Peas!

Our adventures in homemade baby food have officially begun! I made all of Sophia’s food when she was a baby using the most amazing kit my mom bought me from Fresh Baby, and I really loved every step of the process. Of course, I already had a Cuisinart (also from my mom), which made everything so simple. 

Joseph started early on solids because he is so ginormous, so he has been eating organic oat cereal since May 10. Even though he was only 18 weeks old at the time, he took to solids very quickly and was really enjoying bites his second meal. At nearly five months, he already likes to grab the spoon away and feed himself, and really practices his chewing, and he’s generally eating four to five tablespoons of dry cereal, plus formula to mix, three times a day. This is a lot! 

I had planned on introducing other foods after our marathon trip to Chicago and Indianapolis, mostly to save myself the hassle of buying and/or making organic food on the road. However, we realized that if we waited it would be another three weeks, so last night we introduced organic peas.

We’re very lucky that everywhere we’re staying on the trip we’ll have a nice kitchen and access to a microwave, so it seemed feasible to make food while away. Yesterday afternoon I bought a Kid Co. food mill, which I like okay but don’t love, but which will certain suffice while we travel. It’s a bit cumbersome to assemble and use, and doesn’t puree foods as smoothly as I’d like, but it’s compact and will work anywhere. As soon as the trip is over it’s back to the Cuisinart and the Fresh Baby food trays for me!

We started with peas because I firmly believe that you should cultivate your baby’s taste for green things before introducing sweeter first foods like apples and bananas. Babies naturally prefer sweet tastes, so I think it makes sense to broaden their palate from the get-go. Our family doctor also prefers this approach, progressing from green to orange to yellow foods, and I feel it was successful with Sophia. She truly is the most omnivorous person I know, and I think this is at least in small part due to the fact that I always encouraged her to eat veggies, and that I fed her from the table from the beginning.

As soon as she started solids we all ate meals together, and we’ve always tried to model healthy eating habits and prepare beautiful, nutritious and dynamic meals. (I abhor the idea of kids’ menus at restaurants—who says kids don’t like what grownups like!) I also read a phenomenal book about kids and food, called Child of Mine by Ellyn Satter, and the author’s attitudes informed most or all of my choices in terms of food. I cannot recommend this book enough. (It’s also the only book I read that gives as much guidance about thoughtfully bottle feeding as it does about breast feeding.)

Anyway, on to peas. I think Joseph would give homemade organic peas three stars right now. He’s had them twice and spit most of them out last night and ate about half of his serving tonight. He made the most hilarious face after the first taste, which seemed to say something along the lines of, “what in the world!” I think we’ll continue to offer them once or twice a day until he learns to love them. Benji and I both tasted them and they’re really very sweet and delicious.

Such an awesome responsibility, introducing a small person to the world of food. And I just love every minute of it! A wonderful adventure for all of us.