Do you give your babe "puffs" or "melts"?

[Blessed1]

Every where we go, I see babies devouring cereal puffs or yogurt type melts. Every one always asks me why I don't give them to my little one yet...And honestly I've never really thought about it before (we are doing BLW so I've never ever had to buy prepackaged "baby food" type items). I sorta just figured it was "junk"/snack food for baby and that she really didn't NEED it.

Am I wrong?? Please enlightened me.

I've NEVER bought them before but I have been looking at these.  I was thinking of picking some up...they sound pretty good but I am not sure about all the ingredients in them (I am not a big fan of prepackaged food).  I am sure my little one will enjoy them..but is it necessary??

Any advice is appreciated!! Thanks mamas!

[Knitting Mama]

Around 8 months old, I began offering my daughter what I call "puffies," which are organic puffed brown rice similar to this one-- no additives, no sugar, no salt, etc. I don't give them all the time, but I like to give them to her in her carseat's cup holder, as it keeps her happy on car trips. Puffed rice melts in the baby's mouth pretty easily, and can be found in the cereal aisle of most natural foods stores.

[katelove]

Nope, we don't. We give her what we eat and we don't eat puffs or melts. I did make her some rusk-type biscuits but only because she kept taking them off the other babies at mother's group and I wanted to have something to give her.

[Blessed1]

Originally Posted by Cecilia's Mama 

Around 8 months old, I began offering my daughter what I call "puffies," which are organic puffed brown rice similar to this one-- no additives, no sugar, no salt, etc. I don't give them all the time, but I like to give them to her in her carseat's cup holder, as it keeps her happy on car trips. Puffed rice melts in the baby's mouth pretty easily, and can be found in the cereal aisle of most natural foods stores.

Thanks for this.  Sounds like a great alternative.  I am worried about the sugar in the traditional puffs.  I will look for them tommorrow when I visit my whole foods store! :)

[Blessed1]

Originally Posted by katelove 

Nope, we don't. We give her what we eat and we don't eat puffs or melts. I did make her some rusk-type biscuits but only because she kept taking them off the other babies at mother's group and I wanted to have something to give her.

I was also thinking of making my little one some type of "biscuit" or food that I could easily take and give to her when we are out and about that produce little mess. 

[Knitting Mama]

I did try making my own rice rusks with what seemed like a perfectly easy recipe, and they came out hard as a rock. :( I might try again, but I don't know how to get a consistency similar to the Baby Mum Mums, which also melt in the mouth.

[Stitches]

My DD was fond of baby mum mums for a while, but I never bought any of the processed 'puffs', I just didn't see the point when there are lots of other decent finger foods and I try to steer clear of anything processed.  When she was a little older I started giving her puffed wheat and brown rice cakes, which were big hits, she liked the texture I guess, and I liked that they were whole grain.   She's 3 now and still loves brown rice puff cereal.

[goinggreengirl]

I have gotten some. It was more of a- we have to get our taxes filed, he's being grumpy, let's grab something that's new and will keep him entertained/ quiet for awhile! He likes them. The bottle we got has lasted over a month, so I don't give them often.

[katelove]

Originally Posted by Blessed1 

I was also thinking of making my little one some type of "biscuit" or food that I could easily take and give to her when we are out and about that produce little mess. 

The ones I made are pretty hard but she is happy to suck/gnaw away on them. There is a bit of mess though. When she wipes the chewed end on me it leaves a mark on my clothing but they don't tend to crumble into a mass of crumbs which is good.

[Buzzer Beater]

Originally Posted by katelove 

Nope, we don't. We give her what we eat and we don't eat puffs or melts. I did make her some rusk-type biscuits but only because she kept taking them off the other babies at mother's group and I wanted to have something to give her.

I'd love your recipe. We won't be doing puffs or melts, but it is nice to have something along those lines. DD won't eat a mum mum for anything.

[chel]

i tried offering baby puffs but my dd didn't like them.  i like having some sort of finger foods for dd when out and about.

[tzs]

we never did. i don't mind packaged foods but the puffs seemed like a huge waste of money. there were just always other snack-type foods that we would normally have in the house that we could take for her (cereal, crackers, banana...)

[Kuba'sMama]

I do like mum mums sometimes because dd likes the taste of them (they have several flavors) and i like that they are not very messy, so good for outings, stroller, car seat. I can't imagine what would happen to a banana on those occasions . I keep a couple in my diaper bag for sudden crankiness, or if i need to have her occupied for a couple of minutes.

[bdoody11]

My DH flat out told me he did not want me to give DD#2 Baby Mum Mums as they are made in China. We use/wear MIC products (it's hard not too!), but we draw the line at MIC food. With the melamine/formula scare I just don't trust it. 

We give DD#2 Happy Baby Foods puffs and Cherrios. I definitely don't give them to her for nutrition (although I don't think they are bad for her), but more as a snack when we're out and about or when I'm cooking dinner and need a distraction. 

[Knitting Mama]

This is the easy rice rusk recipe I used, but like I said, they came out really hard. I made pear and sweet potato ones. I am going to try them again, but I am going to roll them out very thin and hope for the best.

http://www.naturalparentingtips.com/baby-led-weaning/home-rusk-recipe/

[NicolleLynne]

I certainly don't think puffs are necessary but they've been great for us on car rides and those few and far between times when we're out and about and I need to distract DD with something that will keep her occupied for a few minutes. They transport super easy in a baggy or jar, are lots less messy and perishable than bits of fruit or veggie and let DD practice her pincer grasp. We use the Happy Baby organic brand and like a PP mentioned, have had the same container for over a month. I think of them more as edible distractions than nutrition.

[Knitting Mama]

The other thing we have had to consider is iron. Cecilia is anemic, and she does not eat a large amount of solids. So for us, it came down to either give her organic O's to eat or give her iron supplement. Even with the very little cane sugar that's in the O's, I prefer to give them over the supplement, because they teach her good skills as well as providing the iron she needs, and iron from food is more readily absorbed than supplemented iron.

[npl]

We have allergy issues, so I'm very limited in what I feed my 11mo, but her first food was plain rice cakes. All my kids loved these as an early food, and they are great for holding onto and gumming. We also break them up into little pieces that can be picked up and popped into the mouth once the kid has a pincer grip.

We also feed dd Oatios, which look a bit like Cheerios, but have much more limited ingredients. They do have a little sugar in them, but way less than Cheerios, and they have no wheat or corn. I wouldn't give them if dd wasn't sitting still, as they take a little gumming to get soggy, but then they get really mushy. She loves them, and they are great for feeding her while I'm trying to eat, or get something done in the kitchen, as they take a long time to eat and keep her busy picking up one at a time!

We haven't needed to eat when out and about yet - still nursing so that's a good snack if we are out when she's hungry, like running carpool, etc.

None of these puffs or melts were available when my older kids were toddlers.

[lifeguard]

We never did any packaged baby foods at all with ds. The closest would have been the organic puffed kamut that we used to give him as a snack sometimes - they could be left in the diaper bag with no fear of spoiling.

I feel the same way as pp about giving ds (or us) food made in china. Just not taking the risk.

[AFWife]

We didn't to any of them....partially because DS can't have pasteurized dairy so the yogurt melts were never on my radar (and the puff things just looked gross to me) We did BLW so "snacks" were always crackers or something else.He did have some around 18mo when someone else's daughter was eating them and he helped himself (thankfully her family is friends with ours! lol)