Pros and Cons of Baby Food Pouches
Pop into any baby food aisle and you will be confronted with an endless array of pouch food. Quite the phenomenon given that they only came onto the market about a decade ago. As with anything invented by humans, my first instinct is skepticism. Modern inventions always have both pros and cons, and I like to weigh them carefully before I jump on the bandwagon.
Pros
Convenience! This is probably their main selling point. They're shelf stable until opened, available nearly everywhere and relatively mess free to eat (depending on your kid's temperament). And best of all, kids can feed themselves. That part appeals to me the most, as I am not nearly patient enough for spoon feeding. Plus it is good for kids to self-regulate their intake, rather than be force fed by an adult.
Kids LOVE them. Maybe not all kids - my son is kind of hit or miss - but many kids get pretty jazzed about pouch food. My daughter is one of those kids. Despite years of work on my part to introduce her to robust flavors, she will gleefully suck down the blandest, grossest baby food pouch in 2 seconds flat, given the chance. To be honest, I'm torn as to whether this point should fall under pros or cons...
Cons
Kids LOVE them. As I mentioned, my daughter will eat ANYTHING if it's in pouch form. Which makes me think that she's not actually learning new flavors, nor is she listening to her own hunger cues. Please do not be conned into thinking that the one leaf of spinach added to a pouch full of bananas will lead to a kid that loves spinach salads. That simply isn't the way it works. If you want your kids to like spinach salads, the real solution is to frequently serve....spinach salads! Believe it or not, seeing a food on their plate but NOT eating it is actually more impactful than when they actually consume the food but don’t know it.
They bypass chewing. This is a con from both an oral-motor development perspective as well as a metabolic perspective. As I covered in my post about smoothies, I am not a fan of older kids (anyone over 9-12 months) getting their food in liquid form. Because pureed food is already mechanically digested, it gets absorbed into the blood stream unnaturally quickly. This is bad for blood sugar and overworks the pancreas (which works to bring blood sugar back down). It's especially true for pouches with a high fruit content. And speech therapists are quick to point out that young kids should be practicing chewing and swallowing solid foods, rather than just sucking purees from a pouch.
They're [often] eaten at inappropriate times. Pouches are almost always used as snacks on the go, particularly for older kids. I am not a big proponent of snacking in general, especially informal grazing in a car seat or stroller or any other non-table location.
So what's the verdict? I suggest that parents use pouches very judiciously. For babies that are still in the puree stage (from around 6-9 months, possibly up to about 10-11 months) they can be a useful thing to bring with you when eating outside the home. Most babies still aren’t great with self-feeding from pouches at that point, but they’re really easy to squeeze onto a spoon and spoon feed. I recommend looking for varieties that are more than just fruit. Ideally they should include meat or fish, vegetables and some herbs and spices. Better options include:
Serenity Kids (LOVE that the meat is grass fed and the fish is wild caught)
Sprout Organics (choose the Stage 3 options with meat - ignore their non-nonsensical “staging,” you can and should use the multi-ingredient “Stage 3” ones from the very beginning)
Earth’s Best (again, choose the Stage 3 options with meat)
Happy Baby (broken record…choose the Stage 3 options with meat, even if your kiddo is a new eater around 6 months old)
When it comes to older kiddos that have transitioned to table food (around 9+ months old), the pouches really get dicey. You want to treat them like a fun treat, served as a side dish to a larger meal, and truly not very often. Even better would be to buy reusable pouches that your toddler can help you fill with plain yogurt and maybe a fruit puree or applesauce, so they know exactly what’s in there. Regardless, it’s not something to do daily or even weekly, and certainly not in a car, stroller or on the go. I'm sure the genius that invented pouches would love for your kid to have one attached to their hand all day long, but I think that guy or gal will be plenty rich enough if we limit pouch food to the table.