Letting Go….

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.