Sunday 21 April 2013

Wean Meister Freezer Pods

My philosophy when it comes to introducing foods is that 'food before one is just for fun'. So, as much as possible, when we feed Ellie food, we want it to be a fun experience. Ever since she turned six months old, at meal times, she sits in her high chair with us at the table, and gets samples of what we're eating.  We don't puree it, but make sure it's in finger sized portions so she can hold them and feed herself (obviously, anything spicy or not recommended for babies her age is off the menu). She can mash it over her face and gum it to her hearts content, as long as she participates in meals.  Really, her primary source of nutrition is still milk - we're just getting her used to the texture and taste of food at the moment.

Having said that, I also want her to swallow some of it, not just squeeze it into ever shrinking portions, so we do make food purees in various levels of 'chunkiness' for her too. In those cases, I feed her some of it, and then about half way through, she can steal the spoon from my hand and feed herself (although more often than not, it ends up all over her face anyway!). I like to make Ellie her food instead of buying pre-made stuff but I want to give her variety without having her eat the same thing for a week.  Here is where Wean Meister Freezer Pods from Biome come in.


These nifty little containers are perfect baby sized portions - each pod can hold up to 75ml, so, 9 x 75ml gives you 675ml from every frozen batch.

Features:
  • Made of a flexible and durable silicon, the pod tray is safe for fridge, freezer, microwave, oven and dishwasher
  • The pods are soft enough to pop out the food yet have extra support so they aren't floppy and liquid stays where it should when you're filling/carrying them
  • The lid has an area for writing on to date/label the contents and is flat for easy stacking
  • Great portion size - 75ml per pod
  • Tray size: 20cm x 20cm x 5cm
Verdict:

I love these trays! Previously I'd been using normal ice cube trays to freeze purees but this had several faults: they weren't flexible so it was hard to get the food out, they weren't really big enough to store a decent portion size and they didn't have a lid so I was getting a lot of ice crystals on the food. I didn't have any of those issues with the Wean Meister pods.


Food comes out really easily because of the silicon, but the tray was reinforced enough that as I had no fear of spilling anything while carrying it to the freezer.  At first I was sceptical about writing on the circles to label food with a ballpoint pen, but I found that it was easy enough to rub off with my finger when done. There was no ink remaining on the plastic, but there was a small indent of the writing, no doubt from the pen itself. It was only noticeable in certain light and because I was looking for it.




I also used these to store my breast milk - which was great as I didn't have to use those plastic bags for it, and it's so much more environmentally friendly. The only criticism I have about that is that the pods are too big to fit directly into the brand of bottles that we use for Ellie, so I had to defrost them in another container and then decant it, but that's a minor issue.

Cleaning of the pod was easy. As it's a non porous surface, food didn't really stick to it at all, so it was quick and hygienic to clean.

I can see that they're going to continue to be useful long after the weaning phase too. I can use them for baking, for making jelly and ice blocks, a snack tray for Ellie and for random storage of odds and ends.

Do you have any tips for helping your baby learn to eat? What foods do your children love?

Disclaimer: I was provided with the Wean Meister Freezer Pods for consideration

1 comment:

  1. We have a Heinz one and these days they hold 100ml of food portions. But thats getting a little small for my monster guzzler little man. So I've been using them to make Agar Agar. They are Apple shaped so they turn out really cute.

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