FAQ

Nurture Life provides busy parents with delicious, nutritious, ready-to-eat meals for babies, toddlers and kids. For too long parents have had to rely on premade kids meals that lack the freshness, nutrition and variety their kids need. We created Nurture Life to give parents a stress-free solution to feeding their little ones healthy meals. No grocery shopping, chopping or cooking. Just extraordinarily kid-friendly, seriously nutritious meals you can serve in just 1 minute. Kids love our meals, parents love our convenience and nutrition. It’s a full-family win.

Nurture Life is a weekly kids meal subscription service that offers the convenience of automatic deliveries with the flexibility to skip weeks, pause or cancel at any time. You can create your first order by selecting a plan size and choosing meals and snacks from our menus page.

All our meals are made-to-order and delivered straight to your door in insulated packaging to maintain freshness. If you’re not home when they arrive, please be sure to refrigerate them as soon as they are unpacked. Our meals stay fresh in the refrigerator for a week after they arrive and have use by dates on all packaging. Our meals can also be frozen for up to 90 days as long as they’re placed in the freezer before the use by date. 

Our Kids Meals need only 1 minute in the microwave, or they can be heated for a couple minutes in the oven! Our Finger Foods can be enjoyed hot or cold—if you’re heating the meal up, just make sure to transfer to a heat-safe container. Our Snacks and Grab & Go Meals are made to be served cold—perfect for any on-the-go situation! All meals include use by dates, heating instructions, full ingredient lists and nutrition facts.

 For more information, please visit our How It Works page.

Nurture Life is for busy parents who want to spend less time in the kitchen and more time doing what they love—without having to settle for flavorless, unhealthy or heavily processed meals for their kids. We create delicious, nutritious kids meals for all the little ones in your home: babies who are just learning to self-feed, toddlers who love playing with their food and active kids who need well-balanced meals to power their days. 

With healthy meals ready in just 1 minute, you get time back in your busy lives and your kids get healthy meals with veggies on every plate—and flavors that even picky eaters can love! 

Every week, our customers welcome us into their homes and allow us to help nourish their families. We are grateful for the opportunity, and we take that responsibility very seriously and to heart in every action we take as a company.

Each Nurture Life meal is handmade with care in our production facility located just outside of Chicago in Bedford Park, IL. 

We are an FDA-inspected facility and adhere to HACCP-compliant culinary processes, which are the most stringent food safety and preparation processes in food manufacturing.

–  All team members adhere to strict hygiene and good manufacturing practices, including proper hand washing techniques and the wearing of personal protective equipment at all times (hairnets, frocks, gloves and face masks).

–  We do not permit team members who exhibit any signs of illness to work in our facility and provide all team members with paid time off so that they can be paid if and when they take sick days. 

–  We follow rigorous sanitation practices throughout our production facility including sanitizing our facility throughout the day, during changeovers and conducting deep cleanings nightly. 

–  Our meals are delivered to you through UPS or United Delivery Service providing contact-free deliveries. To minimize contact, our delivery team is leaving your boxes in the safest place possible (doorstep, front porch, front desk and lobbies of your building, etc.).

We are closely monitoring the evolving guidance from the CDC, WHO, FDA and local health officials to ensure we are instituting the safest practices possible for our customers and our team members.

It’s easy! Go to the menus page to browse our flavorful, nutritious meal selection and choose the perfect meals or snacks for your baby, toddler or kid.

With Nurture Life, you decide exactly what goes in your order. Click on any meal from our Menu to view nutrition facts, full ingredient lists and allergens. You can also use our filters to filter meals by dietary preferences and allergens. To add a meal to your order, click Add to Cart.

Once you’ve selected your meals, you’ll be prompted to complete the checkout process, so we can start cooking up your meals! Meals typically arrive within a week to a week and a half depending on the day you signed up and your delivery location. You will be able to view your first and future scheduled delivery days in your account. Once your meals are on their way to you, we will send you an email with the tracking information.

Nurture Life meals and snacks are priced individually:

• Finger Foods:  $6.89
• Kids Meals starting at: $7.99
• Snacks: $7.99

Yes, our smallest plan size is 6 meals. This helps us cover our packaging and shipping costs.

No, Nurture Life is a weekly subscription service. However, you can skip weeks, pause or cancel your subscription at any time! If you’d like help setting up your account so that you can try a first order before committing to future orders contact our Customer Experience team at support@nurturelife.com and 312.517.1888 and we’d be happy to help you!

Nurture Life is a weekly subscription service. Through our service, you’ll get the convenience of deliveries filled with meals based on your family’s dietary, taste and quantity preferences. We also understand that families’ needs change and make it easy to skip weeks, pause or cancel at any time.

Choose a plan size that meets your family’s needs! Plans start at 6 meals with savings as you add more meals:

• 6 meals = $8 shipping
• 9 meals = free shipping
• 12 meals = $10 off your entire order + free shipping
• 15 meals = $15 off your entire order + free shipping

To apply a promo code, enter it into the Promo Code field at the bottom of the shopping cart prior to checkout. You can also add a promo code on your account page under the Payment section. If you want to make sure that your promo has been applied successfully, please do not hesitate to contact us at support@nurturelife.com and/or 312.517.1888 after you’ve placed your order.

Depending on the day you sign up and your delivery zip code, it can take between 7-12 days for your first order to arrive. We know you’re excited to get your first box, and we’re just as excited to send it to you! But because all of our meals are made-to-order from scratch, it can take time for us to source the highest-quality ingredients, cook, package and ship your meals to you. 

If you’d like to receive your first order sooner, please contact us at support@nurturelife.com and/or 312.517.1888 after you sign up, and we’ll see what we can do to get you your first order sooner.

We generally recommend our Finger Foods for babies and toddlers who are developing their pincer grasp, still enjoy eating with their hands or prefer smaller portion sizes.

Many babies are ready for Finger Foods around 10 months old, but your baby may exhibit readiness signs as early as 6 months. We go in depth on Finger Food readiness below (How do I know when my baby is ready for Finger Foods?).

Many toddlers eat our Finger Foods through age 2, but you can also choose to transition them to our Kids Meals. If you’re unsure whether your toddler would do better with our Finger Foods or Kids Meals, we go in depth in the question below (Which stage should I order for my toddler—Finger Foods or Kids Meals?).

Our Kids Meals are great for both toddlers and kids—providing an introduction to bigger portions for toddlers while serving up a deliciously filling meal for kids. They also offer a greater variety of flavors and cuisines to expand your little one’s palate. Our Kids Meals serve ages 1–12 years old, but we find that kids 1–8 years fall in our sweet spot.

If you’re unsure whether your toddler would do better with our Finger Foods or Kids Meals, we go in depth in the question below (Which stage should I order for my toddler—Finger Foods or Kids Meals?).

Your baby may be ready for Finger Foods when…

• They reach for food (most commonly a parent’s dish or serving utensil).
• They are hungry soon after meals. (Purees are less calorie-dense and filling, so they may not be getting enough to eat!)
• They are eating their purees quickly and continue wanting more.
• They are able (or almost able) to hold small pieces of food between their fingers.

If your baby is exhibiting a few or all of these signs, consider introducing Finger Foods! But if they aren’t ready, don’t fret. They’re still getting all of the nutrition they need from breast milk or formula up until age one when they transition to cow’s milk. 

Every child develops at a different pace—just continue paying attention to your baby’s habits, and ease into finger foods when they’re ready.

Both our Kids Meals and our Finger Foods work for toddlers. The best way to decide which might work best is to ask yourself a couple questions about where your toddler is in their self-feeding process:

• Are they using (or trying to use) utensils?
• Are they showing signs of wanting more food after mealtime? (This can be a sign that they’re ready for larger portions.)
• Have they tried basic finger food ingredients and seem ready for more diverse flavors and textures? 

