Eating Like the Big People
Saturday, March 20th, 2010So, my baby was going to be the one that didn’t get a single drop of solids until he was exactly 6 months old. HA. He obviously wanted it a few weeks before that. So keeping in mind that starting solids later is still ideal, that is why for the past month or so, we occasionally gave Patrick tastes of our food , and by that, I mean miniscule amounts on our fingertips. He had started getting….well, bratty, when it came to mealtimes – he would grab my glass and try to suck the edge of it, grab my plate and move it around the table, bang his hand on the plate, getting a mess all over both of us, grab at my napkin and try to eat it, etc. etc. It was interesting to see a sweet innocent baby have his first I-don’t-really-need-it-but-I-want-it display of selfishness.
I wanted to wait until he was closer to 6 months to start giving him slightly larger amounts of food (and by that, I mean like a teaspoon, if that) because I wanted his intestines to be more mature (and a variety of other reasons). About a week or so before his 6-month birthday (I can’t believe he’s that old already!), we started giving him bigger tastes more frequently. you know, every “expert” has a different opinion on solids. The first expert I talked to was a chiropractor who said babies don’t have the enzymes to break down bananas until they are three; when you start solids you should do them in a certain order of color (yellow first, I think), and then you should do all of the foods in that color for a while before moving on to the next color. The next experts were other moms who, when I mentioned how I was overwhelmed with all the info about solids, said babies knew what they needed, and not to worry. Well, kids also think they need cake and candy for breakfast, so I’m not so sure about that. The next expert was a pediatrician we saw a few weeks ago who said between 4-6 months you should start rice cereal, specifically referring to the boxed “baby rice” in the supermarket. I’m in the office thinking, “uhh, I’m pretty sure I researched that at one point and found a lot of evidence to wait. And I am NOT buying that overpriced junk when I could make it at home for way cheaper!” Her reasoning was because “A lot of babies have texture issues later” if they don’t start solids in that time frame. I considered this for about 1/4 of a day, then decided it was silly because of what we had read in this book called Hungry Monkey when I was pregnant. Most of it made a lot of sense to us (some advice in it I wouldn’t follow). From some other experts…..Of course there is the LLL, which says in their book (which I highly recommend), “The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding,” that you should let the child decide when to wean and to let them eat when they are able to put the food in their mouth. And the Weston A. Price Foundation, which says protein is a great first food. I also found this article by Dr. Sears to be pretty good, and the info from kellymom is great, although some of the info from those two websites contradict each other (and I’m inclined to lean towards the kellymom site out of all of these experts). I’m still doing research as we go along this little adventure.
Soooo, basically, when it comes down to our food philosophy, we refuse to have a picky eater and we want a kid who will both be adventurous and make good food choices. And (the influence of Hungry Monkey here) while introducing those foods, why should it be a big deal to prepare something different and extra, and why make them bland and boring? Why not just mash whatever we are eating on our plate and give it to him? Yes, we’ve broken some “rules” from these experts, but oh well. Most of it has to do with being sure your kid isn’t allergic to stuff, so MOST of the time I avoid the top allergenic foods. I never do nuts (especially after having suspicions about an almond allergy), I might do something with citrus cooked into it (he gets a red bottom after nursing when I eat lots of oranges), I try to avoid highly eggy things (broke that yesterday, though), and I NEVER do broccoli (he gets so gassy in the middle of the night when I eat it for dinner!). We also don’t do anything with fish, berries, and sugar. And a lot of the foods come at dinner time, so any allergic reactions that MIGHT happen would come at night, which also breaks one of the rules. oh well. I’m just not worried about some of them because the chances of having an allergy seem very small compared to the hype about allergenic foods you read everywhere.
I guess you’ve got your folks who don’t care and feed whatever they want without being educated about it, you’ve got your folks who do everything by the pediatrician (even though their opinions vary on the subject), you’ve got your folks who go by-the-book (by the LLL) and let their kid eat whenever they can put stuff in their own mouth successfully, and you’ve got your folks who fall somewhere in between all of them. I guess we are that last one. I am a mixture of whole foods (Weston A. Price), LLL (watch the baby for signs of interest in food, not the calendar), and Hungry Monkey (food is a fun adventure). I am *not* like the author of Hungry Monkey, though, because since I started cooking better for us, I want Patrick to eat well too. Herein lies some of my “guidelines”: I like what he eats to be something that *I* cooked so I know what’s in it, and I like it to be food that is organic and local, if at all possible. Very rarely will I give him something from my plate at a restaurant or someone else’s house because you just really never know what’s in it. (Especially if we have a different cooking philosophy, if you will…even apparently wholesome things can be laden with processed ingredients, preservatives, chemicals, sugar, and assorted other things that I don’t want my young child to ingest.)
