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Breaking Down: Food Pouches

We love that food pouches can be packed with fruits and veggies, are a no-mess solution, and make snack and mealtime a breeze. While food pouches can be as convenient as they are nutritious, you may want to rethink how often you are using them with the spout still attached.

Breaking Down: Food Pouches

Written by: Jessica Diamond, MPH, RDN

Food pouches have taken over the baby food market! It seems like you can get a food pouch for anything from fruits and vegetables to smoothies and oatmeal.  We love that they can be packed with fruits and veggies, are a no-mess solution, and make snack and mealtime a breeze.  

While food pouches can be as convenient as they are nutritious, you may want to rethink how often you are using them with the spout still attached. Food pouches with the spout still on can inhibit speech and oral-motor development (which means your baby’s mouth muscles don’t develop the way they should), and they don’t give your child practice actually eating. When babies only suck on their food (like they do with pouches), they miss out on the important muscle development that is built through spoon feeding. And this can inhibit language development and chewing down the line. 

There are some really great companies putting out delicious and organic pureed foods such as @eatcerebelly and @onceuponafarm– we always have them at our house and when we travel! Here are our easy tips to make sure you aren’t overusing the spout of the pouches:

  1. When you want to use a food pouch for the pureed food inside, cut off the spout, pour the puree in a bowl, and give it to your child with a spoon.
  2. Only use the spout when you really need the convenience such as on an airplane, at a special event, or at the park where you can’t risk a mess.
  3. Follow the 80/20 rule: aim to cut off the spout at least 80% of the time and to use the spout around 20% of the time.

Want or need help thriving feeding your baby solids? Take our course – it covers ALL the topics, answers questions you didn’t even know you had, and it’s all broken down into short, easy to understand videos for you to watch on your own time and at your own pace, even while doing the dishes. For babies 3+ months old. 

You can also check out these podcast episodes for even more tips and information on mealtime and introducing solids: Feeding Your Baby Solids: Breaking Down The Myths, Picky Eating and Mealtime Struggles: How To Bring Harmony to the Dinner Table, and Breaking Down Baby Led Weaning.