A friend and I recently met to walk through beautiful Olbrich Botatnical Gardens with our children. Her baby is about 4 months younger than Sprout and they're just starting to think about solid food. Since my kids are pretty decent eaters, she asked me what I do.
One of the things I told her about was blending the less palatable foods - like beans and broccoli - with more accepted foods like apples and sweet potatoes. It really helped Sprout have a positive feeling about broccoli which many children don't care for. My friend told me in her online research she's encountered many people saying that you should never mix foods so children get the chance to taste and appreciate foods individually.
Well, first of all, I have an issue with absolutes - always, never, etc. I can definitely see the benefit in getting a child to know that this is what broccoli tastes like on its own, why not make the first experience a good one? I think about my dad, a great guy, but kind of a picky eater. Seriously, if I had to deal with cooking for some of his food issues I'd have gone crazy long ago. (Then again, it's been long established that I don't have anywhere near the saintly levels of patience my mom has.) I think part of Dad's problem is that vegetables weren't always prepared in the most flavorful way and that he had to eat it, as is, no matter what.
I've decided that I would rather have my children eat food paired up with other foods if that's what it will take to get them to eat. I don't mean frying the heck out of it or smothering it in cheese sauce (although those are good, too), but what's wrong with combining one healthy food with another healthy food? Then when you present the broccoli or green beans or whatever to the child on it's own you can say "remember, you like it when it's with applesauce or pears" or whatever else you've mixed with it.
Ironically, Sprout would rather eat small bits of steamed broccoli on their own than when the pureed broccoli is mixed in with other food. She will eat it when it's mixed, but it's not the voracious "I can't get enough!" that she has when it's little trees. Whether it's because she's eating big girl food like her sister or she really likes the taste/texture/whatever more in whole broccoli, I don't care. She's eating a healthy vegetable prepared in a healthy way and she knows what it is she's eating.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Yum Watermelon!
Bug loves watermelon, or as she called it all last summer, waterlemon. It was with great joy and excitement that the first watermelon of the season was spotted at the farmer's market. They were the cute little personal sized ones and Bug wanted to get two of them. Since neither my husband nor I are really crazy about watermelon, I only got one. BIG mistake!
I cut a thick slice for Bug and decided to send another slice through the food mill to see what would happen. I chose the food mill because most of the seeds would get trapped in the grate, which would save me from having to pick every last one out. I did cut it off the rind - I'm not *that* lazy!
When you send a watermelon through the food mill an interesting thing happens. There is only juice coming out on the other side. Well, there was a little bit of pulp and a few ground seeds, but mostly it was water. (Go figure!) While it's hard to spoon liquid into your kid's mouth - at least my kid - it is great to mix with cereal.
Sprout really loves watermelon cereal. It's one of the few things she'll eat cold with minimal fussing, which is good because I just can't bring myself to heat up watermelon. It defeats the whole purpose of eating it. The little bit of ground up seed I figure are just some extra roughage and easily masked by the texture of the cereal.
Since watermelon cereal was so popular, I cut tiny pieces off of my leftover rind to give to Sprout while I finished my lunch. It pretty much dissolved in her hand, so I popped a bit in her mouth. Actual pieces of watermelon are not one of Sprout's favorite things. In fact, I think she spit out every piece I fed her. I know she's a bit sensitive to texture and I guess watermelon is one of those textures she just doesn't care for. I can understand that because I think it's one of my problems with the fruit, too.
So I'll keep buying personal sized watermelons as long as they're in season and keep some cut up for Bug. The rest I'll juice up for cereal to enjoy during the winter. (It's easy to get into the ice cube tray!) I am going to try the same thing with cantaloupe and cucumbers to see how those go down.
I cut a thick slice for Bug and decided to send another slice through the food mill to see what would happen. I chose the food mill because most of the seeds would get trapped in the grate, which would save me from having to pick every last one out. I did cut it off the rind - I'm not *that* lazy!
When you send a watermelon through the food mill an interesting thing happens. There is only juice coming out on the other side. Well, there was a little bit of pulp and a few ground seeds, but mostly it was water. (Go figure!) While it's hard to spoon liquid into your kid's mouth - at least my kid - it is great to mix with cereal.
