We're very lucky.
Jack is the sort of child
we all assume we'll have
when we decide to have children,
and the sort of child
less experienced parents
congratulate themselves for.January and February 2004
March and April 2004
May and June 2004
July and August 2004
September and October 2004
November and December 2004
Blogs we read:
Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2004 - Mamma
According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) the average American baby will eat (or throw on the floor, or smear all over everything in sight) 600 jars of commercial baby food before his first birthday. (http://www.cspinet.org/reports/cheat1.html)
That seems so amazing to me.
In my career as a parent, I have bought, perhaps, 4 or 5 jars of baby food. Mostly, I make my own. Of course, we only have that luxury because we don't have to leave Jack in a daycare. Day cares aren't happy about homemade food -- and for obvious reasons. I marvel frequently at how lucky I am that Rod and I can work this out so Jack always has one of the two people who love him best to dance attaendance on him.
Anyway...
Like TJ and Corey before him, Jack has rejected commercial baby food outright. That's fine with me -- making our own is both cheaper and more nourishing than buying jars of baby food. As an added bonus, it means that Jack is develpoing a taste for the foods he will spend his childhood and teen years eating. (What he eats after that is his own concern.) Commercial baby food companies only offer 4 or 5 varieties of vegetables 7 or 8 varieties of fruit and most of those are adulterated with sugars and starches. We get to introduce him to as many varieties of fruit and vegetable as we can find this way. That's a lot more fun! Avacado and mango are a lot more interesting than peas and apples -- and having all four choices is better still!
Baby foods are "seasoned" only with salt, sugar, and the ocacsional garlic powder. Jack is learning to love our far more seasoned diet. That's a relief. I would hate to have to adapt everthing to make it suit a bland palet.
Nonetheless, making our own baby food does have its down side. It means that whatever Jack sees on our plates, he consideres "fair game". That's usually fine, but when we have peas with cayenne for supper, he gets quite a shock.
It also means we have to be a lot more organized in some ways -- rather than picking up a handful of jars and calling it done, we actually have to plan a balanced menu for Jack, buy the produce, and precook it. That's getting easier now that he no longer needs pureed foods.
And another (benefit? drawback?) is that with Jack eatign everything he sees on our plates, we find that we have a great deal of incentive to eat well ourselves! I guess that's mainly a benefit. Most days.
