Baby Food Pouches in the Supermarket

I popped into our big Sainsbury’s at the weekend and was amazed to see how much the baby food pouch section had grown since my last visit. There were 8 shelves on a unit with around 90 different variaties from Cow & Gate, Ella's Kitchen, Annabel Karmel, Hipp and Heinz aswell as others on the next shelf!

It seems that every brand of baby food now offers pouch packaging which just goes to show how convenient and popular pouches are.

I am a big advocate of home made baby food but I do also completely understand that sometimes you just don’t have time or need the convenience of a shop bought dinner. I did it myself but it makes me so sad to think of all (or most)of the packaging heading into the bin within a matter of days or weeks of being bought.

I'm not going to lie and say that it doesn't also make me sad to think that more than ever processed baby food is being bought by parents for their little ones.

I would obviously love to see more home made baby food being made and fed to babies, toddlers and big kids rather than all of this processed food.  Home made food helps your little one get used to the real tastes and textures that they will experience whilst living with you and eating at your table. Homemade food can also be packed full of more nutrients and certainly contain more fats. This may seem an odd thing to say as fat is so often seen as a bad thing...but babies and kids need good fats in their diet to help them grow and develop. Like everyone else they need less sugar so it really annoys me that savoury baby food is so often sweetened with apples!

I would love to hear if using our pouches or other reusable pouches has encouraged or helped you to make more home made foods for your little ones.

Don't forget that the processed baby food pouches can be upcycled if you save them and pass them on to a local organisation that collects them for Charity. Count The Kicks collect them or you can look on the Terracycle website for a local collection point.