Sprout really loves watermelon cereal. It's one of the few things she'll eat cold with minimal fussing, which is good because I just can't bring myself to heat up watermelon. It defeats the whole purpose of eating it. The little bit of ground up seed I figure are just some extra roughage and easily masked by the texture of the cereal.
Since watermelon cereal was so popular, I cut tiny pieces off of my leftover rind to give to Sprout while I finished my lunch. It pretty much dissolved in her hand, so I popped a bit in her mouth. Actual pieces of watermelon are not one of Sprout's favorite things. In fact, I think she spit out every piece I fed her. I know she's a bit sensitive to texture and I guess watermelon is one of those textures she just doesn't care for. I can understand that because I think it's one of my problems with the fruit, too.
So I'll keep buying personal sized watermelons as long as they're in season and keep some cut up for Bug. The rest I'll juice up for cereal to enjoy during the winter. (It's easy to get into the ice cube tray!) I am going to try the same thing with cantaloupe and cucumbers to see how those go down.
Monday, August 3, 2009
No more pureed meat?
I bought a beef chuck roast at the farmer's market last week for baby food. I can't bring myself to buy the jars of meat. For one thing it's heinously expensive. For another, it smells worse than cat food and I thought canned cat food was one of the worst "food" scents ever.
The first meat I processed for Sprout was a chicken I'd made in the crock pot. I put the frozen chicken in the bottom of the pot, covered it with chicken broth, and set it on high for several hours. When the meat fell off the bones I figured it was ready and I ran some of the dark meat through the food processor with some of the broth. There was probably more broth than chicken, but it was a fairly smooth consistency. A little sandy, but not too bad. I made sure to mix it with the fruit and a little bit of cereal to smooth it all out and we had success.
I'd read something that said veal was a good early meat choice because of it's mild flavor. So I went to Whole Foods and bought the humanely raised veal. It was ground and I wanted it to be tender, so I boiled it. Probably not a good choice. Then I decided to try pureeing the veal in a blender instead of the food processor. The texture was pretty nasty, but I was hopeful. I again mixed it with some fruit and a little bit of cereal, but it wasn't enough. Sprout will eat veal if she's really hungry, but if she's not, she spits it.
So back to the chuck roast. I once again made it in the crock pot with beef bouillon paste, water, and onions. It was extremely tender - the bigger eaters had it with mushroom gravy (or it would have been gravy if I could make it, but it was more au jus than anything) - and Sprout just devoured it. I also served chunks of sauteed zucchini and canned peaches and she started out liking those, but at the end only wanted small shreds of chuck roast. It's truly amazing how strong that little tongue can be when she's launching food out of her mouth.
I was going to puree the chuck roast, but since she likes the pieces so much and she seems to handle them ok, I think I'm just going to freeze 1/2 ounce portions in ice cube trays.
What was frustrating for me was feeding her roast while I was eating more zucchini. I'd devoured my portion of beef and since I'm trying to reduce my meat consumption and increase the veggies, I finished off the zucchini. It was ok, but it wasn't beef roast!
The first meat I processed for Sprout was a chicken I'd made in the crock pot. I put the frozen chicken in the bottom of the pot, covered it with chicken broth, and set it on high for several hours. When the meat fell off the bones I figured it was ready and I ran some of the dark meat through the food processor with some of the broth. There was probably more broth than chicken, but it was a fairly smooth consistency. A little sandy, but not too bad. I made sure to mix it with the fruit and a little bit of cereal to smooth it all out and we had success.
I'd read something that said veal was a good early meat choice because of it's mild flavor. So I went to Whole Foods and bought the humanely raised veal. It was ground and I wanted it to be tender, so I boiled it. Probably not a good choice. Then I decided to try pureeing the veal in a blender instead of the food processor. The texture was pretty nasty, but I was hopeful. I again mixed it with some fruit and a little bit of cereal, but it wasn't enough. Sprout will eat veal if she's really hungry, but if she's not, she spits it.
