Do you give your babe "puffs" or "melts"? - Page 2

[katelove]

Originally Posted by Cecilia's 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/

This is the recipe I used too. I did sweet potato.
 

[VocalMinority]

IMO, they are junk food and not a necessary part of a baby's diet, though certainly not as bad as, say, Sprite (which I've also seen people feed to the under-2 crowd!)  

My littlest one is 3 now, but when he was littler, I felt that if he was hungry, generally he should be eating something with food value.  If I offered "real" food and he didn't seem interested in it - if he just seemed to want something in his mouth - then I had this great natural wood/terrycloth chew toy to hand him.  Same thing with drinks:  if he was thirsty, why not breast milk?  I had to defend my reasoning over and over, to grandmothers who thought I was neglecting his needs for crackers, Jell-O, water, juice and - get this! - corn syrup diluted in water ("to make sure he gets some calories!")  But he's pretty healthy today, without having had much of all that.

That said, when he was still little enough to worry about choking, but I wanted to introduce him to a variety of tastes (I dread the thought of having one of those school-age kids who only wants to eat white bread, grape jelly and fish sticks!), I occasionally bought freeze-dried fruit at Trader Joe's.  They're the same thing as Gerber's Fruit Puffs (but with a better per-ounce price, because they're not marketed specifically for toddlers!).  Also, instead of the same old apples, bananas and strawberries, TJ's had freeze-dried blueberries, mangos and dragonfruit, which was to DIE for!

If you're mainly looking to introduce your baby to food, try fresh avocado.  It was my son's 1st love.  It's soft.  It's a veggie with protein.  And the veggie fat is good for those developing baby brains!

[MJB]

I give my baby the HappyBaby veggie puffs. She *loves* them. We call them baby crack. And for 0.5g sugar, she gets 10% iron, 15% calcium, and a dozen other vitamins (although that supposes they eat 75 pieces, which she doesn't). The ingredients are: organic rice, organic whole oats, organic wheat, organic apple juice concentrate, organic whole grain brown rice, organic wheat starch, organic spinach, organic collard greens, organic kale, and a long list of vitamins and minerals. Those are all things I feel perfectly happy to feed my baby. She started on them at 5 months and eats some most days. They are convenient, and they help her work on her pincer grasp. I finally motivated her to start crawling a couple weeks ago by making a trail of veggie puffs along the floor in front of her.  

I honestly see no reason why you'd prefer puffed rice to veggie puffs or other foods formulated to be more nutritious snacks, but if you don't feel comfortable with any of the ingredients, by all means, choose something else. 

[LoveBabee]

I give my 11 month old son Plum Organics puffs.  They come in fruit and vegetable combinations and are free of common allergens.

I really didn't want to give these to him. They are the closest thing to "junk" food he eats.  I ended up giving them to him because he had trouble transitioning from purees to cubed food.  He needed something gluten-free to train on.  Also, I wanted him to work on his pincer skill.

He started eating them at 9 months and became obsessed pretty quickly.  He can say 6 words and the word I made up for them "num-nums" is one of them.  He points to the pantry while he's eating his cubed acorn squash and asks for the dang things...

It's pretty easy to say I have a love-hate relationship with the "num-nums".  I love them because pulling them out of a Snack Trap keeps his hands and mind occupied.  I hate them because I think it is building unhealthy "snack habits".  They make junk food and candy small so people will mindlessly continue reaching in the bag and eating... I worry that I am setting him up for this kind of behavior.

[SeattleRain]

I also give the Plum Organics puffs. I give him probably 5 of them a day. I also will give him Trader Joes brand Cheerios. I can't give Daniel the Mum-Mums beause they aren't kosher, but even if they were, I'd be wary because they're made in China and like previous posters, I have to draw the line at MIC food.

[Asiago]

No, we never offered them. He hasn't had much in the way of processed food yet but I am sure he will in time. 

I'd just rather wait as long as possible before giving the processed snacks. 

[Adaline'sMama]

I give Happy Baby veggie puffs and yogurt puffs. We also do O's and Baby MumMums. We only really give them when we are out or to try and keep her from being upset in the carseat. Occasionally we do O's at home, and if she finds the bag and shakes it at me, Ill give her some yogurt puffs. She likes them a lot, but I dont consider them real food, so they are snacks, not meals.

