Thursday May 15th, 2008
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Foodie in Training
Posted by Jessica Harlan on June 7, 2007 - 10:00am.
I will admit to feeling a certain smug pride at the supermarket when I compare my shopping cart, filled with fresh produce and healthy options, to the next one in line, which, in urban Atlanta, inevitably contains bags of Doritos, frozen pizzas and, if there are any vegetables, they're canned (sodium and preservatives--gasp!). Looking from my plump, healthy baby, protected from nasty germs in her shopping cart seat insert, to the skinny kid in the next cart, I think how lucky my daughter is. I just hope she realizes it when she grows up and gets to make her own choices about the foods she eats. Will she appreciate that the first vegetable she tasted was an organic yam, lovingly roasted and milled into a silky puree by her mother? Or will she sneak off to get the Happy Meals that we've deprived her of?
For now, my husband Chip and I have vowed to feed 6-month-old Sadie all organic foods, at least for the first couple of years of her life (By the way, that's her up above, at the farmer's market, clutching the carrots I'm going to make for her supper). While it's one thing for Chip and I to ingest traces of pesticides, I look at Sadie's little body and worry about her ingesting a higher concentration of these chemicals. It turns out that my fears are closely on target - babies are more susceptible to pesticide poisoning, which can lead to cancer, brain damage and problems with the reproductive system.
I'm not the only one who's trying to do right by their baby. We're just lucky that there are plenty of companies-even big conglomerates like Gerber -that are meeting demand with organic cereal, jarred foods, and even frozen options.
Still, I haven't had to explore the prepared options, organic or not, because I'm making my own baby food and hoping that to Sadie, the flavors and textures are fresher and more interesting than jarred baby food. Besides, it's not too difficult as you might recall from Kim Steckler's blog here on LIME. I feel good about knowing exactly what goes into Sadie's food (i.e. the ingredients in her apple puree: Golden Delicious apples, and nothing else). Not to mention not having to throw a sackful of glass or plastic jars in the recycling bin every week, or the pollution and energy waste produced by the manufacturing, packaging, and transportation.
I know some moms feel like they have enough stress and chores in their day without making baby food from scratch, and I totally understand. Everyone makes their own choices about what's important for their kids-my house might not be as clean as those of other kids in Sadie's playgroup, and I always feel guilty that I'm not as good about keeping Sadie on a sleep schedule as my other mom-friends. But I'm a foodie, so Sadie's diet trumps mopping the floors regularly or making sure she's in bed by 7 p.m.
I try to not dwell on whether my good intentions will backfire. Though I do feel pangs as Sadie grimaces at a mouthful of sweet peas that I've carefully steamed and pureed. Perhaps she'll trade her organic yogurt cups and homemade muesli for her classmate's Twinkies? But just as I now look back to my childhood with gratitude that the nights of TV dinners were the exception rather than the norm, hopefully Sadie will also one day appreciate that her first meals didn't come from a jar.
In My Kitchen
Every week, I'll tally my grocery bill, and give you a peek at what's on the dinner table at our house. This week was clean-out-the-freezer week, so we ate lots of leftovers.
Groceries: $59.65
Meals Prepared:
* Frito Pies (leftover chili on baked tortilla chips topped with melted cheese)
* Leftover shiitake and steak stir-fry on brown rice
* Grilled Turkey Burgers, oven fries, spinach salad with White Wine-Garlic Dressing
Your daughter looks bonny on her organic diet!
My daughter had no sugar or chocolate until she was three (when peer pressure became more obvious) and had mainly organic and freshly prepared foods.
Once she got to school age I didn't make a big deal about it really. She still mainly ate good stuff without being denied a fair amount of rubbish when given it by others, friends and grandparents etc.
She now, as a young adult, scarcely eats any sugar, loves salads and vegetables and generally has a good diet.
I bet she'll do just fine if you don't get over zealous about it. We met a few parents who did, and it usually back fired!
Congratulations on raising a kid who obviously has a great attitude toward food.
My mom loves to tell how when I was a baby, she didn't teach me the word for candy, reasoning that if I didn't know what it was called, I couldn't ask for it. Well, I invented my own word... kids are resourceful that way!
Hopefully keeping a laid-back attitude towards food will help keep my kids on the right track.
