An article came up today about the history of canned baby food and my husband suggested that I write about what we do when it comes to feeding our babies.
Just want to preface with I am not linking any of the research that I have personally done because I did it a while ago and didn't save it. And I don't want to find more just for this post...sorry. So I encourage you that if you don't understand at least the logic behind what we do, which I will explain, then to please research it yourself and really think about it.
Baby food as we know hasn't always been around, duh... in fact in the entire history of mams feeding their babies canned baby food is still a new invention. Even more than that feeding babies BABY food is new.
Think about it, if you were living like you were camping and you had a young baby would you spend time and effort in pureeing your food for your baby. I doubt the thought even came to them.
Reason #1: The nutritional value in canned baby food vs unprocessed real food just doesn't compare. Commercial baby food usually has forms of sugar, salt, food colorings, and preservatives in them. Some are getting better now that people are becoming more aware of what is in their food but they still aren't nearly as good as food made from scratch, whether it be a cooked meal or raw food. The standards that they are guided by, while they are there to protect from certain diseases, they also hinder nutritional quality by use high heat or chemicals during the whole process. Not to mention most baby food isn't organic so your sweet pure baby is being fed food that is laden when pesticides and genetically modified organisms. If you don't think organic is important then you should really spend some time researching it. And you are probably not going to like anything else I have to say in regards to food.
Reason #2: Baby food is bland! It is so tasteless unless it is full of sugar and/or salt. Have you ever tried the food your are trying to shove into your child's mouth? No wonder they spit it out so much. A baby begins learning to taste in utero. A mother's amniotic fluid is flavored by the food she eats and then after the baby is born so if her breastmilk. So babies are being introduced to flavors early on and can even begin developing preferences. So why all of a sudden around 6 months is it normal to stop giving them the flavors they are used to and instead give them something that tastes like cardboard. You try eating baby food for a day and see how you like it. Babies are soaking up everything. They learn at an incredible rate and part of that learning process is eating. Americans wonder why so many children are so picky, I think there is more to it than just this aspect but I do believe this is part of the problem. When you get you baby hooked on processed bland food then when they are "old enough" you try to give them fresh or cooked veggies or cooked meats that taste nothing like they have been having for over a year, it shouldn't be so puzzling that they don't like it and would rather have the puffy star snacks and macaroni. Instead, they should eat what you eat with the same seasonings you eat. If you are worried about salt then you need to learn about salt. Regular white table salt isn't good for your baby OR you! So learn what kind you should be eating, the kind full of nutrients that you need. The kind that has those nutrients naturally and hasn't just been added back in. Then not only will you feel much better when you eat salt (physically and mentally) but you will also not be stressed about it when your child has it.
Reason #3: Baby Food is a lot of work!
You might start learning this about me but I am all for not working harder than I should. Now a lot of what I do requires more work up front for more reward in the end (like EC) but sometimes there is just no point in working harder for something.
There is this idea out there that if we don't feed our babies commercial baby food then we need to make our own healthy baby food. But when I say I don't feed my children baby food I mean I never feed them any kind of baby food. I don't even make my own. I don't make anything that even somewhat resembles baby food. The closest I get to going out of my way for the baby's food is make hard boiled eggs so they can have the incredibly nutritious egg yolk and making liver which is also a super food especially for babies. But other than that...they literally eat what we eat. This is within reason of course. I don't feed my toothless 6 month old hard bacon or chewy steak but if we are eating potatoes or steamed carrots or broccoli then you bet they get to eat it. The thing is until they turn a year eating solids is just for fun for them. It is just a learning experience not a they are going to die without it. You can exclusively breastfeed up to a year and your baby will be totally fine! So if there isn't anything they can eat that we are eating...they just don't eat. I stick a boob in their mouth instead :) As they get teeth and get better and better at eating the get to try more things. And from my personal experience (which isn't much yet) both my girls love to eat and are definitely not picky eaters. My second (who is turning 1 in about a week) has a few more preferences but she still eats a huge variety of foods.
There is a name for this type of feeding and it is called baby led weaning/eating so if you are interested in learning more research that. Here are some of our guidelines for feeding our babes.
1. They are EBF until at least 6 months. Once they are 6 months I don't force food on them but we start holding them in our laps and if they go for something they can eat we go ahead and let them. Both of our girls were really interested in eating at 6 months so they both naturally started then but I have nieces that didn't start until later which is totally normal.
2. We don't feed any type of grains until 18 months or until molars appear. Whichever comes first. There is good evidence pointing to babies don't develop the enzymes to process grains until this time. So we just withhold them until that time. Another benefit to this is that they don't get hooked on bread so early. It can be really easy to just feed them bread at restaurants or crackers when they just need a snack. But these things are like crack to kids! We limit white flour in our diet so when they do begin eating grains they are mostly only eating whole grains.
3. We don't give them any type of sweet or dessert until 1. For their first birthday we take them to PinkBerry which is frozen yogurt made with real yogurt. It is low in sugar so in my opinion is a good first treat. But even after this point we still limit sugar intake. As a family we don't have sugar often Mostly at birthdays or special events. Even this seems a lot to us; my husband and I were just talking about how often those events come up so we will probably start limiting even at special events for ourselves and our children.
4. We don't cut their food into tiny pieces. In fact the bigger the the better usually. Part of learning to eat is to learning to bite off and chew. If their food is always cut up so tiny they don't learn quickly. Another part of this lesson is learning to choke. What I mean by that is one reason for baby food is so that you never have the fear of a baby choking because they are pretty much only eating liquids. But babies have an incredible ability to gag on their food and prevent choking and the more times it happens the less frequent it becomes and the better they are at eating. VS. feeding them real food much later and them learning at an older age when it isn't necessary. Now I will say though, that we do keep very careful watch over them when they are eating. I never leave the room when they are young and eating in the event that they can't get something up so I can be there to help them. But amazingly if you give them bigger pieces that they have to bite off themselves they choke less because they learn how much they can handle. In fact, certain family members just can't stand to see us feeding our children such large bites so they start cutting it up for them which only makes them choke more.
I am pretty sure that is about it. I may have forgotten a thing or two but you should get the gist of it. If you are interested in learning more please research it for yourself. A great book I recommend is Real Food For Mother and Baby by Nina Plank. And while you are at it go ahead and research nutrition for yourself. The finding of Dr. Weston Price is a good place to start. Or the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon
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