Ready, Steady, WEAN! | Starting Our Journey With Babease

Weaning a child before they reach six months will always be debated, in the same way that the method of feeding, swaddling, co-sleeping, baby wearing, dummies, will be. Everything that could be possibly detrimental to a babies development or well-being is quite rightly a talking point, but unfortunately we seem to have reached the stage where everything is now detrimental. I'll be the first to preach that you know your own child best, and as we neared the four month mark, everything was telling me that Harrison was ready for a little more than milk. We're easing ourselves in, but so far, everything is going to plan. Whilst we've been using homemade purees for the most part, for convenience, I've not been shy to pick up one of the Babease Baby Pouches. If I'm honest, prior to being in a position where I may have to use one, I was extremely snobby about the prospect of pre-made baby food. In my naive pre-baby state, I claimed I'd never use one. 4 months on, suffering badly with sleep deprivation and with less time to myself than I could ever have imagined, sometimes a pouch is necessary. Although pouches will never retain the full nutritional value that fresh cooked purees do, they come close enough, many babies are weaned purely on them, and do just fine.

The Babease range is based on the concept of food for babies, rather than baby food. Each blend is vegetable-led and made from organic ingredients. This was what originally sold me on this particular brand: I've been warned so many times not to wean on fruit, that hooking a baby on the sweet flavours will only make the introduction of vegetables harder in the long run. In the Stage 1 Pouches that Harrison tried (from 4 months onwards) the breakdown of the blends never included more than 30% fruit: in the Stage 2 Pouches (7 months+) there is none. Many of the ingredients used in these have never quite made it onto the baby food market - you'll probably query the combinations, I know I definitely did - but with each flavor comes the opportunity for a broader palette, and a happy baby.

Stage 1 Flavours:

Sweet Potato, Carrot & Cauliflower 

Butternut Squash, Carrot & Broccoli 

Pumpkin & Pea 

Sweet Potato, Pear, with Coconut Water, Brown Rice & Quinoa 

Banana, Pear & Blueberry with Brown Rice 

Pear & Mixed Berries, with Coconut Water, Brown Rice & Quinoa

We got on brilliantly with every labour with the exception of Pumpkin and Pea, to put it bluntly, Pumpkin and Pea had Harrison gagging anytime the spoon went near his mouth, and our attempts were cut short pretty quickly for fear of bringing up his morning bottle. Pumpkin and Pea is a no go. I never expected for him to like all flavours, and with each other pouch, even if he was unsure at first, he quickly came around to the taste and would get pretty darn excited. 

These pouches don't look like your typical Baby Food pouches, although it doesn't necessarily bother me, in general marketing towards babies can be garish and overly bright, but it is for kids, so it's not something that would ever put me off. These however are understated and muted, well designed and and of a quality second to none. The cardboard sleeve is lovely- albeit slightly unnecessary - but definitely makes it seem more luxurious than your average baby food brand. I'll always prefer pouches to jars also as there much more convenient for packing away into changing bags - and these are such high quality that I don't have any doubts about their ability to sustain the harsh reality of the way I handle my changing bag. Any pouch I use will have to be able to stay completely in tact whilst I fill the changing bag to bursting point with bits I don't need, batter it off of the boot of my car, and launch it at the floor more often than not. I may be a bit of a disaster, but these pouches aren't. 

In terms of price point, this is my only qualm with Babease, but then again, I'd have this with any pre-packaged puree. These pouches cost £1.19, which is completely in line with every other baby-food brand on the market. A pound may not be a lot of money, but when the item in question contains only Sweet Potato, Carrot & Cauliflower, and I could make 10 of them myself for the same amount of money, it's a bit of a grudge. Especially for right now, when we're still spending a small fortune on Hungry Baby Milk, and then to add in multiple packets daily, it woulds slowly add up. However, when I get over my tight pocket, I will say that these are amazing to have in the house, or in a changing bag. I'm completely stocked up for the next few weeks, and will continue to buy them. Sometimes convenience is necessary, and when the convenient option offers all of the nutrition value of the more time consuming option, it can balance out.

I also found it difficult to source these in shops also; they are stocked in various different retails, specifically, Boots and Tesco, but my three local boots did not stock them, and neither did the Tesco Superstore closest to me. I'd imagine down south these may be more readily available, but like many other things, we simply have to wait for Scotland to catch up. Until then, there's no reason we cannot order online. I would recommend these completely for anyone looking to supplement handmade purees and make life that little bit easier, especially for the very beginning stages of weaning, where the taste palette is so key. We've started our weaning journey now, so from here, it's onwards and upwards.

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