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You'll hear plenty of advice from seasoned parents on the dos and don'ts of diaper changes and sleep training, but no one truly prepares you for the amount of meal prep that's required after having a baby. You're responsible for feeding this little human now in addition to yourself, and figuring out what and how to introduce new foods to your baby isn't exactly intuitive to a first-time parent.
The best baby and kid meal delivery services can help on all fronts: They provide convenient, typically fully prepared meals for your little one shipped directly to your door. But it can be difficult to find a service that grows with your baby from their first purees into toddlerhood and beyond.
That's where Little Spoon comes in; it's a fresh organic baby and kid food service that offers a variety of meal options all made with premium ingredients. But convenience doesn't come cheap, so you may be wondering: Is Little Spoon worth the price? We had a panel of moms and little ones — including yours truly — put the service to the test. Here's everything you need to know about Little Spoon, including how much it costs and whether the meals are truly picky-eater-approved.
Pros
- Meal options for infants, toddlers and kids up to age 10
- Premium, organic and non-GMO ingredients
- Cold-pressing technology locks in nutrients and flavor
- Meals stay fresh in the fridge for up to two weeks
- Hidden and visible veggies present in meals
- Straightforward heating instructions
- Plates are recyclable and reusable
- Babyblends are Clean Label Project verified
- Easy to pause, skip and cancel your order
- Boxes, insulation, ice packs and trays are all curbside recyclable
Cons
- No trial period available
- Food requires cooler bag if taken on the go
- Selection for some items can be limited
- Does not ship to Alaska, Hawaii or outside the U.S.
What is Little Spoon?
This comprehensive meal delivery service offers everything from baby food to big-kid meals for 10-year-olds. Little Spoon aims to provide a solution for parents looking to stay with a service for years while building healthy habits for their little one. You'll find everything from fresh, organic baby food made with single ingredients to larger complete meals designed for active toddlers and picky eaters. Meals are made fresh weekly with high-quality, non-GMO ingredients and are free from artificial additives. Everything is delivered to your door with the ability to shift or change your meal and product selections as needed.
How does Little Spoon work?
You'll start by selecting what type of food you need for your child. The categories include:
Known as Little Spoon Babyblends, these range from single-ingredient to multi-texture purees to take the stress out of starting solids. There are more than 40 different options to choose from through a variety of baby food stages from single ingredient purees to thicker, textured multi-ingredient transition meals. They come in little containers with a spoon for feeding on the go too. Most importantly, the blends are USDA-certified organic, non-GMO and Clean Label Project certified.
You sign up with your email and answer some questions on where they are in their eating journey (i.e. have they started solids yet? Are they only on purees?) and input your child's birthday so the service can suggest appropriate meals as your child ages. Once you select the appropriate stage, you'll then choose a plan for either one, two or three meals a day for your growing baby. You can select the items yourself or have the service curate a plan for you. Meals are shipped directly to your home and arrive cold. They can be stored in the fridge for 14 days or in the freezer for up to three months.
When your little is ready to eat, there are a few heating methods to try. You can put the blue plate into the microwave as is or transfer the food to an oven-safe dish and heat in the oven. Blends can be eaten straight from the fridge but if you'd like to warm them, you can place the container in a dish of warm water or transfer the blend to a microwave-safe dish and heat in the microwave in 15-second increments.
The service also has a Facebook group and parenting platform so you can choose to connect with other parents and ask experts for advice. A care team is available as well that you can email, meet with one-on-one or chat with directly on the brand's site.
How much does Little Spoon cost?
As with other meal and food delivery services, the cost per unit goes down as you order more items:
- Babyblends start at $2.96 per blend
- Biteables and Plates start at $5.83 per meal
- Smoothies start at $2.82 per pouch
But there is variability in pricing, with items ranging up to two dollars more depending on how much you order for the week. There is a standard shipping cost of $9 on all orders as well, but each delivery contains two weeks of fresh food.