So back to the chuck roast. I once again made it in the crock pot with beef bouillon paste, water, and onions. It was extremely tender - the bigger eaters had it with mushroom gravy (or it would have been gravy if I could make it, but it was more au jus than anything) - and Sprout just devoured it. I also served chunks of sauteed zucchini and canned peaches and she started out liking those, but at the end only wanted small shreds of chuck roast. It's truly amazing how strong that little tongue can be when she's launching food out of her mouth.
I was going to puree the chuck roast, but since she likes the pieces so much and she seems to handle them ok, I think I'm just going to freeze 1/2 ounce portions in ice cube trays.
What was frustrating for me was feeding her roast while I was eating more zucchini. I'd devoured my portion of beef and since I'm trying to reduce my meat consumption and increase the veggies, I finished off the zucchini. It was ok, but it wasn't beef roast!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Restaurant Baby Food
Not everyone can be fortunate enough to have a restaurant like Bean Sprouts that caters to children and children's taste. And honestly, sometimes it's nice to eat somewhere grown up. This weekend we took a little family trip and had quite an experience finding food for Sprout to eat. I did bring food along for her, but I was feeling lazy and/or I couldn't find where we'd packed the food, so we branched out more than usual. Typically babies get bread or crackers at restaurants, but Sprout isn't really big enough for that yet, so we had to get a little more creative.
The first place we went to we ordered dry mashed potatoes for Sprout (dry as in no gravy or butter added on top). They weren't plain, which gave me a moment or two of concern, but Sprout didn't mind. And any kid of mine has to learn to like garlic. I thought Sprout didn't like the potatoes because DH was feeding her while I took Bug to the bathroom. Actually she ate about half of a huge mound and was just tired of eating by the time I saw her. DH said she devoured them. This was the first time she'd had potatoes, but she seemed to really like them, small lumps and all.
For dinner we went out to a nicer family-friendly restaurant. DH and I each gave up a bit of our steamed broccoli and after wrestling with my little greased pig (i.e. Sprout) at my plate for about 10 minutes, I finally decided to see if she'd actually sit up in a high chair. She did and shoved broccoli into her little mouth as fast as she could. A big girl high chair AND chunks of food? What more could a little Sprout want?!
Lunch the next day was at a cute little soda fountain in Eagle River, WI. Unfortunately when I asked about steamed veggies I got a slightly horrified look. They did have a salad bar and I put a bit of what looked like mashed avocado and some peas into my sandwich basket. The peas are always well liked and I gave her just a bit of the avocado and she seemed pretty happy with it. I tasted it and it was pretty bland, so I got her a bigger serving.
Either my taste buds are dying (possible - I've got a cold) or they changed up their recipe, because my little Sprout made a face and started gacking. I looked in her mouth and pulled out a bit of jalepeno. Ooops! The avocado was a familar food, but obviously the jalepeno was not. Thankfully she's had no ill effects from this.
Our final meal out was lunch at the Liberty Bell Chalet in Hurley, WI. A girl just needs some of the best pizza and salad on the planet some times. The bigger eaters enjoyed our pizzas (Bug ate half of her cheese pizza - go Bug!) and Sprout had gnocchi. Gnocchi is essentially an Italian potato dumpling. Now that I think about it, it actually has egg and flour in it, two things I've been trying to avoid for another month or so. So, gnocchi probably wasn't the best choice for my 6 month old, but boy oh boy did she love it. She has a hard time getting Cheerios into her mouth because they get soggy and stick to her hands. The gnocchi have a better consistency for her and she was so proud to get them into her mouth as often as she did. Thankfully she didn't have a reaction to the flour or egg, not that I really thought she would, but it's better to be safe than sorry. I definitely plan on buying these for her once she's old enough to well tolerate all of the ingredients.
So yeah, I should plan better if I know we're going to be traveling and eating in restaurants, but at the same time I want to expose my baby to a wide variety of foods and not just what's on the kid's menu as she gets older. I feel that this weekend's adventure was a success.
