So, Eliot is 4.5 months old. At six months, it will be time to start feeding him solid foods. (Solid like the way soup is solid, at least to begin with...) Well, I am actually really not looking forward to it. Up until now, he is totally a product of my body. Frederic and I call him a little cheese, since he's entirely constructed of milk. But hey, I don't want him breastfeeding when he's 20, so I guess he will have to learn to eat at some point. *sob* I hate giving up that special role in his life though.
Anyway, good mom that I am, I've started researching what is available here in terms of baby food. I plan on making my own for the most part, but many people recommend starting with commercial baby cereal. This seems straight-forward enough, except that there are seriously around 20 different kinds of baby cereal available here.
I think all moms start out with the best of intentions. Nutritious, healthy food, reasonable portions, balanced meals. And then, somewhere in toddlerhood, we let our kids have a "taste" of cakes and candies. And it all goes downhill from there.
(On a side note, I'm not sure we'll go with baby cereal, since it is essentially nutrient deficient with the exception of all the vitamins they "fortify" the cereal with, after refining all the natural vitamins out... However, it is almost guaranteed that baby will not be allergic to rice cereal, which is important... so we're still undecided.)
Back to the story. So I'm really depressed about this whole solids food stuff.
The end.
Now for the funny part...
Imagine me, standing in the food aisle of toys'r'us (yes, we do have a toys'r'us here, and it's within walking distance!) I've recently read up on the solid foods chapter in What to Expect the First Year and I've skimmed through Super Baby Foods (a super Christmas present from Marc and Hafsa). I am armed with the following nugget of information: Most people (Americans?) think starting vegetables before fruits is a good idea, to prevent baby from developing a "sweet tooth" and refusing veggies later on.
So I'm thinking to myself, "Ok, first rice cereal, then veggies, then fruits, then meats..."
And I see that Switzerland includes one other very important food group in this list.
The chocolate food group.
Apparently, for Swiss people, chocolate falls right between cereal and vegetables. I whipped out my camera in the middle of the store to document this.
Yes, that's right, there's a box of chocolate ovomaltine flavored cereal which you can give your baby starting at 5 months. In the US, we don't recommend chocolate until 2 YEARS because it can be a highly allergenic food. Don't forget these other yummy products for 7 months, 8 months, and 1-3 years...
Ok, seriously, when Eliot vomits and it gets all over his hands, he immediately sticks his hands in his mouth and sucks it all off. Does such a discriminating palate truly need chocolate? Are Swiss people worried that if they don't get chocolate into their babies early enough they might NOT develop a "sweet tooth" and might spend their whole life eating whole grains and vegetables?
Then again, it's Americans who rule the obesity competition, so maybe the Swiss are on to something here?
3 comments:
When we started solids at 6 months, Frederic asked when we could start chocolate. He was rather disappointed when I said she had to wait til 2 years old.
We tried rice cereal a couple of times and A. wouldn't eat it. So we didn't give cereal, we went straight to veggies, but then started multigrain cereals for breakfast about 7 months. She prefers the multigrain, sort of chunky.
I went through the shock of local baby food last month, when it was time to start our 6 month old son. I wish I had a camera and blog to capture it too! It gets even better - a lot of the chocolate cereals have hazelnuts!!!! We have a 3 year old daughter with a nut allergy, and so know that current thinking is to avoid all nuts until 3 (even 5 if there is a family history). But hey, if the Swiss and French did that, Nutella addiction might go down! At our local park when the kids swing through on their way home, parents feed them bread and chocolate (usually some sort of bar with hazelnuts). Go figure.
Back to babies and solids though... I wound up ordering Holle single grain organic cereals through our local pharmacy --oats, millet and spelt -- and found organic rice somewhere else.
The kid is not a natural-born eater ans seems to pefer my breastmilk to my cooking. After 3 weeks of trying, he finally got the hang of eating. So far, he likes pureed and strained apples, apricots and peaches a(all mixed with creal -- none of them straight) and HATES cauliflower, broccoli and bananas - just refuses to open his mouth. Unfortunately, he loves and readily scarfs down Carrefour organic baby food (yeah, they have salt, are sweet, and may contain creme fraiche!). A real blow to the ego.
Now, where the heck is there a Toys'R'Us???
Hey Monika- nice name! Toys'r'Us is in Ecublens, a suburb of Lausanne. If ever you'd like to meet up for a play date, we could meet there, though I imagine a place like toys'r'us is a dangerous place to bring a 3 year old! You can email me - toptyger at hotmail.
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