Yesterday I went to Target and I needed to grab some more sippies for DS. Half of the baby food aisle were baby food pouches. Am I missing the appeal of these? I tried giving DS one at a picnic because I thought it would be an easy way to pack fruit without making a mess but boy was I wrong! He just used it as an applesauce projectile device.
Please discuss. Do you love them/hate them?
Re: Can we talk about baby food pouches?
lol! I was concerned DS would do the same, but (knock on wood) he hasn't figured that out yet.
I love them. DS eats so well from them that I've gotten into the bad habit of buying them. At first, I only purchased them to have something in the diaper bag. They are twice as much (or more) than the regular babyfood, and I'm not that concerned with organic, so I hated to spend the money. They're just so darn convenient since we are always on the go.
I'm trying to wean myself off of relying on them since DS really needs to be eating more solids and less purees, but I'll probably keep buying the applesauce (the Mott's brand on the fruit aisle, not the babyfood ones) for on-the-go snacks.
I love them because DS won't eat solid veggies but he will suck these down in five seconds. It is the only way I get him to eat anything green.
Eta: also, I buy the HappyBaby kind with Omega3 and fiber.
I love pouches. We never used jars, the pouches are SO much easier especially for on the go.
DS doesn't like to pick up veggies or fruit. He only likes to feed himself "dry" foods, like waffles, pancakes, grilled cheese, shredded cheese, etc so the pouches are sometimes the only way I can get him to eat fruit and veggies. I mix a veggie pouch in with his oatmeal in the mornings and a fruit pouch in his lunchtime yogurt.
Plum Organics makes the "boon spoon" which you can attach to a pouch to serve it to your LO. They come in a two pack. Right now, when DS wants a pouch for a snack I just squeeze it into his mouth. At the very end, when there is a tiny bit left, I let him hold it and try to squeeze it into his own mouth. I figure he has to learn somehow!
I agree.
Yeah... we're of this camp as well.
I LOVE FRUIT POUCHES!
Well, I love to give them to my kids. lol.
They do require some supervision at first, but once my kids figured them out, they became a diaper bag must.
I will be honest, when I first saw them in the store, I thought they were really stupid. But someone gave us a few in DD's Easter basket, and I now find them useful as a portable snack. I've never used them for meals - if we're going to eat while we're out, we pack a meal to take with us, or she eats whatever we're having. That they don't need to be kept cold is a real bonus, and I don't have to put a sticky spoon back in my diaper bag or purse when she is done eating.
I will say that I cannot hand her the pouch and leave her unsupervised, she will squeeze the bejeezus out of them and make an awful mess. But as long as I help her, there is little or no mess, which is great because she doesn't get sticky hands.
As for the price, I will only buy them when they are on sale for less than $0.75 a pouch. The everyday price at around $1.25 a pouch is way overpriced in my opinion. I buy the Go-Go Squeeze applesauce at Costco, and I think it works out to $0.49 a pouch, which is not bad.
Amen!
And I agree that we DON'T use them for meals. They're just regular fruit sauce, so I use them as such: for snack or dessert.
It's funny b/c we did pure BLWing for introducing solids. When C was about 10 months old, we shared a Jamba Juice all fruit smoothie and he LOOOVED it. I mentioned to a friend who later, when I was packing for C and I to take a trip across the Country, solo, gave me a pouch to try to see if it would be a convenient and easy thing for me to have in the diaper bag for our trip (since he loved straws, loved smoothies, etc). He DEVOURED it. So I like to joke that we did our first baby food/puree at 10 months old. I hold it, he sucks it down through the straw. Otherwise, he squeezes it all out all over himself and licks it off his hands.
Interestingly, now even Trader Joes has their plain applesauce in pouches, and our daycare teacher mentioned them being easy packables for her daughter's (age 7+) lunch. I don't see anything wrong with them being used as an ocassional snack. He digs them, they're pretty healthy, we use them rarely but unapologetically. Anything and everything in moderation
I felt the same way until they saved me from meltdowns. I think I bought the applesauce ones first because we had a week-long event I was helping with, and I needed an easy no-mess snack. After that, I bought some of the others because they have some veggies in them that DH won't eat, so I don't buy those veggies.
DS still doesn't have any teeth, so I'm fine with giving him purees. BLW is not for us. The only way he would get the pouches when he's older is if I keep a few of them in the car for emergencies, but I wouldn't buy the babyfood ones for that.
"Last longer" as in shelf life? I don't know. They are definitely more convenient - you don't have to worry about having a spoon. DS sucks them out of the pouch like drinking a Capri Sun, but (like someone else mentioned) there are spoon attachments if you want to feed it to them.
This is us too. Our pedi recommended we try them when I explained how he won't eat solid veggies. He loves the pouches!