The first place we went to we ordered dry mashed potatoes for Sprout (dry as in no gravy or butter added on top). They weren't plain, which gave me a moment or two of concern, but Sprout didn't mind. And any kid of mine has to learn to like garlic. I thought Sprout didn't like the potatoes because DH was feeding her while I took Bug to the bathroom. Actually she ate about half of a huge mound and was just tired of eating by the time I saw her. DH said she devoured them. This was the first time she'd had potatoes, but she seemed to really like them, small lumps and all.
For dinner we went out to a nicer family-friendly restaurant. DH and I each gave up a bit of our steamed broccoli and after wrestling with my little greased pig (i.e. Sprout) at my plate for about 10 minutes, I finally decided to see if she'd actually sit up in a high chair. She did and shoved broccoli into her little mouth as fast as she could. A big girl high chair AND chunks of food? What more could a little Sprout want?!
Lunch the next day was at a cute little soda fountain in Eagle River, WI. Unfortunately when I asked about steamed veggies I got a slightly horrified look. They did have a salad bar and I put a bit of what looked like mashed avocado and some peas into my sandwich basket. The peas are always well liked and I gave her just a bit of the avocado and she seemed pretty happy with it. I tasted it and it was pretty bland, so I got her a bigger serving.
Either my taste buds are dying (possible - I've got a cold) or they changed up their recipe, because my little Sprout made a face and started gacking. I looked in her mouth and pulled out a bit of jalepeno. Ooops! The avocado was a familar food, but obviously the jalepeno was not. Thankfully she's had no ill effects from this.
Our final meal out was lunch at the Liberty Bell Chalet in Hurley, WI. A girl just needs some of the best pizza and salad on the planet some times. The bigger eaters enjoyed our pizzas (Bug ate half of her cheese pizza - go Bug!) and Sprout had gnocchi. Gnocchi is essentially an Italian potato dumpling. Now that I think about it, it actually has egg and flour in it, two things I've been trying to avoid for another month or so. So, gnocchi probably wasn't the best choice for my 6 month old, but boy oh boy did she love it. She has a hard time getting Cheerios into her mouth because they get soggy and stick to her hands. The gnocchi have a better consistency for her and she was so proud to get them into her mouth as often as she did. Thankfully she didn't have a reaction to the flour or egg, not that I really thought she would, but it's better to be safe than sorry. I definitely plan on buying these for her once she's old enough to well tolerate all of the ingredients.
So yeah, I should plan better if I know we're going to be traveling and eating in restaurants, but at the same time I want to expose my baby to a wide variety of foods and not just what's on the kid's menu as she gets older. I feel that this weekend's adventure was a success.
More Than Steaming
I prepared some farmer's market green beans for Sprout a couple of weeks ago. I was being lazy, so I steamed all of the beans I had and after two minutes pulled out half of them and dunked them in cold water to freeze for the bigger eaters to eat later. Then I continued to steam the beans. It was awful what I felt I had to do to those beautiful green pods. By the end they were nasty, soggy, grayish-green goo. There had to be a better way.
My understanding is that cooking the vegetables is necessary for a couple of reasons. The most obvious reason is that cooking them makes them mushy and easier to gum and tongue into smaller pieces or to puree to a smoother consistency. On a cellular level, it breaks down the cell walls all plants have, which makes the plant easier to digest. Cows are really good at breaking down cell walls, humans not so much. Babies even less than that.
So, how could I possibly cook beans and other veggies to softness without steaming or boiling the heck out of them? Because this wasn't just my problem, Sprout found these boiled veggies disgusting, too.
By pure chance I happened to hear Veronica Rueckert on Wisconsin Public Radio interview Emily Franklin. Franklin has a book out called Too Many Cooks (which I have on order now). One of the things she discussed was roasting broccoli to make the natural sweetness come out. I thought this was brilliant. I already liked roasted green beans and roasted cauliflower (not to mention so many other veggies), so why not try broccoli and make it into baby food?