If you answered yes to these questions, your toddler is likely ready to begin with our Kids Meals! Our Kids Meals are similar to an adult plate but in smaller portions, perfectly sized to give your little one the nutrients they need at this stage. They’re also great for expanding your toddler’s palate and teaching them to love real, nutrient-dense foods! Some of the meals will require some parent intervention in terms of cutting bigger pieces of food down to a smaller size that you find appropriate for your little one; however, we have a variety of soft, veggie and pasta-based meals (Mac & Cheese with Hidden Butternut Squash, Pesto & Cheesy Ravioli with Hidden Spinach) that you may want to order as a starting point.

If you answered no to some or all of these questions, you might want to consider ordering a mix of Finger Foods and Kids Meals or just Finger Foods. Our Finger Foods are perfect for toddlers still in the earlier stages of their self-feeding journey because they offer a softer texture and smaller size (no chopping necessary!). They’re also designed to be big enough for little fingers to pick up but small enough to prevent choking so that your little one can safely practice feeding themselves.

Many of our toddler customers love to get a mix of both our Finger Foods and Kids Meals as they make the self-feeding transition, so we encourage you to consider trying both and seeing what works best!

All Nurture Life meals are created by our team of registered dietitians and chefs to ensure meals meet the nutritional needs of growing babies and kids and offer flavors little ones love. Every Nurture Life meal is thoughtfully developed based on recommendations from the US Dietary Guidelines and American Academy of Pediatrics. 

Each meal is appropriately portioned to deliver the right nutrients at each age and stage of development, focusing on organic produce, antibiotic- and hormone-free proteins and whole grains. We offer a wide variety of meals to satisfy everyone from picky to adventurous eaters and continually introduce new flavors, textures and cuisines through our menu.

Nurture Life meals are made using only the best ingredients focusing on organic produce, antibiotic- and hormone-free proteins and whole grains. All our fish is ASC-certified, which is the highest aquaculture standard. And all our meals are created by our team of registered dietitians and chefs ensuring the proper balance of essential nutrients, protein, veggies and fiber.

Just as important as what’s in our meals is what’s not! We cook with real, clean ingredients and never use artificial colors or flavors, high fructose corn syrup, trans fat or nitrates. We also use way less added sugar and sodium than leading kids food brands.

We source our ingredients from trusted purveyors that we thoroughly evaluate to ensure they meet our high food quality and safety standards. Examples include Bell & Evans for our antibiotic- and hormone-free chicken, Wabash Seafood for our ASC-certified salmon, Veg Fresh Farms and Harvest Direct for our organic produce, Delallo for our organic pastas and many more.

All Nurture Life Finger Foods and Kids Meals include vegetables. Most meals have a full serving of vegetables, and some of our meals include as many as nine in a single meal!

To view the nutrition facts and full ingredient lists for our meals, click on any meal from our menus page. We also include nutrition facts and full ingredient lists on all our meal packaging.

Our Finger Foods and Kids Meals contain a single serving meant to feed one child.

Yes! So many of our customers have children who they consider picky eaters, and we have developed many meals especially for picky eaters. If your child is a picky eater, we suggest using the filters on our menus page to easily identify meals for picky eaters—just look for the Picky Eater Fav tag. Our meals for picky eaters are our healthiest versions of picky eater favorites and all include the nutritional balance and vegetables that parents love Nurture Life for!

Nurture Life is a great way to expose picky eaters to new tastes to help expand their palates. We suggest gradually incorporating meals from outside of our Picky Eater Favorites to expose your child to a wider variety of flavors.

Our Kids Meals only need 1 minute in the microwave, or they can be transferred to an oven-safe container and heated in the oven. Finger Foods can be served cold from the fridge, or they can be transferred to a heat-safe container and heated in the microwave or oven.

Our Grab & Go Meals and Snacks are made to be served cold—perfect for any on-the-go situation. All meal packaging includes use by dates, heating instructions, nutrition facts and full ingredient lists.

Our Kids Meals are microwavable directly in the trays in which they’re served. Paper tray sleeves should be removed and seals should be pierced or partially peeled before microwaving.

