These homemade baby food pouches are wonderful! At first, I bought the refill pack only and used a piping tip and ziploc bag to fill them. It was doable, but kind of a pain. It takes long enough to make baby food, especially when you're taking care of a baby at the same time. I don't want to spend extra time trying to figure out how to pipe it into the tiny spout just to save a few bucks. I did that once and went back to buy the squeeze station totally worth it!
I had been doing the ice cube tray method for storing my batches of homemade baby food, but they take too long to defrost on the go. Even then, the baby food containers kept exploding in my diaper bag (fun!). These are awesome on the go I just grab one from the freezer, pop it into my diaper bag, and it's generally defrosted by the time I need it. If not, I can run it under a hot tap or ask for a cup of hot water.
PROS
Easy to assemble/use
Easy to clean (take the top and bottom off the Squeeze station, wipe it clean; pop the tubes in the dishwasher)
Not too terribly expensive (refill bags are 50 for $17; less if you have Babies R Us coupons, which I usually do)
CONS
Can be messy (the baby food squeezes out of the top when you're filling the bags sometimes, and the plunger gets suctioned down at the bottom pulling the food out of the bag when you try to extract the plunger)
Bags are not reusable
In regards to REUSING THE BAGS, the manufacturer says not to. They are so sturdy looking and while not necessarily expensive, it seems like a waste to just toss them. I am experimenting with reusing them. I rinse them clean immediately after use, and soak them in hot soapy water. I think the biggest issue with reusing them is that it is not sanitary to let them air dry they are not a well-ventilated and I could see them being a breeding ground for nasties. My plan is to clean them and refill them immediately, as I think that's the only way to avoid that problem.
UPDATE: I have been successfully reusing the food pouches. I rinse them until they run clear with hot water, then shake hot soapy water inside of them. I rinse them clean again, and dry them upside down on a drying rack, puffed up so the water can get out. So far, so good!
**Definitely purchase these at Babies R Us or Target for half the price shown here. I believe these are a Babies R Us and Target exclusive at the time of my review.
This is a fantastic product for those of you who want to make your own healthy baby foods. Amazon is charging too much for this product. You can buy this Squeeze Station at Target for $23. The pack of 50 packages sells for $15. It is important that we feed our babies and children healthy, nutritious foods, but pricing this at $49 puts it out of reach for many parents.
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I have a 10 month old that loves the pouched food, but they are expensive and I want to be able to give him homemade food so that I control over what goes into the food he eats. I tried a couple silicone squeeze feeders, but they didn't empty as easily as the pouches. I kept wishing I could refill the pouches that we bought, but I knew that wasn't sanitary. Then I found the squeeze station. It is fantastic. You will need to get more bags when you get this because the starter kit only has 10. Infantino sells them in a box of 50 for around $17about 34 cents a pouch. I have really enjoyed mine and will probably start giving it to all the new moms I know. Infantino also offers a silicone reuseable squeezer, I may try it later.I feel that this is a great product for the price, and I would buy it again.
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I wanted to start making my own baby food recently and love feeding my 9 month old the pouch baby food but it was starting to get pricey so I decided to give this product a try.
It is extremely easy to assemble and use! However, it can be a little frustrating if you don't know the special tricks/what to watch out for:
1) Make sure when pureeing the food it is CHUNK FREE almost like a pudding consistency! There can be NO chunks whatsoever in the food when squeezing it into the baggies. Even a small chunk will clog the pump and you will have to spoon out the contents back into your blender and start over. If you try to force it through you will end up with a huge mess (learned this lesson the hard way LOL)!
2) When pushing the food down with the press I find its best to move it in a slow circular motion that way little bits of air can escape while you are pressing down. If you press down too quick the food could either squirt everywhere or too much air will get into the bag.
3) Fill the bags slowly!
4) After the bag is done being filled I find its best to unscrew the pump (while the press is still fully inside) and then close your bag. If you lift the press out of the pump while the bag is still attached you end up sucking some of the food back out.
I also find that this can get a little messy but I am a clean as you go type of cook and all of the parts of this product are very easy to clean so I just rinse as I go.
All that being said I still love this product and would highly recommend it to those who love the pouch baby food and want to save a tremendous amount of money!
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This is a very useful gadget for a mom (or dad) who make their own baby food. In fact, when I ruined my first one, I very promptly obtained a new one. No fault of the product...a knife melted on our heating element in the dishwasher and the smell was so horrible that I felt uncomfortable using anything plastic or silicone that was in the dishwasher at the time.
It's not perfect, but still gets a 5 star rating.
Things I really like:
It's very easy to get the food inside the pouch. The plunger does a great job.
The pouches are easy to store and very easy to defrost under running water (although I usually take a couple out of the freezer the night before). They also take up very little room for travel.
This was purchased to make baby food for my infant, but my four year old loves the pouches as well. She eats just about anything and loves veggies, but I feel like having
the squeeze pouches has doubled her veggie/fruit consumption, hurray!
Things to know:
I don't use the base. I find it cumbersome and yet another thing to wash/store (it does not fold for storage). The pouches screw onto the tubes quite securely. Once I have screwed on the pouch, I hold the tube (with the pouch attached) in one hand, fill the tube with a spoon with the other, and then use the plunger to push the food in. MAKE SURE YOU UNSCREW THE POUCH BEFORE PULLING THE PLUNGER BACK OUT. If you don't, you'll end up pulling some food back out of the pouch as there is a vacuum.
If I am making more than one type of food, I just rinse the plunger and use a different tube. I find that I end up washing less tubes that way (one for each food instead of three).
There is no way around it...some food will come up above the plunger as it's being pushed down. I just put it back in the bowl and repeat the whole process with another pouch until I am done.
If you trying to squeeze some air out of the pouch before screwing on the cap, do this over the bowl as some will undoubtedly escape.
There is a little "lip" on the tubes where the pouch screws on, this is difficult to clean if not rinsed right away and if the tubes are washed in the dishwasher with the opening down (which is how I do it), you will get some water pooling inside the lip. So rinse immediately after use.
Other reviewers are right, if you are spending more that $25 on the station and more than $17 on the 50 pouches (which by the way you should buy right away as there are only 10 included with the station), you are spending too much.
Be careful about certain foods for young babies, this is printed info from the AAP given to me by my pediatrician (so check with yours): beets, turnips, carrots, spinach, and collard greens in some parts of the country have large amounts of nitrates. Nitrates can cause an unusual type of anemia in young infants. Baby food companies screen their produce for nitrates, but there is no way to do this at home. So the AAP feels that it's safer to use commercially prepared version of these specific foods. If you do choose to prepare them at home, serve fresh and do not store as the nitrates can actually increase with storage. I just thought I'd mention this as I had no idea...and there is a really beautiful picture of carrots being prepared with the Squeeze Station that just makes you want to make and store carrots in the pouches!
It's made in China.
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I bought this placemat for my 20 month-old daughter and overall I've very pleased with it. It's a bit pricey for a placemat but it's the only one I have found that truly stays in one place while my daughter eats. It doesn't slide/move at all. It's also top-rack dishwasher-safe, which is a bonus. My daughter does like to peel it off of the table and put it on her head as a "hat," but I think that's just the age and no fault of the placemat ;o) My only wish is that it were a little bit larger.
