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Rafferty's Garden Baby Food Pouch Spinach, Apple , Broccoli & Pea 4+ Months 120g

Rafferty’s Garden Spinach, Apple, Broccoli and Pea purée | Chewsday Review

There’s a huge variety of pre-prepared fruit and veggie pouches on the market, and a lot of fear mongering out there. It can be difficult to know which ones are any good (and yes, they have a place!) Today I've chosen to look at Rafferty's Garden Spinach, Apple, Broccoli and Pea squeezie pouch. Let’s see how it stacks up…

Ingredients

Positives

Negatives

If you choose this product for the vegetable content, keep in mind that less than a third is actually coming from vegetables. The rest of the purée is apple, meaning it will have a much sweeter taste than if it were only veggies. It is SO important to introduce babies to plenty of single food tastes (including meat and vegetables) to get them used to different flavours. Otherwise, they start to expect all foods to have a predominantly sweet taste, and this becomes what they prefer. A 100% veggie puree option is Nourishing Bub’s 100% Veggie Purees.
Squeezie packs are convenient and less messy than spoons, and retain some of the more heat-sensitive nutrients when compared to jars and cans. BUT they really don’t help babies to develop biting and chewing skills that they need for other foods. Instead, a squeezie pack encourages them to suck like they would on a bottle. This would be best decanted into a bowl and served with a spoon. There are some great early self-feeding spoons on the market now that ‘grip’ the purée if your baby likes to do it independently.
Pre-prepared baby food like this is much more expensive than homemade food. At $2.00 per pack this works out to $16.70/kg, which is much more expensive than any fruit or veg on the shelves!
Baby food with a long shelf life is traditionally heat treated to prevent it from spoiling. Rafferty’s Garden claim to use as little cooking time as possible in their processing, but pressurised heat treatment will still destroy some more vitamins than traditional home cooking methods. This doesn’t mean it’s ‘devoid of nutrients’ or anything else you might hear.
This won’t be particularly filling for babies. Fruit and veggies are nutritious, absolutely, but I’d be adding an iron and grain food to make this a ‘meal’.

Marketing

It’s interesting that spinach is the first food listed in the title of the product, especially given that it only makes up 4% of the purée. I suspect this is the ‘superfood’ that the manufacturers are trying to market to unsuspecting parents.
“4+ months smooth.” Remember that babies do NOT need to be on solids by 4 months, and in fact, most are not ready to eat at this stage. Research has shown that an age guide like this on a packet makes parents worry that they’re starting solids too late (when they’re not!) Staying on very smooth textures for too long can also be an issue for some babies who then find it difficult to then tolerate lumps and bumps in their food.
“No added salt, sugar or juices, artificial colours, flavours, preservatives or GM ingredients.” All true.

Alternatives

Definitely not a bad option for times where you need quick access to baby food! I wouldn’t recommend these for use all the time, but they’re perfect for times when you are going out or the groceries haven’t been delivered yet! Serve with a finger food and an iron-rich food, if you can.
Where possible, freshly prepared food contains slightly more nutritious content than heat treated food. Homemade food is also cheaper and less consistent in texture, which is great for teaching bubs about different foods. As a second alternative, frozen baby food cubes tend to retain more nutrients than heat treated products.
Remember to offer a variety of sweet and savoury foods, so your child can learn to enjoy a variety of tastes.