Nurture Life Review: Organic Child and Toddler Meals at Your Doorstep

About Nurture Life

Nurture Life is a small company hailing from Chicago, Illinois with a big mission: to make a parent’s challenge of feeding their child nourishing meals a smoother experience. Every parent knows just how difficult this task can be, and many feel they lack supportive options.

Babies, toddlers and even children are notoriously picky eaters and most parents are short on time (1). This makes it difficult to plan, prep, and feed nutritious kid-approved meals on a consistent basis.

Even highly culinary-adept parents can struggle to keep up with the balance of creating tasty meals with balanced nutrition, but it’s important for proper growth and development (2). 

If you’re a parent who’s overwhelmed with the tasks of cooking, shopping and cleaning, you might want to learn more about Nurture Life.

Overview of Nurture Life

Nurture Life might be a small company for now, but they’re addressing a vastly underserved need in the food industry today so their rapid path of growth is likely to continue. 

They offer a convenient way for parents to feed their kids without compromising on nutrition, which is something few (if any) other well-known companies have managed to do.

It all started with co-founder Jennifer’s experience looking for healthy food options for her first son. As the daughter of a registered dietitian, she found store-bought prepared food options to be lacking and resorted to making everything from scratch.

She decided to undertake the task of educating herself on childhood nutrition and spent countless hours crafting recipes that met her standards and her son’s preferences.

This is a time-consuming process most parents don’t have the time or energy for, but she knew other parents could benefit from it. Hence, the idea for Nurture Life was born.

The Company Today

Now Nurture Life has approximately 30 employees and serves thousands of families across the US. They’re passionate about improving the standard of childhood nutrition and making parent’s lives easier.

Their menu has been crafted by dietitians and chefs to deliver meals of exceptional quality that are nutritionally sound and simple to prepare. In fact, one of their major selling points is that all of their menu items are ready-to-serve, or ready in 1 minute.

They use “clean” ingredients in their recipes and totally avoid artificial colours and flavours. Their food is also free of high fructose corn syrup, nitrates, and trans fats. On top of this, they incorporate vegetables in every meal, keep the protein high, and use many organic ingredients.

A final notable feature of Nurture Life is how openly available they are to offer support to parents through their team of dietitians, chefs, and fellow parents. They have free tips and resources posted on their website’s blog, on their social media, and they offer individual support through email.

Their ethos is clearly centred on quality, transparency, and an extraordinary customer service experience.

Nurture Life Products Review

The products at Nurture Life consist of 4 different categories: kids meals, finger foods, smoothies, and snacks. Currently, there are 27 kids meals (3 of which are breakfasts), 18 finger food meals (2 of which are breakfasts), 3 smoothies, and 3 snacks.

The menu at Nurture Life is regularly updated with new meals every 3 months to provide variety, but they have a few favourite mainstay items that they don’t change. 

The kids meals can be suitable for ages 1-12, but ages 1-8 tend to be the best fit since the meals are on the smaller side, ranging from 200 to 410 calories each.

The finger foods are meals made up of bite-sized morsels aimed for babies and toddlers ages 6 months to 2, and they come in at 100-220 calories each. 

Finally, the smoothies and snacks are designed to add a boost of fruits, vegetables and fibre while also providing any necessary energy between meals. They all range from 110-130 calories per serving.

Overall, the products are Nurture Life are designed to be flexible and cover any dietary needs for kids.

How It Works

Nurture Life’s products are sold exclusively through a subscription model on their website. All orders are placed online before the order is prepared fresh and then delivered in sealed packaging kept at refrigerated temperatures. 

They ship anywhere in the US (excluding Alaska and Hawaii) and customers can order any custom combination of meals. The minimum order is 6 items, but a discount of $5 off is applied after 10 items, $10 off after 13 items, and $15 off after 16 items. 

Orders can be modified, cancelled or paused anytime, and this gives parents the ultimate flexibility to purchase exactly what they need to make their lives easier. Whether it’s a few smoothies and snacks or a full itinerary of kids meals for the week. 

Nurture Life Pros and Cons

Nurture Life is designed for busy parents who care about the quality of food their child is eating. There are few options between home-cooked meals and nutritionally devoid conventional store-bought items, so Nurture Life fills this gap with the best of both worlds. Convenience and healthy food. 

There are clearly some significant benefits to Nurture Life, but there are also a few drawbacks to be considered.

Pros

• Saves time and stress
• Ready in 1 minute or less
• Provides nutritionally balanced meals
• Kids enjoy the food
• Low in sugar and salt
• Free of artificial colours, artificial flavours and nitrates
• Hidden vegetables in many meals
• High-quality protein sources in almost every meal
• Antibiotic and hormone-free meat

Cons

• More expensive than home-cooked meals
• Limited meal customization + selection
• Narrows a child’s food experience if it’s all they eat
• Children don’t get to observe or partake in meal preparations
• Less control over ingredients
• The menu features a large proportion of pasta dishes
• Difficult to fully accommodate  allergies, gluten-free or vegetarian dietary needs

It seems that the overall benefit to parents is the time it frees up. This can be an invaluable commodity, and it’s well worth sacrificing the potential drawbacks for many people. It allows parents to spend more time caring for their own health, attending to other responsibilities, or perhaps it just allows them to stay sane!

Nurture Life Best Selling Products Review

Alfredo Bow Ties with Turkey Meatballs and Broccoli (Kids Meal)

One of the most popular meals in the kids meals category is bow tie pasta in a cheesy alfredo sauce with a side of turkey meatballs and broccoli. It’s free of fish, soy, pork, coconut, sesame, and beef, and it contains an impressive 19 grams of protein per serving.

The ingredients in this dish are similar to what would be used at home with the addition of a few flavoring, preserving and thickening ingredients like modified food starch, natural flavours, guar gum and locust bean gum.

Aside from this, the ingredients are fairly wholesome and there are some hidden vegetables in the meatballs. This is a big factor for many parents since most kids under consume their recommended amounts of vegetables in a day, and it’s difficult to convince them to eat more (3).

 It comes in a container that can be heated in the microwave for 1 minute to serve, or the food can be removed and placed in an oven-safe dish to heat up.

Spaghetti Bites with Meatballs and Broccoli (Finger Foods)

This baby-friendly meal consists of small ditalini pasta in a vegetable-laden tomato sauce with diced-up chicken meatballs and tiny broccoli florets. It has 8 grams of protein, 2 grams of fibre, and a good amount of calcium in each serving.

This particular meal does not contain any natural flavours, and it has some enriching ingredients such as B vitamins add to the pasta, and cellulose and psyllium fibre added to the sauce. 

This meal is also free of fish, pork, soy, coconut, sesame, and beef. It does however contain gluten, dairy and meat. 

Smoothie Variety Pack

The smoothies variety pack at Nurture Life comes in 3 flavors: Mango-Go!, Berry-Full!, and Straw-Nana!. They’re all fruit-based, completely natural, and even contain a hidden dose of vegetables and superfoods like turmeric, dragon fruit or goji berries. 

While these smoothies offer a big dose of micronutrients and fibre with no added sugar, the naturally occurring sugars can be as high as 20 grams per serving. It’s less likely that a small child or toddler would consume that much sugar from fruit if they were eating it whole. 

However, the smoothie is a great mess-free option for on-the-go, so it can be a useful product for busy parents.

Mighty Bites Variety Pack (Snacks)

The mighty bites are another ready-to-eat option for busy parents, and with tasty flavours like snickerdoodle, chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin, kids are sure to love them too. 

Although they look and taste similar to cookies, they’re far more wholesome. They feature ingredients like chia seeds, chickpea flour, oats, maca powder and reishi mushrooms. They get most of their richness from sunflower seed butter and are sweetened primarily with dates or maple syrup. 

Overall, these are a healthy dessert or snack with 3 grams of protein, 4-5 grams of fibre and 11 grams or less of naturally occurring sugars per serving.

Nurture Life Reviews — Customer Testimonies

Though individual items don’t have corresponding reviews, there is a star rating for each product with most ranging between 4-5 stars out of 5.

This is what customers have to say about their overall experience with Nurture Life:

Camille’s Nurture Life Review:

“Nurture Life has empowered and given me something invaluable: time to focus on and spend with my 3-year-old toddler and 9-month-old baby, my husband and my career without the guilt of feeling like I am feeding my children anything less than the most wholesome, delicious and well-balanced meals. Thank you for making motherhood just a little easier.”

Eirene’s Nurture Life Review:

“As a Mompreneur to 3 active boys, it’s a glorious sight when I open my refrigerator and see healthy meals ready to eat in 2 minutes. I never need to think about what to cook for dinner!” – Eirene

Joel’s Nurture Life Review:

“As a family with two working parents, my wife and I are constantly looking for wholesome yet convenient options for our children’s meals. We exhaustively stayed up many nights cooking and preparing items to ensure healthy ready-to-go choices would be available for when we walked in the door. Nurture Life is an amazing development in our lives and allows us to have pre-made meals by a company that values the same principles about food that we do.”

There are clearly some grateful busy parents who appreciate the time they’ve gotten back in there day, but Nurture Life can do more than this. Some parents such as Bridgett are grateful for the improvement her subscription has made on her child’s health.

Bridgett’s Nurture Life Review:

“Your meals have changed the nutrition of our 3-year-old for the better! We are so grateful to have found you! Die-hard customer here!”

Finally, as customer Jordan knows, there are times when we need desperately need a helping hand. Nurture Life takes a major weight off of the shoulders of parents who are struggling.

Jordan’s Nurture Life Review:

“I am the mother of a beautiful 13 month old baby girl. She is my everything! My husband who was my high school sweetheart passed away very suddenly a couple months ago so obviously I am grieving while also trying to be strong for my little girl. I am under a lot of stress but thanks to your wonderful company, at least one source of my stress has been handled. I know I’m feeding my daughter very fresh healthy food and all I have to do is heat it up. This has been a huge help and I am truly grateful a company like yours exists.”

Is Nurture Life Worth It?

Nurture Life is well worth the investment for parents who can comfortably afford it and feel overwhelmed or stretched for time. It may not be perfect, but it’s one of the best (if not the very best) health-oriented meal services widely available for kids today. 

There’s a lot of pressure do to the absolute best for your child, but reality can never live up to these impossible standards. Sometimes your best is packaged and prepared meals, and Nurture Life now makes that a wholesome option.

Subscriptions & Promotions

Nurture Life can only be ordered through their website, and there’s a first-time 50% discount for new customers. Each customer also gets a unique referral code for friends and family to receive $30 off their first 2 orders, and you’ll get a free box of up to $48 if they make a purchase.  

Alternatives

If for whatever reason Nurture Life doesn’t suit your fancy, you’ve got other options!

HelloFresh: A family meal delivery service with kid-pleasing dishes. 

Little Spoon: A meal delivery service for babies just starting solids to young kids features some organic ingredients. 

Green Chef: A high-quality meal-delivery service with wholesome organic meals suitable for various dietary preferences. It doesn’t however feature meals specifically for kids, toddlers or babies. 

FAQs

Final Takeaway

A brand like Nurture Life has been a long time coming for the modern-day parent. It’s likely that this type of service will continue to grow and that more and more parents will hop on board with the trend of convenient meals.