Super Baby Food??

As I've blogged here before, I've been feeding Lilli a diet based on a book I got her called "Super Baby Food." It's a little long winded for a pretty simple premise but it has a lot of good ideas in it. Anyway, I tend to feed her a lot of healthy vegetables, some that do not seem too palatable to me or very many other people, when in pureed form. However, Lilli LOVES the vegetables. She'll eat the fruits and is starting to like them a lot more now, but for a long time vegetables were her favorite things and pretty much the only thing she'd eat with much gusto.

ANYWAY, I've been thinking about this, and I think that we, as adults, have a lot of prejudices about what is palatable to babies. I mean, I was perplexed that Lilli preferred green beans to peaches. I mean, that was fine with me, but I didn't understand it. After all, I prefer peaches. I also had a hard time with some of the vegetables the book recommended I feed Lilli. After all, pureed kale is kind of gross to me, so I assumed it wouldn't be very enticing to Lilli. But she loved it! Maybe if we had all eaten kale as babies we'd love it as adults!! So then I realized that my own prejudices were getting in the way. I had assumed that Lilli would prefer peaches to kale when in fact all these foods were equally new and exciting to her!And really, (stick with me on this one) what is "gross"? Isn't it a subjective term? Don't we think that pureed kale is gross because we were taught to think it was gross?

I think that a lot of parents go through this. We like pureed fruit and other sweets, so we think, oh, baby will love it too. So we give them fruit more often and skimp on the vegetables. And therefore we raise babies that prefer sweets and hate vegetables. We often want our children to enjoy sweets because we enjoy them and want to share that with them, but who's to say they won't love vegetables just as much if that is what they learn to enjoy?

After all, have you heard about the Australians who love Vegemite? Have you ever tasted Vegemite?? Well, I haven't either, but I've heard it's a very acquired taste. And do you know how Austrailians acquired it? By eating it as kids. Or Japanese people and their nasty fermented soybeans. I should probably start shoveling them into Lilli early, before she realizes how completely disgusting they are. See? See the prejudice? If it's obvious to Lilli that I find fermented soybeans disgusting, little absorbent sponge that she is, won't she learn from me to find them disgusting too? So, unfortunately, I think we also have to live by example. . .

So, anyway, I'm committed to trying to get Lilli to like healthy foods and not assume that just because I like sweet foods, that Lilli should like them too. I want Lilli to enjoy food, but I want her to be the healthiest she can be too. The best way for that is to get her to love healthy foods. The author of the book says her baby eats brewer's yeast. If she's managed that, well, I can manage to get Lilli to eat a little kale.

Finally, I'm not going to name any names, but there are some grandparents out there, on both sides of the family, who can't wait to get Lilli alone and start corrupting her with ice cream and sweets. :) I appreciate that they love her and want her to enjoy these things that they enjoy themselves. But aren't they assuming that Lilli will enjoy these things so much just because they enjoy them? Maybe, someday, if I am very lucky, Lilli will say to me "mom, do I have to finish my ice cream and cake? Can I have more broccoli instead?" That will be the day.