Our trays are not oven safe. For heating in the oven, preheat your oven to 350° F, transfer the meal to an oven-safe container and cover with foil or another oven-safe cover. Heat for 10–15 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 165° F. Always refer to the packaging on your meal for specific instructions.

Our Finger Food jars and lids are not microwave and oven safe. If you are planning to heat, please transfer Finger Foods to a heat-safe container for warming. Always refer to the packaging on your meal for specific safe handling instructions.

Our meals stay fresh for 6–7 days in your refrigerator depending on your delivery day. All our meals include use by dates on the meal packaging. Our meals, with the exception of our Grab & Go meals, can be frozen for up to 90 days as long as they are placed in the freezer before the use by date.

Yes. With the exception of our Grab & Go Meals, all meals can be frozen for up to 90 days as long as they are placed in the freezer before the use by date, which is printed on the packaging. 

To defrost, simply place the meal in the refrigerator overnight to thaw. This may take anywhere from 18–24 hours for our Kids Meals and 12–18 hours for our Finger Foods. For more freezing and heating methods, visit our blog post: How to Freeze Meals from Nurture Life.

All our meals are perishable and must be refrigerated immediately upon delivery. Meals should not be consumed past their use by date, which is printed on the meal packaging.

Yes! We offer vegetarian meals that highlight a variety of protein-packed vegetarian ingredients including eggs, dairy, whole grains and legumes like beans, peas and lentils. Our vegetarian meals are designed for lacto-ovo vegetarians, meaning those who include egg, milk, cheese, yogurt and other milk- and egg-containing products in their diets. Our vegetarian meals do not contain any meat, poultry, fish or seafood. 

To view our vegetarian meals, visit the menus page and select Vegetarian from the filters under Dietary Preferences.

If you would like to change a family member’s dietary preference to vegetarian, you can do so by following these instructions:

• Sign in to your account
• Click Account
• Select the family member’s Preferences that you’d like to change
• Under Dietary Preferences select Vegetarian
• Be sure to click the Save Preferences button before exiting

Yes, we do offer gluten-free options. All gluten-free meals are tagged with a Gluten Free indicator on our site. Visit our menus page and use the filter for Gluten Free. 

Please note that our gluten-free meals are processed in the same facility as our non gluten-free meals. If your child has celiac disease, Nurture Life may not be the right option for you. Please contact us if you have any questions about your specific needs at support@nurturelife.com or 312.517.1888.

Nurture Life meals are protein and vegetable focused to give growing babies and kids the nutrients they need for their physical growth and brain development. To find the exact protein content of each meal, head to our menu and click on the meal you’d like to view the nutrition facts for.

We offer a variety of lean, antibiotic- and hormone-free proteins in both our Finger Foods and Kids Meals, from real food sources like chicken, beef, pork, turkey, salmon, eggs, whole grains, legumes and dairy. These diverse protein sources not only provide essential nutrients but also help expand your child’s palate from an early age.

Most kids consume too much salt! We design our meals to keep sodium low while promoting flavor through the natural deliciousness of real, high-quality foods, spices and herbs. Sodium content and other nutrition information can be found by clicking any meal on our menus page.

We keep sugar low! All of our Finger Foods have 0g added sugar. 78% of our Kids Meals have 0g added sugar. Our Snacks have 78% less added sugar than leading snacks. Plus, we don’t add any refined white sugar to our meals. Instead, we use (small amounts!) of naturally sweet ingredients like fruit purees, agave and maple syrup. The sugar content of individual meals can be found by clicking any meal on our menus page.

Yes and no. Our core menu offers a set of customer favorite meals that never change. These meals are on our menu every week, ensuring that your kids’ go-to meals are always available.

To keep things fresh, however, we also consistently introduce new meals to the Nurture Life menu. Every month or two, you can expect to see delicious new meals with creative flavors, clean ingredients and—of course—veggies on every plate!

This gives your kids the opportunity to try even more ingredients, flavors and textures—familiarizing them with a variety of foods and helping expand their palates from an early age. Between our core meals and our new ones, we always have at least 25 Kids Meals and 12 Finger Foods, plus Snacks that are made to be enjoyed straight from the fridge!

