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Baby Food


jschyun

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PS: If you are not willing to taste human breast milk, what kind of a foodie are you. It is usually free (unless you take out an ad) and it is interesting and more disgestable than cow, sheep, or goat milk.

I'm willing to taste the milk, but what about the cheese? :raz:

And is it really free? I know some young folks who've recently had babies. I don't think they would call breast milk free. :wink:

Noise is music. All else is food.

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And is it really free?  I know some young folks who've recently had babies.  I don't think they would call breast milk free. :wink:

Are they charging for milk? Cans of formula are mighty expensive/ about 10 bucks a piece and you need quite a few per week. But if you are implying that the cost is the hardship of raising the baby, let us remember who chose to have that baby. The milk is still free, the parents, no longer.

over it

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You can steam all manner of vegtable, smash it and freeze in ice cubes trays. You could even thaw these out in baby food jars if that would seem more comfortable. This is a food forum. Not a processed crap forum. What a disservice we are paying our children.

So sorry. I had no idea of the damage I was doing by feeding my children strained peas occasionally. I humbly apologize. Does the fact that I bought organic lessen my offense?

PS: If you are not willing to taste human breast milk, what kind of a foodie are you. It is usually free (unless you take out an ad) and it is interesting and more disgestable than cow, sheep, or goat milk.

I'm just not usually in the habit of drinking my own bodily fluids.

Heather Johnson

In Good Thyme

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You can steam all manner of vegtable, smash it and freeze in ice cubes trays. You could even thaw these out in baby food jars if that would seem more comfortable. This is a food forum. Not a processed crap forum. What a disservice we are paying our children.

So sorry. I had no idea of the damage I was doing by feeding my children strained peas occasionally. I humbly apologize. Does the fact that I bought organic lessen my offense?

PS: If you are not willing to taste human breast milk, what kind of a foodie are you. It is usually free (unless you take out an ad) and it is interesting and more disgestable than cow, sheep, or goat milk.

I'm just not usually in the habit of drinking my own bodily fluids.

Well said hjshorter! :laugh::laugh::laugh:

I have been reading these forums for a little while now and it amazes me how a lighhearted topic can sometimes spawn sanctimonious and bitter little diatribes from other members. :wink:

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The sanctimony seems to come with the baby territory.

But please, don't start a thread about the superior taste of infant formula! :biggrin: The fallout would be tremendous; eGullet might never recover.

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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It is amazing to me that everyone is willing to feed baby things that seem "disgusting, gross, or weird". No baby or adult human should really be eating that shit, should they? You can steam all manner of vegtable, smash it and freeze in ice cubes trays. You could even thaw these out in baby food jars if that would seem more comfortable. This is a food forum. Not a processed crap forum.

You're absolutely right. You tell 'em! Nobody should be eating this processed crap! I mean, look at all the disgusting processed items parading as food, that line our supermarket shelves : cheese, deli meats, candies, chocolates, cookies, salsa, canned soups, tomato sauces, pasta...

Yeah, we really gotta stop eating this stuff. I think a boycott is in order. :laugh:

Really, there is no need to type out condescending remarks like "You could even thaw these out in baby food jars if that would seem more comfortable. ". Get over yourself.

I love cold Dinty Moore beef stew. It is like dog food! And I am like a dog.

--NeroW

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No baby or adult human should really be eating that shit, should they?

Uh, I admit to eating baby food once in a while. I also admit to liking a few flavors...:wink:

Okay, I think someone's going to disapprove my liking to baby food. :unsure:

Edited by bsan (log)

I think silver suits me so...

...but red is also for me!

Iron Chef Morimoto all the way!

From me, a fan of Iron Chef.

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:biggrin: I personally love those toddler sticks that everyone else thinks is gross. :cool:

People are rushed these days. The average family has two wage earners trying to make ends meet. Sometimes, you don't have the time to perfectly steam some veggies for your own dinner let alone baby's. So you crack open a jar. Or plastic container? I guess it depends on what country you're in.

