Today, my daughter’s best friend Dora the Explorer gave her a delicious, healthy snack. Yup. I played that card. And I am not nearly ashamed as I probably should be, considering the snack was 100% apple sauce with no added sugar.
Nickelodeon
Squeezers from Nature’s Child was our first time venturing into the
exciting world of squeezable food at all. My one-year-old handled it
beautifully and my three-year-old smiled wickedly at me, thinking she
was eating something bad for her and getting away with it. They’ve
got two flavors available: Dora hawking apple puree, and SpongeBob
shilling for berry puree. There’s no spoon or refrigeration needed,
making them perfect for on-the-go.
Since all the research proves that children are more apt to eat stuff with licensed
cartoon characters on it, I figure you may as well take advantage of it as a chance to feed your kid something healthy. –Elizabeth
[Ed Note: My 5 year-old daughter saw this post before it published and said “I want
that!” “But you don’t like applesauce,” I said. “I’ll try it again,” was
her response. So there ya go.” – Liz]
Find Nickelodeon
Squeezers in bulk from our affiliate Amazon, or at your local supermarket. See our previous reviews for squeezers like GoGo Squeez and Ella’s Kitchen.
I learned two kids ago, to just get the stuff shaped like whatever character is the favorite in the moment. The more you fight it, the more they want it.
I need to look for those for my son.
I think I recently saw Spongebob branded snack packs of edamame in pods. I personally hate branding and am secretly pleased that my 2yo son vaguely knows about Thomas and Mickey but nobody else.
-Kim.
This is one of the toughest questions I get from the parents I work with. Sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do to get your child to eat healthier foods. I think the two things that are important to keep in mind are
1. Read the label and make sure it’s really healthy – not a marketing tactic. More often than not, the foods with the characters aren’t the healthy choice.
2. If this gets your child to try something new that they normally wouldn’t, great! Once they see that they like it, slowly work towards options without the character to save money.
If branding gets my kid to eat it, I’m all for it. On a side note, my kid just thinks holding these things are cool – we get the crushers at Trader Joes, which are nice because at least one flavor has veggies and fruit.
I’m going to have to say “oy” on this one. Besides the fact that squeezable food gives me the shivers, it also seems like an incredible amount of packaging for 3 oz of applesauce.
I have to side with Dana. My inner hippie refuses to buy squeezable food because off all the packaging! I’m the lame mom who plops cold applesauce out of the honkin’-huge glass jar. Maybe I’ll change my tune next year when I have to pack lunches…
I don’t buy branded food. These certainly won’t make me break that rule. Maybe if it was Darth Vader branded spinach (Brussel Sprout Death Stars?), I would… but applesauce, no. My toddler already eats little puree things with the spout, but other brands (and ones with some veggies mixed in) no characters needed.
I am all oy on this one. I wasn’t always, but I started following this amazing non-profit Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and they make very compelling arguments against branding products, food or otherwise, in a child’s life.
Worst of all to me, is that these are from Healthy Child. Big Food doing this, I understand. But a non-profit that stands for healthy children? I feel a big disconnect…. and fail.
Just realized I read the name of the company wrong, re. my previous comment. So they’re not made by a not-for-profit which is better, but I still don’t think kids should be learning to eat food that is branded, such early commercialization of… everything!
Terracycle should be able to recycle or upcycle the applesauce pouches. They do similar packaging like Ella’s Kitchen and Honest Kids pouches and about a thousand other items too (https://www.terracycle.net/brigades?locale=en-US&show_all=true), so this should fit right in!
There’s something about squeezing food that makes it more fun. I remember that gooey candy in a tube that everyone used to like.