At Ulula we believe finger foods and snacks for weaning babies should be not just tasty and fun but also healthy, wholesome treats that help children develop a taste for and love of good food.
It goes without saying that parents play a vital role in educating their children, and that in the first years before a child starts ‘formal education’ much of their learning for their life ahead has already taken place. Nowhere is this probably more true than with our childrens attitudes towards food. Babies learn what good food is only if we feed them good food.
On a recent shopping expedition Roger and I were amazed to see a baby that could not have been older than nine months being fed what looked like a bag of crisps. When we looked closer we could see that what the baby was eating were not crisps as such but rather a pack of ‘finger foods for babies’. We were so shocked that we went out and bought ourselves several packets from the nearest branch of a well known high street chemist chain to investigate further.
Looking closer at the packets we bought we could see that the ingredients in these crisp-like baby snacks were actually not too bad at all – they were organic and there certainly was no junk.
However, the actual snacks themselves looked just like certain well known crisps varieties and were in packaging that can only be described as looking like crisp packets. They even tasted like milder versions of crisp varieties.
Is this really what we want to be feeding our young babies when they are weaning? Britain already eats more than half of all the crisps and similar savoury snacks eaten in the whole of Europe and is set by the year 2020 for a fifth of all boys and a third of all girls to be clinically obese. We are not saying that these weaning snacks for babies are to blame for this, but we must question whether encouraging our children to eat such things at such an early time in their life really educates them as to what is really good, wholesome food.
The ingredients in these crisps for babies may not contain junk – but this is certainly a junk concept.
Of course, Ulula sells organic finger foods and snacks for babies and growing children (both sweet and savoury), that we source from hand picked companies that we believe take the care to make products that are not only tasty but also wholesome. There are also other companies out there that also sell good quality finger foods and snacks for babies. I guess, the challenge for us as parents is how to choose snacks and treats for our babies that will help them develop a taste for good food that will stand them in good stead for the rest of their lives.
What are your experiences of feeding your baby finger foods and snacks? What useful hints can you share with other parents?
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