I have once again hit the stores in search of tasty, organic baby food (see previous post here for a review of Earth’s Best new Gourmet Meals). I was pleasantly surprised to find Sprout’s new Organic Baby Food packets at my neighborhood Harris Teeter. For $1.19 per 3.5 oz. packet, I decided that I’d splurge on trying yet another new “interesting” baby food. After all, the packaging displayed beautiful photos of delicious-looking food and the Ziploc pouches offered a nice alternative to the traditional glass jars and the hard-to-close-once-opened plastic containers.
One thing to note here is that I would love to bypass processed baby food altogether and make everything from scratch that I put into my child’s mouth. However, since I work full-time, I have to supply my 9-month old’s daycare with baby food for days when she’s not able to consume whatever is on the school’s menu.
Before I gave each of the baby food variations to my 9-month old daughter, I tried them out for myself. And, just for the record, I get absolutely no money, samples or kickbacks for writing these reviews.
Pasta with Lentil Bolognese
Mom-tested:
Although I’ve never had Pasta with Lentil Bolognese in a restaurant before, I thought this flavor was extremely tasteless. I also detected a vague after-taste that reminded me of canned Chef Boyardee. The back of the package states “I am proud to share these home-cooked flavors with your family…I created this recipe to give our future foodies a taste of one of my favorite Italian dishes.” –Founder & Chef, Tyler Florence
If this Pasta with Lentil Bolognese tastes like one of the Founder’s favorite dishes, you certainly wouldn’t find me in one of Chef Tyler’s restaurants.
Baby-tested:
After spitting out this baby food five times in a row, I decided that this $1.19 would go straight to the dog’s bowl.
Peach Rice Pudding
Mom-tested:
Once again, I found myself running for something to cleanse my palate. The peach rice pudding was extremely tart and lacked the sweetness that I was expecting. The consistency of this baby food also struck me as odd – it reminded me of the curd-like look and feel of refried beans when you first open the can.
Baby-tested:
My daughter took about five spoonfuls of this baby food and scowled and grunted the entire time. In fact, a table full of strangers sitting next to me started to laugh and said “mom, I don’t know what you’re feeding her – but she definitely doesn’t like that!”
This expensive packet of baby food was once again very much appreciated by our dog.
Roasted Pears & Apricots
Mom-tested:
This was by far the best baby food out of the bunch. The food was very sweet, with just the right amount of tart. The only strange thing about this variation was the consistency. Unlike the other two food types, the Roasted Pears & Apricots was as runny as a normal Stage 1 jar of carrots baby food. Although my daughter liked it (see below), I probably won’t buy this very often because I prefer feeding her the vegetable-based baby foods over the fruit-based options.
Baby-tested:
My daughter lapped this one up and even made a “mmmmm” sound while she ate.
Since I’ve had a much better success rate with Earth’s Best Organic variations (non-Gourmet), I’ll likely stick to those.
As always, please let me know your thoughts if you’ve tried these baby foods or if you’re aware of any other new organic baby foods – I’m happy to serve as the guinea pig!
You Might Also Like:
I have been feeding some of the Sprout food to “M” for the last month or so and he LOVES IT! Although I will say at this point he will eat anything…He loves food and rarely turns his nose up to anything which is nice for a change. Unlike my 2 1/2 year old, eating is always a chore. To me Earths Best and Sprout is about equal in the “taste department”. Earth’s Best just has more choices because they are a bigger company at this point.
I just bought the Pasta with Lentil Bolognese so we will see how “M” likes it but I am certain he will eat it all!:)
PS Wegman’s sells Sprout for $.99 a pouch/packet.