His favorite food is Spinach. Yes, you read that right, Spinach!
January 6th, 2012 by ariana
A while back Jasper had some uh, “issues” whereby he wouldn’t poop for DAYS and then when he finally did it was so big and hard that on several occasions (and I apologize for the bad visual but) it WOULD NOT FLUSH. I’m not even kidding.
It got so bad at one point that we had to do the glycerin suppository thing, at which juncture I realized that we HAD to figure out a way to get this kid to eat more vegetables.
He’s not ENTIRELY opposed to vegetables, like he will take a bite or two of broccoli or cauliflower, loves cucumbers red peppers and cherry tomatoes, but that’s where it ends and it clearly wasn’t enough.
That’s when I started hearing about Plum Baby Organic “Mashups” from a few different sources.
My friend Ami had been giving them to her three-year old daughter and suggested them to me, but I didn’t see them in the health food store I frequent and never followed up. Then, coincidentally, my mom who has been working doing demos of different products in health-food-stores ended up demoing the same products and I finally got one for Jasper to try, the Plum Baby Spinach, Pear & Peas Mashup.
It was love at first bite (or suck, or squirt?) and since I knew no one would actually believe me that he goes NUTS over these things, here is the video proof:
He usually requests seconds or thirds!
The only downside (as my friend Ami warned me) is that at your local store these can run you $2+ each..which is fine for an ocassional snack, but Jasper eats A LOT of them. So I was thrilled to discover that you can get them on Amazon’s subscription service and then they only come to just over a dollar each AND delivered to your doorstep. Love it!
Obviously, you might want to try ONE first before ordering a case of 24 to see if your kid likes them. If so, they are in the baby food aisle of your local health food store, not the freezer section where I had been looking for them (my only prior experience with premade baby food was the frozen kind!).
In fact, you will find several different flavors by several different manufacturers. Let me warn you though that they are NOT all created equal..
After the enthusiastic reception from Jasper for the Spinach flavor I bough some of the Happy Baby brand Mashups when my health-food store was out of the spinach. He HATED them. I tasted them too and I have to agree with him, they just did not taste good. Whereas the spinach one tastes vaguely like a not-so-sweet applesauce, the Happy Baby one I tried was just bitter. I feel bad posting that because I like Happy Baby as a company and Jasper loved their infant food (the frozen kind) but I have to be honest and tell you that the mashups were NOT yummy.
Let me also state that I am aware that it is FAR preferable that your kids eat their daily servings of fruits and vegetables from FRESH sources – if for no other reason than training their palate (yadda yadda yadda) and if your toddler’s favorite food is fresh kale or dandelion greens then god bless you!
But for the rest of us, I’m so happy that there is a way to get a few servings of something other than yet another variation of wheat or cheese into our children’s daily diets!
You might also like
 |
|
|
 |
These are wonderful!! I first bought them when taking my just turned 1 year old on his first flight and I thought they would be good airplane snacks. He LOVED them and now he’s 2.5 and we still buy them. My little one ate homemade baby food veggies great, but he became a picky eater around 15 months and these were perfect for getting the veggies in him. Now he’s slowly starting to eat more real veggies, but not as much as I’d like. Our babies-r-us usually has them for a good price and our target has them too.
We like the pouches too and usually get the Happy Baby ones because they have the chia seed in them. Thanks for the tip on getting them from Amazon mom. I go to the store and it’s almost embarrassing how many I buy each week (and expensive.) Know the main ingredient is usually apple(sauce) or pears so you might want to try the applesauce squeezables too- four for about $2.50.
I *love* the Plum Organics pouches! You can find them on sale at Babies R Us pretty frequently for 8 for $8, and they have them at Buy Buy Baby (which takes Bed, Bath, & Beyond coupons), too. :)
I’ve seen friends give those pouches as a lunch on the go but haven’t ever tried them myself. Is it a liquid? My kid is only 1 year old but he is really picky with everything he eats and the only green veggie he likes is peas so I do puree spinach and mix it in with his yogurt. I feel very sneaky :)
Heather, Jasper LOVES fruit, so we don’t’ have an issue there, it’s more the veggies we have a problem with. What veggies do you think taste good in a smoothie? I don’t’ think I could get him to eat a spinach smoothie but who knows ;)
My son will only eat a FEW fresh veggies and fruits, so I make him smoothies almost every night to drink w/ his dinner. He claims he doesn’t like strawberries, but every smoothie has strawberries in it! It must be the texture he’s objecting to. I wonder if you tried making smoothies if Jasper would eat them? Unless the color was foul, could you throw some veggies into a fruit smoothie?
So I guess I’m the only one that didn’t know about these wonder pouches! :) Catherine, are the super greens Plum too?
Shane, I’m surprised you haven’t been getting them from Amazon all along as I know you guys are prime members right? We are not, but they came SUPER fast even with the free ground shipping.. maybe they ship grocery items faster than normal even though these are not perishable!
G LOVED them! he called them smoothies and would suck them down 2-3 a day for a while. They are great to keep in the diaper bag for ‘snacks’ while you are out on errands too. I kept getting the ‘baby’ ones because they pack in more calories per pouch than the toddler ones. Great to know about the Amazon source since S2 is about to start sucking them down too.
My son hates vegetables too but LOVES plum organics’ spinach peas and pears. He also loves the multigrain super greens, which seem to be even healthier. I wish he’d eat fresh veggies, but if this is the best I can do, I’ll take it!!! Btw, the super greens go right through him…in a good way. Even more so than the spinach peas and pears.
Wendy – yes, the suppository works, but we haven’t had to use them since he’s gotten more vegetables and fiber in his diet. He still doesn’t go every day, but it’s not as hard. Sorry for the lovely mental image!
Thanks for the info. I am having the same problem with my 3 1/2 year old son. He steadily has a bowel movement every day, but the last 2 months seems to be going every 2-3 days. I think he doesn’t want to go at school. I know he holds it in because he says it “hurts,” poor guy. Did the glycerin suppository work too?