Yes, I didn't mention breastfeeding in my story because it was more about the transitioning to including solids in Sadie's diet, but I'm with you. I'm proud of myself for sticking to breastfeeding so far (and hopefully things will continue to go well until she's at least a year!).
Plus, you can't get much more organic or natural than that!
It's always hard to determine what people will make out of their childhood and upbringing but for the most part people do appreciate good intentions and habits their parents tried to pass on and try to apply them in their lives.
I've always thought that child care is one of the hardest jobs out there. I'm not even considering conceiving any time soon, but I know that when I do, I want to stay at home for her/his first two years make sure that my child is well fed and taken care of properly.
Never really thought about making homemade baby food but I suppose this just adds to my list of things I thought about doing when I decide to have children. Great idea, thanks for sharing and please do keep us posted.
post script: your daughet is just absolutely adorable, she seems so well fed and happy.
I just reread everyone’s comments plus the article and cannot find one example of the negativity you speak of. Could you please elaborate?
There are healthy fats, nuts, avocados, olive oil that I'm sure would be fine for a little one.
Good luck and great job!
I made pretty much all the baby food for my second child; organic produce wasn't available because my son and daughter are now in their twenties. I pureed everything and froze it in ice cube trays and then transferred the "food cubes" to ziploc bags for easy retrieval and reheating. I didn't, by the way, have a microwave either, so I used a pot of simmering water with the "food cube" in a small glass dish inside.
After they were weaned, my kids ate what we now call "whole foods" for the most part while they were growing up, although they did see the occasional fast food meal. By "occasional" I am talking less than twice a month and, along, with the food at home, the choice was made by economics as much as by the desire to embrace the principles of good nutrition. Funny thing - when my son and daughter were younger, the pre-packaged, pre-assembled and excessively processed stuff was way more expensive than the single ingredient foods. As a result, we ate meals and desserts "made from scratch", because that was what I could afford. I'm afraid that organic produce just didn't exist as an option; we have, of course, worked to eat that way since it became widely available and not prohibitively expensive.
And now? My son is nearly 28 and he's a chef. He has always preferred nutritious food and doesn't care for sweets; in fact, I don't do any sort of birthday cake for him because he just won't eat it. He had ice cream cake as a child. He eats very consciously and is, I am sure, more aware of much of the food information than I am because he makes his living knowing about it. He does batch cooking at home the way I used to, and I don't think he's eaten at a fast food place since he was a teen.
My daughter is 21 and she will, given the opportunity, eat her share of junk food and then some. She has had a particular problem with over-consuming carbonated beverages, but that seems to be waning on its own. She will eat the junk if it's in front of her, but her body eventually asserts itself and she'll eat properly because it feels so bad when she doesn't. Fortunately, because she doesn't have much interest in cooking, her girlfriend is a great cook - and works at the family-owned health food store. So, like it or not, my daughter is, in turn, eating a healthy and mostly organic diet. Her girlfriend never eats fast food, so it's functioning as a deterrent.
As for Sadie - nurse as long as you can, feed her whole foods that are as "un-tampered-with" as possible and model the behaviour of eating well. She may rebel from time to time, but I know that she will, in the long run, develop healthy eating habits. If you're shopping at Whole Foods, it probably isn't necessary to veto much, but if that day ever comes, you might want to try what I did with my kids when they clamoured for a snack that wasn't healthy: I challenged them to read the ingredient list. If they could pronounce every word correctly *and* tell me what the ingredient was and why it was included, they could have the food. We left *many* packages of food that I didn't want them to have at the store as a result of the challenge. My rationalization was - and still is - that if something is going to go into your body, don't you want to know what it is?
Blessings.
Don't get intimidated by making baby food yourself-- it's actually surprisingly easy, and you can do it once a week and then freeze or refrigerate it for the week. I'm sorry that your first attempt was rebuffed!
Check our archives for Kim Steckler's blog, Bringing Up Baby, which is now finished, but has some great information and suggestions.
As for juice, your baby probably doesn't need it yet, so I'd hold of for awhile... it is very sugary (even the organic stuff) and I've heard babies get addicted to it! The only liquids Sadie drinks are breastmilk, the occasional bottle of Organic Similac formula, and water from a sippy cup. I actually did try giving her organic apple juice (the Gerber brand) when she had a constipation problem, but she didn't like it!