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Thursday, August 11, 2005

Purity

So I'm now at full crank, having bypassed cranky some time ago.

The door to the world of "solid" food (what some would call "real" food) has been opened for Felix, and there was much rejoicing by various family members who have been longing for this moment. I wonder, a bit, if their pleasure would have been the same if they had been party to the scene I call Carrot Everywhere, but maybe I underestimate them.

The terrier, really, could not have been happier.

But, as I really should know by now, with realsolid food comes a bucket of issues that curdle my humor.

First there are the protocols.

-Start with rice cereal. If you don't start with rice cereal, you risk all.
-Only offer one color vegetable at a time. No fruit.
-NO! They can have fruit. Who says they can't?
-Fruit is fine but no banana.
-The BABY KNOWS WHAT'S BEST (oh?) If the kid grabs at something you're eating, that's what it should get.
-But only if it is organic.

Organic became something of a stumbling block for me. I found myself panting, unable to keep up organically. Somehow the little jars of organic baby food I was so proud I remembered to buy were not good enough. I kept reading that only home-milled baby food was nutritious enough and that I should not be fooled by the so-called "organic" organic baby food in jars because somehow its convenience and ready-made-ness is a sign that it is not good enough. Homemade is the only true organic.

(Of course I read all of this while consuming enormous quantities of Twizlers (the black ones), which rather puts the lie to my organic intentions. Maybe this will give Felix a taste for Pernod.)

People love the book Super Baby Food. Super Baby Food apparently solves all your problems by telling you how to make all your baby food easily, how to store it, how to administer it and how to do it safely and responsibly. I'm sure its great but I'm reluctant to crack those pages. The true Super Baby Food zealots I've encountered (not my friend, M, who dabbles in it) remind me of the people who became obsessed with the Bradley birthing class. To take a different path suggests a violation of everything that is decent in the world. I have a friend who I suspect still thinks Felix is not sufficiently bonded to me because he was induced.

Why can't there be a rhetorical middle ground? Realistically most people don't maintain the perfect schedules set out in books and courses, so why does everything have to come with threats of disaster, lack of bonding, allergies, indigestion, hatred and guilt?

I'm going to have to opt for semi-ignorance, tread lightly, and grope along with help from the pediatrician, because adding a new set of rules I can screw up is not part of the summer game plan.

The word for the day is avocado (organic, of course).

posted by Elise at 2:45 PM

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2 Comments:

Lisa M. said...

Oh, honey. We went through the surely-this-food-isn't-good-enough stage... then realized our kid would eat dog hair, kibble and dirt if left on the kitchen floor long enough. She also rejects the Made With Love By Mommy food in favor of Daddy's crepes (featuring eggs, white flour, white sugar and BEER) and whatever the dogs are eating.

Food is food. And semi-ignorance is the only way to keep from transforming into some OCD crazy-mommy. And you made me snort coffee up my nose. I'll be back to read more. :)

8/15/2005 9:01 AM

Elise said...

Many, MANY thanks. I've actually heard that many kids are drawn to things that smell like beer (and I know that dogs and wolves tend to be beer-obsessed).

I don't know why the organic thing got to me so much. I suppose in the back of my mind I know that if the kid does manage to eat dog hair that would be organic so hardly a crime, no?

Thank you again

8/15/2005 3:58 PM

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