Compared to baby food you might find at the supermarket, these are likely almost double the price — but you are getting premium ingredients that are cold pressed with exceptional nutrition quality that you most likely won't find in stores. And compared to other baby food meal delivery services, these prices are actually on the lower end.
Where does Little Spoon ship?
Little Spoon ships within the contiguous United States. It does not ship to Alaska, Hawaii or outside the U.S., and it does not ship to PO boxes. If you're traveling, you can have your orders delivered to your work address, another residential address or a hotel.
Your first delivery will ship the week after your order is placed, as long as it is locked in by Saturday at 5:00 p.m. EST (it will ship the following week if placed later). First orders cannot be canceled, but they can be shifted up to four weeks if needed. Subsequent orders ship every two weeks unless you make changes to your delivery schedule, which must be completed by 5:o0 p.m. EST the Saturday before your delivery week.
What is Little Spoon packaging like?
The boxes, insulation, ice packs and trays are all curbside recyclable. You'll need to break down the boxes and trays to fold flat and add them to your paper recycling bin. Snip the plastic covering off the recycled denim insulation; the covering can be placed in your plastic recycling bin, while the insulation goes in your paper recycling bin or is shipped back for free.
Let the ice packs fully melt, then cut the corner and pour the biodegradable filling into the trash. You can take that plastic ice pack covering and place it in your plastic recycling bin. The Babyblends containers and blue plates are 100% curbside recyclable, and the plates can be reused too.
Little Spoon delivery service review
Good Housekeeping Expert Tester Profile
Name: Stefani Sassos, M.S., R.D.N., C.D.N.
Role: Registered Dietitian and Good Housekeeping Institute Nutrition Director
Why you should trust me: In addition to being a registered dietitian, I'm a mom to an 18-month-old girl with a fierce personality and big appetite! I have done extensive research on feeding my daughter balanced meals that also expose her to a variety of flavors.
In my role at GH, I lead all testing and analysis on food and nutrition products, ranging from supplements to baby food to prepared meal delivery services. I fed my daughter Little Spoon baby food for approximately three months starting around the one-year mark and continue to do so. Not only does this review include my personal experience with the brand, but GH also asked five other moms across the country to test the service out with their own little ones for additional real-life feedback.
Ordering and selection
I found the ordering process to be straightforward and the website easy to navigate. You select what you are interested in for your little one (i.e. Babyblends, Biteables, Plates or Smoothies), then input some basic information like your baby's birth date.
Testers with multiple kids liked that you can create separate plans under one account to easily manage your selections. Little Spoon will pre-populate a selection, but you can make changes and adjustments to handpick specific meals. There are a decent number of Babyblends, Plates and Smoothies to choose from, but the Biteables selection is small (it is new line for the brand and will likely grow). Some of the main menu choices can feel repetitive after a few weeks since the menu does not change weekly, though a new option is added monthly.
As a registered dietitian, I appreciate that all of the produce used is non-GMO and much of the offerings, including the Babyblends and Smoothies, are certified organic. One major standout for myself and our parent testers was that instead of the heat pasteurization used in most shelf-stable baby food, Little Spoon uses cold-pressure technology to create the Babyblends and Smoothies (which is why they need to be refrigerated). This cold-pressure process retains the rich vitamins, minerals and fresh flavors and still kills harmful bacteria without the use of high heat and allows the products to stay fresh in the fridge for up to two weeks (or in the freezer for up to three months).
Testers also liked that you could filter for certain allergens and dietary restrictions, but this did significantly limit some of the options in particular categories. There are vegan offerings, especially for the Babyblends and Smoothies, but many of the Biteables and Plates incorporate meat. (I, personally, appreciated the meats so I could provide diverse protein sources to my little one.) From a nutrition standpoint, I also appreciated that the plates are free from any preservatives or additives, and the meats and eggs are antibiotic and hormone-free.
