HelloYumi {Fresh Organic Baby Food}

Yumi is an organic baby food subscription:

At this moment, your baby’s brain is growing faster than it ever will. By the first year, the brain doubles in size. The foundations for motor skills, social cues, emotional development memory, attention, temperament, taste preference and more are built during this time.Your baby’s tastebuds form in the first 2 years. The science is clear: the food choices you make now will help your child make better food choices later. That’s why we introduce them to over 100+ real, nutrient dense foods. It’s simple: real food is fresh food.No Synthetics. Never Fortified. No Additives. No Concentrates.

What We Loved About Yumi

1. Convenience:

This one is obvious. You get pre-packaged meals, ready to be served. What might not be so obvious is that the meals can be served hot OR cold! It really doesn’t get any more convenient! Yumi takes care of the entire meal planning and meal preparation process from beginning to end. Meals are planned to optimize nutrition and taste, and they are prepared using really high-quality ingredients.

2. Flexibility in Creating Menu:

We loved being able to customize the size of our delivery (how many jars of food) AND the menu items we received. (Although we didn’t take advantage of it, you even have the option of NOT choosing your menu items, opting instead for a pre-selected box.) Not very many services give you this much control.We typically picked a combination of both blends and starters. The blends served as ready-to-go meals for us. But we also liked having single-ingredient jars that we could mix with other ingredients at home to give D’s menu even more variety.We found that each week, there was some overlap in ingredients on the menu. This made it easy for us to introduce D to new foods and rule out allergies. Although it probably wasn’t necessary since Yumi doesn’t use any common allergens in its meals, we wanted to stick with the usual “three day rule” for introducing new foods. Here’s an example of how we approached this. In one delivery, we jars of kabocha squash and we jars of “kabocha buckwheat”, which had kabocha squash, cinnamon, flaxsweed, buckwheat meal, banana, dates, and wheat germ oil. We introduced the kabocha squash by itself three days in a row (feeding him half a jar for each of the first two days), and then on the fourth day, gave him the kabocha buckwheat blend.

3. Food is Delicious!

I tasted them myself 😉 The blends were so thoughtfully put together and they introduced D to a lot of new flavors, textures, and combinations. We really appreciated this, because we want to raise a good, health (and non-picky) eater. The meals were basically baby gourmet meals, and we felt good about serving them.

4. Nutritious:

The geniuses at Yumi have a great handle on nutrition and infant development. It truly is, as their website says, super food for super babies! The meals are balanced as far as macro-nutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, and fats), and there is a rainbow of fruits and vegetables (which, based on my non-professional understanding, means that there is a variety of vitamins and nutrients represented). Yumi seems to have approached preparing meals in a very scientific way, down to the specific nutrients each ingredient offers and how those nutrients benefit a growing baby’s development. And it looks like they work with a nutrition experts (a registered dietician, an MD and a PhD). I am in awe at how much thought went into coming up with such highly nutritious meals.

5. Diversity of Flavors:

Yumi goes far beyond your typical baby (or for that matter, adult) food. It’s so much more than say, carrots, spinach, and apples – not that those aren’t great, but there is a wiiiide world of deliciousness out there, and Yumi does a fantastic job exposing babies to that world! We subscribed to Yumi for about three months, and in that time, D was introduced to: Millet, Amaranth, Chia, Coconut Milk, Beets (his favorite!), Spirulina, Dragon Fruit, Dates, Japanese Sweet Potato Wheat Germ Oil, Flaxseed, Chickpeas, and even some spices (ginger, nutmeg).

6. Great website content:

There’s even a blog with recipes to try, including a series of baby and me recipes, which are great for babies and adults. The website nicely complements the service Yumi provides by promoting a lifestyle of health. Not only have the amazing food deliveries inspired me to incorporate more “out of the box” foods in our meals at home, but the recipes on the blog make it easy to make a delicious, healthy meal for everyone.

7. Smart and Environmentally Friendly Packaging:

The jars are all labelled with a (easy-to-remove) sticker that identifies the meal and its ingredients. On each label is a small, color-coded circle. Each week’s delivery uses a different color, so you know right away if you’ve had a jar sitting in the fridge for too long. Each of the jars has a lid and an inner seal. You can just pop the jars straight into the freezer, and they freeze well; we had zero issues with freezer burn. The jars are very good quality and totally reusable. You can also re-use the ice packs that keep your food fresh during delivery (we used them on our road trip to Disneyland!). The boxes and jars are recyclable.

8. Cute, thoughtful touches:

Our first package came with a board book (which D loves) and a cute canvas zipper pouch. Our last delivery came with a mini poster which read “I’m 14 months”, and on the reverse side, it explained some of the nutritional benefits of some of the foods we were receiving.

We not only use organic and fresh ingredients, we collaborate with a team of doctors, nutritionists, and chefs to continually develop the most nutrient dense purees available. We first balance our menu to make sure we include a wide range of fruits, legumes, greens, grains, root veggies, spices, and fats. Then, when developing each flavor we continue iterating on each recipe until we have at least 5 micronutrients. (20% of your child’s recommended daily allocation) Lastly, we make sure your baby has sustained energy by balancing the amount of sugar and fiber in the blend. We also use Modified Atmospheric Packaging to make sure our fresh fruits and veggies maintain their nutritional value whereas most big brands use heat and dangerous preservatives that destroy the nutritional content of the ingredients. The result is simply smarter babyfood.

Balanced Fructose to Fiber

Fiber helps slow down the absorption of sugar, which is why we balance our blends with fibrous veggies and proteins. In the short term, you’ll notice fewer energy dips, which makes for a less fussy baby. In the long term, you’re setting them up to reach for veggies over candy.

Nutrients Paired to Maximize Absorption

Your babe’s tummy is like a tiny tank and it only has so much room to take in the nutrition it needs, so we aim to use the space efficiently. By pairing nutrients together we ensure maximum absorption.

Over 100+ Ingredients

Studies show that early exposure to a wide variety of texture, tastes and vegetables can reduce fussiness and instill a love of healthy food later in life. That’s why we introduce your babe to over 100+ ingredients, including superfoods and spices from around the world.

Range of Textures

We learned early on that it takes time to get used to solid foods. Babies go from super smooth liquids to chunky, grainy, silky to everything in between in a matter of weeks. That’s why we stage our blends, to help you help your little one adjust.

Here’s a look at the different stages available and a few example meals.

Stage1

Smooth Singles Single Ingredient Purees (4+ months) :

Stage 2

Smooth Soups & Pies Multi-Ingredient Smooth Purees (7+ months):

Stage 3

Chunky Puddings & Bowls Multi-Ingredient Chunky Purees (9+ months):

Stage 4

Bites and Puffs (10+ months):

Why The First 1000 Days Of A Baby Life Is So Important

Neural Development By age 2, about 80% of the adult brain is formed. During this period more than half of all energy consumed is going straight to the brain.Neural Development

Taste Preferences Studies show that early exposure to a wide variety of texture, tastes and vegetables can reduce fussiness and instill a love of health foods later in
life.

Metabolic Issues This period as also been regarded as an important one for fat cell
development. Eating too much sugar, especially during this period, puts your
child at greater risk of diabetes and obesity.Metabolic Issues

Bone Development.Babies are born with over 300 bones,
and as they grow their bones will eventually fuse together to form the
206 bones that adults have.Bone Development