.

Original poster
LadyClaret · 17/05/2007 15:54

Thanks for your comments, but I think we're going off-track here. My
friend has a severe medical condition and as DH works away, is more
or less looking after DD on her own. Doctor's advice is to buy
ready-made weaning food to ease her workload.

Obviously, my friend would prefer not to do this for all the reasons
you've all stated. She also feels bad enough about this already.
But because of her problems, and Doctor's advice, she's wondering if
there are ANY good products out there (as she's not got the strength
to look around the shops herself)? I'm therefore asking on her
behalf. If not, this helps her to decide what to do next.

Of course she'd love to be able to make wholesome, homemade food
herself, but due to her health she has to explore all options - if
she makes her condition worse, this doesn't help DD at all.

OP posts:
MrsApron · 17/05/2007 15:58

are we talking early weaning as in before 6 months or early weaning as in first tastes post 6 months?

MrsApron · 17/05/2007 15:59

asda have a snap frozen range if it is for post 6 months btw it might fit the bill.

Original poster
LadyClaret · 17/05/2007 16:00

First stages of weaning, so first tastes. DD will be 6 months next week but is waking in the night and feeding more frequently

OP posts:
MrsBadger · 17/05/2007 16:04

Several companies do frozen purees, which tend to have less additives in them than dried / canned / jarred stuff as they don't need preservatives.

Normal food like plain yoghurt, porridge or whatever veg she's having for dinner shoved through a blender are worth considering.

If the baby is >6mo and getting plenty of milk there's no reason why she can't eat 'human food' (as one HV termed it) in her fingers - bananas, pasta shapes, toast etc.

Original poster
LadyClaret · 17/05/2007 16:13

mrs Badger- you wouldn't know the names of the companies?

OP posts:
DontCallMeBaby · 17/05/2007 16:28

GoodnessKnows organic baby purees

Homebird8 · 17/05/2007 16:33

LadyClaret, where is your friend? Isn't there someone in her circle who could add the task of making baby puree to their already busy days. It's hardly rocket science and I'd happily do it for one of my friends. If I'm close to her - I will.

MrsBadger · 17/05/2007 16:58

oh god, Babylicious , Plum Baby , TeenyWeanies , Okey Dokey , Goodness Knows as already mentioned and All Good Stuff (though they might have gone bust actually).

Some of these even deliver if that'd make things easier for her.

LittleMissLate · 17/05/2007 19:03

Tesco and Waitrose have the "Ella's Kitchen" pouches of organic food with no junk added - dd loves the sweet potato, pumpkin, apple & blueberry one. They also stock the Hipp organic range of jars. I think the Organix First range of baby cereals have no added sugar (also in Waitrose and I think in Tesco). They have all their ingredients on their website . Boots also do an organic range but haven't read the ingredients lists.

moondog · 17/05/2007 19:45

FGS, how hard is it to mash up a banana or an avocado or spoon some yuoghurt into a bowl???

lulumama · 17/05/2007 19:46

LadyClaret

you might want to let your friend know about babyled weaning

no extra effort or cooking or pureeing involved !

NotQuiteCockney · 17/05/2007 19:50

Babyled weaning is definately less work than any of the other methods. You're just giving table scraps, really.

Original poster
LadyClaret · 17/05/2007 23:00

Thanks for all the advice, everyone - my friend really appreciates it. I will look up the companies named and pass them on. I'm also interested by the baby led weaning info- and will research that further too.

moondog- i appreciate that it is easy to mash some foods but my friend would like to expose her dd to a wide range of tastes and textures. You are also unaware of the severity of her condition.

Thanks for the generous offer homebird8- but my friend is very independent and we have tried to offer! We help as best as we can, when we can.

OP posts:
SofiaAmes · 18/05/2007 07:08

Sorry, LadyClaret for being so judgmental. I thought from your post that it was her baby's medical condition that was requiring the story bought food. Never even crossed my mind that it would be the mother's!!! I weaned my children on our mushed up dinners. I had to be a little careful in the beginning because of the food allergies in our family, but basically my kids got our leftover mushed up with a mouli. We went through 2 moulis per child (mushing rice burns them out), but in the end it was actually much easier than buying food. I would make batches after dinner with our leftovers and have enough for a few days of meals for the baby. Sometimes I would make a huge batch, freeze it and have food for a week or two.
I don't know what your friend's condition is and maybe none of this is a possibility for her, but if it might be feasible, it's worth trying to convince her to try it for a few weeks. She might actually find it less tiring/time consuming than searching for healthy readymade baby food.
Also, I think I read somewhere that some celebrity is starting a line of healthy baby food. Can't remember who though.

chocolatte · 18/05/2007 10:52

oooh, feel bad for writing about lack of nutrients. So sorry Lady Claret. I thought it was the baby's medical condition. silly me.

As she is v.independent would she be up to making a batch puree sometime and swapping some with friends so she will have a variety of h/m purees but wont be accepting help from others. Just an idea.

Also, could maybe add something to a ready made puree when the baby is ready for lumpy stuff. eg chopping or mashing a strawberry or piece of pear into a bought puree. The baby will still be getting fresh food without having to do all the chopping, peeling and pureeing.

Plum baby, Hipp and Ellas kitchen are all good with no bad stuff in as far as I can see. Also Babylicious frozen cubes from Sainsbury's. I use these for fish as I'm veggie and dont know how to cook it yet and make sure no bones hiding in there etc.

NineUnlikelyTales · 18/05/2007 11:03

Hi
It seems to me that the doctor's advice is a bit above and beyond the call of duty...I mean, advise someone to keep their workload to a minimum by all means but to actually tell someone exactly how to wean their child seems a bit much to me

There are loads of organic babyfood products on the market, you can get them all in Boots, Tesco's etc..but it works out very expensive compared to giving them normal food. Would your friend be prepared to try BLW? It has worked brilliantly for us, DS has more or less exactly the same food I have. In fact I tried him on jars when we were caught out once with no food and he turned his little nose up at them (having tasted them I can't say I blame him...and this was the expensive stuff

How about waiting till 6m and then trying sticks of cheese, toast, veg, fruit, potato wedges etc?

Best of luck to her,
nut

terramum · 18/05/2007 15:27

I would second the BLW approach for her as then all she has to do is cook a few (baby)handfulls of whatever she eats & offer them to her LO.....things like fruit & veg sticks are ideal first foods & dont need anymore preparation than she would do already to feed herself.

Homebird8 · 18/05/2007 15:53

Having tasted the Babylicious stuff, it's actually quite good and I even suggested it to my grandma when she was not up to eating solids!

belgo · 18/05/2007 16:00

IME, jars are easier then BLW. It's hard work looking after a baby, especially with a serious medical condition, I think anything to make her life easier is a good thing.