Baby Food Guest Post: Vanessa Brown

I have some strong opinions on baby food and what I feed my kids. Most of the time I downplay them quite a bit and keep them on the down low because who likes an annoying know it all?! ;) BUT since Evonne asked me to share them, I guess I finally get to say what I honest to goodness feel about the world of Baby Food.

We are constantly hearing “statistics” on how we are raising the unhealthiest generation to date, how a scary number of THIS generation’s kids won’t outlive their parents. How the number of overweight and obese children is growing at a scary rate. Children are getting adult onset diabetes and dealing with quite scary “grown up” diseases at way too young of an age. Different studies link all these chemicals and preservatives in our food to some scary stuff. And at the same time for years and years beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables have been linked over and over to some pretty amazing GOOD side effects.

But it almost seems like these “stats” just roll off our backs and most of the time don’t have too much of an effect on us. I get quite a bit of slack, teasing, rolling of eyes (good natured and not so good natured) from family and friends that find what I feed my kids and babies.

I have to enter a disclaimer here that my kid’s don’t eat perfect. We like our Chick fil a play dates, making cookies and during this hard 3rd pregnancy there have been many days where I just can’t do more than something that takes very little effort.

But I try! It’s a high priority! And for very good reasons. I want to raise children into adults with a head start. A head start with a healthy body, inside AND out. A head start with a good relationship with food and knowing how to take care of yourself with food. A head start by sending them off with no huge health problems. A head start for them to know how to take care of themselves AND maybe their future families.
Guess where I 100% believe that starts?

Baby Food.

Why in the world do we start our babies on all of these wonderful fruits and vegetables and somehow it morphs into all of these 3+ year olds eating only Mac & Cheese, Chicken Nuggets or Pizza with a very very occasional carrot stick or apple slice once or twice a week? What happened to those sweet potatoes! Apricots! Squashes!?

I started making baby food because with my first we were dirt poor and I saw that I could make baby food (organic baby food even) for so crazy cheap and it didn’t have any extra weird stuff in it. But even with jarred baby food, how do somehow all of those fruits and vegetables fade away?

Processed white and sugary foods is something we are told from everyone to be careful with, why not just start them on whole grains and keep them on them? I don’t think my kid’s even tasted white bread until they were two or three and didn’t exclaim, “THIS IS THE BEST THING I HAVE EVER HAD! No more whole grains for me and be sure to cut off all my crusts!”

It’s silly and it’s lazy. If I’m being completely honest to not keep them on all these wonderful fruits and vegetables that we start them off with when they are babies.

We all know how we are supposed to eat to have healthy bodies. If WE decide not to do it. fine. But when raising future adults? Wow such a huge responsibility has been put on our shoulders. We all know what we need to eat:

Fruits, Vegetables and Whole Grains. I don’t think any of us can argue about those three things.

Start your babies on them and keep them on them. When babies can have more solids don’t switch over to processed foods.

Here are some simple ideas to get you thinking of what could work in your family:

· Babies get a lot of yummy squash, sweet potatoes, yams, etc. as baby food. Grilled cheese is a favorite for kids, layer in some pureed or just smashed with your fork squash. If they have had it since they were babies and you start doing it in their solids, they aren’t going to be screaming bloody murder.
· Fruit & Vegetable Smoothies. Making smoothies is fun! If your kids are used to the taste of fruits and vegetables don’t stop. Make smoothies jam packed full of important dark greens and fruit high in vitamin C.
· Don’t dummy down your kids food, raise them on flavors, herbs and introducing them to different things.
· As a family eat fruits, vegetables and whole grains and when your baby can eat solids just simply smash them up, puree them up or cut them into chunks to give to your baby. The End. Really doesn’t have to be more complex than that. Really nothing is going to seem different to them when you start them out on wonderful fruits, vegetables and whole grains as babies and just keep them on it through toddler years and early kid years.

Baby food is so important and to narrow it down even more when you start switching your baby to solids I think that is when you really have to be aware, make a conscious choice, put in the extra planning or work so you can give them a head start FOR LIFE.
And now I am off my soapbox…well Evonne did invite me to get on it, didn’t she? ;) In my next guest post I will tell the story of how my daughter packed her bags and asked me to take her to stay at her Grandma’s because I was such a meanie ;)

Thank you Vanessa...doesn't she inspire you to feed your babies better? I remember when she fed Van "Black Bean Brownies"...and she LOVED THEM! You will have to wait and see what Vin thought of her Iron Chef dish! =)