Vital Baby Nourish Prep & Wean Review

With a flip-out digital display, compact design, descale setting, and water tank measurements, the Vital Baby Nourish Prep & Wean has very clearly been designed with usability in mind. We named it the best budget buy in our guide to the best baby food makers.

All of these small positive elements complement the bigger things, like its modern, sleek look, with the display, water tank and buttons lighting up a vibrant blue when in use. It does emit a very loud beep when a function is complete, but this can be forgiven thanks to its ability to blend and steam effectively, along with the bonus added feature of sterilising bottles. 

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Design

Weighs: 2.5kg | Suitable from: 6 months+

This smart little machine looks great. In a dark grey colourway, with silver chrome finishes, the water tank lights up blue when in use, matching the clear digital display. The digital display screen is also blue, and can be tilted upwards when in use, a small but useful feature. 

On the water tank at the back, there is a handy gauge that shows how much water is available in milileters, and equates these to how much time that amount of water will allow you to steam for. These additional elements demonstrate a machine that is been carefully designed for usability and extra-streamlined use. 

The instruction manual is also short and easy to read, allowing you to get started on your creations without the faff. While the blending blades are removable for washing, they must be left in for the steaming function to work. This is one slightly disappointing element, as you’re then washing up something that wasn’t technically used.

Comfort and features

For a brilliantly compact machine, the Nourish has a generous capacity of 900mls and can steam, blend and sterilise. For steaming, reach for the second, smaller jug, add the small opaque filter and turn to sit on top, upside down on the blender jug. As such, you can spread your produce out across two tiers and can use just one or both at the same time. 

You might want to dedicate a little bit of experimenting with which items should go higher and which lower might be needed. During steaming, any water or liquid will drip into the base, making removal of the upper jug safe, though you should wait 3 minutes to do so. The water tank is placed safely at the back and is very secure. To switch from steaming to blending, you remove the upper jug, place on the lid, and set it to blend. 

There are five blending modes to choose which increase go in intervals of 15 seconds- 15, 30, 45, 60, or 75 seconds, and you can leave the machine to do this for you. It also has a 2-hour descale setting, something most of its contemporaries don’t offer. Be warned, however, the beeping to notify the machine is definitely is on the loud side!

Value for money

This is one of the cheapest options on the market for steaming and blending, plus it offers additional sterilise and descale functions. As it does each of these things effectively and efficiently, we've made it our best budget baby food maker budget buy.

From the sleek design to the compact size and even the small touches like the light-up water tank, it feels like a machine that has been properly thought out, with usability and ease in mind. As such, you can forgive the need for 2 separate jars, particularly as the steaming liquids collect at the base, allowing you to reuse these in your recipe. The descale function suggests I’ll be able to use it for years to come without cleanliness worries, and its generous capacity makes it suitable for batch-cooking as well as smaller portions.

Related Features:

We chose this as the best budget baby food maker but you might also like to read our review of the Nutribaby(+) XL Baby Food Maker, which we chose as the best baby food maker overall. 

Or check out our Ninja 3-in-1 Food Processor review which we named the best premium baby food maker.

If you're preparing to start weaning or baby led weaning, you might also like to read our pick of the best highchairs or our guide to choosing the best bottle warmer.