Parenting

Once I knew that I was going to have a baby I couldn't help but notice all of the "food" marketed for infants and children. They start with the formulas and move onto to the purees and cookies, and veggie sticks, etc, etc, ad naseum. What ever happened to the idea of feeding your children what you eat?

Now, a 4 month old child should probably not be fed the fajitas you are eating at your favorite local restaurant. However, a one year old with enough teeth should be eating table foods that the rest of the family eats. We did the jar food thing until RetroKid had enough teeth to eat what we were eating. We also gave him some of the things we were eating before he had teeth. Things like baked sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, soups, you get the idea. Problem with RetroKid is that he still only has 6 teeth and he's roughly 16 mos old...

I began buying into the idea that I might be a bad Mom if I wasn't going to purchase the sundry of food items that were available at my local store. I began voraciously reading labels and comparing prices of the various brands and types. As I started to load my cart with these items, something dawned on me: none of the garbage existed when I little....

This brought me to a realization: I was being sucked in by the giant tractor beam known as "marketing". I immediately put everything back on the shelf and proceeded to the other sections of the grocery store. There are so many inexpensive and healthier options to feed your children that are located outside of the Infant section. Not to mention most of these things do not have nearly the amount of preservatives and dyes and sweetners that processed food do.

Bananas are always a great snack, portable and come in their own sealed bag, apples are good for kiddos with teeth, but apple sauce is now sold in individual containers that are super easy to store or transport. Baked sweet potatoes are easier than you might think, mashed potatoes are terrific and don't always have to be home made. Animal crackers are a classic and have always been a favy of mine. They are low in fat for the grown ups in the house and terrific snacks for the tri-cycle motors and super cheap!!!! Green peas are the perfect size for kiddos just learning to eat, rice is good too as well as some green beans or corn. Boiled or scrambled eggs for the kids over one year and without dairy allergies, oh and yogurt too! Those live, natural cultures are great for kids and help them replenish all those good bacteria in the digetive tract after a round of antibiotics.  ( I am not a doctor, just a mom)

So many things have been made easier for us now. So for RetroParents who want to feed their kiddos two veggies at dinner, pop two different microwavable bag vegetables in the microwave. Super fast and easy!

I wanted to see what you all thought about this. I know one of my favorites growing up was Peanut Butter (creamy for me please!) with grape jelly, cheetos and some red Kool-Aid. I know that health nuts today probably cringe at the idea, but it's tasty and a summer time favy to this day.