Gerber Finger Foods Veggie Puffs Melt in Your Baby's Mouth
Written: Apr 28 '06 (Updated May 31 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good weaning food; Convenient
Cons: Only two vegetable flavors; One container won't last long with hungry toddlers.
The Bottom Line: Gerber Finger Foods Veggie Puffs are a very good baby snack and they make a good first choice for solid food.
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| Bryan_Carey's Full Review: Gerber Finger Foods Veggie Puffs |
Babies like to eat and as they grow in size they need to be slowly introduced to a wider variety of food. Liquids come first and solids come later and one food that makes a good introductory solid food is Gerber Finger Foods Veggie Puffs Sweet Potato Flavor, a light, easy to eat snack.
Basic Facts About This Product:
Finger Foods Veggie puffs come in two flavors: Sweet corn and sweet potatoes. The individual pieces of food are small in size, measuring no more than about one- half inch (12 mm) across with the shape of a five- pointed star, making them easy to grip between the fingers.
These snacks are very light and airy, like a piece of puffed wheat cereal. They break apart very easily and they dissolve quickly when eaten. Because they are so light, a toddler doesn’t need to have many teeth. They can be broken with the gums and the soft material dissolves with minimal effort.
Ingredients:
Gerber Finger Foods Sweet Potato Puffs are made using rice flour, whole grain oat flour, wheat flour, wheat starch, sugar, sweet potato powder, tricalcium and dicalcium phosphate, natural flavor, annatto color, tocopherols (vitamin E), zinc sulfate, and electrolytic iron.
Nutritional Value:
Each 80 piece (about 7 grams or one- half cup) serving of this product contains 25 calories, 6 grams of carbohydrates, zero protein, zero fat, 10 mg of potassium, and 1 gram of sugar. Daily nutritional values per serving include 4% calcium, 10% iron, 10% vitamin E, 4% phosphorus, and 10% zinc.
Customer Service:
More information about this and other Gerber products can be found by visiting the company web site, gerber.com. If you can navigate through the site (not always an easy task) you should be able to find what you need with no problem. If you need to speak to a live rep, the number to call is 800-4-Gerber (800-443-7237).
Final Thoughts:
Gerber Finger Foods Veggie Puffs are a very good product for introducing soon- to- be- toddlers to solid food. These small, puffy, lightly crunchy snacks are easy to grip and easy to chew and consume, making them the perfect way to wean your little one off of a liquid- only diet.
When I first decided to introduce solid food, I wasn’t sure if the time was right and this is when I turned to the internet for some answers. Looking through the Gerber web page, I found that this finger food should be introduced if your baby can: 1. Crawl on his/her hands and knees with the stomach not touching the floor. 2. Use his/her jaws to crush food with the gums. 3. Hold small food between the thumb and index finger. 4. Eat thicker, lumpier foods with larger pieces. If you can answer yes to these questions, then your little one is ready to sample Gerber Finger Foods Veggie Puffs. No matter how ready your baby is, however, you should still supervise when feeding this food. Anything is possible when it comes to babies eating solid foods for the first time and it is better to play it safe.
The best quality with this type of food is its softness. Yes, this is solid food but it breaks apart quickly and if your toddler has a problem crushing the pieces in his/her mouth you need not worry because the pieces will slowly dissolve anyway. These are good qualities for a food like this because they help to eliminate the anxiety parents often feel when experimenting with solid food for the first time. Most every parent- myself included- feels the jitters when giving their baby that first piece of solid food. You worry about choking more than anything, but you also worry about whether or not the time is really right for this change in diet. With Gerber Finger Foods, the worries melt away much like the food itself.
Another thing I like about this food is the canister container. Gerber sells this product in a cylindrical container that is a little narrower at the top to make it easy to grip. The container itself holds food weighing a total of only 42 grams (1.48 oz.) because it is so light and airy. But the nice thing about this size is that its lightness makes it easy to carry around and the plastic, snap on lid makes it convenient to use. You just peel off the top and pour when you need some pieces of food, then replace the cap and wait for the next feeding opportunity.
One other use I have found for Gerber Finger Foods is to use them to hold your baby’s attention. I first heard about this snack many months ago when my little girl was far too young to consume them. Another couple was visiting with their older baby girl and they were feeding this snack to their child. What we quickly discovered is that our little girl liked to play with these snacks while seated in her high chair. This proved to be very useful when trying to spoon feed soft food from a jar. Normally, she can get very distracted and start looking all around, making it difficult to get her to notice the spoon in front of her and take a bite. We then found that if we pour out a small handful (10 to 20 small pieces) of this snack on the flat feeding surface of her high chair, she would immediately start picking up the pieces and focusing her attention forward. This was enough to get her to notice her spoonful of food and take bites more quickly, making the feeding process faster and less messy.
These puffs are made using real vegetables. This is good, but one has to keep in mind that they are no substitute for real vegetables. If you look at the nutritional statistics above, you will see that these snacks have some nutritional value, particularly in the areas of zinc, iron, and vitamin E. But they are lacking in other areas, making them useful only as a snack- the way Gerber intended. You should not use these as a substitute for a regular meal. They are meant as a quick stop- your- baby- from- fussing snack and nothing more.
Gerber Finger Foods Veggie Puffs sell for about $2.50 per 42 gram (1.48 oz.) package. Gerber stamps a date on the bottom to let consumers know if the product is still fresh. Gerber also lists the phone number, web site, and other important information right on the label for your convenience.
Gerber Finger Foods Sweet Potato Veggie Puffs are a very good product from this trusted maker of baby foods. I have purchased this flavor most frequently because my little girl loves the taste of sweet potatoes. But the other flavors are good, too, (both the veggie puffs and the fruit puffs) and they make for a tasty snack for toddlers who are learning to eat solid foods for the first time.
For More Baby Product Reviews, Be Sure to Click on the Links Below:
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Baby Cleanup:
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Recommended:
Yes
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