You feed your kid Whaaaat?

I have been doing a lot of thinking about what food I want to feed my kid. Thankfully its easy right now. He gets either right boob or left boob. I plan on continuing to breastfeed for as long as possible, especially after we introduce solid foods. And by solids I mean real, true, solid food. We are skipping the baby food and rice cereal and going straight to human food. WHaaaaat? Why? Well let me tell you...

1.  Rice cereal sucks

I am a little worried about my own response to rice. White rice makes my heart race. Seriously my insulin response is so quick and so severe that I cannot eat white rice by itself or more than a few tablespoons with a meal. I sure as heck am not going to give my dear son something that makes me feel like I am quickly developing type 2 diabetes with each spoonful. Just saying. I will not give my child a high-carb,  refined white starch that I tell people who are trying to get healthy to stay away from.  As an advocate for health and wellness I cannot get behind feeding my baby boxed rice that has been so stripped from its nutrients that it has to be fortified. For more info about why I am choosing not to introduce rice cereal read an ABC article here and another bloggers perspective here.

2.  Food before One is Just for Fun

Yes, I am excited to give Caleb his first taste of watermelon and peaches. However I can wait until he is 6 months or older.  It is recommended that parents continue to breastfeed or formula feed while solids are introduced. This is a baby's main source of nutrition, not the solid food parents are giving them. A baby's gut is not fully formed until they are around 6 months old. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends waiting to start solid food until after the 6 month mark (or later) to prevent damaging the digestive tract. I want to make sure I am taking care of Caleb's little gut the way I take care of my own. I want him to be able to explore food at his own pace and enjoy the new foods he is being exposed to!

3.  Would you eat canned meatloaf and spinach? 

Have you ever played that baby food taste-test guessing game at a baby shower? It is one of the grossest things I have ever experienced! I wouldn't eat that stuff and I don't expect Caleb to desire it either! I will say that I absolutely love the fruit baby foods and used to take jars of bananas and peaches camping with me when I was younger. Obviously I ate them because fruit has a lot of sugar. The meatloaf I will pass on for now, thanks. Now a tasty strawberry, a piece of pulled pork, or a yummy carrot? I would reach for that.

4.  It's what all the cool kids are doing

All the cool kids are doing Baby Led-Weaning (AKA Baby-led FEEDING) instead of baby food these days. The natural, organic, crunchy moms are all aver BLW (the abbreviation I hear is much more cool). I  heard about it from a few friends of mine and I was hooked about learning more! I am so excited to hopefully help normalize giving a child real food from the start of solids. You can check out my friend Renae's blog post on the topic.

5. Its way easier on the Mom 

I barely have time to feed myself, and you want me to shovel a mash of yuck in my child's face for 30 minutes, bathe him because there is goop everywhere, and clean off a high chair, floor, and wall? Nope. I would much rather cut off a slice of the apple I am eating and hand it to Caleb for him to inspect, touch, lick, and eventually much on. I am all about simplicity and making things easy on myself.