I’m a new mom. You’ll probably become intimately acquainted with this fact, because like most new moms, I am completely annoying and talk about my kid all the time. Of course I talk about my kid all the time because he’s ridiculously cute, and smart, and strong. I mean, he’s way better than any other baby I’ve ever seen, so I really don’t know what all those other parents have to talk about. ANYWAY, food has become a big issue in my house over the past few weeks. Cooper is starting to eat solids and it has brought up a host of questions.
For instance, did you know that if you start feeding a cute, adorable little baby squash, that he immediately becomes a bileous, stinking factory of DUDE POOP? Because he does. And it’s awful. Baby food in general is a tricky area which I’m going to explore further later on. The big question now is, will the baby be a vegetarian?
This is something that Luke and I have talked about on several occasions, starting when I was pregnant. The general consensus was that we’d raise him as a meat eater, but with a large amount of vegetarian food in his diet. That way, when he’s old enough, he can make the decision for himself. That was all well and good in theory, but now circumstances have changed.
The most recent change has come after perusing the baby food aisle. I had never looked too closely at baby food, because that’s just not one of those things you browse through unless you have a specific need. So it was due solely to my own ignorance that I never realized that baby food goes beyond your pureed carrots and bananas and whatnot. They have pureed turkey! In a jar!
Now, having been a lifelong vegetarian, meat kind of grosses me out. I don’t have any problem being around it, but I have no interest in handling it in any way. The way it works in my house now is either Luke or I cook a vegetarian dinner, or Luke and I cook together, with him preparing whatever meat dish he wanted. I figured cooking for the baby would work the same way, but I have a 4 oz. monstrosity staring me in the face that says differently.
Like I’ve said, I don’t try to be stuck-up about the whole vegetarian thing, but dude. Pureed turkey sounds hideous. I can tell you right now that there is zero chance that I’m going to get anywhere near that stuff. Just writing about it and picturing Cooper getting it all over his face and hands is making me gag. Blargh.
In addition to this horrifying discovery, Luke is having his own meat issues (heh). He’s super into barbecue, and counts his smoker as one of his prized possessions. However, after a rib and pork shoulder extravaganza shortly after Cooper was born, Luke started to get a little grossed out by the entire process of preparing and cooking the food. This was followed by a dream in which he was in a grocery store and he walked by a case of hams… that all had Cooper’s face.
In the last discussion that Luke and I had about all this, he revealed how gun shy he was getting about raising Cooper as a meat eater, saying, “if I didn’t know how delicious meat was, I wouldn’t eat it.” The problem we’re running into is that as I’ve learned firsthand, if you don’t introduce meat into a kid’s diet at an early age, his system won’t be able to handle it, and the decision will be made for us.
So we’re kind of stuck right now. Cooper goes in for a well-baby visit soon, so I’m hoping to get some advice from our doctor as to what to do. Ideally, I’d like to skip the pureed turkey (yep, still just as disgusting every time I write it) phase all together and make the decision when he’s old enough to chew. Have any of you raised children with special diets? Are the decisions really as nerve-wracking as they seem to me, or am I making a big deal out of nothing? Leave your comments below.
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Mar 14, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
Owen was one of those kids who rejected all pureed food and started eating real solids after 8 months of age, so I’m totally there with you on the pureed crap. We never bought any, but I did make a bunch of homemade stuff and froze it in ice cube trays that we never used!
Anyway, avocado and banana chunks are perfect first foods for babies. I’m not from the rice cereal camp either. Oh, also pear chunks, peas, puffed rice cereal (and later rice cakes). Tahini on rice cakes, chick peas without the skin, steamed carrots, eventually organic turkey breast slices.
I know there’s more, but it is amazing how fast you forget! Owen was also eating sushi at a year, so all that puree stuff is definitely bunk to us!
I never would have thought of avocado as a first baby food, but I love it, so I gave it to Cooper. He’s a huge fan.
I’m happily baby free, but I don’t think my nephew ever did any pureed meats. Once he got a couple teeth, he started eating some plain, small pieces of chicken breast. He loves it too. I think you may be able to skip the pureed meat without forcing Cooper into a vegetarian. However, I am as about as far away from being a baby expert as you can get.
BTW, Cooper is an adorable name, and you will totally be my hero if you tell me you named him after Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks.
I agree — Owen goes to school with a Cooper and I could just eat him up! Um, I guess that’s not an appropriate thing to say on a food blog, especially on a post discussing dreams of children as edibles….
They weren’t hams…they were suckling pigs…with Cooper’s face. And, yes, it’s one of the top 5 most disturbing dreams I’ve ever had. (The other 4 involve the apocalypse.)
Family lore has it that my sister and I never ate pureed foods, either. When the time for solid food came, apparently my mom would mash up whatever she had on her plate with a fork and feed that to us. She was (and is) vehemently anti-rice cereal, too.
I think most would agree that the pureed meat baby food is pretty nasty stuff. I remember a gelatinous “chicken noodle soup” from my babysitting days with a shudder. Ew!
Man I am late to this! My daughter was one of those kids who was trying to eat pizza at 4 months old, lol. I made some purees but she wouldn’t eat them unless it was more like soup. Meat in very tiny pieces was our best bet, but that was after she had teeth.
Also, the only thing scarier than a vacuum sealed suckling pig in the packaged meats section is the rabbits–they come whole, skinned, with head, eyes, and feet. My daughter looked at one and said “Mom, it’s a dinosaur!”