Sponsored Review Post written by paedetrician – Sophie Niedermaier
I was excited to start the weaning journey with my little one. Being a foodie myself I couldn’t wait to introduce a whole new world of flavours and textures to my daughter. However, a few weeks into the process, I started struggling with the meal preparations at home. In addition to running a household and a business I suddenly had to prepare three meals per day from scratch – not all of them gobbled down as enthusiastically as I had hoped. I quickly ended up going back to the same easily fixed meals I knew my daughter would enjoy. This is when I realised I needed to look for other options. The baby food pouches from the supermarket were not a good solution for me as they are high in sugar and low in flavour, so I did some more research – and found Little Tummy!
Little Tummy is nothing like any other baby food brand. Their cold-pressed meals not only retain micronutrients, flavour and texture but also the colour of their ingredients, so when I opened my first delivery box, I was confronted with a rainbow of meals. The delivery experience itself was straightforward and efficient, as I received a message from DPD with a one-hour delivery window. The meals arrive perfectly chilled and the delivery box and packaging are made from recycled materials and are all 100% recyclable. Some flyers with helpful information about the products were also included.
I couldn’t wait to try the products, especially as I found the combination of ingredients intriguing. They were certainly nothing I had thought of preparing myself. Sophie, the co-founder, who is an experienced paediatrician, designed all the recipes with babies’ nutritional needs in mind. Every meal contains a source of protein and complex carbohydrates, so the portion size was generous and filling. There are three fruity meals and three meals with vegetables as main ingredients. My little one loved every single one of them even though she has a somewhat sweet tooth!
Our favourite fruity selection was the Blueberry, Quinoa & Yoghurt pot. We love berries in our home and the meal had a distinct flavour of mashed blueberries, nothing like a watery puree at all! The quinoa gave the meal a delicious nutty flavour and the yoghurt a lovely creaminess. The Kale, Apple & Quinoa meal was our favourite savoury meal because of its grassy and fresh flavour and interesting texture. We mixed some of the leftovers with pasta to use it as pesto! I know how important it is to introduce little ones to bitter flavours from early on and Little Tummy certainly makes this an easy process.
Little Tummy is run by three women, Nadine, Lowri and Sophie. Their aim is to make parents’ lives easier and the world of baby food healthier. Their social media accounts and blog provide an excellent source of information around the introduction of solids. I wish I had read some of it before starting weaning. Sophie also runs regular Q&A sessions on Instagram, which is very helpful when I have specific questions.
The price per pot is higher than other baby food brands but given the high quality, the delicious taste and the fact that the meals are far more substantial and filling than the average, it is great value for money. Overall, Little Tummy is my brand discovery of the year, making my life less worrisome, enabling me to enjoy more relaxing mealtimes with my little one and to feel confident in the knowledge that my little one has a varied and healthy diet.
To order visit littletummy.co/ and quote YMUMBLERP30 to save 30% on your order.
You can follow Little Tummy on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
We’ve recently teamed up with the fantastic Morse Toad who produce a wonderful array of personalised chocolate gifts, ideal for Fathers day or anyones birthday or special occasion. It’s a really simple process to order,- choose the product you want to send, select an image from their gallery, or upload your own. You can also write a personalised card (or leave it blank if you’re a secret admirer!), and – finally – add your personalised chocolate message. Then, select when you’d like your chocolate gifts online order delivered (right away or in time for an occasion), and hit ‘order’. Their gifts are letterbox friendly, so the recipient will come home to the gift on their doorstep. Even if they’re out during delivery (because no one likes to have to go and collect a parcel!).
And if that isn’t enough they’re also offering new customers £5 off their first order (if you spend more than £15). It’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it – so I decided to check them out for myself just to make sure these chocolate gifts were up to our Mumbler standards! And guess what – they’ve got the Mumbler seal of approval (phew!).
The website is really easy to use, their main product is the Personalised Photo Chocolate Gift which starts from £10.25. They also do personalised Hamper gifts and biscuit gifts too. You can order them and personalise them for any occasion! They’ve got a great array of Father’s Day gifts – so we went for those.
I ordered “The Fathers Day Chocolates” – which had 22 chocolates, a personalised message plus my own photo that I uploaded. The cost for all of this was £12.00. Without adding the personalised photo it’s £10.25 (they have their own generic images you can choose from) personally, I definitely think its worth the extra to pay for printing your own photo. You can make your chocolate messages longer – and prices go up accordingly. We went for the 22 chocolate message I LOVE YOU DADDY with a few hearts thrown in.
Ordering was really simple – I uploaded a photo I’d taken from my phone – a warning message came up to say the image was small so might not come up great (or words to that effect!) but I just pressed OK as I wasn’t really sure where i’d get a bigger photo image from.
The whole process was really simple and the cost of posting and packaging are added at the end of checkout. They’re delivered via Royal Mail. It does state on their website that due to the current situation most orders are taking 2-5 days but may take longer. So if you are ordering for Father’s Day please do so as quickly as possible to make sure they arrive in time. That said, I placed my order on Thursday afternoon and they arrived on the following Monday morning.
The packaging is lovely – and fits through the letter box. And guess what – the photo was absolutely perfect! It’s a lovely gift, something we can EAT and KEEP! You can literally have your cake and eat it! The box they come in can then be hung on the wall. Its great – you’ve also got the option to add a wooden frame to your gift if you want when you’re ordering – we didn’t, but you can still hang the photo no problem.
