Know What You Eat

When starting solids, I think most parents have alot to consider... my husband and I were pretty adamant about only going organic, and most of my food during my pregnancy was organic. Now truth be told, in a perfect world everything would be healthy and organic, but this isn't a perfect world, so don't beat yourself up if you cannot afford to go 100% organic. Thankfully stores like Fresh Market, Whole Foods and Earth Fare are really branching out, making it more and more feasible to buy organic goods, as relatively reasonable prices. If you live in the greater New York area you can make your like even simpler and order from a site called Fresh Direct: http://www.freshdirect.com/index.jsp, they have an amazing selection of organic products for you and your family.

I have some pretty steep demands, but that's not going to stop me either from having the occasional Burger King or Wendy's. Again, in a perfect world all of the food we place into our bodies would be free of pesticides, fillers, and preservatives, and humanly treated, but when you are on the go, sometimes you don't have much of a choice. And is that going to stop you from eating out at a good restaurant, or heck a mid level restaurant? It shouldn't, because we have to work within realistic means. It is very sad that there ARE many serious cases of death in children due to E. Coli out there, from meat that was not handled correctly or grass fed, but living in fear that something like that could happen to you and your family will make you into one paranoid frazzled parent. You cannot control what your child will eat 100% for the rest of his or her childhood years, or even adult years. I mean there is going to be a time when junior goes to his friends birthday party and the pigs in a blanket that your child canters towards come from a frozen box from a grocery store where organic isn't even a concept... WE have to just understand that we can control what we can, things like death by E. Coli and mad cow disease are very real and serious things we SHOULD take into consideration when purchasing or consuming meat, but read on and you can make that decision for yourself.

Sadly in todays day and age, we have to be just as careful about eating tomatoes and spinach as we do meats. The E. Coli virus isn't just in our meat anymore, and if you are like me and make your babies food at home, it's something you become even more aware of. So therefore, I try very hard to buy local and buy organic.

Something that DID change my mind pretty hard core was watching a documentary called Food Inc. While upsetting and disturbing I defiantly recommend watching this. It will in fact open your eyes to some of the injustices happening with todays farmers, who want so badly to run an honest organic farm. I feel very lucky that the Earth Fare (grocery store) out here in Augusta GA offers up locally farmed goods, so I am not paying an arm and a leg, and I also get good quality grass fed beef, and humanly treated chicken that has not been pent up in sunless arenas being trampled to death by their fellow chicken. And FYI companies like Purdue and Tyson who label their chicken "all natural" sell chicken that has never seen the light of day, whose beaks are burnt off so that they will not peck at each other, and other horrible things that an animal should never have to go through.

But enough about my feelings on that, let's get back to the original issue. Growing a healthy little baby takes alot of work and effort. Every edible baby product on the market will assure you that it's the best for your baby. When really the best thing for your baby is breast milk. For me it's been a true labor or love, suffering through thrush, and not being able to directly breastfeed, I wind up having to figure in an extra 2-3 hours a day to pump out milk for my baby. I have had to combine formula, and breast milk on occasion, especially when our little man was not gaining enough weight. At first we went with Similac, but after a while we switched to Earths Best. Unfortunately he had gotten used tot he Similac so we had to switch back, but for a while we just mixed the two.

Some people will stick with what is cheapest, and again I totally understand and respect that, however, going organic will ultimately help your baby in the long haul. Why? Well feeding your baby with things like pesticides etc... your babies body has to work that much harder to process the food (for one thing). Secondly if you don't try to buy organic or make your own food from a reliable organic source for your little one you never will really know if your babies food is really safe. In some studies on lab rats and other small animals, these animals that were exposed to food with pesticides showed strange mutations. Not to mention studies that now show a link to ADHD in children who are exposed to foods treated with pesticides.

Now I am not saying I don't have some pre-made containers of Gerber baby food in my pantry, but I did choose to buy the ones labeled organic. Luckily as it is I am able to stay at home, which gives me the benefit of having a little more time than the working or single mother. So I have taken to making home made baby food for my little man. It's great getting to give him things that I would not be able to buy in most baby food isles, like avocados, lentils, and blueberries. And while there are new lines of baby foods on the market that are all organic, and offer a bit more flavor varieties for your babies pallet, not all of them are very cheap for the amount of food you buy... Buying a bag of organic blueberries, and a couple organic apples, steaming them, blending them, and freezing them, costs me no more than 3-4 bucks and makes a heap of food (keeping in mind that's using only half the bag of blueberries). One sweet potato combined with lentils and carrot or pear makes over a weeks worth of food and is pretty much pennies compared to how much I would spend on top brand baby foods. And it's all organic. This was the first book I purchased, and has many great ideas so you can get started! http://www.amazon.com/Top-100-Baby-Purees-Healthy/dp/0743289579

ALSO THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST sites I have found, with free recipes and SO much more, from what foods are safe and at what age, this has been a great guide for me, and helpful tips on the nutrition of what you wind up mixing together!

Baby First Foods: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/babyfirstfoods.htm

Whether or not you are a single mom, working mom, or stay at home, making your own food will in fact save you money, and is not hard, nor expensive to make. I didn't buy a baby food maker, nor those 25 dollar latex baby food freezer containers at Buy Buy Baby. All you need is a way to steam your fruits and veggies, a blender (or food processor) and some flexible ice cube trays. Once you gently steam the food, combine some of the water leftover, and throw into the blender, once you have a nice smooth puree, spoon the food into your ice cube trays, cover with some plastic wrap, and place in the freezer. After it's frozen, pop em' out and you can put them in Tupperware, or plastic baggies. I use plastic baggies cause it's a bit easier to store wen you have alot in the freezer already. I got lucky we had everything we needed already. For my steaming I use a rice cooker by Rival, that can be purchased for 10-20 bucks at Target. Not only can you cook your rice, but you can steam in it as well.

Now because I know not everyone wants to make baby food who has a baby, there are affordable organic foods on the market, and some not so affordable. For your convenience I have listed here most of the ones that you can easily find, or order online.

Earths Best, they make everything from baby cereal to toddler and kids meals (this website also has access to coupons you can use): http://www.earthsbest.com/

Gerber now makes a line of Organic foods, not very extensive, but it looks as if they are headed in that direction, also if you sign up, they will send you some good coupons in the mail: http://www.gerber.com/allstages/products/meal_options/toddlers_pasta_pick_ups_cheese_ravioli.aspx?source=10064630&gclid=CLb18tymhqkCFQwZ2godWXaang



Some other more expensive, but very good organic baby food brands are: Plum Organics, Ella's Kitchen, HappyTot/HappyBaby.

I hope with all this information at the tip of your fingers, and right in front of your eyes, that you will control what you can, do what you can to encourage healthy organic eating habits with your children, and try not to sweat the small stuff, and still enjoy that occasional fast food hamburger, or dairy queen milkshake. But keep in mind the more the problem persists, the longer the problem continues. The more people choose to buy organic produce, and humanly treated meats, cheeses, and hormone free milk, the sooner that kind of supply will become the norm for everyone, not just the ones who can afford it.

Links for this Blog:

Happy Baby organic foods: http://shop.happybabyfood.com/our-products/happytot.html
Ella's Kitchen: http://www.ellaskitchen.co.uk/
Plum Organics: http://www.plumorganics.com/
Fresh Direct: http://www.freshdirect.com/index.jsp

Kids Health on Pesticides: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37156010/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/t/pesticides-kids-linked-adhd/">

http://www.epa.gov/opp00001/health/human.htm