My philosophy for baby food is derived directly from my philosophy for my food: Store food sucks. Avoid it whenever possible.
Thus, Charlie's food so far has consisted of whatever we happen to have around that can be pureed beyond recognition. Beets, applesauce, pear sauce, stewed prunes, bananas, oatmeal, squash, sweet potatoes, egg yolks, yogurt, chicken, lamb, venison . . . As these things appear in the kitchen, they get thrown in the food processor and fed to Charlie. The only things he has so far been not too crazy about are the sweet potatoes and squash. Which is kind of weird, because most babies love those sweet orange vegetables.
Oh, and the venison took some getting used to, because even when obliterated in the food processor, it was still a little too textured at first bite for him. He got used to it, though, and eventually ate it with gusto.
In fact, Charlie seems to be quite the fan of protein. So when we cooked one of the three Atlantic salmon randomly provided to us by Mr. Jason a few days ago--because you know Mr. Jason is all about the random fish supplies--I figured I could puree some of the leftover fish for Charlie.
So I did. And then I tasted it, because another part of my baby food philosophy is to not feed my kids anything I wouldn't eat myself.
It tasted really gross to me.
Freshwater fish always has a slight flavor of iodine to me, and that flavor seemed to be more pronounced. I don't know if it was the pureeing or the fact that it was leftover or what, but no way would I have eaten that.
But since I have a very sensitive palate and a lot of the time when I taste something off it's not noticeable to anyone else, I figured it wouldn't hurt to let Charlie make up his own mind about it. So I fed it to him. And, shockingly, he ate it with no hesitation whatsoever. Quite a lot of it, in fact.
I shouldn't be too surprised, since Cubby will readily eat things that I want no part of (LIVER--GROSS), and I'm glad my children aren't inheriting my food prejudices.
It did make Charlie smell like cat food for awhile, though.
Your last sentence cracked me up. =) It sounds like Charlie is well on his way to being an enthusiastic eater. Anna devours seafood and likes meat on the rare occasion that it is around but whoa nellie those diapers...feeding a kid a veg diet has unexpected olfactory benefits!
ReplyDeleteI always joke that my niece only likes orange food. Her palate is a bit more varied now, but when she was about a year old, it seemed like all she'd eat were clementines, cheese, cheese crackers, and carrots. We'd give her peas and carrots, and she'd pick out all of the carrots and leave all the peas.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a tad of maple syrup in with the sweet potatoes and squash?
ReplyDeleteYour last sentence cracked me up as well ! Beth
Good for you! Preferences will always show up but, like Cubby, giving Charlie's taste buds as much choice as possible is the best gift for the future you can give him. However, that said, the left over pureed Salmon would be a real stretch for me to even taste.
ReplyDeleteI want all of my friends with overly picky kids to read this.
ReplyDeleteBecause I'm horrified that my goddaughter's favorite food is McDonald's hamburgers.
HORROR.
I wish she'd eat cat food smelling pureed salmon. That's hardcore awesome.