While we were in England, we stayed with some friends in Oxford. Simon and Simone (not their real names) have put us up in their lovely home every Thanksgiving for the past few years. Air travel within the US during that week is something we try to avoid, but extending the long weekend into a week’s vacation is a nice way to get away, so it’s become a bit of a tradition.
When we packed, we left out any baby food because we knew it could cause problems with airport security. (The idea of tasting it to prove it was edible was more than either Sally or I could stomach.) When we arrived in Oxford, our first task was to find a supermarket so CJ could have some solids for breakfast and dinner. We asked our hosts which market would be most likely to carry baby food.
“You could try Boots,” said Simone. “And there’s always Marks & Spencer. Both of them should have it.”
Simon was on his way out the door, but he stopped to say, “Why don’t we just boil some carrots and mash them up for her here. It’ll take no time at all.”
“Well,” I replied, “apparently certain foods are better to buy as baby food.”
“Oh,” said Simon, who is an MD, “why is that?”
“I guess that root vegetables, like carrots, tend to absorb more nitrates from the soil. The baby food manufacturers select carrots that are grown in low-nitrate soil.”
“Really. Where did you hear this?” Simon is one of the more skeptical people I know, and I saw a grin encroaching on his cheeks.
“Our doctor. She told us specifically to use jarred carrots.” That should satisfy him.
“And why, exactly, are nitrates bad?”
“Umm…. I dunno.”
His grin widened. “You Yanks are so paranoid about food. Just mash something up and give it to her.”
“I’ll be honest, Simon. If our doctor tells us it’s better to just open a jar than to go through the trouble of preparing it ourselves, I’m not really going to argue with her.”
And that, I suppose, is the real reason. I’m lazy, and being told by an authority figure that the lazy thing to do is the right thing to do was so satisfying. Unfortunately, it also meant I wasn’t thinking for myself, and it was causing a bit of an inconvenience for us.
We had been feeding CJ single ingredient jars, such as carrots, or apples, or sweet potatoes. Our doctor told us it was better to do it this way, as it is easier to identify which foods might cause an allergic reaction.
When we got to the market, we saw that the baby food in England is a bit different from ours in the States. English baby food is not quite so monochromatic. Where we were used to seeing “Carrots” or “Apples,” we were now looking at jars of Pasta Itallienne with Ham, Lancashire Hotpot, and Mum’s Own Recipe Sunday Chicken Dinner.
Though we ultimately settled on some jars of mixed vegetable and mixed fruit, it did make me reconsider our doctor’s advice. Why not just boil some carrots or sweet potatoes and mush them up at home? What are nitrates, why are they bad, and in what quantities are they bad?
Next post: Nitrates, Nitrites, and Baby Food
(cross-posted at evenlake)
{ 10 comments }
{ 10 comments }
I don’t think that nitrates are going to give you any problems. However, I’m not convinced that all the chemical pesticides they spray on fields these days don’t get absorbed by the growing plants. It doesn’t concern me enough to make me stop feeding non-organic produce to my family, but if you are worried you can try organic.
I’m also a little iffy on the one-ingredient-at-a-time advice. I wonder why we can’t just feed our kids until (if) an allergy has been found, and then do some experimenting to find the culprit. Is there any reason why we wouldn’t do it this way?
I think the idea is that it’s easier to identify what is causing the reaction if you are only feeding one ingredient at a time. Our doctor said to start with one food only, for four days in a row. If there are no adverse reactions, then introduce another food, and so on.
Much of this advice might be due to the rise in food allergies, for which no one seems to have an explanation. We have backed off of this a bit, and have just been feeding anything that is in her eating stage. If we see an allergic reaction, then we’ll back off the unknown ingredients in that particular meal. So far, we’ve had no problems.
I understand the idea, I’m just not convinced that it’s necessary. Like you say, I think that the same results can be achieved by listing the ingredients that were in the last meal or two. After that, it’s just a matter of testing those ingredients to see which one is the culprit. It just feels like it’s making too big a deal to restrict an infants diet so much on the off chance that there will be an allergy. Who wants to eat nothing but carrots and breastmilk/formula for four days straight, anyway?
As for the rise in food allergies, I read a post on another blog recently (hit ctrl+F and type “peanut” to get to the relevant part) that talks briefly about it. She says that peanut allergies are much less common in Israel, where babies are fed lots of peanuts from an early age. I don’t want to seem like I’m claiming some sort of “superior knowledge” to doctors and scientists or anything like that, but I do wonder if over-protectiveness might not having something to do with the increase in allergies.
It seems that when I was a child, all my friends with germophobe moms were always sick with something. Obviously, it could be that the moms super-cleaned everything BECAUSE the kids were getting sick all the time. But it also makes sense that these kids weren’t routinely exposed to germs enough, so their immune systems didn’t get a good work out. So I wonder if this might all tie in to the idea of not feeding kids allergenic foods until quite late, and monitoring the introduction of new foods with an underwear quality inspector’s attention to detail might not be causing more harm than good.