By giving us feedback on your order, you also have an important say in the changes we make to our menu. If you have a suggestion or request, we want to hear it at support@nurturelife.com!

Yes, we offer a variety of allergy-friendly Finger Foods, Kids Meals and Snacks, which you can find by using the filters on our menus page. All our meals are made in a facility free of peanuts and tree nuts (except coconut). Our facility does contain coconut, milk, eggs, fish (salmon), soy, wheat and sesame. 

We recommend that you closely review our full ingredient lists and the “contains” statement associated with each of our meals if you have a family member with a food allergy. From our menu, these can be found by clicking on any meal. All our meal packaging includes full ingredient lists as well.

While we always follow best practices for allergen handling, if your child has celiac disease, Nurture Life might not be the right option for you. Please contact us if you have any questions about your specific needs at support@nurturelife.com or 312.517.1888.

Yes! To identify meals that are free from specific allergens, go to our menu, click on the Filters, select the allergens that you’d like to exclude and then click the Apply Filters button. 

If you would like to permanently exclude specific allergens from a family member’s preferences, you can do so by following these instructions: 

• Sign in to your account
• Click Account
• Select the family member’s Preferences that you’d like to change
• Under Allergens select the allergens that you’d like to exclude
• Be sure to click the Save Preferences button before exiting

Our number one priority is food safety, and our production facility is designed to ensure that we meet the highest food safety standards. We adhere to HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control point) compliant culinary processes, which are the most stringent food safety and preparation processes in food manufacturing. We have an FSQA (food safety and quality assurance) Manager who directs all our food safety and quality practices, as well as FSQA Technicians on duty at all times during our operations.

Our production facility is FDA inspected.

Sign in to your account and go to Orders. Click into a specific week to view the meals that are scheduled for delivery, then select Edit Meals to change your meals. Use the + sign to add meals and – sign to remove meals. Be sure to click the Save Changes button once you’ve changed your meals to confirm your changes.

The deadline to change your meals or skip a week depends on your delivery day. Sign into your account and go to Orders. You will see the order cutoff date and time below each week. Your order cutoff stays the same from week to week!

You will also receive a reminder email three days prior to the order cutoff date and time each week reminding you to make changes or skip a week.

Absolutely! Sign in and go to Orders. Select the upcoming week you’d like to skip, scroll down and click Skip Week. The deadline to skip a week is your weekly order cutoff date and time, which can be found in your Orders. Orders that do not have an Open status are past the order cutoff date and time and cannot be skipped. You will be responsible for the charges associated with a confirmed order.

With Nurture Life, you can define exactly how you’d like us to fill your order each week. You can choose your own meals each week, or you can have us choose your meals based on your dietary, meal and quantity preferences. Simply sign into your account, and then under Account, select the family member’s preferences that you’d like to change. You can then edit their meal type, dietary preferences, allergens, number of meals received per order and permanently include or exclude specific meals in all upcoming orders. 

Please note that if you change your family’s preferences after an order cutoff has already passed, that order will be filled based on your previous preferences. All future orders will be filled based on your new preferences.

Yes! To permanently include or exclude specific meals for your orders:

• Sign in to your account
• Then under Account, select the family member that you’d like to permanently include or exclude specific meals for
• Scroll down to Always Adds/Never Adds and click the arrow next to it
• On the meal cards, click ✓ for the meals you always want to include and ✘ for meals you always want to exclude
• For meals you always want to include, you will be prompted to select the quantity of this specific meal you’d like to have included each week
• Be sure to click the Apply Changes to All Future Orders button to save your Always Adds/Never Adds

Sign in and go to Account. Select Account Settings and the arrow next to Log In Details. Then select Edit next to Password. Enter a new password and click the Save Changes button.

You can update your payment information in your account settings. Please note that if you have one card in the system, you must add a new card and make it your default card before you will be able to remove your existing card.

