best baby food subscriptions – great gift idea for baby foods

When you have little ones, you have a lot to worry about. You might be exhausted after trying to get them to sleep through the night. Financial worries weigh on you like life insurance options for parents, and savings accounts for college. Plus, you’re busy juggling normal, everyday work and family responsibilities.

Moms want what’s best for their kids, and a lot of moms are cynical about grocery store shelf baby food. And they should be, considering the recent study that found the following scary ingredients in baby food found in grocery stores:

• 95 percent contained lead
• 73 percent contained arsenic
• 75 percent contained cadmium 
• 32 percent contained mercury
• 25 percent contained all four metals listed above

There has to be another option! You can’t feed foods that could be dangerous to your precious little ones. 

You could make your own baby food, but if that doesn’t fit into your schedule, I have some good news for you. Baby food delivery services are popping up left and right and some of them are becoming wildly popular. 

Here are nine of the best baby food delivery services with a little information about what makes each one stand out from the rest.

1 – Little Spoon

Little Spoon offers only fresh, organic ingredients. To subscribe, you start by filling out an extensive questionnaire. What really makes them stand out is that a team of nutritionists and pediatricians review the questionnaire and develop a meal plan tailored to your baby’s specific needs and development.

There is no meat or allergens in the food delivered. It’s all made from plants. They don’t use preservatives or high heat like most grocery store shelf foods. 

The food comes in three textures: blended, textured and adventurous. They don’t offer any solids for babies transitioning from purees to solid foods. 

Another great thing Little Spoon offers is booster packets. These packets are filled with nutritional supplements in powder form that you sprinkle into your baby’s food. 

2 – Hello Yumi

This baby food subscription service is very similar to Little Spoon. All their ingredients are organic and farm-fresh. The blends are designed by nutritionists, pediatricians, and chefs. Their weekly deliveries are color-coded so you won’t get mixed up with which foods are from the last shipment and which ones are new.

One thing they offer that Little Spoon doesn’t is toddler subscriptions. The foods in these boxes are designed for babies transitioning from purees to solids.

You can pick your boxes so if there’s something your baby hasn’t liked in the past, you can stay away from that food. 

3 – Bambinos Baby Food

Bambinos delivers frozen, organic meals made in Alaska. Their claim to greatness is that Alaska grows the best and most healthy food because it’s uncontaminated land. They offer several Alaskan fish meals.

The food is pureed and solid, so older babies can use it as a teether along with other teething products. You can warm the solid a little to make a textured puree, or you can warm it more to make a smooth puree. 

They even offer a peanut cookie that they claim reduces the likelihood of peanut allergies by 80 percent! That’s something worth checking out. 

They also have several snack items including teething cookies. Also, if you check out their website, you’ll see several organic food options for the whole family.

Unlike most of the other choices, Bambinos is available at select grocers in the frozen food department. You might want to try it out there first before you order delivery because the shipping is just under $40.

4 – Raised Real

The meals provided from Raised Real are organic and plant-based. They come in solid form diced up. So if you’re interested in going a baby-led weaning route, these meals will be perfect as they come. You also have the choice to mash them for a textured puree or blend them for a smooth puree. How you serve the meal is up to you.

If you’re interested only in purees, this service may not be your favorite because you’ll have the extra step of blending the meal. However, if you like the option of solid foods for your baby, this is one of the best options.

5 – Little Foodie Club

These meals are developed by pediatricians and nutritionists, and they’re organic and fresh. The meals are designed to develop your baby’s palate with a wide assortment of flavors and textures. 

They have a plan for babies as young as four months old that consists of single purees. That’s a good way to introduce babies to their first solids.

For babies older than six months, they offer mixed purees of varying textures. They include meat as an option for protein. 

The meals are carefully planned to develop babies’ palettes as they grow so that they will grow up enjoying a wide variety of foods. The meals come fully prepared and can be frozen for up to three months.

6 – Early Bird Cookery

This baby food service has delivery options for the whole family, so just one part of their business is baby food. They don’t offer many options, but they promise a seasonal puree that is fresh and organic.

7- Once upon a Farm

The meals from Once upon a Farm are organic and cold-pressed, so their flavor and nutrients aren’t depleted like they are in heat processing. The meals come in pouches, so they’re the perfect meal on the go. 

Even though they come in pouches like a lot of grocery store options, they are not shelf-stable, so they must be refrigerated. Subscriptions are available directly from Once upon a Farm, but you can also order through Amazon.

8 – Fresh Bellies

One of the most basic principles of Fresh Bellies is that fruits and vegetables shouldn’t be mixed because that teaches babies to prefer sweets over vegetable flavors. So their meals always keep the two separate.

They use high-pressure pasteurization to avoid heat preservation so their meals taste fresh and maintain the highest level of nutrition.

Their baby food purees are organic. They also have a variety of snack options that, although are non-organic, are also non-GMO.

9 – Nurture Life

If you have a baby and older kids, this delivery service might be just what you’re looking for. They offer purees for babies and kid-friendly meals for old children. You can even try some of their family-friendly meal options.

The meals are pediatrician and dietician approved. The meals are designed to introduce babies and children to a diverse and healthy diet so that they develop palettes that enjoy many flavors and textures.

Many of these companies have a first-time buyer discount, so taking advantage of that is a great way to try a few of the delivery services that look best to you. They all offer convenient and flexible packages. If you sign up for a subscription, you can skip weeks as needed, and change preferences as desired.

All the science and international flavors and textures that go into these meals will help your child learn to love a variety of flavors. And not only are they wonderfully flavorful, but they also retain their nutritional value better than their shelf-stable counterparts that have added preservatives and have been heat-treated.

Enjoy leading your baby on the path to becoming a food connoisseur, and remember, it’s ok if you test the foods yourself! You’ll probably enjoy it as much as they do.

Melanie Musson is a writer for EffortlessInsurance.com. She has four children and helping them develop healthy palettes is something very important to her.