My overall aim is to help you make family mealtimes enjoyable, easy and nutritious. I am not against any food but there are certain things we need to be aware of to keep feeding a family easy in the long term!
Something to think about:
Breastmilk and Formula are sweet. We were all born with a sweet tooth. We naturally choose sweet flavours. It is easy to get a baby to eat something sweet. As a result sweet flavoured baby foods are easily palatable for your baby.
Fruit sugars are fine in real fresh fruit. When fruit is processed into a pouch/ rice cake/ yoghurt it changes to a ‘free sugar’ – the ones we are trying to limit. You can read the report from the WHO on free sugars here.
We eat fruit for lots of reasons – one being because they are a source of water soluble vitamins. When fruit is processed into a pouch/ rice cake/ winder etc – the water soluble vitamins are destroyed and most of what is left is the sweetness/ sugar.
My tips when buying readymade baby food:
If you wouldn’t eat it yourself then don’t make it a regular part of your child’s diet.
The more commercial baby foods your baby eats – the less they will develop a taste for the foods you make yourself.
If you buy ‘fruit only’ pouches – use a little to flavour something you are already having – a little in porridge for example (mashed fresh fruit is more nutritious if you have it). A full fruit pouch on its own is too much.
Try and keep to products/meals with no or minimal fruit added – keep to less than 5g of sugars or look at the ingredients. (Keep fruit/ fruit concentrate etc near the end of the list of ingredients as this means it contains the least amount of it). If it is a meal ‘with apple sauce’ just check that apple sauce isn’t the biggest ingredient.
Feed from a spoon and not directly from the pouch – especially for toddlers! Toddlers an become ‘brand loyal’ very quickly.
If a product has a picture of a baby or a cartoon character on it, the chances are it is sweeter – your child will love it, but, used regularly – it won’t make your life easy in the long term.
First Steps Nutrition have done a full report on baby food pouches – you can read the full report here.
Consider coming to my Masterclass or having a few really easy meals up your sleeve so that when you are stuck you always have a plan B! You will find my Plan B dinners here.
To learn more about fruit snacks for children please read the report by First Steps Nutrition in the UK – you can read the full report here.
First Steps Nutrition are a registered charity in the UK. https://www.firststepsnutrition.org/