This is not the least labor-intensive process, I soon discovered. I tossed carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli with a bit of olive oil and put it in a roasting pan. I set the oven to 425 and the timer to 10 minutes. I figured I'd have to stir it and put it back in, I just didn't realize quite how many times. I also didn't realize that the veggies would cook at different times. The cauliflower was finished first. It was nice and mushy, although it didn't puree as smoothly as it would if I had steamed it. The broccoli didn't get as soft as I'd hoped it would and the carrots took about 70 minutes to be done, although I've discovered I'll eat carrots cooked this way.
Bug really enjoyed the carrots she stole off of Sprout's plate. The adults thought the broccoli was delicious (I put it on top of our ravioli with pesto because it was a little too charred for Sprout's palate). And Sprout, well, after all of that work, Sprout decided that her little teeth were hurting too much to eat much of anything. She had a long drink of milk and went to sleep. I saw little top tooth buds after lunch today (which was food I know she's eaten in the past and liked, but refused today), so hopefully once those big, evil incisors are through she'll be up to experimenting again.
In the meantime, I think I'll try this again, but I will lightly steam the veggies first and then roast them to bring out the sweetness. It is more work than just steaming them, but since I make enough for the big eaters to eat for at least two meals, it's not so bad. I'm also going to puree the carrots and broccoli together to see if that makes it more palatable. I plan to use the food mill because I took the stems from the broccoli after I cut the tops for eating raw and I should have peeled them before cooking. I hope the mill will do that for me. Otherwise broccoli stems are going back to getting steamed - I'm not peeling AND roasting them. I'm not completely crazy.
My understanding is that cooking the vegetables is necessary for a couple of reasons. The most obvious reason is that cooking them makes them mushy and easier to gum and tongue into smaller pieces or to puree to a smoother consistency. On a cellular level, it breaks down the cell walls all plants have, which makes the plant easier to digest. Cows are really good at breaking down cell walls, humans not so much. Babies even less than that.
So, how could I possibly cook beans and other veggies to softness without steaming or boiling the heck out of them? Because this wasn't just my problem, Sprout found these boiled veggies disgusting, too.
By pure chance I happened to hear Veronica Rueckert on Wisconsin Public Radio interview Emily Franklin. Franklin has a book out called Too Many Cooks (which I have on order now). One of the things she discussed was roasting broccoli to make the natural sweetness come out. I thought this was brilliant. I already liked roasted green beans and roasted cauliflower (not to mention so many other veggies), so why not try broccoli and make it into baby food?
This is not the least labor-intensive process, I soon discovered. I tossed carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli with a bit of olive oil and put it in a roasting pan. I set the oven to 425 and the timer to 10 minutes. I figured I'd have to stir it and put it back in, I just didn't realize quite how many times. I also didn't realize that the veggies would cook at different times. The cauliflower was finished first. It was nice and mushy, although it didn't puree as smoothly as it would if I had steamed it. The broccoli didn't get as soft as I'd hoped it would and the carrots took about 70 minutes to be done, although I've discovered I'll eat carrots cooked this way.
Bug really enjoyed the carrots she stole off of Sprout's plate. The adults thought the broccoli was delicious (I put it on top of our ravioli with pesto because it was a little too charred for Sprout's palate). And Sprout, well, after all of that work, Sprout decided that her little teeth were hurting too much to eat much of anything. She had a long drink of milk and went to sleep. I saw little top tooth buds after lunch today (which was food I know she's eaten in the past and liked, but refused today), so hopefully once those big, evil incisors are through she'll be up to experimenting again.
In the meantime, I think I'll try this again, but I will lightly steam the veggies first and then roast them to bring out the sweetness. It is more work than just steaming them, but since I make enough for the big eaters to eat for at least two meals, it's not so bad. I'm also going to puree the carrots and broccoli together to see if that makes it more palatable. I plan to use the food mill because I took the stems from the broccoli after I cut the tops for eating raw and I should have peeled them before cooking. I hope the mill will do that for me. Otherwise broccoli stems are going back to getting steamed - I'm not peeling AND roasting them. I'm not completely crazy.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
The Veggies Begin
May 25 - after talking to the nurse, who resumed with helpful advice, it would appear that I was starving my poor child! She was getting up every 3 hours at night because 1 tablespoon of cereal wasn't enough to sustain her. Now that she's getting up to 3 tablespoons of cereal a day things are going much better. Whew!
