Baby food, that is. The fusspot will be 6 months old this week and I'm starting to think about solids. And when she starts full-time daycare in 3 weeks I'm pretty sure I'll seriously be considering when to start.
To start with, I would appreciate any advice you have. I brought Ruth Y.a.ron's "Super B.aby Food" with me and I've been reading it because it was so highly recommended and I'm already feeling stressed. I unfortunately just gave the book to JD and he is sitting next to me ranting about parents who have "nothing else to do with their days" (this from a man who was hospitalized for a bacterial infection he got from eating watermelon at 3 months old ...). I wish there was a book with a little less scare tactics (i.e. it's fine to warn me about choking hazards but don't then go on to tell me about mothers who inadvertently suffocated their babies).
While we have no strong family history of food allergies, there are mild food allergies in both families and I have severe non-food allergies. As a result I already have benedryl and an epi-pen in the apartment.
So here's part of the problem: the parents in that-particular-unnamed-country-in-Europe-where-I-currently-live, henceforth referred to as la-la-land for its parenting policies,* simply don't worry about food allergies or many other American concerns (and yes, they have beautiful healthy children and rank #1 for child happiness, so I know it all works out for the best in the end). I'm pretty sure that unless I throw a fit my fusspot's daycare will feed her the same thing as the 4-year-olds when she starts, including nuts, honey, candy and bacon (which is a problem for an entirely different reason).
The supermarkets also have a pitiful selection of baby food, no organic baby, and a very limited supply of items to make my own baby food. I really don't think I can afford organic items here (food is much more expensive here than even Manhattan, the exchange rate is pretty bad, and organic food is quite exorbitant) and I can't find the old fallbacks of American baby food: teething biscuits and cheerios.
In my fantasy/dream land I'd like to just start the fusspot on finger foods and let her eat as much as she is interested in playing with (i.e. pieces of avocado, soft asparagus, or scrambled egg yolk - no purees at all). And I'd like to feed her mainly at home because of my worries about how things are done in la-la-land and just because its impossible for the staff to give her as much focused attention as I'd like for her first few months eating solids (why is there not a single food book that recognizes that many babies go to daycare during the day??). My two friends who both breastfed exclusively past 6 months had issues with iron-deficiency in their babies, but I can't figure out from the labels what is iron fortified here yet. At the worst, I can certainly make a cereal/porridge for the fusspot with some iron-heavy items and I'm certainly willing to give her vitamin supplements (which I brought from NYC) as a preventative measure. Any thoughts? Wisdom?
*Just to give you a hint of how different things are here in La-la-land, there is no hypoallegenic laundry detergent or baby-friendly detergent. And nobody knows what I'm talking about when I ask for it. JD and I actually went to another city about an hour away to look for detergent for our beloved cloth diapers and while we managed to find one without enzymes or perfumes at an organic store ... it unfortunately doesn't actually clean anything (i.e. our diapers now have brown stains on them. Gross!)
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I have the super baby food book and I think that if you can ignore the batsh*t crazy parts ("the whiter the bread, the sooner you're dead," really?), it can be a great resource. At the very least, it gives a rough idea of a baby's nutritional needs and on how to prepare the most common fruits/veggies.
Anyway, what kind of supplies are difficult to get in lala land? When I made baby food, I used a cuisinart/blender, ice cube trays and ziplock bags. It doesn't take much more than that and about an hour on a weekend to put together several batches of purees that can feed the baby for a month or so. I never bought organic (what can I say? I'm cheap). I'll admit that am one of those moms who had nothing better to do than cook for the baby, but even still, I didn't. I think I spent about three hours total making pureed food for M during the entire 4 months or so she at them.
If you're serious about skipping purees, you may try quick-freezing some foods on cookie sheets and storing them in the freezer to be pulled out as needed. I had a lot of success doing this with sweet potatoes (cut into tiny chunks, steam, spread on greased cookie sheet and freeze, then collect into ziplock to be pulled out small handfuls at a time), and I'd imagine carrots and other root veggies would work as well. Pasta/noodles cooked soft and broken into small pieces works well, too.
Let's see. Other stuff I fed M as a baby... Tofu. You can serve it "raw" and freeze leftovers. Tortellini, cut in half. Veggie burgers. Bananas are soft enough that you don't need to do anything more than mash them with a fork. Grated cheese or very, very small chunks. Grated apple.
I'm not sure if I'm giving you any useful information at this point. Any chance you feel like leaving a comment for me with specific questions, and I'll do the best I can to answer?
Oh, and I should have mentioned: Don't stress. You're an informed, careful mother. You're not going to be off smoking crack or whatever while your baby chokes on a grape. As you start feeding the fusspot, you'll start getting an idea of what she can handle and you'll tailor your actions to that (for instance, I never peeled grapes; just cut them into quarters. M didn't die.) It'll all be fine.
Hi there - thanks for de-lurking on my blog. I'll definitely include you in my updated list.
Re: the baby food - I made almost all of our baby food, and that was for twins of course! It really was easy. I wouldn't worry about too many books - all you need is this website: www.wholesomebabyfood.com. I love, love, love that site. I don't know what country you live in, but I thought I read somewhere that in a lot of other countries the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers is significantly lower, so buying organic food might not be as necessary. If you dig through my blog archives, you'll find a few posts about making baby food. and I'm happy to answer any questions I can.
We cloth diaper too! not 100% of the time, because my hubby refuses to do it, but I do it at home during the day. Can you get oxy-clean or anything similar? it's great for getting the brown stains out. And I just read something interesting about trying olive oil soap as a hypo allergenic alternative to detergent. The company I buy our diapers from has a very comprehensive guide about lots of options for washing your diapers, maybe some of their suggestions might be things you ccan find there, or order online. I'd be happy to scan and email it to you if you'd like.
I loved the recipes in "Top 100 Baby Purees," but my son decided he did not want to eat anything that he could not feed himself. Argh! I have tried several of the recipes, and they were very simple to make. I just used a simple electric baby food mill, which seems like a cheap food processor to me. I stored in Baby Cubes, which are so great and so portable. You can order them online, and they seem like they would be perfect for sending to daycare. You just pop them in the microwave for 20 seconds to thaw.
Since Snippet is refusing purees, though, I'm also feeling a bit overwhelmed about which finger foods to try, which are safe, etc. He's a huge fan of Cheerios, and it breaks my heart that you can't get them! That's just the ultimate baby food! I'm going to start him on pasta this weekend, and tofu. I'll let you know how it goes!
I don't know how you feel about such things, but if you'd pay for shipping (which, admittedly, I have no idea how much it would be) I could ship you some organic jar food.
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