[McGucks]

Well, for starters--no, they aren't necessary.  They are trendy and convenient and I agree that most babies I have seen love them.  My 11 m.o. happily eats them if they are offered by a friend we are with, but I don't buy them because I don't like the ingredients.  Our alternative is an organic Oatios product that has very little sugar and what sugar they do have comes from pomegranates.  One box lasts us forever.  They have been a lifesaver if we are in the car and he is sad.  One at a time...a great distraction if it comes down to it.  Our ped suggested we start giving him the Gerber puffs and we took a pass on that...not interested in supporting Gerber, personally.

[carmen358]

We buy Whole O's Cereal because we're gluten free. DD loves them. They don't melt in your mouth but are light and crunchy.

Before DD was gluten free I was giving her kamut puffs which she also loved and they were super soft and quick to dissolve.

Eta: we buy the Os because yes, they are convenient, they're fun for DD to have in her "snack trap" when we're out and we feel that they aren't "bad" for her so it's a win win thing all around for us :)

[mom2happy]

I do organic rice krisps. They are exactly like Kellogs Rice Crispies, but they are brown rice and no sugar.

They are happy with a tablespoon or less of these things and they love to pick them up and suck on them.

I also lightly toast Ezekial bread and then crumble it up into tiny pieces. I'm very picky about what types and how much grain babies get.

At least the Ezekial bread is sprouted grain- and it doesnt take much to be a treat for them.

All of my babies loved these snacks. There is NO reason to buy any of that gimmicky stuff unless you want to just for fun.

[newmamalizzy]

Funny, I was just about to post about how much those darned puffs irk me!  I just think they're soooooooo gimmicky, even if babies DO dig them.  Foods designed and marketed specifically for babies and toddlers generally drives me nuts because it tends to either be kind of weird and unlike any actual food (i.e. puffs, yogurt thingies), or it's exactly the same as an adult food but they put a small amount in a cute box and mark it way up.  DD has always been content with puffed wheat and puffed rice as non-messy on-the-go snacks.  Sometimes I'll give it a sprinkle of cinnamon.  The moms at our baby group look at me like I'm crazy for giving her puffed wheat, but, I mean, there isn't even any such thing as a "puff."  Okay.  Rant over. 

[Blessed1]

Originally Posted by newmamalizzy 

Funny, I was just about to post about how much those darned puffs irk me!  I just think they're soooooooo gimmicky, even if babies DO dig them.  Foods designed and marketed specifically for babies and toddlers generally drives me nuts because it tends to either be kind of weird and unlike any actual food (i.e. puffs, yogurt thingies), or it's exactly the same as an adult food but they put a small amount in a cute box and mark it way up.  DD has always been content with puffed wheat and puffed rice as non-messy on-the-go snacks.  Sometimes I'll give it a sprinkle of cinnamon.  The moms at our baby group look at me like I'm crazy for giving her puffed wheat, but, I mean, there isn't even any such thing as a "puff."  Okay.  Rant over. 

LOL!  That is exactly what I was looking for, "non-messy on the go snacks". 

Thanks for all the suggestions mamas.  I will be looking into all of them. :)

I knew there HAD to be other mamas out there that understood where I was coming from.  :)
 

[lunarlady]

Originally Posted by newmamalizzy 

Funny, I was just about to post about how much those darned puffs irk me!  I just think they're soooooooo gimmicky, even if babies DO dig them.  Foods designed and marketed specifically for babies and toddlers generally drives me nuts because it tends to either be kind of weird and unlike any actual food (i.e. puffs, yogurt thingies), or it's exactly the same as an adult food but they put a small amount in a cute box and mark it way up.  DD has always been content with puffed wheat and puffed rice as non-messy on-the-go snacks.  Sometimes I'll give it a sprinkle of cinnamon.  The moms at our baby group look at me like I'm crazy for giving her puffed wheat, but, I mean, there isn't even any such thing as a "puff."  Okay.  Rant over. 