So now on to the important stuff… The chocolate! I’m not afraid to say I’m a bit of a chocolate snob, I lived in America for a while so I know bad chocolate when I taste it. And I’m very happy to report that this is not bad chocolate -it was delicious! In fact between me, Dad and our daughter I think we made quick work of eating all those 22 chocolates – they were SO moorish! So if you are tempted to order them – don’t make my mistake – I’d recommend that you go for the 33 or 44 chocolate options! They use top quality Belgian milk chocolate – and you get a really good old chunk for every piece!
If that isn’t enough to make you go out and order them straight away – then surely the fact that there is zero waste will! The empty box is now a lovely keep sake for the husband – a nice picture of him and our daughter hanging up in his study!
To order your gift now and receive £5 off your first order please click here.
It was a sunny Saturday morning when the postman knocked on the door to deliver a very exciting parcel. I had told the children that we were expecting a special delivery and they were bursting with excitement to find out what it was. When they eventually managed to rip off the packaging we uncovered a smart box with a beautiful rainbow ribbon and a label that read ‘Pretty’s Sweets’.
We opened the box to find a vast array of Halloween themed sweets and marshmallows displayed beautifully with branded tissue paper and cute business card that told the story of this entrepreneur. The kids dove straight in and all four of us enjoyed a sugar rush as we tried out the pumpkins, witch faces, vampire teeth, bones and ghosts!
Pretty’s Sweets is a brand new sweet and fudge delivery service that was set up during lockdown to help lift peoples spirits. Pretty’s sweet boxes are fun and creatively themed to raise a smile and include packs such as ‘Shizzle Ma Fizzle’, ‘The Rainbow Edit’ and ‘Pretty in Pink’. She also offers boxes for vegetarians, gluten free and a bespoke ‘create your own’ box. Pretty also creates beautifully wrapped letter gift boxes for special occasions.
As well as ordering Pertty’s sweets and fudge as a one off treat for friends and family (or yourself!) you can also sign up to her subscription service and have sweets delivered to your door once a month for 3 months, 6 months or why not go for a whole year of sweet deliveries – YUM!
Other information: Products may contain gluten, dairy and gelatine.
Website: www.prettyssweets.co.uk
email: prettysweets17@outlook.com
York Mumbler were sent a box of complimentary sweets in return for a review of the Pretty’s Sweets service.
It was a real treat to finally be able to go out last week and we took the opportunity to visit Rainbows Ceramics on Bootham.
I visited with my 5 week old baby and my 2.5 year old daughter, along with my mother-in-law for an extra pair of hands.
On our entry to Rainbows we were shown to a table straight away. This is usually the case, but in busy periods you may have to wait a few minutes or pop back (they’ll tell you roughly when they expect to have space). Bookings are currently only taken for groups of 6+. We were provided a booster seat and an apron for my toddler which were both much appreciated. We were given a brief introduction and then we were sent off to choose our items to decorate.
There is a real variety of items available to decorate which start from £10; my daughter chose to paint an ornamental squirrel for Father’s Day (he’s going to be thrilled!); my mother in law painted a plant pot and I occupied myself with a tile with my baby’s footprints on, and a Christmas bauble along the same theme (I was very impressed that they had these available in May).
Once we had chosen our items to decorate, we were given a talk explaining all the information we needed to know, including the different painting techniques, how to practice and make things neat and what to do if we made a mistake (as a not particularly artistic person, I was relieved to be told that errors can be sorted by the staff). We were also shown about the changes in paint colour once an item is fired. This information is, as I rapidly discovered, important to explain to children as my toddler was initially a bit cross that the colours she was painting were all a bit pastel/dull compared to the ones she could see on the example wall.
There are lots of examples of beautifully painted products around for inspiration and also “stamps” that you can paint and then print onto your item for the less artistically minded of us. There are a couple of bits of painting that the staff will do for you; for example baby/toddler hand and foot prints. This was a huge relief as I had no idea how to get a squirmy baby to remain still enough to place his foot carefully onto a tile, let alone a bauble! They paint the baby’s hand/foot (depending on age/size) and then carefully place it so it prints onto your chosen item, before wiping the paint off the child with a wipe and then allowing you to decorate the rest of the item.
For a small fee (and depending upon how busy the staff are), they will also draw an outline/template on your item for you to paint over or even paint the more difficult aspects of your design. They do, however, encourage you to do your own painting as it adds to the experience.
I found it surprisingly relaxing to paint my items, with the quiet atmosphere and rare silence from my toddler and a napping baby it was easy to get lost in my artwork. All in all it was a very calm visit; be careful as you may want to spend longer there than you initially think, so consider that when paying for your car parking!
In terms of practicalities, there is access to a toilet and they also have a baby changing table in there. The shop is not huge but there is room for a few prams even with tables spread out to meet Covid restrictions; however I’d recommend using carriers where possible, especially if you go in a group.
Rainbows also offer the chance to purchase a selection of hot and cold drinks and a small range of snacks/treats while you paint. Once you have finished painting, you leave your items there to be glazed and fired and collect them a week later. Alternatively you can paint with acrylics and take your items home immediately – ideal for any visitors to the city.
A week later I picked up our items which have now been glazed and fired and I’m thrilled with how good they look. My toddler is extremely proud of her squirrel and the finish on both the tile and the bauble is excellent- you can see every detail of my baby’s footprints and they will be treasured mementos for a lifetime.
Overall, our visit and the whole experience with Rainbows Ceramics was fantastic. It was an activity which was suitable for all ages and abilities and a surprisingly relaxing morning for me with a toddler and a newborn in tow. We will definitely be back!
