Last week, I ran into a neighbor while running errands and she asked about Theo. I gave her a quick update: Totally cute and fun. Flirts with any and every lady he comes in contact with. Turned six months about a week ago.
“Six months?!” She squealed.
“I know. It’s crazy. He sitting up on his own and we just started experimenting with food.”
She smiled.
“Oh and I am sure you are making his food and it’s all organic and everything.”
There was a little, strange hand flip gesture with this statement too.
I tend to have an– unfortunately- expressive face so I fought making an actual frown in confusion. I was taken aback and found myself stuttering through a justification.
“I mean, yeah,” I stammered, “But, it’s just stuff from my garden.”
Here’s the thing: Yes, I have been making purees and plan to make Theo’s food. And, yes. It is organic.
“Organic” and even “homemade” get a bit of a stigma for being pretentious. Particularly in the mom world… Those who preach all organic for their babies can be seen as looking down on others.
I can see that it could be an easy stereotype to make; but, to be honest, it is last place my organic, homemade meals come from.
I make my own baby food, because I can. I cook meals for Adam and I everyday anyways because we value eating homemade meals together. So, making food for Theo doesn’t require any extra effort. I have organic food because I have the capability and space to grow it in my yard. It’s organic because I don’t see the need to purchase chemicals for a backyard garden.
It might not be for everyone, but it’s right for me.
And, with everything else you can second guess as a mom, I can stand confident in this decision for me and my son.
But, that doesn’t mean that I still didn’t have a bit of a learning curve when I began to navigate the wonderful world of food for my son.
I listened to our great pediatrician who assured me to follow cues from Theo and that its okay if we didn’t start him on food until he is ready. I turned to friends and bloggers I trust and learned what has worked for them. Things like skipping rice cereal and not making things special just for the baby, but rather using foods you are already cooking with stuck with me from these conversations.
And, as luck would have it, just as I started seeing cues from Theo that he might be interested in food (… He kept trying to munch on one of my apples!), a blogger-friend, Renee Kohley from Raising Generation Nourished, released her new cookbook “Nourished Beginnings Baby Food.”
Renee lives on the west coast of Michigan, a place near and dear to my heart too, with her three kids. Her blog and even her Instagram feed are full of amazing real foods that she is feeding her kids.
The cookbook, full of beautiful photos, serves as a guide for new parents to learn how to cook nutrient-rich baby food from scratch. The goal is to develop healthy eating habits right off the bat that they can carry with them for their whole life so they are not scared of vegetables thus making dinner time easy on mom and dad and creating adventurous eaters for the future.
Um.
Yes. Yes. And, YES!
With a big garden, dear little Theo will have to learn to enjoy veggies, so why not start right away? Dinner is the last thing I want to become a chore and I hope that as an adult Theo is slow to judge, but rather willing to give anything a try… Especially when it comes to food.
The book is broken into three sections based on babies age. We are in the first, “Simple Starts for Baby,” and they go all the way up to Toddlerhood.
I love her slightly more adventurous take on basic purees like Beets with Beet Greens, Coconut Oil, Bone Broth and sea salt and how the recipes fit right into what is growing in the garden right now. Theo’s first “taste” of Nourished Beginnings, as seen in these photos, was Avocado and Banana. While neither ingredient was from the garden, I wanted to start with items that would be easy on his stomach for his first food experience… Just in case. It was clearly a hit and we have begun to get more adventurous.
I know Renee’s great book will be a fabulous tool for many years as Adam and I hope to add a few more little foodies to our table.
Why do we put so much pressure on ourselves as first time moms? I wish as our first babies are born and we become a mother that we could gain true confidence in ourselves at the same time! We are all different with very different challenges and yet we feel small at one of the most amazing times in our lives when we should feel big.
We should be pulling together as women and not fell judged by every little decision we make!
I envision a lot of Guacamole in your future and avocados don’t grow in the midwest! And don’t put undue pressure on yourself or your friends, I have always said they have restaurants and bakeries for a reason.