the new food pouch study help??!

Im still using them. We do a mixture of pouches and BLW. I think as long as it's not every meal it's fine. They get all their needs from milk, food is just for fun under 1 and to teach them to eat. At least that's what I'm telling myself 🤣

Yes, because babies don’t get enough iron from milk. Are you breast feeding or formula feeding? There are low amounts of iron in breast milk and baby does not absorb all of it (even less if using formula), so baby requires additional iron from diet, because from 6 months a baby’s iron stores are depleted. Some of the pouches do not contain that much iron so I would look at the individual nutritional content of each one. Most breakfast cereals are fortified with iron. Personally I don’t use the pouches. Nothing against them and I feel you can use them to complement weaning. I cook and prepare my own food for my little one so I know exactly what he has. My tip is to batch cook and then freeze it in ice cube trays.

I’m still using them at least until she’ll actually tolerate normal food, she’s not a fan of BLW 😅 we haven’t cut down on any bottles at the moment so she’s still getting everything she needs, I’m just using pouches until she gets used to more flavours and textures. We’ve started introducing porridge so we’re moving on slowly 😅

I think the main thing is to make sure you don't rely on the pouches as their main source of nutrients. Im doing blw so haven't really used them but if you have time for a bit of meal prep yourself (I know it's hard to find time!!) then you can get reusable NomNom pouches and make these yourself so you know exactly what goes in xx

I think it's still fine to use them, just not as 3 meals a day the only thing you ever feed them! At this age they get what they need nutritionally from their milk anyway, food is for the experience and learning how to eat solids. I prep what I can myself veg and fruit wise or any time I can blend what we eat. I use the pouches as a treat or for things that would be a faff to prep myself - she likes the pears and plums pouches!

thanks everyone! yeah she has her porridge and then she’s formula fed but moved onto the follow on formula that has more iron in so hopefully it’ll be fine for now - totally agree it’s fun before 1 and she’s not into BLW right now, i think it’ll be fine for the next month while we get our feet under the table and explore more finger foods 😊

I'm not doing blw, but I just puree whatever we are having with a hand blender. I use the rebecca Wilson cookbooks, which I also used to wean my son (it's great family food, suitable from 6 months). We are just seven months but on 3 meals a day started weening at 5 months due to weight gain issues (advised to do this by pedetrician and dietician). We use fruit pouches and ocasiobal pouch when we are out and about for convenience.

I think make eggs, toast, pasta, sweet potato etc when at home then the odd pouch when out or when you don’t have time is fine! I limit myself to one pouch a day max x

I know Kendamil has one of the highest iron contents for formula not sure how the others rate. However I wouldn’t worry to much regarding the report, I’d just make some mindful swaps - eg. If you are giving her a fruit pouch, get a banana and mush it up yourself, or for example as someone above said, just blend a meal you would eat, or just boil up some sweet potato’s and blend them up, add some carrots in etc .. all very easy to do and very quick considering you can buy tinned veg. I think those who solely rely on food pouches are misinformed on feeding. The pouches are fab to begin weaning but they’re soon and very quickly able to manage other foods that are better than a pouch.. I noticed a lot of people in the programme had babies who had a mouth full of teeth so I didn’t understand why they’d offer a pouch at their age as a meal anyway x

@Aimee that’s exactly what i thought about the report, they did look older?? mine currently has 0 signs of teething which is what scares me a little about BLW as well

@Sarah you know what my little girl barely had your typical teething symptoms, she’s a very happy baby - this week she’s been extra clingy and albeit her tooth popped through over the weekend! I started by giving my girl some toast in some squares, and as soon as they began to get soggy I’d take them away just to get myself and her more confident with larger food, I’ve also gave her cucumber sticks which she wasn’t a fan, otherwise those melty sticks from Aldi/Organix I’ve found melt quite easy and I felt comfortable giving the baby to gum xx