Edited by jschyun (log)

I love cold Dinty Moore beef stew. It is like dog food! And I am like a dog.

--NeroW

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I find this amazing.  I have three kids (now 13, 9 and 7) and NEVER bought any baby food Diana's first food, at 6 toothless months, was bratwurst with brown mustard.  Her second food was pad thai.

For the longest time Emma gagged on any food that wasn't perfectly smooth. The commercial baby food has a smoother texture than I was able to accomplish at home. Once she figured out the chewing thing she got more adventurous, and ate more table food. Ian learned how to chew much earlier and ate mostly table food.

BTW, I don't understand the references to "shit" and "processed crap." I have a couple of jars still and the ingredients on one are listed as carrots, water, ascorbic acid (vit C) and the other is pears, water, ascorbic acid. That hardly sounds like toxic waste.

Heather Johnson

In Good Thyme

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I'm just not usually in the habit of drinking my own bodily fluids.

Shit and piss and blood are bodily fluids. Breast milk is a food you can do in your own Betty Crocker oven without a light bulb. I thought it was cool. And I tasted it. I was curious. It is not scat.

PS sanctimonious hmmmm. Provocative maybe. Guilt inspires reaction. Just for the record jarred babyfood happened in our lives. I was just trying to bring a point up of how far we are- this separation between baby food and adult food. How can you teach someone to eat an apple if their only experience with an apple is a jar of puree. My comments did pretty much suck. I guess. However, I am a single mother, I worked as a sommelier when my child was an infant, and when I got home late at night I would steam food for him. Sorry if this is sanctimonious or pompous. This was important to me. I see a huge disconnect between real food and ready food. maybe another forum would be more appropriate. I know what it is to work and raise a family. I know it in my blood. I defied myself to cook. So there. What more appropriate forum than this?

Edited by Carema (log)

over it

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Guilt inspires reaction.

I'm sorry, but if this is your idea of a mea culpa, Carema, I'm not quite prepared to let it go.

It's wonderful that you made time to prepare fresh food for your little ones almost all the time, but the premise of your "provocative" comments seems to be that baby food in a jar is something to feel guilty about using. And this just isn't the case. Years ago, there were all sorts of things in baby food (salt, MSG) that parents, if they'd known, might not have been happy about. This is no longer true, even for the non-organic lines, by and large. Any parent who takes the trouble to read a label or two can be sure that the bananas junior is eating are just bananas. And as you can see from many of the above comments, these bananas aren't disgusting at all. Many adults like them.

We feed mush to infants--and we all do it-- because they can't chew. Whether it's from a jar or freshly made, it's still mush. And to the extent baby food is not worth being considered as food, it's generally the mushiness, and nothing else, that makes it so. (I know from personal experience that if you take a chicken breast, poach it, and puree it, you may feel good about yourself but you aren't going to want to eat it any more than you'd want to eat chicken from a jar.)

With that said, I'm prepared to accept your general argument, that fresh food made from scratch is aesthetically more pleasing than prepared food. And if this is true for adults, why not for babies? These are perfectly valid points. But I think the aesthetic difference may be more discernable to adults than it is to babies, and thus its importance may be related more to the parents' wish to provide "only the best" than to any actual difference in the quality of care for the child.

And by the way, thanks for asking, but my daughter is quite warm enough, and she doesn't need a hat. :smile:

Edited by SethG (log)

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast;

but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast!"

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However, I am a single mother, I worked as a sommelier when my child was an infant, and when I got home late at night I would steam food for him. Sorry if this is sanctimonious or pompous. This was important to me. I see a huge disconnect between real food and ready food. maybe another forum would be more appropriate. I know what it is to work and raise a family. I know it in my blood. I defied myself to cook. So there. What more appropriate forum than this?

