Do you judge parents who feed their child jars/pouches

[sabrinathethirtysomethingwitch]

Just that really.

And if so, why?

DSis was brought up on jars, but DF and DSM both worked full time. I do judge them.

Nope, I don't care what other people do. When I had my first I was a judgey Mum but my 2nd soon snapped me out of it. Now I'm on my 3rd I don't even notice other people!

Dc2 & 3 were pretty much exclusively weaned on heinz baby porridge and cow & gate jars with a bit of mashed banana and finger foods thrown in. I bought jars 10 at a time.

I wouldn't judge someone unless they were wasting loads of money on it and they couldn't afford it. Maybe I don't go out much but I could probably count on one hand the amount of jars/pouches my lot have had. Just never really seen the need. My first was weaned on homemade purées I froze in advance. The second I didn't do that and I genuinely cant remember what I did (but it wasn't blw) think I just boiled up a carrot, mashed a banana as I went, then just mashed up whatever we were having. I've got a nearly 6 mths old Lo now and I have gone down the premade freezing route but not really for nutritional reasons, more cost cutting lol. Had a load of apples off my tree and my neighbour gave me butternut squash and marrow she'd grown. It was free and seemed a shame to waste it! My los have always eaten my food as babies, it's when they get older the fussiness starts! But if pouches etc is all your baby will eat then what can you do.

Jars are better than pouches as they're recycable

Ella carrot pouches are great for mixing with crushed tablets if you need to syringe antibiotics into a horse

Thanks all. Definite mixture of opinions here. But it seems most don't judge occasional use of jars/pouches, especially when out and about.
Had a look at some in the supermarket yesterday. Shockingly expensive 😱. And the pouches seem so small so I assume an older baby might eat two or three in one sitting?!?

Yes I do actually because they’re grim. I’ve only ever seen a couple of people use them

Pouches are so much easier when out and about. Freezing, defrosting, heating to kill bacteria, cooling to edible temperature is a real faff and not worth the effort. My ds had some pouches for convenience but mostly ate normal food blw style.

Ds had Ella’s fruit or veg pouches - he was weaned at 18 weeks under gp advice due to reflux and I didn’t trust my own food after finding a lump in carrots I’d puréed for 10 mins.

Was fully weaned by 8 months using traditional weaning and eating the same as us, but at 15 months I still give him a fruit pouch/pot as he won’t eat any other fruit, plus if he’s teething bad I sometimes semi-freeze one and he chews away on it

No, I don't judge. At all.

I tried with blw until it became obvious that dd just wouldn't eat any of it. I made my own purees, but she was a bit iffy about them. But she will consume some of the Ella's kitchen pouches like they are going out of fashion. Turns out she only wants to eat food with a fair amount of spice in it. So she will eat a mild curry, but refuse cottage pie, toast etc, but I just can't make a spicy meal everyday. I need easy solutions a few times a week.

Children are wildly different and a bit weird. I think I must have the only one year old that will eat a green bean but refuse banana.

What's grim about them?

With DS1 everything was home cooked, he's a shit eater now aged three and basically survives on Cheerios, apples and toast. DS2 came along when DS1 was 20 months so I had a lot on my plate. DS2 was weaned about 50/50 on pouches and home made food but I simply didn't have time to home make everything. He loved the pouches and at 18 months old now has a great diet.

Why make comments about things you don't know about? Ella's pouches (four instance) are all just fruit/veg etc, there's no rubbish in them. Bar the texture, which is not to my taste, there is nothing grim about them.

Of course there will be people that judge you for using pouches/jars as once you become a parent people will judge you for literally anything.

I have lost count of the number of parents (myself included) that start off with the best intentions of giving their children homemade purées and healthy finger foods only for the babies to enter into toddlerdom and refuse to eat any of it. It is unfortunately incredibly common and also really demoralising when your child can sniff out a disguised vegetable a mile away and reject a whole meal because of it. You soon come to appreciate that getting nutrition into them anyway you can is the name of the game and if that involves giving them a pouch, making up elaborate games or even a bit of bribery then so be it. Anyone that says otherwise has never dealt with a serious case of having a fussy eater and understand the level of desperation this can evoke in a parent.

They taste from. Taste one

They taste grim even

I don't care what other parents feed their children, although I haven't actually seen anybody use pouches or jars as everyone I know does blw. I imagine it's the same as buying the kiddylicious stuff which dc1 loves or the aldi biscotti which he appears to have an addiction to, so isn't allowed them very often.

The fruit ones just taste like fruit... admittedly I haven't used the ones which claim to be fish pie or casserole or whatever, but the fruit ones are quite nice.

I do judge. But I only have one! I can see why people use them now and again if they're out and about and haven't had time to make something to bring with them. It's when I see people filling their shopping baskets with loads of them and you know that child lives off them.
What saddens me is that a lot of people rely on these processed foods because they lack the confidence to cook healthy food for their children and some people honestly believe a jar is better than a nutritious home-made meal.
I know a woman whose own diet is so poor and doesn't have a clue where to start nutrition-wise for her dd. She has confidence in the jars but not herself.

I would judge a bit tbh, they are SO expensive it surely is easy just to cobble something together out of the ingredients from the adults meal and mash it together, or blw. I totally understand it for the convenience when going out, trying something different, etc, but it just seems so expensive and wasteful on packaging for every meal of the day.

I did judge when someone brought a baby of 1yrs old round and gave it a small tin of Heinz tomato soup with a slice of white bread soaked in it, baby had that every day and the mum wouldn't let it try the mash/chicken/veg combo that I'd prepared. I hold my hands up to that one.

Passthecake30 like I said, I'm sure the mum honestly thought it was the best thing to feed her child which is a shame. At that age her child would've been fine eating what you'd prepared. Then people wonder why their kids are fussy have issues with textures/pips/fruit bits etc etc
Education is the key.

@Passthecake30
Maybe the mum knew that the baby wouldn't like the food you had prepared and didn't want to feel embarrassed or like they had been impolite when the meal was rejected?

I don't really understand why anyone would judge someone because they were choosing to feed their kids in an economically inefficient way. It's not like they're spending your money on the pouches so I don't really know why it would bother you. Lots of people spend their money on all sorts of things that I wouldn't personally view as value for money but I don't judge them for it.

It might be economically inefficient but on a nutritional level it's rubbish, that's why people judge. When you're boiling up your sweet potato( or whatever!) for little Freddie's lunch you know exactly what is in the food you choose to give to your child.

To those who do judge: What is your verdict on parents who use jars/pouches?

Nope but i have been judged for it. With DD (now 6) i painstakingly spent hours in the kitchen making purees (blw terrified me) only to find she refused them. Every. Single. Mouthful. I wanted to cry. Went to visit my parents & mum produced a jar of spag bol mush...DD demolished it. After that every time she saw mum with a jar & spoon she went nuts. Was bloody soul destroying but she was eating lots of different things so we went with it.

With DS i intend to do mixed blw & home done puree...hopefully he likes it!

People who judge need to get their heads out their backsides. There are lots of reasons people use jars. Those who judge can you say, hand on heart, that every single thing you cook is done fresh from scratch? Or do you use processed stuff for convenience? It isn't any different. And if i decided to use jars this time & got judged i'd empty the bloody thing into a container before i went out. Bet no buggar would question that

I wish my Dd would have eaten some jars or pouches it would have made my life easier. She point blank refused to eat any, even the baby ready meals she spat back out.