This made me smile because I admit to eying the puffs at the store today. I'm a big believer of introducing foods one at a time, and I decided it will be okay once I've tried all those foods out on DD...which will most likely be sometime around age four, and she will no longer be interested! LOL. While there, I wondered about buying some jarred food for nights when I'm really tired. Humm, I thought, what does DD like? Ah, banana! Then I thought, wait, am I going to pay 99 cents for a tiny jarred banana? Or, considering the size, half a banana? Just how tired do I have to be before smushing a banana is asking too much? Needless to say, the jar went back to the shelf and I hightailed it out with bananas in their natural form in my bags.

[rachael07]

We're doing mostly BLW, and the gagging was really freaking me out... he just does not gum things, swallows them right away. I didn't trust that DS could eat a tiny piece of pepper or apple without choking. So I gave him some puffs, thinking they would be safe. Then he choked (actually choked, as in couldn't breath) on the puff. Great!

We still offer them every once and a while -- I just like that they're convenient and good for the pincer grasp. I don't think a few puffs a day are somehow going to traumatize or be bad for him, and they're fun!

[MacKinnon]

Well, my first child didn't have any of these things. My second had puffs later on, like maybe 10 or 11 months, and LOVED them. It was my go-to occupy the baby when big one needed something, he would sit in the high chair for a long time hunting down each individual puff. And he couldn't pick up banana or avocado bits the same way.

So, with the third here now, I will admit to looking at the MumMums (which I don't remember being a choice four years ago?) in the store the other day and pondering when I could offer them to her. I've called this the third child slide. I know they will likely occupy and entertain her, I'm not seeing them for their nutritional benefit, but their entertainment value. And with three kids, I need those things!

[bdoody11]

Originally Posted by lunarlady 

This made me smile because I admit to eying the puffs at the store today. I'm a big believer of introducing foods one at a time, and I decided it will be okay once I've tried all those foods out on DD...which will most likely be sometime around age four, and she will no longer be interested! LOL. While there, I wondered about buying some jarred food for nights when I'm really tired. Humm, I thought, what does DD like? Ah, banana! Then I thought, wait, am I going to pay 99 cents for a tiny jarred banana? Or, considering the size, half a banana? Just how tired do I have to be before smushing a banana is asking too much? Needless to say, the jar went back to the shelf and I hightailed it out with bananas in their natural form in my bags.

I gave jarred food to both my girls and I have to say that jarred banana completely freaks me out!

[BetsyS]

I gave them to my first baby, but we were on the go a lot more, and my lifestyle was just different.  He was a reluctant eater, as well, so 3 puffs would be an entire snack.

My current baby (poor #3) has a huge appetite, and he'd finish the container and want more.  Plus, I run a tighter budget at the grocery store these days.  And, he has 2 and 4 year old brothers who eat and snack on a pretty regular routine, so he just get swept up in that.  He doesn't have time to get hungry outside of our normal eating times (and when he does, well, that's what nursing is for).  So, he tends to eat the same snacks the big boys eat (but, like I said, he's a really hearty eater).

My poor 4th baby.  Who knows what that one will end up eating.  LOL

[waiting2bemommy]

We gave dd mum mums and gerber puffs very early on, like around 6 months, when she wasn't always up to eating what we were eating (or I wasn't up to the mess!) but she was really, really *really* into solids and wanted to be eating like everyone else. In my mind they are basically another for of distraction, no different than giving her a toy or teething ring. There is no nutrition and they are totally overpriced. I don't think we bought them beyond 7 months or so, once she was better at gumming things and less likely to gag/choke. We moved on to generic brand cheerios, courtesy of WIC. 

[1stTimeMama4-4-10]

Lol this thread is busy! To answer OP's question, no of course they are not necessary.  But DH and I believe in relaxed natural parenting. We do not have time to make every single thing from scratch - we do shift work so that DD is not in daycare, and that means not very much down time. So we supplement our natural whole foods with some pre-packaged foods if they are from reputable manufacturers and not filled with chemical ingredients. I am totally fine giving DD puffs and mums.  We don't feed them as part of her regular diet, but if she's fussy - especially in the car - I don't hesitate to pull out all the stops, including things like mums and puffs. The one package of puffs lasted forever, but we seem to blow through mums.