The children's food industry (weddings all over again)

I've never bought 'children's' yoghurts, but find large pots of full-fat whole yoghurt, .e.g, Yeo Valley or Rachel's- either plain, with some honey (1 yr+) or lemon curd, raisins etc. stirred in, or fruit flavours fine, if not better than the bland varieties offered. I tried Munch Bunch last month and the texture is smoother than a baby's bottom, blander than wallpaper paste - no wonder some children are fussy eaters if they're not given the opportunity to experience textures and flavours in their food...[but that's just my opinion]. An additional note on buying larger pots means that you're not racking up the plastic packaging, so some plus points regarding your environmental conscience.


I've actually (if you can believe it) compared the nutritional content of Munch Bunch to Yeo Valley Strawberry Yoghurt, just to see whether my instincts to go for the big pots was right:
Nestle Munch Bunch

TYPICAL VALUES PER 100g POT
Energy 417 kJ /99 kcal
Protein 3.6 g
Carbohydrate 13.6 g
of which: sugars 12.9 g
Fat 3.0 g
of which: saturates 2.0 g
Fibre  0.1 g
Sodium 0.1 g
Salt equivalent 0.2 g
Calcium % RDA** 153 mg (19% RDA)

Ingredients (in order of the greatest quantity first): Wholemilk Yogurt, Sugar, Fruit Purée (5.5%), Fructose, Rice Starch, Milk Mineral Concentrate, Flavouring, Lactic Cultures, Colour: Beetroot Red (in strawberry), Beta Carotene (in Apricot), Black Carrot Extract (in Blackcurrant & Apple and in Raspberry), Vitamin D

4 x 100g pots £1.50

Yeo Valley

(Typical Value Per 100g)
Energy: 414kJ/99Kcal
Carbohydrate: 11.8g
Protein: 4.3g
Fat: 3.7g
Calcium: 154mg (19% RDA)

Ingredients: Organic whole milk natural yoghurt (88%), Organic strawberries (5%), Organic sugar, Organic tapioca starch, Organic concentrated lemon juice, natural flavouring.

1 x 450g pot £1.35

Compared to Yeo Valley's Organic yoghurt, Munch Bunch has added salt (??), and more carbohydrate (sugars), and less protein - and that's not including the ingredients, which have sugar before fruit content. It also works out more expensive. It is not organic. Yeo Valley is also a British company that supports sustainable farming.

It is starting to feel like the wedding game all over again. Take off the wedding label and things are more real. Considering that there doesn't seem to be any substantial benefit from selecting baby-yoghurt over adult (in fact, it could be the reverse [although this is one comparison between two products, so wouldn't want to jump ahead of myself, but no plans to carry out any in depth research on it at the moment]), I am quite cynical about most baby and toddler products. The only things I go for are baby biscuits, as they have less sugar, although you have to watch the brands - some are no sugar (sweetened with grape juice only) and others are more lax. I'm a supporter of Organix (No Junk Allowed slogan) and Ella's Kitchen ranges (spelt biscuits). Tip is to check the ingredients list.  

Staying away from baby food is also cheaper. It is also simpler. The shopping list now doesn't deviate widely from our pre-baby shopping, just full-fat milk and yoghurts instead of semi-skimmed, and fat-free varieties; extra fruit, boxes of raisins and grape-juice sweetened biscuits for snacks. We set aside portions of our own meals into bowls in the freezer for Abigail's meal times, if she's not joining us (freezed meals usually for her 5pm dinner time, otherwise she eats the same thing that we are for breakfast and lunch). She eats what we eat (any processed meals and take aways we eat are not included, we also watch the salt and sugar content in the meals).