Raising Foodies

Kingston is 8 months now.

 He is such a sweet boy. In fact, sweet does not quite do him justice. King King is pleasant, gentle, charming, agreeable, lovely, enchanting, nice, and just plain delightful (the thesaurus is always helpful). He is in need of his 3rd haircut. I love this little man. 

I get asked pretty often about my philosophy on feeding babies and children. I think it is a curious thing to some when they hear me talk about making my own baby food, nursing for a year, and our diligence in keeping sugar out of our children's diets. I am flattered that some of my friends become so inspired by what I do that they want to know how I do it. I certainly would not have this philosophy if it were not for my mother-n-law who has been instrumental in my parenting life. No, I promise it is a good thing. Yaya is so wise yet has NEVER pressured me into any of my parenting decisions. Years before I ever had children, she and I would discuss babies and children and how their nutrition is CRUCIAL to their growth, behavior, and health. Yaya helped to ignite a passion in me that has guided me to feeding my children in the best possible way. I continue to also be heavily inspired by my amazing sister-n-laws. When I get asked these questions about children and their diets, I always want to say, "well, if you think I feed my children well then you should meet my 3 sister-n-laws, they rock when it comes to feeding kids." It a family thing.

I thought I would throw out some resources I have used in feeding my children. I will be referring several of my friends from around here to this blog since I have had several conversations just in the last week regarding this topic. Know this though, Alder has had a Happy Meal, eats fries, has yummy birthday cake, and the list goes on. I think the key is to offer all such things in moderation as well as NOT introducing foods to them like candy, syrup, chocolate, sweet tea, and so on at too young of an age. If they have never had candy nor tasted a Coke than they will not know what it is they are missing. Alder thinks apples are the sweetest thing around and that is because he has never tasted a piece of candy. I think the goal is for my children to pick an apple over candy, cake, etc. any day. You may be thinking, "man, she is depriving her kids and poor them." Yes, I can see this, but they have the rest of their lives to eat this stuff. I want to keep their little growing bodies a pure as possible for as long as possible. I struggle to get the BEST stuff living here in rural Alabama and only having a Wal-Mart to shop at. I plan a lot and stock up at places when I can. I also hound the employees at Wal-Mart to order more organic and other such products. You should see the looks I get. I know when I go in there the employees are all thinking, "here comes that crazy lady with another UPC code for us to look up and order, RUN!!!" But one of my jobs as a mother is to advocate for my children and this means being very intentional about their nutrition. I have to follow a very strict grocery budget every week (yes, honey I realize I went way over last month...i'm sorry) and so I also have to keep this in mind. Jared always says to me, "you know Meg, you can be so principled that you are not practical." Therefore I cannot always shop and feed as I would like. I have to have faith that the good Lord is watching over my children and will protect them accordingly.

Here are my resources:

1. Nursing.

I have no real resource (i.e. a book) for this, but rather it just comes down to being a heart issue and a determination of the will. I tell friends who ask me about whether or not they should nurse that it will NEVER work if their hearts are not in it. It is an exhausting and overwhelming thing to tackle for the first time especially after having gone through childbirth. Always give it a shot though and line up a down-to-earth nursing mama before you give birth that you can call for advice, help, and possibly even a "live" tutorial (I have done this with my own children for some mamas and it has helped them immensely.) Hands down nursing is the best for baby and mama too.

2. SHAKLEE nutritional supplements

 

This post is long enough as is and I could go on and on about how wonderful SHAKLEE is as a company and how you should NEVER give your kids Flinstone vitamins and so on, but just take my word for it. Contact me via leaving a comment if you are interested about ordering from them and you can check out their website too at SHAKLEE.com Oh, I almost forgot. Since feeding your baby begins when you are pregnant, I take their vitamins and their vitamins only when I am pregnant and nursing (which has been a lot lately). These vitamins are really better than the big 'ole horse pills your OBGYN prescribes you. You take two a day which allows for better absorption and lesser amount of iron in one dose to help with nausea/morning sickness. All OBGYNs will agree that these are fine to take.

3. Super Baby Food

This book is great and also a little over the top. The author is very intense and also a firm believer in raising vegetarians, but I disagree with that. I take all of her stuff with a grain of salt and still it has helped me immensely.

My sister-n-law Lesley turned me on to this book. Thanks Les! It has a great chapter about making your own yogurt. 

4. Annabel Karmel

I got familiar with her stuff while I was nannying (is this a word?) in England. She is great and has a wholesome and realistic approach. She has filtrated her stuff into America and I have several of her books. I never follow all of her recipes to a tee, but I use them to help guide me when I start making baby food.

This is just one of her many books. I just checked out her website for the first time and she has a very impressive and informative website. She has information about pregnancy and nursing and so on. Check it out.

5. Feeding the Whole Family Cookbook

Beth, another sister-n-law of mine, recommended this book to me this past fall and I have really enjoyed it. The front part of the cookbook titled "Wholesome Family Eating" and "Including Baby" are a must read before cooking.

I hope this helps.

Please, I would also love to know of other such resources, foods, or new meal ideas for my little ones. Please share!

Bon Appetit!