The nurse also said if cereal was successful for 2 weeks, we could introduce the orange veggies. The reason orange veggies are suggested is that they are sweeter and babies tend to respond better to sweet things. (Is breast milk sweet because babies like it better or do babies like sweet things because breast milk is sweet? Will we ever know?!) Veggies are recommended before fruits because there is a concern that babies will get hooked on the sweet taste of fruit and be less likely to eat the vegetables as they are introduced.
I went to the grocery store to pick up baby food. I knew I wanted to make my own for Sprout, as I did with Bug. This is for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's cheaper. Secondly, I'm a control freak and making my own food means I know what exactly is in there. Thirdly, it gives me control over texture and I have a belief (right or wrong) that we give babies a lack of texture that does not benefit them as they grow up. Making my own baby food also appeals to my twisted pioneering/Suzie Homemaker persona. (I guess reading Laura Ingalls Wilder like it was the Bible probably had some influence, huh?) But with Bug, I started all of her food with a commercial jar and then started to make my own. After comparing the price of a 4 ounce jar of Earth's Best baby food - about $1/jar - and the price of a pound of organic sweet potatoes - $1.79/lb - there was no contest. Even being lazy and buying the pre-washed and peeled bag of organic baby carrots was way cheaper than buying the jar of carrots.
I'm not going to lie to you, it is faster and easier to just open a jar and feed that to the baby. However, making your own baby food isn't as time consuming as one might think. I use my microwave (or stove if I'm really feeling old school), food processor (but a blender would work, too), and freezer. I used to cram the food into old baby food jars, but that was messy and time consuming, so now I just freeze a batch in a couple of ice cube trays and it works well.
Basically I steam the food until it's mushy, then put the food and the cooking water into the food processor until it's pureed. Usually I have to add some water, so I start by adding 1/4 cup at a time until it's the consistancy I want. Then I scrape it into the ice cube trays, pop it into the freezer, and pull out the cubes to put into plastic bags. Each cube is roughly 1 ounce.
We started with the carrots and they were pretty popular. Sweet potatoes were even more loved. I don't know if it actually makes a difference or not, but I always tell the baby what food they're eating so it's not a total suprise when they get something different, although they won't know what I'm talking about at first. I also get really excited about a new food or a less than favorite food and that seems to be able to at least get the first few bites in. I also found that mixing the food with a bit of breast milk also seemed to help for the first few meals. Since I pump so my mom can watch the girls for me a couple of days a week, I had some readily available.
The good news - even oatmeal is more edible with sweet potatoes mixed in! :)
The nurse also said if cereal was successful for 2 weeks, we could introduce the orange veggies. The reason orange veggies are suggested is that they are sweeter and babies tend to respond better to sweet things. (Is breast milk sweet because babies like it better or do babies like sweet things because breast milk is sweet? Will we ever know?!) Veggies are recommended before fruits because there is a concern that babies will get hooked on the sweet taste of fruit and be less likely to eat the vegetables as they are introduced.
I went to the grocery store to pick up baby food. I knew I wanted to make my own for Sprout, as I did with Bug. This is for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's cheaper. Secondly, I'm a control freak and making my own food means I know what exactly is in there. Thirdly, it gives me control over texture and I have a belief (right or wrong) that we give babies a lack of texture that does not benefit them as they grow up. Making my own baby food also appeals to my twisted pioneering/Suzie Homemaker persona. (I guess reading Laura Ingalls Wilder like it was the Bible probably had some influence, huh?) But with Bug, I started all of her food with a commercial jar and then started to make my own. After comparing the price of a 4 ounce jar of Earth's Best baby food - about $1/jar - and the price of a pound of organic sweet potatoes - $1.79/lb - there was no contest. Even being lazy and buying the pre-washed and peeled bag of organic baby carrots was way cheaper than buying the jar of carrots.
