Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Epicurean Intrigue

This morning Noah is crusted over with cereal, slobber and snot. And yet still cute. Where did we get this kid from? He can't possibly be related to me. I don't even clean up well.

So Noah had his first green beans this morning. I had been putting them off since they look so nasty. I like actual green beans - but something about green bean puree seems so very wrong. And it is. I tasted it and it was gross. Noah ate it all but he made a wrinkled up face with each spoonful. I'm not sure he realizes he can actually refuse to eat something. I think he gets that from his father. Mark eats almost everything but cheese. While it is freakish to not eat cheese (he will eat mozzarella thankfully) I don't consider him a picky eater at all. Maybe that is because there is so much stuff that I won't eat. I'm pretty adventurous about trying different ethnic foods but they have to be approved for ingredients. Various meat products are at the top of won't eat list - no sausage, no chicken on the bone, no veal, no lamb, no hot dogs, no meatballs, etc. I also don't like super processed food. Most frozen dinners gross me out and I can even get the willies about canned soup. So hopefully Noah's palette is more like Mark's - but with a love of cheese.

Every time I go to the grocery store I get in a tizzy about baby food. My inner self wants to be the kind of mom that buys organic produce from a local farm and makes my own baby food. But that just isn't reality since I can't even efficiently get the damn laundry done. So I buy packaged baby food. And I've been buying those Gerber two packs because they seem price friendly and handy. But I'm sure I SHOULD be buying organic baby food. I feel guilty because I don't. Both Beech Nut and Gerber have organic lines but the prices are significantly higher and we're on a budget here. So am I poisoning Noah with chemicals to spare a few cents? Do you think the organic is that much better for the tots? And if so - why do they keep selling the other stuff? Help me. I'm in a brightly colored pureed goo shame spiral.

5 comments:

MC said...

I am hardly the one to advise, since I am childless thus far, but I think that there are worse things than feeding your baby regular Gerber. I also dream of being the mom who makes her own baby food from organic ingredients someday...but I can't even afford to buy myself all organic foods, so that might be a stretch. And since my nearest Whole Foods is in, well, Philly, I just have to go with what's available at your run-of-the-mill grocery store, which tends to be not much.

hazel said...

I'd love to know just how organic those organic foods are. I was thinking alot about this since you asked over the weekend, and I had this thought: does having an organic line of food automatically make the original line of food bad? like, how can they have an organic line and justify a non-organic line, unless it's just to please people who won't wear leather and such? are they going to change the branding of the non-organic line to "Poison-Infused" or "Cancer-Inducing"? or more realistically "Second Best"?

my opinion: their so-called organic food is genius marketing. it's just as processed, preservatized, and additivized as their regular food so anything that the original fruit/veg had that made it organic is loooong gone.

Jen O. said...

Patrice makes an excellent point.

Also, ask your mom what she fed you when you were little. Think whatever non-rganicness that it was actually hurt you into adulthood?

Missuz J said...

Well, currently Sophie is working her way through a chicken nugget happy meal. I did go for the apple slices instead of the fries, but they come with a very unhealthy, but delicious, caramel dip. Nutrition is one of my major guilt things with Sophie. Based on every word I've ever read that you've written, I can tell that you are a great mom who loves her baby enormously and wouldn't harm him in any way. So, by the power invested me by the mommy police, I offically absolve you of your sin of feeding Noah regular baby food.

NME said...

Thanks everyone for the input. I guess part of the stock and trade of motherhood is constantly worrying that you could be doing better for your child.

Noah can be the poison infused Gerber baby. I think my mom fed me cigarettes and beer.

And Patrice you should know better than to refer to anything I can consume as preservatized and additivized. Bleck!