I guess all this is just to say that I believe in a more laid back approach to parenting. I’m speaking as a non-parent, so obviously everything might change when I actually have kids and suddenly discover an overwhelming urge to protect and shield them. But for now, I think that I much prefer the idea of feeding infants whatever the rest of the family is eating (once they are old enough, obviously). Mash it up in a food processor at first, and then just cut into little bits – as appropriate for age. Don’t worry too much about that handful of dirt they just shoved into their mouths.
Again, I’m speaking from a position of complete ignorance – not only about the cause and nature of allergies, but also about the experience of being a parent. Everything I type ought to be taken with a handful of salt.
There is a temptation to rely on our own anecdotal observations. I do it all the time. I agree that the germophobes are usually the ones that are always sick, whereas I (definitely not a germophobe) seem to only get sick every year or two. But, then again, I might just notice it more often when they are sick.
Part of the reason our doctor might have recommended this course of action is because both Sally and I have food allergies. I am mildly allergic to many things, none of which are dangerous to me. Sally is badly allergic to shellfish, epi-pen allergic. Perhaps our doctor felt that with allergies in the family, it was safer to feed CJ in this manner.
My next post will be about nitrates, and from what I can tell, that might have been an overly cautious recommendation from our doctor as well.
Ah, I didn’t realize you both had allergies. I do think that makes a difference. And, again, whatever makes you feel most comfortable will usually be best in the long run.
But it is advice that is given to everyone. Every infant book I’ve ever read has talked about introducing new foods in this way.
Anyways, I am looking forward to your next post! The only things I know about nitrates are from owning an aquarium and trying to balance nitrate/nitrite levels for the fishies.
Any thoughts on ‘baby led weaning’? Just giving your child a little bit of what you’re eating, sharing the family meal? Downside is the mess, but the upsides are many!
This Brit has another question to ask: multivitamins. I get the impression that Yankee kids must have their multivitamins, or they’ll shrivel to dust within hours? (Whereas, when I hear ‘multivitamins’ I think Bad Science, but maybe I’m wrong…?)
We’ll be starting on feeding CJ our food soon, but I’ve never heard of it as baby-led weaning. It’s a little more work, as we’d probably leave certain ingredients out of her food, like salt and hot spices, but we’re hoping it will be cheaper and less worry about always having her food on hand.
As for multivitamins, I think the main worry is Vitamin D for infants. (Maybe that’s a difficult one to get naturally for babies that spend most of their time indoors?) Our doctor recommended a multivitamin liquid solution, but only if she was exclusively on breast milk after 6 months. Since CJ is getting some formula as well as breast milk, and lots of solids, it didn’t seem to be an issue. Basically, it’s the same as adults: if you’ve got a medical condition of some sort, vitamin supplements (like folic acid for pregnant women) are indicated. But if you’re in otherwise normal health and eating regularly, there is no need for them.
Anecdotal evidence is the best, eh? My granddaughter around six months, maybe seven had had jar baby food of several varieties. In fact, at this family dinner, she’d already had peas and carrots.
I had eaten only half my baked potato. The other half was on my plate, hadn’t even had butter added to it and I asked her mom if I could smash some of that up for her. Permission granted and I put a teaspoon full on the tray. The kid DIVED in! She was still at the get a fistful and wipe it across the tongue stage, so her great-grandpa thought he would help by picking it up and putting it in her mouth.
She slapped his hand away (which is something all of us had wanted to do for years as he was always stealing food off our plates!) Anyway, we fed her all the potato left along with a few bites from auntie’s plate. Most of it got in the mouth, but she needed a bath afterwards.
After this, baby food was purchased mostly to pack for trips. The only food she won’t eat now is carrots, no matter how they are disguised. Oh, and shell macaroni – apparently it just doesn’t look right to her. At two, she’s eating almost adult-sized portions of just about anything.
Now to gross you out, I’ll tell you how they made baby food in the olden days, which might explain the popularity of jar baby food. Anything on the table that couldn’t be mashed with a fork finely enough for baby to eat, was chewed by the mother, then spooned to the baby.
Really, we’ve come a long way!
Gosh my MIL would have a lot to say about feeding bottled baby food… She always reckons the home-made stuff is the way to go. Makes me feel like such a bad Mum when I get lazy and buy ready-made stuff from the shops. Then again, when you have a picky eater like my son is, it gets a bit tiring to specially make food for him that he rejects. Sometimes I end up eating it just because I can’t bare to see all my hard work go to waste.
I wish my doctor would have told us to stick to bottled-food, then I could tell her, “The doctor said…” :-p That’s my usual excuse for her when doing anything against her recommendations.
Baby-led weaning (or baby-led solids, to distinguish it from letting your kid decide when to stop nursing completely) is when the baby doesn’t eat anything they can’t feed themselves. It’s not just introducing table food. If you’re feeding purees, you’re not doing BLS, because a baby can’t puree his own carrots and put them in his mouth by himself. If you skip the purees and wait to introduce carrots until he can pick up a carrot and put it in his mouth, then you’re doing BLS.
I know several people who do or plan to do BLS, and claim it’s awesome, but I failed to see anything convincing when I researched it myself. I mash up my own carrots and sweet potatoes for my munchkin, mostly because I’m too cheap to buy jarred food, and this is the very first time I’ve heard about a supposed nitrate issue. I usually have veggies anyway, and running them through a food mill doesn’t take much out of my day.
Comments on this entry are closed.