Ella's Kitchen for first solids - any views?

I am a friend

Hi All

As per title, I have just today started giving baba solids and used Ella's Kitchen.. What are your experiences of this product? Any others I should try?

Thanks

Lola92

I first got these when my daughter was a few weeks old purely because her name is Ella too!

I only really used them when we were out and about or maybe one of the smoothie fruit pouches as a quick snack when she was older. I think they are very good quality and I can vouch that all of the ones that I have tried tasted lovely, unlike the jars, bleurgh! (I will not feed my child anything that I would not eat myself)

I also thought that the organix range was good and have tried the plum ones too. No complaints with either of them.

The only thing I would say though is that they end up being quite expensive though if you are using them for everyday feeding. It works out a lot cheaper to buy a big load of fruit and veg and do up a few batches of purees for the freezer. Freezing in ice cubes give you handy sized portions and you can mix them together for different flavour combos when baby has gotten used to one taste. Aldi super 6 are great for cheap fruit and veg btw

liamo

We always have a supply of Ella main meals and desserts on hand. We've been using them since our little girl was about 6 months. She's now 16 months and they're just as important now as then.

They're completely natural (although that's not unique to Ella).
They're tasty (We wouldn't give her something to eat that we wouldn't eat ourselves).
The whole eat-straight-from-the-pouch thing lends itself very well to a small (and not so small) child feeding himself/herself.
They're great for throwing into her bag for a snack when we're out and about.
Also, sometimes she simply won't eat whatever we may have prepared for her meal. It's great to have an Ella on hand to give her.

As Lola92 said, it could get expensive it you were to rely on these a lot. We might not use an Ella at all for a couple of days. Then we might have to give her a few in one day. All in all, the convenience and quality is great!

I give Ella my highest recommendation!

annamcmahon

I used these and the Organix pots and pouches when we started giving our daughter solids. I found them handy when she was only eating a few spoons and one lasted 2 meals. I also used them to introduce new flavours. Now that she is 14months I use them if we end up being out in a shopping centre around lunchtime. Every boots and supermarket sell them and she can suck the contents out of the top.

Quirkygirl

I am a puree woman girls, make everything for baby. Do a mix of vegs and fruits twice or 3 times a week and freeze in portions. I find it very economical, easy to develop babies taste and texture, and I mix and match it every week and then introduce a new food every 3-4 days, my son is nearly 7 months now. No experience of shop bought stuff

I am a friend

And guys - other than cost, what are the benefits of home made stuff over this product (in your experiences). that variety of organic food is not available where I live so am weighing up the pro's and cons.

How Strange

To be honest I'm very sceptical about organic vegetables v ordinary vegetables. I'm more inclined to consider fruit and vegetables based on where they're grown so I'll buy Irish or even better locally grown over organic which have travelled thousands of miles. I also believe in buying in season so we don't eat strawberries or blueberries in winter.

Those pouches are undoutedly convenient and as far as off the shelf baby food goes its very good but it makes more sense to make your own. As you go along you can purée a bit of whatever you're having for dinner, minus the salty seasoning or stock, so you all eat the same and this is the most cost effective of all.

Also in terms of educating your baby's taste buds and palate I think it's better to get them used to home made food.

cbyrd

Convenience is one thing.. as with jars and powder foods sometimes homecooked is not always easiest. I was always a fan of mixing so that they were used to both.
I just started using the ella's kitchen and i have to say i'm a big fan.. and so is my son we've so far only tried the fruit ones but i have some savoury that we'll be trying ... he's not a fan of savoury anything yet.. be it homecooked or jars.. he looks like he sucking a lemon when ever i try him.. I have frozen batches of sweet potato, squash and carrot in the freezer but i always gave them jars too so that when you're out and about or simply run out that they will eat them.
As for veg, the healthiest one you can get are actually the frozen ones .. believe it or not .. fresh anything can be sitting around for days and days and travelling from god knows where.. organic has no pesticides or unnatural fertilizers and jars and pouches are made from the organic baby grade fruit and veg.
I do find the pouches have less of a taste of lemon juice (the natural preservative) and my lad will finish a pouch in one sitting.. especially the red and the purple one.. in a few weeks when he's used to lots of different tastes we'll be all eating from the same pots although he'll be getting his spuds before everyone else

pwurple

We use a mix of the ellas stuff for when we are out and about, and our own stuff pureed. I found some of them to be a bit weird tasting to be honest, especially the ones marked for 10 months plus. The beef thing with cinnamon is rank, as is the fish pie one. They have a pasta one that my husband bought (god knows why, regular pasta and our own sauce is fine) but i found it very sweet altogether. The others have been pretty good though. Our small girl gets them maybe twice a week, and I have one in the nappy bag in case we are caught somewhere with nothing suitable. Recently discovered you can recycle them for free on terracycle, which is good. You print out a postge paid label and off they go.

Jenniflower87

I've tried the Ella range and the Organix range and think they are brilliant. I buy one of them and try them with my little man. If he likes it I make a batch of it myself and freeze them. If he doesn't like it I haven't wasted loads of money on fruit and veg. He isn't great on just veg on its own so when I saw that Ella's kitchen put fruit and veg together I thought that it was a great idea and I can pretty much put anything together in a mixture and he'll eat it.

I like making my own batches of stuff as everything isn't mass produced and nothing looses its flavour. You don't want your baba getting used to bland flavours, you'll find it hard when they are older to eat anything. Good luck with it!

NextSteps

I find the pureed fruit ones very handy. For the cost of it (99c is the cheapest I've found) you'd hardly buy as much organic fruit. The baby (12 months) loves them and they are a great snack for out and about, rather than always offering rice cakes and savoury biscuits, which is the other easy, non-perishable alternative. Tasty, too.

Like someone said above, though, I decided not to give him anything I won't eat myself, and pureed fish pie out of a bag? Yuck.

vibe666

we make our own at home and more recently, we cook our own meals with the baby in mind, so he gets a taste (and some frozen portions) of whatever we're eating. all organic where possible, or whatever premium type fruit and veg we can find.

that said, we've got a few ella's pouches for emergencies and those 'just in case' times when we're out, but we've tried them and altho they're okay, they seem very watery and lacking flavour compared to our home made stuff.

i'm sure there are laws governing what they can put in them, but altho they do a convincing enough argument on the back of the pouches, it's like anything else, whatever anyone says they will do, you can only really trust yourselves to look after your baby's needs the way you want them looked after.