To add a new card, sign in and go into your Account Settings. Click the arrow next to Payments, and then click Add Card. Once you’ve added a new card, you can choose to make it your default card. Don’t forget to click the Save Changes button. 

Once you’ve added a new card and made it your default card, you will be able to delete your existing card by selecting the card, clicking Delete and then confirming by clicking the Delete button.

We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover and Apple Pay. We do not accept personal checks or money orders.

If you’d like to share which meals are hits with your family and which meals aren’t, you can rate your meals and add comments by following these steps:

• Sign in to your account
• Click Orders
• Scroll down to Order History
• Click the arrow next to each delivered order to rate your meals and add comments

We strongly encourage you to rate and comment on your meals as we use your feedback to continually improve our meals. You are also more than welcome to reach out to our customer experience team at support@nurturelife.com and/or 312.517.1888 if you have any questions or want to give feedback that is shared directly with our Research & Development and Culinary Teams.

Yes. To pause your subscription, sign in and go to Account. Scroll to the bottom and click Pause Subscription. You will be able to select the delivery day that you would like to resume your subscription. Before your subscription resumes, we will send you an email reminder with one week advance notice of the upcoming cutoff date and time. 

Please note that any orders that have been processed before you pause will still be produced and shipped to you as scheduled.

To cancel your subscription, sign in, go to Account, scroll to the bottom and select the “Click Here” link to initiate your cancellation. You can also cancel your subscription by contacting our customer experience team at support@nurturelife.com or 312.517.1888. If you do not want to receive your next order, cancellations must be made before your order cutoff date and time. If your cancellation occurs after the cutoff, you will still receive your confirmed order as your final order and will be responsible for the associated charges.

Please note, if your account is currently paused, you will need to resume your subscription in order to cancel directly through the directions above as accounts can only be canceled from an active status. For assistance, please reach out to our customer experience team via support@nurturelife.com.

Sign into your account. At the top of the page, you’ll see a banner that says “Your account is currently inactive. Click here to reactivate.” Click the banner, and you will automatically be reactivated. From there, you can view and edit upcoming orders and make changes to your account settings.

We will process your credit card immediately following the cutoff for your order, which falls anywhere from 6–8 days prior to your delivery. To view your cutoff date and time, sign into your account and go to Orders. You will see the order cutoff date and time below each week.

We use Stripe for our credit card processing. Saved payment method details can continue to work even if the physical card has been replaced by the issuing bank because Stripe works with card networks and automatically attempts to update saved card details whenever a customer receives a new card (e.g., replacing an expired card or one that was reported lost or stolen). Automatic card updates require card issuers to participate with the network and provide this information. It is widely supported in the United States, allowing Stripe to automatically update most American Express, Visa, Mastercard and Discover cards issued there.

Our food packaging is made from the highest quality food-grade plastics available and are BPA, PVC and phthalate free.

All our packaging is recyclable except for the seals and the interior of the gel packs.

Our jars and paper sleeves are recyclable. Dispose of these in your curbside recycling bin. Jar lids and trays are made of #5 plastic and can be disposed of in most curbside recycling bins. (Check your local recycling program.)

Our insulated liner is made from 85% recycled plastic bottles and is just as simple to recycle as your average beverage bottle! Simply place the liner in your curbside recycling bin along with any other plastic household containers.

Our non-toxic gel packs can be stored in your freezer and reused any time! If you’d like to dispose of a pack, simply thaw on your counter, cut the package open, discard the gel in the trash and recycle the plastic bag anywhere #4 plastic is accepted. (Check your local grocery store.)

Our boxes are made from over 85% recycled corrugated cardboard and are 100% recyclable. Simply recycle them in your curbside bin or let your kid’s imagination go wild and get cardboard crafty with forts, costumes and more!

Our non-toxic gel packs are made from a viscous gel refrigerant that is over 99% water and can be stored in your freezer and reused any time. If you’d like to dispose of a pack, simply thaw it on your counter, cut the package open, discard the gel in the trash, rinse it out, let it dry and recycle the plastic bag anywhere #4 plastic is accepted. (Check your local grocery store.)