Never did I imply that the added effort you make on behalf of your child's nutrition was pompous or sanctimonious. Add your name to the thousands out there who know what it is to work and raise families. I'll bet there are hoardes of others who also make their own baby food (clothing, etc) either for economical or cultural reasons so you're not the only one with sweat on your brow. :wink: I just don't think the fact that you make your own baby food makes you a better mother, as the tone of your post seemed to imply.

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I love baby food fruit purees. Pear, apricot, and banana are my favorites. The little jars mean that you've got built-in portion control. As prepared foods go they're about as good as it gets (though I did do a lot home puree stuff for the kids when they were little).

As for the breast milk and whether or not you taste it, a nursing mother would be hard-pressed to avoid it entirely, as it generally gets everywhere, particularly with young babies, as the moms drip and the babies dribble. It's very sweet and has a bit of a caramel smell which I can pick up on nursing babies and their moms even now (years after I've weaned my last one). It's so sweet that it leaves a sticky residue anywhere that it's dripped (including hardwood floors in one's bedroom, such that one's husband wants to know why the hell the floors are sticky, to which you just tell him never mind).

It doesn't seem to get sour and spoil like cow's milk or formula, and both the spit up and bowel movements from entirely breast-fed infants are way less nasty than the formula versions.

As for "drinking my own bodily fluids", well, would it be less icky if you tasted somebody else's breast milk? Because breast milk is designed expressly for consumption. No consumption, no milk. It's valuable stuff, though, so nobody other than the baby is going to get more than a drop or two in any case.

Can you pee in the ocean?

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It's so sweet that it leaves a sticky residue anywhere that it's dripped (including hardwood floors in one's bedroom, such that one's husband wants to know why the hell the floors are sticky, to which you just tell him never mind).

You got that right. I still find drops of it all over the house.

As for "drinking my own bodily fluids", well, would it be less icky if you tasted somebody else's breast milk?

Dunno. I've never had the opportunity to ask one of my friends for a glass.

Heather Johnson

In Good Thyme

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screw fresh milk..i want to read dick for a day....

anyhoo..back to less coarse subjects - did anyone see the "girls behaving badly" episode where this girl tries to convince customers of a cheese shop to try "imported breast-milk cheese" samples?

to me it was one of the few funny snippets from that show.

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Has anyone read "Fresh Milk" by Fiona Giles? 

Yowza. I had no idea there was a lactation porn industry, although it's not really surprising that it exists.

Funny Salon.com story about breastmilk.

Crème booblée.

Most ridiculous baby food item: baby juice. This is different from adult juice (at 1/3 the cost) how?

Heather Johnson

In Good Thyme

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Most ridiculous baby food item:  baby juice.  This is different from adult juice (at 1/3 the cost) how?

That . . . just doesn't sound right. :blink:

Noise is music. All else is food.

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Most ridiculous baby food item:  baby juice.  This is different from adult juice (at 1/3 the cost) how?

That . . . just doesn't sound right. :blink:

Well, you gotta get a really big juicer, see...

:laugh:

:shock:

Noise is music. All else is food.

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I used to love the pureed apricots before I had kids.  After......not so much.

I've got to tell you that just opening the jar of meat sticks made me gag.  Eating it?  No can do.

Mmmmm..... jar of meat sticks.....

(a la Homer)

grew up on chicken stix, but was also drawn to purina cat chow and crisco. will open up a jar of fruit at work if i'm starving (i'm a neonatal/pediatric nurse)never gone so far as to add similac to my coffee.

"Ham isn't heroin..." Morgan Spurlock from "Supersize Me"

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grew up on chicken stix, but was also drawn to purina cat chow

Ah, the snack of choice of my two year old :blink: Sure, he loves falafel, but that crunchy cat food is good eatin' :huh:

As for eating baby food, I will admit to loving Gerber Baby Pretzels - especially when dipped in melted cheese. Shhhhh.....don't tell anyone.....

Kathy

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. - Harriet Van Horne

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