Child is prepared for solids, and as a brand new mother or father, you don’t have any concept the place to begin. It is an thrilling time, however on high of the limitless diaper modifications and sleepless nights, the added weight of determining what to feed your toddler can really feel daunting. And should you’re enthusiastic about making your personal child meals, you may quickly uncover that purchasing for natural produce, then steaming and pureeing home made blends may be extraordinarily time consuming. To not point out all of the questions that come up — am I feeding my child the proper meals in the proper order? Is the feel too thick or too skinny? What ought to I take advantage of to retailer the meals?
Enter the rising child meals and youngsters’ meal supply trade. These companies goal to ship nutritious child meals on to your door to make the method a bit simpler for brand new dad and mom. has change into a well-liked possibility for fogeys in search of nutrient-dense meals for his or her little ones. We had a panel of mothers and little ones — together with yours really — put the service to the take a look at. Here is all the pieces you have to find out about Yumi child meals service, together with how a lot it prices and whether or not or not it is actually value the associated fee.
Yumi Child Meals Meal Supply Service Yumi Child Meals Meal Supply Service Store at helloyumi.com Credit score: Yumi Execs
Cons
What’s Yumi?
Yumi describes itself as a “next-generation meals and vitamin firm” that makes mealtime for busy households simpler. It gives nutrient-dense, plant-based meals which can be mapped to your kid’s age and growth. You’ll be able to choose from blends, nutritional vitamins and snacks. Deliveries are made weekly however may be skipped at anytime. Yumi clients additionally get unique entry to its in-house crew of consultants, together with pediatricians and nutritionists, to supply assist.
Yumi
How does Yumi work?
Once you , you may present some primary details about your little one, together with their birthday. Then, Yumi will match them up with meals catered to their developmental stage. Choose one, two or three meals a day, plus choices for snacks. Yumi’s in style introduces your child to a few to 4 new flavors every week, ultimately introducing them to 100+ totally different components. Yumi pre-selects the meals on your toddler, however you could have the power to go in and edit your decisions as nicely. The menu contains:
Blends First Meals Singles (6+ months): Thinner single ingredient puree Graduated Singles (6+ months): Thicker single ingredient puree Duos (7+ months): Two-ingredient puree Mashables (8+ months): Clean multi-ingredient puree Mashables (9+ months): Textured multi-ingredient puree
Pinchables (10+ months): Small items of complete meals designed for serving to child observe their pincer grasp
Small items of complete meals designed for serving to child observe their pincer grasp Bites (11+ months): Nutrient-dense bites as child nears the one-year mark
Nutrient-dense bites as child nears the one-year mark Snacks and Nutritional vitamins: Quite a lot of add-ons which embody bars, award-winning fruit strips and extra.
In all, there are 60+ distinctive natural meals that change seasonally. Every stage is curated in direction of child growth. For instance, when beginning solids at 6 months, Yumi makes positive to function blends wealthy in iron, which is crucial for development and growth at this age (child’s iron shops naturally deplete round this level). At month 7, meals concentrate on protein-rich decisions to assist child as they study to roll backwards and forwards and begin to crawl. You will obtain extra data for every stage as your child will get older, too.
Yumi says its merchandise are all gluten-free, big-9 allergen-free, vegetarian and vegan-friendly, kosher, natural, by no means fortified and don’t have any added sugars or preservatives. Common blends embody its seasonal pie flavors (Pumpkin Pie, Triple Berry), in addition to flavors from its limited-edition Chef Sequence.
How a lot does Yumi value?
Yumi’s plans begin at round $5 per day. The corporate gives three plan sizes to cater to your kid’s rising urge for food as they become old, so you possibly can resolve if you wish to complement breastmilk or components with Yumi one, two or thrice per day:
One meal a day plans come out to $4.40 per meal.
Two meal a day plans come out to $3.85 per meal.
Three meal a day plans come out to $3.47 per meal.
The extra meals you purchase, the larger the low cost which is typical for many meal supply companies. Transport is free no matter what number of meals you order. A ten% lifetime low cost is obtainable to army, first responders and lecturers.
The place does Yumi ship?
Yumi at the moment ships wherever within the 48 contiguous United States, and is hoping to start supply to Hawaii and Alaska quickly. The meals is made in Los Angeles, and the cutoff time for upcoming orders is Tuesday at 11:59 p.m. PST the week previous to your cargo.
