Thistle

@writerpollock Yes, this is super, super interesting. One question I always have is: where do you source the recipes from? A lot of new parents I know are obsessed about "doing the right thing", but in baby-sphere there's so much "fake truths" that's accessible online that often these folks go back to printed word (which likely contains out-of-date information, but at least has brand reputation).

@cancom10 Hi Can! I'm Shiri - one of the co-founders of Thistle. As my co-founder and husband, Ashwin, mentioned, the idea came in part from this exact problem - in addition to the actual "work" of having to make the food, the research process itself was maddening with sources contradicting each other or seemingly based on little credible science. I'm a scientist by way of background and making sure the information sourced had a basis in science was something I spent more hours than I can count focusing on. These recipes were the result of that research from peer reviewed studies validated in terms of their credibility / sourcing / authorship. Nutrition science is constantly changing but the core recommendations are timeless: expose babies to a variety of real foods and flavor profiles to help combat the ingrained affinity towards sweets and salt; doing so in the first years will form a foundation for a future of healthy eating. This is of course only be a single data point, but my daughter's favorite foods are broccoli, carrots, tofu, and veggie filled stews/soups. I'd like to think that was no accident! :)

@shiri_avnery NEAT! One last question - I've also noticed that new parents are very worried about known _AND_ unknown allergies (my niece has severe nut allergy, everything except almonds, and my nephew of course is not allergic to anything BUT almonds!). What's some of the things you had to do given the prevalence of parents being extremely sensitive to this?

@cancom10 Wow of course! This is definitely a concern. One thing we do to address this issue is make sure our recipes are free of all the major allergens (comprising 90% of food allergies in the US), including soy, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, dairy, eggs, and seafood (the latter three because our baby food is vegan, and all of our food, baby or adult, is also gluten-free!). That said, our facility does process peanuts, tree nuts & soy, so we advise against delivery if your baby has *severe* known allergies to either of these. One of the reasons we decided to launch with Stages 2 and 3 is because by this point, most babies will have tried a wide variety of different produce and other food items, such that parents would be able to make the recipes knowing their babies have been exposed to the ingredients we include. That said, one of the benefits of making food at home is that parents can customize meals for their babies given knowledge of things like allergies and food exposures. So if for example, a meal includes chia seeds and your baby has yet to try these, you can add a smaller amount, and only feed your little one a small portion at first, to see how your little one reacts. We think this ability to customize meals for your little one is important for parents, which is another reason we went in the direction of meal kits as opposed to fully prepared baby food meals.

@shiri_avnery Ah that's interesting. Cool, thank you for your responses, much luck as you grow this out!

For a more in-depth look why we think our product beats the existing options check out this post we wrote outlining why we think Thistle Baby is a great solution that allows you to give your baby the best - nutritious, organic homemade baby food - while also fitting into your now even busier life! http://bit.ly/2lJZeto For our early customers, we're giving 30% off your first week's box at www.thistle.co/baby

@ericllam Thanks for the love Eric!