Food, Glorious Food

[Reposted from my old blog]

We've started Claire on solid foods. What an adventure! First it was avocado - and can I tell you, nobody in the history of mankind has ever looked so cute with green paste smeared in their hair, up their nose, inside their ears. It's ridiculously adorable. And watching her eat is so entertaining. We skipped purees and baby food and are going the "baby led weaning" route (weaning as in transitioning to food, not as in weaning from breastfeeding. I think this is a British term. She is still nursing, and probably will for another year or so.) This means that we give her managable chunks of safe foods, the perfect size for her to grasp in her fist, and she feeds herself. No spoons. The theory is that if she's developmentally ready to hold onto the food and put it into her mouth, then she's able to safely swallow it, too. I've read a lot about this and watch her like a hawk while she eats, and so far it's been working really well for us.

So back to the avocado. It's one of my favorite foods, and Mark loves it, too, so we thought it was only natural to make it Claire's first food. Plus it has a nice, bland taste and soft texture, and it's a powerhouse in the nutrition department. She is always interested when I put a few slices on her tray, and immediately picks one up and experimentally squeezes it in her fist. Green mush squishes out from between her fingers, bringing a smile to her face. Then she puts it in her mouth and lightly chews on the end sticking out of her fist, getting little bits of the soft meat in the process. The taste and texture are still new to her, so she makes funny faces that almost make me think she doesn't like it - but she keeps coming back for more, so it can't be that bad. And then she swallows those little bits, shuddering as they go down. What an odd feeling it must be to eat for the first time when you're only used to drinking. It's such a fun and messy process!

Last week I baked some butternut squash, which my mom tells me was Holly's first pureed food - and happens to be one of her favorite foods to this day. Claire and Holly are so much alike, I thought it was fitting for squash to be next in line. So I baked a few small organic squashes and cut them into french fry-shaped pieces once they cooled. They were soft enough to be gummed, but still not quite as mushy as the avocado. Claire did not approve, and after taking several bites started heaving and threw up the few small chunks she had swallowed. I wondered if it was the texture, so I mashed a little bit with a fork and helped her eat with a spoon, but she had the same reaction so I decided to call it a day and wait to reintroduce it some other day. Most recently we tried very-ripe banana slices, which were pretty close in texture to the avocado. She accepted them, but not with the same enthusiasm she had for the avocado.

I cannot wait until she can eat "real" food, I have a feeling she's going to love Mexican! I wouldn't be surprised, because I ate a lot while I was pregnant and she still gets the taste through my milk now. That's the beauty of nursing: babies experience many different tastes depending on what their mom eats. I think once she gets used to eating, she'll have a healthy appetite for lots of different flavors.

Speaking of food, one of my new favorite items is Ezekiel bread. It has sprouted grains, so the nutritional content is much higher. I recently discovered the benefits of sprouted grains, so I've tried sprouting my own as an experiment (just garbanzo beans, so far). I love a few slices of the Ezekiel bread toasted, smeared with several tablespoons of butter - yummmm! And I know what you're thinking, that butter is unhealthy. But I would urge you to do some research (try www.westonaprice.org for starters), and you'll see that saturated fats are NOT as bad as they have been made out to be. They are actually necessary for good health, and it's the rise in vegetable oil consumption that coincides with the rise in heart disease. Isn't that something? All these years we've been told to avoid butter and load up on vegetable oil. Our ancestors had the right idea, and the closer we can get our diets to resemble theirs, the healthier we'll be. It's sad that we have more knowleldge and technology today, yet we're unhealthier than ever. The processed and artificial foods we're eating can't even be called food anymore.

But anyways. It's getting late. I can see lightning in the distance, and I'm hoping for a storm tonight. Time for bed.