There IS such a thing as a free lunch.

We went to The Baby Show in London en-famille yesterday, using the free tickets I won last week.

I must be getting old as I seem to remember going to the Ideal Home Show as a child and my mum and nan collecting all kinds of really good freebies and bargains. As an adult, these type of advertising showcase events don't seem to match up to that memory and, typically, the only hand-outs you get are from huge companies who are competing for your business, Thus it was at The Baby Show. At first sight the only handouts were from Persil and Fairy washing powders.
In amongst the myriad stalls for baby hand and foot print products (why so many??) and the pushchair and cot vendors, we spied the bustling Babylicious stand. It had the appearance of a cafe with a counter dishing up food and waitresses threading their way between push-chairs to get to babies in high chairs looking hungry. It was getting close to Archie's lunchtime, and a pause of a few seconds was all it took for one of the waitresses to spot a hungry-looking Archie and for a menu to be thrust into our hands. The "sample" turned out to be a full-sized pot of their product, ready heated and complete with spoon. Archie wolfed down a whole pot of chicken and veg casserole and was then offered dessert also. Another full sized pot of fruit and rice pudding and he was ready to hit the shops again.

Babylicious isn't a huge company. I've never seen any ads from them and can only recall seeing their product in the supermarkets for a few months (although that may be because Archie has only been weaning for a few months), but they obviously understand what people want from a baby food at a number of levels. At a show, people want a freebie. At home, they want the best for their baby and if, like lots of people, they haven't got the confidence or time to make fresh food for their baby, they certainly don't need the guilt that often comes from feeding their precious babe ready-made foods which look machine-made and are a strange colour. It wont make me stop cooking Archie all his dinners from fresh, but we appreciated the free lunch anyway, and if I was in the market for ready-made baby food, it might just have been the persuasion I needed to switch from jars or cans.