What’s Yumi packaging like?
The model makes use of BPA-free and BPS-free plastic over glass so it will not break if knocked off a excessive chair. Additionally it is curbside recyclable.
Our Yumi Child Meals Assessment
Good Housekeeping Knowledgeable Tester Profile
Title: Stefani Sassos, M.S., R.D.N., C.D.N.
Function: Registered Dietitian and Good Housekeeping Institute Deputy Vitamin Director
Why you need to belief me: Along with being a registered dietitian, I am a mother to a 14-month-old lady with a fierce persona and large urge for food! As a working mother, I am continuously in search of time-saving options and have accomplished in depth analysis on feeding her balanced meals that additionally expose her to quite a lot of flavors. In my position at GH, I lead all testing and evaluation on meals and vitamin merchandise, starting from dietary supplements to child meals to ready meal supply companies. As the first knowledgeable tester on this Yumi analysis, I fed my daughter Yumi child meals persistently from 6 months by means of 13 months. Not solely does this evaluate embody my private expertise with the model, however GH additionally requested 5 separate mothers throughout the nation to check the service out with their very own little ones for extra real-life suggestions.
The writer and her daughter Stefani Sassos
Ordering and pricing
I discovered the ordering and sign-up course of to be pretty easy, as did our different mother testers. You will enter some primary data, together with child’s start date, then Yumi will present suggestions on which stage to begin out with. Take observe that you will have to order by way of a desktop laptop or on a browser in your cellphone, as Yumi doesn’t at the moment provide an app.
As a brand new mother, I recognize that Yumi took the guesswork out of strong introduction and supplied the suitable textures and mix’s for my daughter’s age. From the POV of a registered dietitian, I like that the blends cater to totally different vitamins at each stage with an emphasis on iron, choline and extra, relying on what growth milestones your child goes by means of. Different dad and mom agreed: “This package was catered particularly to my child, which was a brand new expertise for us,” stated considered one of our testers. “I beloved that it was particularly for him.”
One other standout to me as a registered dietitian and mother is that Yumi has been awarded the Clear Label Purity award, which checks for over 400 totally different contaminants. After the issues over heavy metals in child meals final 12 months, it was vital to me to discover a protected possibility for my daughter. Our different testers appreciated this level as nicely, particularly ones that did not have the time to organize home made choices and have been as a substitute counting on store-bought child meals.
Supply and packaging
Having examined Yumi over the course of a number of months, I had persistently good experiences with immediate transport and supply. Containers have been packed tightly in little trays with ice packs that saved the meals chilly even when sitting at our doorstep all day. Testers had optimistic supply experiences as nicely, saying that whereas one or two jars is likely to be knocked round typically, for essentially the most half the trays saved them so as.
Assortment of Yumi child meals. Field of Yumi in Stefani’s residence.
Testers appreciated that the jars, containers and trays are all recyclable and beloved that the jars are reusable, too. I personally would clear out the containers and repurpose them for puffs and different child meals all through the week (I am at the moment nonetheless reusing them!). The BPA-free and BPS-free jars are plastic, which has its execs and cons — the primary professional being that they will not break if dropped, which is a vital consideration with little ones. General, I used to be impressed with how a lot meals they may pack in these little containers.
The insulation is curbside recyclable, which is handy. For the ice packs, you possibly can reduce open the highest and get rid of the contents within the trash. Then, rinse them out and recycle as #4 plastic. Certain, it is a bit of a manufacturing, however fairly normal for a meal supply service that retains the meals chilly.
Inside Yumi child meals field upon supply Stefani Sassos
As we progressed to finger meals, we did have some points with the bites arriving soggy (some bites held their form higher than others), however they sometimes would come again to life when heated on stovetop. In two cases, I contacted Yumi to get a alternative of the bites, which have been then despatched over with the subsequent cargo. One other factor to notice: For the reason that meals are recent, they should be in an insulated bag if taken on-the-go. Whereas the puffs, bars and a number of the snacks are shelf-stable, none of the particular meals are. You’re getting high quality recent meals, however that is not all the time handy in terms of portability.