Delivery and packaging
Over the course of three months, I had minimal delivery issues with Little Spoon. The meals typically come packaged between two large ice packs, and there is soft insulation around the meals in the box. Our testers had good experiences with how the food was packed and insulated, and they loved that the meals are individually portioned for extra convenience. One parent tester said, "I loved the packaging — the mail package, as well as the packaging of the pre-portioned meals. They were tightly vacuumed sealed, which meant no freezer burn!"
I liked that the plates themselves can be recycled or reused, so I've kept a few on hand to take to restaurants and playdates. Another tester agreed, saying, "I've also found the plates reusable, which was nice for environmental friendliness. Not to mention that the packaging is appealing, practical and well-designed." One parent loved that the Babyblends came with a spoon, making them convenient for taking on the go; they also said that the packaging was cute and that it enticed their little one to try some of the newer items.
Preparation and feeding
The Smoothies and Babyblends can be eaten straight from the fridge and are already fully prepared, but I agree with our parent testers that they weren't ideal for on-the-go since the Smoothies, in particular, are safe to be unrefrigerated for only up to four hours. Little Spoon does provide a cute insulated bag with your shipment, which can come in handy when in transit; it holds quite a bit. The Smoothies are designed to be enjoyed cold, but the blends can be warmed by placing the container bowl of warm water and stirring.
The heating instructions for the Biteables and Plates are pretty straightforward, and they can be heated in the microwave or oven. Even though the containers are microwave-safe and BPA-free, most testers (including myself) felt more comfortable taking the food out of the container and warming it on a plate or in an oven-safe dish when we had the time. "Very convenient — the meals heat up very quickly and offered nutritious options," one parent said.
My daughter liked almost everything that she received, with the exception of a handful of items that took a few re-introductions. Most testers agreed, saying that their children enjoyed the majority of the menu items, and many parents appreciated that popular kid foods like chicken fingers and mac and cheese were present but in a nutrient-dense way. There are veggies hidden in some of the meals — like those worked into the meatballs and sauces, which is great for extra nutrition — but the service also has veggies readily present in the meals that are flavored with nice spice blends that can be appealing for kids.
One tester with a very picky eater said that their child liked only the Smoothies, whereas others said that their children devoured the Plates. Meals can require reintroduction, but at a high price point, this can be a pain for parents so starting with a smaller delivery and working your way up may be beneficial.
Prior to the brand's offering of Biteables, I felt that Little Spoon offered a limited selection for toddlers, who may be tired of purees but not ready for a full-fledged big-kid meal. Biteables are the perfect size and shape for my 18-month-old. They give me peace of mind and have helped us transition to starting with some larger food items. She's able to easily grasp them and feed herself, allowing her much more independence at mealtime.
The service does offer animal-based proteins like chicken, turkey and more, which I appreciated for the bioavailable protein sources for my daughter. That being said, the vegan options can be limited with the Plates and Biteables, but the Smoothies and Babyblends are all plant-based. "The allergen-free choices are incredibly limited, which makes it hard for several people I know. Vegan meals are also limited," one tester noted.
The takeaway: Is Little Spoon worth it?
Little Spoon offers premium-quality baby- and kid-friendly food that will grow with your child through different feeding stages. The service provides convenience and high-quality nutrition that you can feel good about feeding your child. "I would recommend this service to any mom looking to make mealtime simpler for herself and her children," a parent tester said. Convenience does come at high price point, and not every meal will appeal to every eater. But if you're looking for a service that you can stick with for the long term and have your child enjoy a variety of nutrient-dense meal options, then Little Spoon is certainly worth the investment.
Stefani (she/her) is a registered dietitian, a NASM-certified personal trainer and the director of the Good Housekeeping Institute Nutrition Lab, where she handles all nutrition-related content, testing and evaluation. She holds a bachelor’s degree in nutritional sciences from Pennsylvania State University and a master’s degree in clinical nutrition from NYU. She is also Good Housekeeping’s on-staff fitness and exercise expert. Stefani is dedicated to providing readers with evidence-based content to encourage informed food choices and healthy living. She is an avid CrossFitter and a passionate home cook who loves spending time with her big fit Greek family.
