Why are some parents against pouches?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s better for a child’s brain development to navigate with a spoon and bowl.

And children suck pouches down too fast.

But they’re good for emergencies or a treat.

agree with these. it's important for brain development to practice "crossing the midline" and eating can be one way to do it. jaw work is also helpful for facial development.

also, it's environmentally horrible to eat individually packaged foods. my toxicologist friends from grad school (neighboring department) do not eat anything wet packaged in plastic if they can help it. and expensive.

we had great luck with baby-led weaning, straight to finger foods.

This. Although I never did BLM, I never gave them pouches.

This makes sense. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

I did baby led weaning and 2/3 kids had severe severe feeding issues. Took us years to get an appropriate medical diagnosis. At one time I had 3 kids drinking bottles (the older ones with pediasure).

Of course, 1/3 was totally normal and eats beautifully.

Pouches, no pouches, ot doesn't matter. A healthy kid will eat normally eventually, an autistic or sick kid will have issues no matter what you do

[Anonymous]

For me the idea of sucking puréed food makes me gag. Never bought them, never made them.

[Anonymous]

I never bought them for my own kids, because when I worked daycare the pouch foods always had a weird smell.

[Anonymous]

My kid is 7. We never did purees and I don't think I ever actually bought a pouch, though she's had them at parties. We had plenty of reasons to avoid them-- not because any of those reasons make a HUGE difference ($, environment, incremental exposure to real food and textures), but we didn't see any huge advantage to pouches either, so just had no compelling reason in the net.

But as for why some people might judge others for it... I think part of it is that they're just *new*. People like to think "my [older] kids never needed those things!" Or "kids have survived with REAL FOOD for thousands of years," etc. In some cases it's honestly neophobia. Like with tablets-- which our family also doesn't have, for well-thought-our reasons. But I know many who don't have them simply because they're suspicious of any sort of new technology. Perhaps not entirely without merit-- but then they justify it like it's not mostly irrational paranoia.

My 2 cents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because some people like to make up rules that make them feel like they're good parents. Snuh. It's neither here nor there.

Truth be told, I'd eat all my food in pouch form if I could find delicious pouch food with regularity. It'd make me feel like an astronaut.

I like you.

[Anonymous]

*well-thought-OUT

Also a lot of people dislike anything that seems infantilizing.

Kids drinking bottles or using pacifiers past 1 or 2.
Kids breastfeeding past 1 or so.
Kids in strollers past 3.
Kids in diapers past 2 or 3.
Kids in overnight diapers past 4.
Kids cosleeping at all or past 2 or 3.

So kids eating pouches past... I guess 1 or so falls into that.

Some people are very strong believers in "independence" and prioritize it over all else.

[Anonymous]

My 8yo still eats applesauce pouches. They’re less messy in the car and they fit in the Bentgo lunch box in the largest compartment with a cheese stick. I’ll stop buying them when she doesn’t want them anymore.

[Anonymous]

Too much plastic waste. All this plastic production is directly linked to climate change and the fires (plastic is made from fossil fuels).

Reducing our household plastic waste and letting companies know packaging matters to us is something we can do to help the situation.

[Anonymous]

I can understand all the reasons not to use them but we do use them when we are out for our 2 yr old. They are a way to provide a snack that doesn’t involve eating with fingers when we are out. Especially now, this is important to us. We buy the organic ones, for whatever that’s worth.

[Anonymous]

So, my older set of kids-pouches weren't invented. When 5yodd came along, I saw them and tried some.

They're ok. Like other pps' have said-they're good for on the go. I didn't use them at home, didn't see the need and I let my kids self-feed anyhow. But they were good when out and about. Dd lost interest in them before age 3 anyways.

I knew many moms who used the pouches and zero kids who didn't learn to self feed because of them BTW.

[Anonymous]

I love them. DD is now in K but they are still a great snack option for her.

[Anonymous]

Because they are vile. It’s like you’re sucking food. And they always smell funky. Gross!!

[Anonymous]

DS is in speech therapy right now and to work some specific muscles they asked me to give more chewy foods (like tortillas) to him and to drink from a straw at least occasionally. I was able to find some reusable straws but it's easy to forget when drinking water and we don't do a lot of juice boxes. I didn't even think of giving pouches until we started speech therapy. Here I was thinking maybe I should have given him a paci/bottle longer and rushed him into self feeding and that's why we are in this situation. You guys are definitely putting a different spin on this conversation than what I was thinking.

[Anonymous]

Because they're sad little people who need to feel superior to other parents about *something.*