Tots Table-making weaning fun, easy & nutritious!

Aim

We want our babies to love food - to make weaning fun, easy and nutritious! We need funding so we can reach exhausted parents UK wide.

Tots Table - What do we offer?

Tots Table is a frozen baby food delivery service founded by 2 women on a mission to help parents free themselves from the blender and the carrot sticks and spend more quality time with their babies! We want to provide nutritionally fab, 'home-cooked' style meals (with no added nasties or hidden sugars) and expert weaning guidance to time poor, exhausted parents all over the UK! 

Vicky and Sam are friends and now business partners.  Here’s what you need to know about us…

 Vicky:

• Paediatric dietitian for 11 years
• Tots Table chief dietetic advisor
• Provider of wine and weaning support to Sam
• Passionate about babies building good relationships with food – great eating and nutrition is SO important for little people’s growth and development!
• Mum to Maisie and Marble…my two furry friends 

Sam:

• Busy Mum to Olivia
• Lover of all things food 
• No confidence with weaning, in spite of being a confident cook
• Addicted to internet researching all baby related issues for hours on end
• Fortunate to have a particularly diplomatic hairdresser – very adept at denying a growing ‘grey’ crisis since I had a child….

Here's a Snap of 'Team Tots Table' after a looong day in the kitchen!

How was Tots Table born?

Having researched weaning for hours online, Sam still lacked clarity about what foods to introduce when, how much to give and where to even start - let alone having the time to prep the food - so turned to Vicky.  After several hours poring over the purees and mini muffins, we realised that:

• There was minimal comprehensive, consistent and reliable information available around weaning;
• Unless parents are happy to use pouches or jars (which have often been on the shelf longer than their baby has been on the planet and often contain high levels of hidden sugar), there are minimal fresh, time saving options available on the market; 
• ….ultimately the ‘dogs dinner’ can be better than our baby’s – you can order expert planned, fresh & frozen food for your dog, to your door, but not for your baby!!

And so, Tots Table was born! We started our research, got in the kitchen and recruited Olivia as our chief taste tester. The idea and concept has evolved from there and we are so excited to have launched locally, in and around Cambridge. 

What Makes Tots Table Different?

We offer a fortnightly box of meals for babies from the start of their weaning journey to 12 months.  Our boxes provide:

• Expert guidance and support for parents - Our guidance packs are bespoke according to the baby’s age and their nutritional and developmental needs.
  
• Research based weaning plans – emphasising the benefits of exposing babies to vegetables and bitter tastes from day one, said to improve the likelihood of our tots accepting those flavours as their taste-buds mature.
• The best quality ingredients, and ‘real’ food, with no sweeteners - Our ingredients are cooked using methods to maintain best nutrition and taste and you'll find no hidden sugars or sweeteners here! (Did you know, many well known commercially prepared baby foods contain sweetners - either in artificial or fruit form in their savoury meals, which develops babies sweet tooths, rather than helping them develop a taste for healthier, savoury tastes.)
• Frozen convenience – Our ready prepped ingredients are frozen:
  • to maintain that nutritional value; 
  • for convenience – no more food going off in the fridge; and 
  • to avoid the need for any harmful packaging processes.
• Both purees and complimentary finger foods - for a combined approach to weaning.  This maximises baby’s nutritional intake, improves self-feeding skills and gives babies the opportunity to explore different foods, textures and flavours.
• Exciting dishes and great variety – Our boxes include a wide selection of ready prepared vegetables, fruits, plant-based proteins and carbohydrates which can be combined with our delicious sauces such as a dahl, kale pesto and a satay to make gourmet meals.  We call this our ‘cube concept'. 
• Recipe ideas and inspiration - to give parents confidence in the kitchen.
• Flexibility - Once parents have our meals in their freezer, they can be used whenever and however they choose - whether that's for a quick time saver on busy days, or for every day convenience.
• Delivery on a fortnightly basis – taking the pressure of planning, shopping and prepping!  Parents can choose between one off boxes or a fortnightly subscription, with no obligation to re-order and the option to cancel at any time.

We know it works - But don't just take it from us! 

One of Tots Table's very first  Mums told us: “T is doing remarkably well.  He definitely wouldn’t have tasted such a range of food so quickly without you. I’m in awe..!”

What’s the Cube Concept?

We deliver ready prepared ‘cubes’ of all of the ingredients parents need in the right weight for the age of their baby, to make up a huge range of nutritionally balanced meals.  That's seasonal vegetables, carbohydrates, vegetable based proteins and sauces, as well as fruit cubes for desserts - all in one box!  Think mix n match!   

For example, a meal for a baby of 9 months from one of our boxes could include:   1 black turtle bean cube + 1 butternut squash cube + 2 pasta cubes + 1 delicious kale pesto - yum!  With raspberries for dessert!

Meal prep simply involves:

• Looking at our meal builders, or parents using their own creativity to design a meal;
• Removing the cubes needed from the freezer;
• Defrosting and heating the cubes; and
• Serving! 

All in the time it takes to make that cuppa or drink a glass of wine!

Why support us?

We think good food should be available to all babies, and we want to empower more parents to get their babies off to a flying start with food, without pouches, stress, and hidden sugars.  We want to free those parents from the blender and chopping those carrot sticks! We want parents to enjoy time with their babies, or frankly, take a well earned rest!  

We see a huge gap in the market for helping to get the next generation of foodies off to the best nutritional start – and to do that, we need your help!

How will we use your pledge?

We've created the weaning plans, written the expert guidance and loved creating boxes for fab local parents in our kitchen. We know it works.  But we want to scale up and spread the joy of Tots Table far and wide!  But we need your help to do so - we need some mean industrial kitchen equipment, such as a blast freezer and hardcore blenders and we need to give our chef more time in the kitchen to come up with more fantastic recipes and ideas!  So please help us, and pledge, pledge, pledge!  There are some fantastic rewards on offer! 

Let’s give our babies the best and us parents our time and sanity back!

This project successfully funded on 23rd December 2019