Saturday, November 13, 2010

HappyBaby Makes My Baby Happy

I am going to forewarn that this will be a bit longer of a review, but that there is an awesome giveaway to go along with all these great products so keep reading! With that being said, here goes...

When my sweet baby daughter turned 7 months old I decided that I really needed to step it up on the whole "trying new foods" program. We had already attempted a couple foods, but she stoutly rejected each and every one besides for her cereals. When it became obvious that she had actual interest in foods but she still wouldn't eat what I was offering her I decided to look around for some other organic lines to try. That's when I found HappyBaby and their great line of organic baby and toddler foods.

We started with the HappyBaby Frozen foods, specifically the Yes Peas+Thank You Carrots (the name makes me smile every time) and the Sweeter Potatoes + Purer Pear. I could honestly tell a difference between what I normally saw from a jar or plastic tub of baby food and what we had gotten from HappyBaby. Besides for the obvious differences in packaging, when thawed the HappyBaby Frozen foods seemed to be less changed from their original fruit or vegetable form. For example, every cube we thawed looked, smelled and tasted more like the fresh version of that fruit or vegetable than I had ever seen in a baby food not made at home. The Yes Peas actually smelled and tasted like sweet peas. The Purer Pears were a more runny consistency than the Sweeter Potatoes, exactly like I would expect if I had made those foods myself. (Which made me wonder what exactly those other companies are doing to the baby food I had used before to make every fruit and vegetable the same consistency?) While she didn't do a complete 180 on her consumption of baby foods, I will honestly say that before putting her little mouth on lock-down she would eat about twice as much HappyBaby Frozen foods as she would the other baby foods we had tried.

Then we moved onto their HappyPuffs, Green Puffs. The Green Puffs stood out to me because they weren't made with a fruit or sweet flavor, instead they contain spinach, collard greens and kale. Believe it or not, the Green Puffs were even better received than the sweet potato puffs we had tried from a competitor. HappyPuffs are made with whole grains and contain 1/2 the sugar as the leading brands. It's also kinds nice to know that the HappyPuffs containers are 40% larger so I don't need to go buy more puffs as often. Plus they come in 5 different flavors including Apple, Sweet Potato and Banana.

After that it was on to the HappyMelts freeze dried yogurt snacks. I was unsure as to how these would be received. Freeze dried yogurt somehow seems... wrong. But they have become my go to snack to stop the crying when I'm preparing meals or just need to distract the baby. We tried the Mixed Berry HappyMelts and they were pretty tasty but they never got the reaction that the Banana Mango HappyMelts get. All I have to do is show her the Banana Mango package from across the room and the crying stops. Some of the disks of freeze dried yogurt are fairly big though, so you will want to make sure you break them up into smaller pieces if need be.

Finally, we tried the HappyBellies Brown Rice Cereal with DHA and probiotics. HappyBellies cereal is the first baby cereal that I've personally seen (there may be others out there that I haven't seen yet) that contains probiotics. This was really exciting to me because I suspected that the probiotics may counteract the natural constipating tendencies of the rice cereal and for my baby this seemed to be true. (I'm making no claims here, just stating an observation based on my child and what I observed with the use of this cereal.) It also seemed to have a better flavor than regular rice cereal, in fact the HappyBellies Brown Rice Cereal seems to be even more enjoyed than the baby oatmeal cereal that has been our standby food for months (and that's saying a lot for baby cereals).

All in all, you can say that HappyBaby has a new convert. While we are still working our way through all the different foods (separately to eliminate any allergies), I'm excited to try out some of the HappyBaby Mix & Match cube ideas and recipes to help make sure we start our littlest eater on the path to healthy eating for life.

GET YOUR OWN: You can find these HappyBaby products at a store near you or visit the HappyBaby website to view their complete product line and purchase online.

WIN YOUR OWN!!! We get to give one lucky SIMPLE reader an awesome prize pack from HappyBaby including a HappyFamily Nutrition Guide, Recipes and two coupons for each of the following product lines (as in, you get to pick two items from each of these product lines for free!!!):
To enter visit the HappyBaby website and come back to tell us what HappyBaby product fact not already mentioned in this review that you are excited about.

Extra Entries: (Leave a separate comment for each entry)
  • Tweet this giveaway: Enter to win a prize pack from @HAPPYBABYFOOD over at @simplereviews: http://tinyurl.com/mkulsd #giveaway
  • "Like" HAPPYFAMILY on Facebook
  • Sign up for the HappyBaby newsletter

WINNER will be randomly selected and announced on November 27, 2010.