Adventures in food means to me that my kid gets to experience a variety of flavors. And willingly tries them. I want him to be adventurous in food because a) it’s fun, and b) I refuse to make something different for dinner just because he refuses to eat a meal when he’s older because he “doesn’t like it” or “it looks funny.” (However, if I completely fail at a new dish, I am willing to admit it, and probably make something new for all of us. 
)
Below is a non-comprehensive list of some of the things Patrick has tasted. They are either cooked, smashed, slightly pre-chewed by me, or a combination of the above. (Oh, don’t act like pre-chewing is so gross. That kid and I share so many germs all day long, so who cares if we share more at dinner. Whether he drools on me, or bites and sucks on my fingers, or sticks his hands in my mouth while playing, I’m not really worried about germs. Besides, my enzymes from pre-chewing can at least get some of those foods started on breaking down better for him, so I think it is a great way to feed certain foods….especially if they are too hard to smash with just a fork on a plate. 
) Unless otherwise noted, they were cooked at home. I included a description of the spices because I don’t believe in giving a baby bland food that I wouldn’t eat. Where it says salt, it was a minimal amount of sea salt. Where it was butter, also a minimal amount. Most of these amounts were very small, especially if it had something in it that *could* be an allergen to a small number of kids. Some of them were given at the same meal.
- water
- blueberry power smoothie (might have had cranberries, orange juice, coconut oil, coconut flakes, honey, flax seeds, oats, echinacea…I don’t remember, but he only licked the top of the glass)
- whole wheat bread
- sourdough bread
- pizza crust (the soft part) with some of the baked-on sauce on it
- homemade french fries (actually baked, not fried, with olive oil and salt)
- spinach sauteed in butter and salt
- brown rice (I think it had some kind of spicy flavor to it from a pepper)
- risotto with garlic and onion
- oatmeal with raisin flavor and cinnamon (might’ve had some honey in it…oh well, that botulism spore thing is probably slightly overrated so I’m not concerned about using it sparingly in cooked things)
- roasted cabbage with olive oil, salt, and butter
- roasted potato with olive oil, salt, and butter
- homemade yogurt (both plain, blueberry, and some with honey in it….again…oh well)
- Baked polenta with herbs d’Provence
- homemade spaghetti sauce
- Peas from a pasta dish
- Butternut squash from the same pasta dish
- Butternut squash soup flavored with lots of yummy stuff
- some kind of pre-chewed green legume from a restaurant salad bar
- black-eyed peas from Lambert’s
- spinach pulled from a quiche at a friend’s house
- a very small piece of muffin from a friend’s house (probably had sugar in it)
- pineapple and cheese from a pizza place (just sucked on it)
- banana (almost forgot that one)
- avacado (some mixed with homemade plain yogurt)
Well, I’m sure someone out there reading this thinks I’m such a terrible parent and harming my child for risking botulism spores or for putting SPICES in his food. *gasp* (Doesn’t really bother me if they do, though.) But I really don’t think feeding a baby has to be stressful or take a lot of time….Also, I admit that I am kinda lazy and just don’t want to puree a whole batch of something just for a baby. Laziness is also why I breastfeed, lol. But if you have fun making your baby’s food separate from the rest, you go right ahead; I can see how that would be fun and I’ll probably do it too, but only sometimes.
I heard this line on a King of the Hill episode once, and it was PERFECT. [In reference to anything, but in the show it was in taking care of a baby] It went something like, “Whenever I don’t know what to do, I just ask myself, ‘What would a monkey do?’” I know some people would be completely put off by that just because they are so anti-monkey because it relates to evolution and they think it is a load of crock (which is kinda true in some aspects, but please don’t debate about it here)…..But I still think God gave us instinctive responses for things for a reason. I also think we have lost the art if listening to our instincts and our bodies in our industrialized world. Like it or not, monkeys ARE pretty similar to humans. (So is a cucumber, genetically.) So when I think “What would a monkey do?” I can usually figure out what to do. When it comes to taking care of a baby, my instinct response is: Feed baby when he wants to be fed, nurse him when he is upset or hurt to make him feel better, sleep with him near me, nurse him at night, take him everywhere I go, don’t be gone from him longer than between feedings if possible, don’t give him solid food until he acts like he wants it, feed him what is on my own plate, enjoy watching him experience all these new flavors….. (And since I am NOT a monkey, I also take into consideration the things I have researched, common sense, and what I know about my own baby to make educated decisions about the food he eats and when.)
I really want to let him have at a bowl of something when it is warm outside and he is nekked so I can just pop him in a bath! I will be sure and have pictures for that post. But for now, I leave you with this intense concentration on the afore-mentioned smoothie from about a month ago:
