@hurtbygod My favorites so far are the Grain Free puffs from Serenity Kids and the yogurt/smoothie melts from Amara. They have a bunch of different flavors, sweet and savory. The Puffworks organic nut butter puffs are great too. These will all melt in their mouth, but on the side of caution I used to cut these all in halves or thirds when I started feeding them. Now I don't even bother lol
@hurtbygod FWIW, and only because of the sub we are on, my baby is 10 months and we do all fresh foods. We haven’t done many puffs/processed food except:
— one time a restaurant gave us some… we were unexpectedly at very fancy sushi and it saved us lol.
— freeze dried raspberries, strawberries, and mangoes for an activity for baby on the go
Even in these handful of instances, he really didn’t each much and it was mostly for fun
@dayssola We have only done fresh food so far too, we’re just going to Mexico in a few weeks so I’m brainstorming for snacks she can have that aren’t messy (like say, yogurt or orange slices)! Freeze dried fruit is smart.
@hurtbygod The Amara melts are great. They are a little bigger so if you have a brand new eater, you might feel more comfortable with Beech Nut or Once Upon a Farm melts (I’ve only seen the latter on Target.com) until they get the hang of those. My toddler loves all three.
We also like the Yumi puffs. Freeze dried fruit is good too. We used the freeze dried mango slices from Target (Good & Gather store brand) to teach our son to pick up food in a mess-free way
@nowforever I'm happy with my membership. I live in a major city and have access to a number of health food stores, and find the prices roughly equivalent to sometimes a little cheaper. Shipping is very fast. I buy a lot of alternative pastas (chickpea, lentil, heart of palm), Amara yogurt melts for the toddler, and lots of snacks for myself. They have a good selection of cooking things too, like marinades and salad dressings, with quality ingredients. Their paleo snack mixes are really good.
@nowforever Love our membership, have had it for years. I’m predominantly grain free dairy free and we avoid most sugars in our condiments. We are 3 hours from Denver and 4 hours from Lincoln/Omaha in Western Nebraska where it’s really hard to find wholesome foods. We cook 95% from scratch so we use it for our ingredient pantry and do a large run to the city every other month. Food options? So so, I often search for odd ball things I.e tiger nut slices or jujubes. Pricing is pretty good as others have said look for the sales.
@nowforever Absolutely love it! We live in rural east tn with the closest Whole Foods being 45 mins away. It is the best thing ever! I get most of our pantry staples, cleaning products, vitamins, and toddler snacks from there. We do the autoship so there’s an extra discount. Orders can sometimes take a hot minute to arrive, but other than that, we couldn’t be happier!! The Thrive brand products are phenomenal too… Thrive brand Sicilian gravy marinara sauce is literally to die for.
@nowforever I order every month. I get my hard-to-find pea protein milk, cold brew concentrate, vitamins, low-VOC nail polish, lotion, cocokind and weleda face products, lip balm, tea, miso paste. They have a bunch of good stuff. I love it.
@nowforever I love Thrive and have been a member for years. I like that I can save my favorites and easily reorder. We have food allergies in our house so it’s a lot easier if I can just order the same safe foods over and over. Fast shipping, great sales and deals, easy refunds for damaged goods
@nowforever I have it, we like it and use it. Not amazing for large bulk things like beans or whatever for the pantry but fun drinks, snacks, meats, household supplies & personal care.
@nowforever Another website to check out is Vitacost - they stock a lot of organic/natural shelf stable grocery items and they run sales ALL the time. They also offer 3% cashback via Rakuten and it can get as high as 10-15% back at pretty regular intervals. Haven't used Thrive so I can't compare it, but when I can't find specific items at Costco or Trader Joes, Vitacost is my next stop
