Baby food fight!

Aaaaaah! Ooooooooh! – Miss J, 10.5 months

With pots in the cupboard for review from HIPP, Organix and Cow & Gate, Miss J was faced with two choices: eat them all and then dictate a detailed review for each or…eat them all and leave me to figure out what she made of them and their comparative strengths and weaknesses. As Miss J was tired from dictating her latest novel, we decided to go for the second option.

So, in the blue corner, the Organix range for 1-3 year olds, in the red corner HIPP Organic Stage 3-4 and in the yellow corner, Cow and Gate’s stage 3 range.

Round 1: taste

At 10 months, Miss J is off purees and on to a combination of fork mashed meals, rice cakes, fresh soft fruit and whatever she can nick off JD’s plate. She mainly eats mashed / snipped up versions of what ever the rest of the family is eating, but we’re definitely not above jarred food – especially if we’re out and about.

They all smell bad. Sorry but they do. I’m a vegetarian and mashed, packaged meat doesn’t smell good to me, but I can happily report that Miss J ate pretty much everything we offered her from all three corners (not all in one day, I should add) so if Round 1 is a question of taste, I’m calling a draw – 1 point each.

Round 2: quality of ingredients

Miss J hasn’t mastered the finer points of infant nutrition, so I handled this element of the judging.

HIPP and Organix both state they’re made from the finest / best quality organic ingredients, while Cow & Gate’s range isn’t organic but does state it uses ‘baby grade vegetables’. None of the brands use preservatives or colourings, but Organix looks and smells the most like home cooked food.

There’s very little in it, but it’s 3 points to Organix, 2 points to HIPP, and 1 points for Cow & Gate.

Round 3: price

A Cow & Gate Stage 3 meal costs £1.45 for a 230g pot (63p per 100g). An Organix Stage 3 meal costs £1.99 for a 200g pot (99p per 100g). A Stage 3 HIPP meal costs £1.59 for a 250g jar (61p per 100g).

Miss J has lost her savings book so couldn’t comment on cost, but I can confirm that all of those prices are way too high to make them realistic options for everyday use, but aren’t too painful for days out.

So, on price alone, it’s 3 points to HIPP, 2 points to Cow & Gate and 1 point to Organix.

Totting up the scores

So how did the contenders fare?

HIPP – 6 points
Organix – 5 points
Cow & Gate – 4 points

Congratulations to HIPP. You may collect the results of your hard work from Miss J’s nappy bin.

Does it really matter?

To be honest, I think all three brands are very good. They’re free of nasties, tasty (in Miss J’s opinion) and don’t cost a ridiculous amount considering they are, in essence, a convenience food.

If you want to learn more about weaning, you might want to have a look at Cow & Gate’s 5 Step Weaning Plan, which promises to take you and your little one from very first spoonfuls to three pureed meals a day in five easy to follow steps.

Or you could just wing it like we did.

Disclosure: HIPP, Organix and Cow & Gate sent us food to try free of charge for the purposes of this review roundup. No payment was received for this post. All posts are 100% honest and sometimes just a little sarcastic.