I'm not going to lie to you, it is faster and easier to just open a jar and feed that to the baby. However, making your own baby food isn't as time consuming as one might think. I use my microwave (or stove if I'm really feeling old school), food processor (but a blender would work, too), and freezer. I used to cram the food into old baby food jars, but that was messy and time consuming, so now I just freeze a batch in a couple of ice cube trays and it works well.
Basically I steam the food until it's mushy, then put the food and the cooking water into the food processor until it's pureed. Usually I have to add some water, so I start by adding 1/4 cup at a time until it's the consistancy I want. Then I scrape it into the ice cube trays, pop it into the freezer, and pull out the cubes to put into plastic bags. Each cube is roughly 1 ounce.
We started with the carrots and they were pretty popular. Sweet potatoes were even more loved. I don't know if it actually makes a difference or not, but I always tell the baby what food they're eating so it's not a total suprise when they get something different, although they won't know what I'm talking about at first. I also get really excited about a new food or a less than favorite food and that seems to be able to at least get the first few bites in. I also found that mixing the food with a bit of breast milk also seemed to help for the first few meals. Since I pump so my mom can watch the girls for me a couple of days a week, I had some readily available.
The good news - even oatmeal is more edible with sweet potatoes mixed in! :)
In the beginning, there was cereal (and it was NOT all good).
My sweet Sprout is a New Year's baby. That means that by May we were ready to think about solid foods. But my goodness, what a mine-field of possibilities! You don't want to start too early or the baby won't be able to digest the food, but if you start too late the baby may not tolerate foods. A baby who is on solids might sleep through the night, but is putting a 4 month old on solids for the good of the baby or the good of the Mom? And if it's for the good of the Mom, is it a selfish decision on her part, or is getting a good night's sleep enough of a benefit for both mother and child? Good Lord! All of this over a half tablespoon of powdered cereal and breast milk!
My older daughter, lovingly called Bug, ate everything that didn't eat her first until she hit her picky preschool phase. From the moment her instincts kicked in that she needed to nurse she was a voracious eater. Needless to say, introducing cereal to her was not an issue. While Sprout is a good eater, she doesn't have the same intensity toward food that her big sister has.
Her first solid food (other than dog or cat hair, which I guess doesn't count), was rice cereal. Rice cereal is considered the mainstay of first foods because it has the least allergic reactions. My kids didn't read that chapter. Rice cereal constipated Bug and it made Sprout scream. So we tried oatmeal. Sprout liked the rice cereal, even though it caused her gas pain, but oatmeal tastes like cardboard. I was almost hysterical - the first few days of solids had gone ok, but now it was awful.
I called the pediatrician for help. For the first time in almost 4 years, I got worthless advice - clearly the well-meaning nurse had never had a child who had this reaction to cereal. I polled people on Facebook. There I was directed to an article on why babies shouldn't eat starchy foods: http://www.helium.com/items/95770-ptyalin-why-babies-should-not-be-fed-starchy-foods. It gave me a lot of food for thought. I planned to lay off cereal for awhile, but then she clearly needed the calories. Even as a newborn she was able to sleep 3 hours at night, but she was up every 2.5 hours during the no-cereal time.
The more I thought about the article, the more I had a few issues with it. I realize that the issue in the article is when ptyalin is produced in order to digest the starchy carbohydrates, but the suggestion that babies should be fed primarily a diet of vegetables, fruit, and protein brings up another issue of digestibility all together, IMO. What kind of protein? Soy proteins are hard for me to digest let alone a baby, and there are some studies that they aren't so good for us, either. If starches shouldn't be introduced until the baby has the teeth to chew them, why should meat be introduced earlier? As for Asian babies tolerating starches more easily because their mothers chew the food for them, well, how many Moms and Tokoyo or Hong Kong are still doing this? And the reason why solids are encouraged by 6 months is because the babies have started to deplete their iron supply and breast milk doesn't supply iron. Iron rich veggies are usuall not babies' favorites - spinach, broccoli, kale, etc. So how does the baby get enough of that?
