Keep In Touch

Follow Mariahalse on Twitter Follow Mariahalse on Pinterest Follow Mariahalse on Instagram

Tuesday 2 November 2010

Weaning and HIPP Organic food review

Leon LOVES food. He had his first tastes from about 4 months with purees and other finger foods and now at 10 months he's pretty much feeding himself with his hands and with a spoon! It's so exciting to watch him maneuvering the spoon into his mouth. As expected, it's messy - but in the space of a few days he's hitting the target much better and not getting as much on the walls thank goodness.

Since going to back to work part-time I've found it a bit of a struggle to organise myself properly in terms of making all his food - and remembering to take it out of the fridge in the morning. When he's being looked after by my parents or my childminder friend, I've pretty much given up on making his main meal and am content to pack him a jar/pot/tube of pre-made food along with a few steamed veg, pasta and a banana or pot of yoghurt for after.
 
I was sent a few tubs of  HIPP Organic wholesome meals to try out and they've gone down extremely well. Firstly, the size of the portions are large enough to satisfy his hunger even though they were stage 2 wholesome pots suitable from 7mths+ and I shall try the stage 3 for 10mths+ soon enough. To prepare I only needed to place in a little pan of hot water for a few minutes where I also added some cold pasta and frozen veg to complete his meal. You can of course just give the pot on its own - but I prefer to add those bits to vary the textures/tastes etc. Plus he can dip them into the HIPP food.

Secondly, the meal flavours were indeed scrumptious:  Sweet Red Pepper & Aubergine Penne; Tasty Sweetcorn, Tomato & Chicken Risotto and Scrumptious Cottage Pie with Herbs. (Full product range here) However I was a bit concerned that most of them contained a high percentage of tomatoes (usually 20% of the veg) and Leon hadn't reacted well to tomatoes a few months ago. But he didn't react to it and ate it all up so it was fine :) 

Last but not least, HIPP have made their new pots completely recyclable plus, it's easier to reuse than the glass pots as they can go in the freezer - perfect for storing batches of my own recipes ;) And they stack better than the glass pots too. It's also encouraging to know that "each of the ingredients can be traced back to the farm, field or animal they came from" and that all the ingredients are considered organic. Thumbs up all around!
HIPP organic pots approved by Leon
The main factor for me, as well as knowing that it's relatively free of nasties, is the convenience of chucking it into the baby bag for whoever's looking after him and knowing that it's easy to prepare to serve warm. Now, I'm looking forward to trying the other flavours, but will save them for childcare to use only as they are a tad pricey to be used every day. Plus I enjoy making food for him!

8 comments:

  1. hah what a mess! the last photo made me laugh! what a sweet little boy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lindo!!!! OMG, too cute...soo good that you let him feed himself. I did the same with M..and he's really good with a spoon and fork.

    ReplyDelete
  3. oh my what a cutie!! I'm glad he likes his food!

    ReplyDelete
  4. When I was weaning DS and DD I did use Hipp when we were out and about. I vaguely remember blogging about it in a now defunct blog that I was too weary to keep up having two kids 14 months apart (duh!), and I discovered that they also produce Bebevita (VERY non organic, stuffed with chocolate and the like) and funded the provision of formula to the Third World, and give money to the Republican party, so not terribly Pc really.
    http://www.babymilkaction.org/CEM/hippviols.html
    That said, i do appreciate the realities of cooking on the hoof, with two I had to batch cook to hell, and sometimes, a jar is good enough. Although it used to annoy me when they preferred them!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow Fenwitters I didn't know that at all!
    Do you think they still make that? I'll check it out. Why would they fund the Republican party?

    Sometimes I'm not sure how to batch cook properly. I tend to make in smaller portions or for the same day so I need to simplify the combinations and actually get batch cooking and freezing to always have something on hand!

    Yes what is it that they put in there...? sugar? surely not...

    ReplyDelete
  6. i am so jealous that he loves his food like that. Alex is such a fussy eater and eats hardky anything. Has no interest in food :0(

    ReplyDelete
  7. I do love that last photo - full of food and full of joy!

    ReplyDelete