CARINNSIMPLESIGNATURE copy*In order to conduct this review I was provided with the above mentioned HappyBaby products for free. The opinions provided are my own.

51 comments:

  1. All of their packaging is BPA-free and phthalate-free.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tweeted ~ http://twitter.com/susanlanai/status/3372595068010496

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  3. I "Like" HAPPYFAMILY on Facebook.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I signed up for the HappyBaby newsletter.

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  5. They are leading organic brand in the U.S.

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  6. I love that there are vegetables inside the Happy Bites! My daughter loves the salmon stix!

    ashleykirnan@gmail.com

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  7. I "like" HappyFamily on facebook!

    ashleykirnan@gmail.com

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  8. I receive the HappyBaby newsletter.

    ashleykirnan@gmail.com

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  9. They partnered with a non-profit to help feed children- love a company that gives back!!

    jnieset@yahoo.com

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  10. I like that they give back to project peanut butter that gives food to starving kids in malawi.
    brittanyvannorod@hotmail.com

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  11. fb fan of happyfamily
    brittanyvannoord@hotmail.com

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  12. The Happy Baby Strawberry puffs are gluten free and offer a good source of Iron, Vitamin D, Calcium, and B Vitamins.

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  13. I liked them on FB

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  14. They offer 15 flavors with a variety of meats, fruits, veggies and grains in thier frozen products.

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  15. Those Happy Bites look delicious. I may be ordering some up for both my girls :)

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  16. http://twitter.com/ManhattanMandie/status/4203335708057600

    Also *edit* my previous post (hit tab too soon) wanted to add that they have partnered with several companies to help Mom and Baby get fit!

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  17. LOVE that they give back by helping to send food to kids in need.

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  18. I learned this - no pesticides, no chemical fertilizers, no genetic modification, no preservatives.

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  19. I like the way they are being socially (project peanut butter) and environmentally responsible (less carbon footprint). That's really important to me as well as eating organic food. Wish these products were easier to find in our small town...
    teacherkrista at gmail dot com

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  20. just liked them on FB
    teacherkrista at gmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
  21. signed up for the newsletter!
    teacherkrista at gmail dot com

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  22. their products are always BPA FREE

    timmiedeluca@comcast.net

    ReplyDelete
  23. timmiedeluca@comcast.net

    http://twitter.com/GabbyLowe/status/5816722422505472

    tweeted

    ReplyDelete
  24. timmiedeluca@comcast.net

    fan of happy baby on FB-Laura DeLuca

    ReplyDelete
  25. timmiedeluca@comcast.net

    subscribe to happy baby

    ReplyDelete
  26. I learned that the organic freeze dried yogurt snack is the only one on the market for babies and toddlers.
    winit6 at hotmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
  27. tweeted
    http://twitter.com/winsome6/status/6259791609470976

    winit6 at hotmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
  28. I "Like" HAPPYFAMILY on Facebook
    winit6 at hotmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
  29. I Signed up for the HappyBaby newsletter.
    winit6 at hotmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
  30. I like that Happy Baby works with Project Peanut Butter! :)

    wendykate99 at yahoo dot com

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  31. I like HappyFamily on Facebook!

    wendy c k

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  32. I get the newsletter!

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  33. Packaging is BPA-free...very cool

    sewarren2@comcast.net

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  34. The packaging is all BPA free! I love that it has added probiotics!

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  35. I love how they give back through Project Peanut Butter!
    lindseygalvez at gmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
  36. I like Happy Baby on FB.
    lindseygalvez gmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
  37. I get the Happy Baby Newsletter.
    lindseygalvez at gmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
  38. Tweet
    http://twitter.com/lindseygalvez/statuses/7166912404398080
    lindseygalvez at gmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
  39. Fact: my son loves the Amaranth Ratatouille! (Obviously not on their website, but a fact not mentioned in the review, nonetheless :)

    ReplyDelete
  40. I love that they have project peanut butter to help children in malawai
    purcellkatie22 at gmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
  41. fb fan of happybaby
    purcellkatie22 at gmail dot ocm

    ReplyDelete
  42. Like them on FB!
    fabergre@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  43. BPA free baby! This makes mommy happy!

    ReplyDelete

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