Anyway, the questions in my mind were enough to lead me to follow the course my doctor suggested, whether it be for right or wrong. I just needed to find a cereal that Sprout would actually like and liked her back. After driving to 4, yes FOUR, grocery stores in the Madison area, I finally found Gerber's barley cereal at Woodman's. It wasn't organic, but at this point, I just didn't care. Sprout didn't love the barley, but she ate it. I also picked up some Earth's Best cereal which blended oatmeal, barley, and spelt. I introduced that later on and it was well tolerated and possibly even enjoyed. Thank goodness!
My older daughter, lovingly called Bug, ate everything that didn't eat her first until she hit her picky preschool phase. From the moment her instincts kicked in that she needed to nurse she was a voracious eater. Needless to say, introducing cereal to her was not an issue. While Sprout is a good eater, she doesn't have the same intensity toward food that her big sister has.
Her first solid food (other than dog or cat hair, which I guess doesn't count), was rice cereal. Rice cereal is considered the mainstay of first foods because it has the least allergic reactions. My kids didn't read that chapter. Rice cereal constipated Bug and it made Sprout scream. So we tried oatmeal. Sprout liked the rice cereal, even though it caused her gas pain, but oatmeal tastes like cardboard. I was almost hysterical - the first few days of solids had gone ok, but now it was awful.
I called the pediatrician for help. For the first time in almost 4 years, I got worthless advice - clearly the well-meaning nurse had never had a child who had this reaction to cereal. I polled people on Facebook. There I was directed to an article on why babies shouldn't eat starchy foods: http://www.helium.com/items/95770-ptyalin-why-babies-should-not-be-fed-starchy-foods. It gave me a lot of food for thought. I planned to lay off cereal for awhile, but then she clearly needed the calories. Even as a newborn she was able to sleep 3 hours at night, but she was up every 2.5 hours during the no-cereal time.
The more I thought about the article, the more I had a few issues with it. I realize that the issue in the article is when ptyalin is produced in order to digest the starchy carbohydrates, but the suggestion that babies should be fed primarily a diet of vegetables, fruit, and protein brings up another issue of digestibility all together, IMO. What kind of protein? Soy proteins are hard for me to digest let alone a baby, and there are some studies that they aren't so good for us, either. If starches shouldn't be introduced until the baby has the teeth to chew them, why should meat be introduced earlier? As for Asian babies tolerating starches more easily because their mothers chew the food for them, well, how many Moms and Tokoyo or Hong Kong are still doing this? And the reason why solids are encouraged by 6 months is because the babies have started to deplete their iron supply and breast milk doesn't supply iron. Iron rich veggies are usuall not babies' favorites - spinach, broccoli, kale, etc. So how does the baby get enough of that?
Anyway, the questions in my mind were enough to lead me to follow the course my doctor suggested, whether it be for right or wrong. I just needed to find a cereal that Sprout would actually like and liked her back. After driving to 4, yes FOUR, grocery stores in the Madison area, I finally found Gerber's barley cereal at Woodman's. It wasn't organic, but at this point, I just didn't care. Sprout didn't love the barley, but she ate it. I also picked up some Earth's Best cereal which blended oatmeal, barley, and spelt. I introduced that later on and it was well tolerated and possibly even enjoyed. Thank goodness!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
What and Why?
What is Crazy Mom Creations? To start, it's my journey through solid food with my second daughter, affectionately called Sprout. I'm not a doctor, nurse, or nutritionist, so please double check any changes in what you do with someone who is. Just because my doctor is ok with something and my daughter has no reaction doesn't mean the same will work for your child.
I hope this blog will help parents who want to do more home prepared food gain confidence or ideas. It doesn't matter if you're doing it for health reasons, convenience, money, or because you've got too much time on your hands (yeah, right!), Crazy Mom Creations will hopefully be here for you.
I've also decided to blog about some of the other home projects I do for my kids, so we'll see how that goes.
I hope this blog will help parents who want to do more home prepared food gain confidence or ideas. It doesn't matter if you're doing it for health reasons, convenience, money, or because you've got too much time on your hands (yeah, right!), Crazy Mom Creations will hopefully be here for you.
I've also decided to blog about some of the other home projects I do for my kids, so we'll see how that goes.
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