Subtitled: And now for some lighter fare.
And a disclaimer: When we had the fusspot many people remarked on how we were such relaxed parents (really, I save most of my obsessing for the internets). And when we added the dumpling people suggested that we might even be a bit too far over the edge towards hands-off parenting. So this is not to suggest that our food choices are best, or that you should consider them. We have no history of food allergies in our family and ... well ... it's been fine thus far.
Long-time readers may recall that we are a bit of food purists when it comes to babies. Or perhaps the more accurate descriptor is were, although we certainly still are obsessive in our own way. My guess is that it stems from all of the anxiety about my tiny, non-eating baby (that would be #1) and the joy of finally having my body doing one thing well (that would be breastfeeding, with work). The fusspot had her first solids at 7 months and no regular meals until 9 months. We strictly followed the "baby lead weaning approach" (no purees, all finger foods, weaning in the British sense of introducing solids, big focus on mealtime being fun which also means very messy). She ate everything until age 2. Spicy Indian food? Olive pate? Aged spoiled Chinese eggs? Sure!
And here we are with Project 2.0. Breastfeeding is fine now, he's small but not underweight, and he's a boy in a world where I have read way too many pesticides-destruction-pollution-disease-doom books. His first meal was self-fed avocado at a few days past 6 months. Then some banana and a few jars of organic baby food (at daycare). Then I found an article suggesting that early introduction of potential allergens is fine (see, you really can find anything on google) and despite the sketch source it certainly confirms with what we were looking for (and there is after all a very good study of early introduction of peanuts in my genetic peoples and low allergy rates). So this weekend our dumpling ate:
- black beans covered in spicy enchilada sauce (lovingly picked out of his sister's dinner and offered to him. We've discovered that she's verbal enough that it really matters what you call things. No way my daughter was going to try enchiladas, but hot cheesy sandwich? Sure)
- hummus offered free from a vendor downtown. Lovingly dished up with the soft metal lid to the horror of the first-time parents sitting next to us at the playground
- pancakes (eggs! milk! butter! wheat! and he's still alive), also sweetly rejected from the fusspot's plate and transferred to the dumpling
So there you have it: we have resolved that baby can eat absolutely anything except for nuts and honey. We'll try nuts this weekend and skip honey until his birthday.
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4 comments:
I would have been all for the BLW but I did not trust our daycare to do it. Definitely not enough attention there. If I have another one I will try BLW again.
And I would have loved to feed him what we eat, except he is sensitive/allergic so many foods... Coincidentally, he seems to be sensitive to all my favorite foods (beans, chickpeas, soy, hazelnuts). I had such intense hummus cravings when I was pregnant I was checking flights to Israel. I ate so much of these foods when I was pregnant it can't be a coincidence that these are the foods that he is sensitive to. I was actually worried about this very issue and limited my intake of peanut butter to prevent peanut allergies and I can eat all the peanut butter I want and it doesn't bother him. I'm still holding off on feeding him nuts directly 2, but it's definitely interesting how exposure definitely coincides with his allergies.
If Michael didn't have his issues, I imagine he would have eaten hummus well before a year. Oh hummus, how do I miss thee.
There was a great article in the new yorker in either dec or Jan, not sketchy at all, about the tide turning toward early introduction of all the foods, except honey, that you mentioned. In fact, our ped has encouraged us to introduce nuts. I mix in peanut butter or almond butter into cereal, and nothing bad has happened. My boys have no interest in purees. The biggest issue I have is that because there are two of them, I usually only eat when they are asleep! At a picnic yesterday they had roast beef, turkey, bread and cheese. In the new yorker article they talked about a baby cracker in Israel that is peanut based, and usually the second word of babies in Israel babies, and there are very few peanut allergies. I also do a bit of pre chewing for them at this age. Much easier than all that baby food prep!
We did the super slow introduction of foods the first time around, and had planned to do just a slightly-sped-up version of the same thing this time around. And we sort of were. At least, we thought so. Until we caught LL feeding cheddar cheese goldfish to Kermit behind our backs. So, um, we kinda threw everything out the window then. We draw the line at honey as well, and I'm attempting to hold off on nuts. But honestly, LL eats so much peanut butter that I'm fairly certain Kermit will end up licking it off his big brother before he reaches one year old.
Little Bear has already tried cereal, mushed peas & tomato sauce. He nearly lunged out of my arms tonight as I was eating grilled chicken. The boy is hungry & wants food- We do the whole grain organic oat meal (I think rice cereal is a complete waste & oatmeal has some nutritive value) and I have begun the mashing & freezing of the late summer fruits & veggies here. He is just getting the hang of putting hand to mouth and the only reason he's getting cereal is he literally could nurse for an hour at a time & still be hungry. I swear when I come home he's on the b00b from 6 til 9 & still chomps away at his fists if he doesn't get an extra 'meal' of some cereal. I have a feeling Pumpkin will be feeding him something off her plate sooner rather than later & we will introduce peanut butter sooner rather than later too.
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