Letting Go….
- danielle762001
- Mar 15, 2016
- 1 min read
When Audrey was a baby, I made practically everything from scratch. When baby #2 came into the picture, I assumed all the same rules would apply. Boy was I wrong. Having a toddler running around with a new baby in tow is no easy feat. Slowly but surely many of the beliefs I held onto when Audrey was a baby began to fade. I still believe homemade is better than store-bought, I still cook the majority of the girls’ meals, but I’ve become much more lenient when it comes to snacks. Specifically, in the area of pouches. I just don’t have the time anymore to make every single portable puree from scratch. Yet I still have a baby who likes purees. And a 3-year old who likes what her sister is eating. And I like convenience…and satiating cranky kids that are hungry. Enter the pouch. My girls love them. When we travel (as we just did for almost 2 weeks) or when we are away from home, these little fruit & veggie concoctions have become quite the lifesaver. If I go there, I can come up with a few reasons to dislike them. But if I’m honest, I can find more reasons TO like them. As a parent, this has been a great lesson for me. Letting go of food ideologies I held onto with baby #1. Because as anyone with 2 kids knows, so much of that goes out the window. So, pouches have found a home in our pantry. And honestly, I’m pretty ok with it.
Here’s what you need to know about pouches:
These will not introduce your little one to the actual taste of an individual fruit or vegetable, so consume sparingly.
The flavor of veggies is almost always masked by the sweetness of the fruit in pouches.
Beware of sugar content: the produce in pouches is often pureed without the skin, eliminating much of the fiber content.
Avoid pouches with “concentrated fruit juice,” this is nothing more than another term for added sugar.
Look for pouches containing both vegetables and fruit with no more than 12 grams of sugar per serving.
Whole fruits and vegetables will provide less sugar and more fiber, plus less sweetness and more satiety.
My favorite brand is Happy Baby/Tot. Other notable high-quality brands are Plum Organics, Ella’s Kitchen, Peter Rabbit, and Sprout.
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