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Baby Macro apple, banana and blueberry bircher muesli | Chewsday Review

I’m back in the baby aisle this week, reviewing a popular sachet of Baby Bircher muesli from Woolworths Macro brand. As a bircher fan myself, I was interested to see what would be in the ‘baby’ version! I present to you today’s Chewsday Review of Baby Macro apple, banana and blueberry bircher muesli.

Ingredients

Positives

Negatives

A big proportion of this ‘muesli’ is fruit puree, in fact more than three quarters of the packet is fruit. There’s 10% cooked oats, which basically works out to 1tsp of oats because cooked oats (with water) make up 12g pretty quick. Then there’s 7% yoghurt ( or 1.5 teaspoons of yoghurt). The remaining ingredients (water, rice flour, oat meal and cream) all have a maximum contribution of 2g each. So essentially this product is mostly fruit. There’s nothing wrong with fruit puree but it’s not a whole meal on it’s own and won’t keep babies full or provide any iron.
As you all know, I don’t recommend feeding your baby directly from the pouch as a regular thing. Sucking from pouches doesn’t help babies with biting, chewing or talking skills, and it takes away all of the sensory experience of eating. Use like this only when you have no other option.

Marketing

‘No added sugar’ Good point, but remember that very few baby foods have added sugar, they all tend to add fruit puree for sweetness.
‘Certified Organic. This may be true, but it tells us about how the ingredients are grown, which doesn’t make the product any healthier.
‘No artificial flavours or colours and no preservatives.’ Yep, great.
‘Give your baby a yummy start to life with certified organic ingredients that’s naturally sweetened with fruit.’ OK so grammar is an issue here (‘that are’ not ‘that’s’) but also, this product isn’t sweetened with fruit, IT IS FRUIT.

Alternatives