Baby Blog

I am at the point in my motherhood journey that I have to make some major decisions regarding the food I give to my child. Breast milk continues to make up a large portion of the daily feeding schedule, and remains baby Nik’s preference, but it is time at seven months to make a concerted effort towards solid food. We’ve tried in the past with a little rice cereal here, a mashed up banana there but the consistency was lacking. After nursing for so long, the transition turns out to be more difficult that I had imagined and good intentions continue to hit the hard wall of demanding schedule.

So here it is…do I blend fresh fruit and vegetables everyday day or do I resort to prepackaged baby food?

The intention was that I would prove to the world that a “carbon neutral, buy local, eat only organic from birth” baby lifestyle was possible. I wanted my little guy to avoid all the artificial colors and additives and possible toxins we hear so much of these days.

I already hear you laughing.

Baby Nik looooves bananas. Turns out there aren’t any banana farms in rural Wyoming. Who would have thought? So, the “buying only local” thing had to go out of the window pretty quickly. I bought a blender and stocked up on fresh fruit, hoping the colorful array of peaches, apples, grapes, melons and pears would entice my guy into trying something besides bananas.

After a week of carefully washing, peeling, chopping, deseeding and actually throwing away costly fresh fruit I returned to a full breast feeding schedule with a banana or two thrown in for good measure. I know, I know, bad mom me right?  I justified it by the fact that I do nurse and I do work from home and Nik will be just fine for a couple more months.

And that was a couple of months ago and Nik’s curiosity in food has increased. He has shown a willingness to try new things and even seems to enjoy petting (yes petting) his front loader design plastic bibs (I learned quickly to ditch the cloth ones).

At the store a couple of weeks ago, looking for a new pair of shoes for the baby, I passed the processed baby food aisle. There was the toxic formula from China, there was the plastic packaging planet killing baby foods and the small glass jars full of goop.

And I paused.

And I’m tired and my boobs ache and…well, I grabbed a small jar of sweet potatoes and hastily placed it in my cart and moved on.

The last few weeks, I have continued to purchase little jars of baby food. After careful reading of ingredients lists and the discovery of several ways to reuse the containers, I have placed the blender on top of the fridge where it may stay until next summer’s smoothie season begins.

But it’s okay. Motherhood is about doing the best you can with the budget and time that you have. I choose reusable packaging containing organic all natural blends and manage to live with this compromise knowing in the real world of mommyhood, there are many more to come.