Preparation and feeding
Every part is able to eat from the containers, making it tremendous easy to make use of. Mum or dad testers appreciated this comfort, with one saying, “The meal supply I’ve accomplished previously is for adults and required prepping meals — this required no prep work.” You’ll be able to feed with a spoon proper out of the jars, or scoop the blends out onto a plate.
Number of blends from Yumi. Yumi Rosemary Focaccia Bites
My daughter and the opposite youngsters in our checks have been surprisingly receptive to the flavors of the blends. Not each meal was all the time successful, however most gave the impression to be nicely obtained. For choosy infants, particularly these round 6 months or youthful, don’t be concerned an excessive amount of if they are not receptive to a number of the meals you introduce to them to at first — attempt once more in per week or two. In the end, these first few weeks are designed to introduce child to solids, not be their sole supply vitamin, so have enjoyable with it. Do not be afraid to supply them one thing a number of occasions; typically a unique spoon or setting could make an enormous distinction in your toddler’s acceptance of it.
Stefani’s daughter testing yumi child meals. Stefani Sassos
As for Yumi’s Pinchables, they may get messy and have been finest served on a child plate, however have been very well-balanced from a vitamin standpoint. It was good that the choices progressed with my daughter — I used to be shocked that she took these first few bites of the Pinchables so simply. I could have delayed that introduction if not prompted by Yumi, since development to finger meals generally is a scary factor for a first-time mother or father!
The Bites have been an effective way to introduce her to bigger items of finger meals, however dad and mom with older toddlers famous that the meal choices have been restricted after the one-year mark. Whereas the choices have been useful from 6 to 12 months, the service would not absolutely develop with child as they attain the toddler stage. That stated, I began to re-create a number of the Bites at residence too, which offered nice inspiration.
Customer support is obtainable by way of stay chat, cellphone, e-mail or textual content message and was very responsive and useful. In addition they have a fantastic community of on-staff nutritionists that you may communicate to if in case you have any questions, which is a serious perk of the service.
Yumi execs and cons
An enormous consideration is whether or not or not Yumi is definitely worth the value level. For my part, the standard of the meals is simple and the Clear Label Purity Award standing units this selection other than different child meals manufacturers. That being stated, you are actually paying a premium for comfort and freshly made child meals. Whereas Yumi’s choices are costlier than making the meals at residence your self and pricier than many store-bought choices, they do have some main benefits, together with taking the the stress and strain off of getting to meal prep on your baby.
One factor to notice is that though the service guides you in strong introduction, it’s not an allergen introduction service. The meals are free from the big-9 allergens and despite the fact that you might be introducing new meals, you may have so as to add in allergens small quantities like peanuts and extra by yourself and beneath the instruction of your pediatrician individually from the service.
Execs
Time-saving and handy
Catered in direction of child’s age and growth
Perfect for infants ages 6 to 12 months
60+ meal choices that change seasonally
Nutritionally balanced meals at each stage
All meals are natural and plant-based
No added sugars or preservatives
Nice number of flavors
Recyclable and reusable packaging
Responsive customer support
Quick dependable transport and supply
Clear Label Undertaking Purity Award recipient
Cons
Restricted choices for youngsters over 12 months
Doesn’t embody allergen introduction
No corresponding app to handle your order
Doesn’t ship to Hawaii, Alaska or exterior the U.S.
Last ideas: Is Yumi value it?
In case you’re interested in making an attempt Yumi however involved about the associated fee, my advice could be to begin with only one meal a day on your baby. In case you really feel there’s a surplus of meals, you possibly can freeze the blends for as much as two months and pause your subscription should you want a break. The most important professional for myself and plenty of of our testers was that, as new dad and mom, the service decreased stress over what to feed our infants and when. That alone for me was actually value giving the service a attempt. You’re paying a value for comfort, however figuring out that your child is getting quite a lot of high-quality meals and being uncovered to nutrient-dense components is worth it.
What’s extra, the choices are more energizing than any store-bought options, which may also be pricey. For brand spanking new dad and mom which can be simply starting solids introduction, Yumi may be extraordinarily useful in guaranteeing that your child is uncovered to totally different meals and flavors on the optimum tempo. No matter whether or not you select to make use of Yumi or go a unique route, my final recommendation is to have enjoyable with solids introduction and absorb these valuable moments together with your baby — they go by method too quick!
